Experiment in Terror 09 Dust to Dust(67)

He helped me to my feet, holding my arm tight. He put both hands on either side of my face and stared at me with feverish intensity, his eyes sparking.

“We’re going to make it out of here,” he said, urgency in his voice. “We’re going to go back to our lives. We’re going to get married and live a long and happy life. Do you believe me?”

I nodded, my throat feeling thick with shock and sadness. “I believe you.”

“I love you.” He closed his eyes and ran his thumb over my lips, his breath deepening. “I love you, beyond death.” His words reminded me of my dreams.

He kissed me quickly on the lips and then, with a final, brutally forlorn glance at his friend, he took my hand and pulled me up the stairs into the rest of the house.

We went up them as fast as we could but the moment we hit the hallway, everything started to change. The air was full of smoke, smelling of charred wood and burnt hair. The kitchen was on fire, flames shooting out of the room and into the hall.

A crackle came from behind us and when we turned around to look down the stairs, we saw flames starting to spread where we just were. The house was burning itself and while it felt right for Maximus’s body to be laid to rest in such a way, it also meant we would be next if we didn’t get out of there. Fire was starting to come up the stairs.

“Come on,” Dex yelled over the growing roar and we started running down the hallway toward the front door. We were almost there when the Christmas tree in the living room keeled over, shooting wild flames into the space in front of us. Dex grabbed me and rotated me away from the flame, using his body as a shield to make sure his back got the brunt of it.

He let out an agonizing cry as the flames licked him but in moments I had my hand on the door knob and it was turning. Together we burst out of the house and into the dark of night. We stumbled down the stairs, running out into the street, Dex ripping off his burning shirt and throwing it to the ground.

We collapsed on the opposite sidewalk and turned around to watch the house go up in flames. People were already coming out of their houses to look, the flames now bursting through the first floor window, black smoke billowing into the sky.

No one was paying us any attention, not yet. We couldn’t press our luck – I knew how this would look to a passerby.

I quickly got to my feet and Dex followed. I ran my fingers over his side and back, inspecting him for burns but what redness there was, was vanishing by the second, turning a rosy shade of pink, then disappearing. His throat seemed to be almost fully healed, like he’d never been stabbed at all, like he’d never died.

But we knew the truth. That would be something neither of us would ever forget.

“Let’s go,” he whispered to me and I nodded. We slowly walked down the street, as if we had come to the house because we smelled something burning. While sirens went off in the distance, he was just another New Yorker, shirtless because of the early summer heat and I was his hipster girlfriend in artfully dirty clothes. Luckily, my body didn’t seem to have any of my wounds from the Veil anymore either.

We walked calmly around the corner, then as soon as there was no one around, we both started running.

We ran all the way back to the hotel. I tried to call my mom along the way but I didn’t have my iPhone anymore. Hopefully this was the last time I’d lose a phone to something supernatural. I was getting really sick of giving Apple my money. They needed some sort of ghost warranty on it.

The thought nearly made me smile. But for the giddy joy that came from being alive, that came from skirting death, that came from being reunited with the only person who ever made me feel like it was okay to be Perry Palomino, there was still loss. Maximus had gone up with the house and that was going to haunt the both of us for a very long time.

It seemed like it took forever, but finally the lights of Broadway and the rush of cars appeared at the end of the street, the light at the end of a tunnel of brownstones. The hotel loomed a block away and when we got close, I could see Ada pacing outside the building, talking to someone on her cell.

When she saw us, she burst into tears and started running for us. She went right into my arms and Dex held onto both of us. I didn’t think I had any more tears left in me but I did. I’d never been so happy to see her before.

Seconds later, my mom and dad were coming out of the building and the crying happened all over again.

When we were finally done, Ada looked at us and asked, “Where is Maximus?”

I couldn’t even say the words. To say them would make it real, would mean he was truly gone. I just couldn’t.

I glanced at Dex and the devastated expression on his face told Ada everything that she needed to know. She put her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide.