Bright Fire (Bright Fire Series Book 1) Read Free Page A

can’t hear anything, but the whoosh of blood going through my ears. Dell, pull it together, or she is going to find you, I mentally yell at myself. I slowly step backward trying to find the edge of the top stair afraid that I am going to fall. In the distance, I hear something over the pounding in my ears. Is that…?
    "Cerberus it’s time to go. Now!" Cela screams up the stairs. By her voice, I can tell she is no more than four feet from the door. How had she gotten so close and I not notice? “We’ll come back and look for her later, but we need to leave before the cops get here. I’d prefer not to have to explain to Him why we now have four dead bodies on our hands." Her footsteps start to fade as she walks away from the basement door, and I slowly start breathing again.
    Now I hear nothing but the sirens in the distance, getting closer. I know I have to go through that door, but my legs are not moving.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter
    4
     
    I slowly turn the knob and test the door. I’m not surprised to feel it give way. I tiptoe across the hallway leading to the dining room.
    I'm not sure what I expect to see when I walk into the room, but the scene before me is horrifying. The first thing I notice is a pungent odor that makes me gag a little. My mother’s body lay on the floor in an awkward position. She has a giant cut all the way down her left cheek. My guess is that is the source of the bone-chilling scream. Hesitantly, I step closer to her and see two puncture marks that are about an inch in diameter, and there is a yellow fluid running down the side of her neck. I turn away and go to my father. He has the same mark. Did they inject them with some kind of poison? I thought that only happens in the movies.
    I kneel down and hold his hand for one last time. It’s still warm. What did we do to deserve this? He looks almost peaceful, like he is taking his afternoon nap. I sit here for a moment in stunned silence. I look up, and the clock says it’s 11:59. My birthday. Like a train everything hits me, my parents are gone, and they are never coming back. I can’t help myself, and I start to weep.
    ~~~~
     
    The police are trampling all over the house. They ask me all sorts of insane questions like ‘How was your relationship with your parents?’. As if I had anything to do with this. I tell them everything that happened, but even I have a hard time believing it. They are attributing my story to traumatic stress.
    Fifteen minutes later, Lyla and her mother pull up to the curb. Lyla’s mother, Lorraine, is furious as she sees the police questioning me. Lorraine is a force to be reckoned with in her floral nightgown. She looks like a crazy person. Never mind the fact that she is a whopping five feet tall. With her attitude, she may as well be ten foot.
    The effects of the night are beginning to wear on me, and I just want to leave. I want to run as far away from this place as I can. More than anything I wish I would wake up tomorrow, and this would all be a bad dream.
    Mirroring my thoughts as usual, Lyla tells her mom it is time to go.
    "Are you ready dear?" Lorraine’s face is full of pity, and I squirm under her gaze.
    "Um," I pause. I don't have any of the things I would need like my clothes, backpack, or iPod. "I don't have anything packed." I look at the ground because I don’t want to admit I’m too petrified to go back into the house.
    "Oh," is all she says.
    Lyla steps in. "I will go in and grab the essentials."
    "Lyla, I don't think that's such a good idea. Maybe I should do it." She whispers, even though I can hear her clearly, "you are much too young to see dead bodies."
    Lyla’s face pales. "OK. Well, here is what she will need." I zone out as she prattles off a list of essentials.
    What am I going to do? Where am I going to live? As far as I know, we don't have any other family. Am I going to become a ward of the state? Am I doomed to spend the next two years in foster homes? My mind keeps