Burn Our Houses Down [Book One] Page 2

  We make it past the accident and over the bridge into New Paltz. When everything is quiet here, if you listen carefully, you can hear the wind blowing through the trees. It sounds like someone blowing all sorts of notes on a Pan Flute. Sometimes, back when I went to school, I would sit and listen to it just because it was like something was speaking to me that no one else could hear.

  God, was I fucking crazy back then. But right now, I don’t hear it. In fact, I hear nothing—just complete and utter silence.

  We reach the Water Street Market and find doors left half open, but no one anywhere to be seen.

  “Jesus,” Xavier mutters. “It’s like everyone just melted or something.”

  “What do you think happened?” I ask aloud. I’m not really expecting an answer though. Xavier walks me over to a group of iron tables and sits me down in a chair.

  “Your knee is really swelling up,” he says.

  I look down and agree immediately. I can no longer see the outline of my kneecap and the slight discoloration of a bruise seems to be brewing beneath the surface of my skin. “I must’ve really screwed something up in there,” I say. Looking at it makes the pain start to kick in.

  “Stay here,” Xavier says. “I’m gonna look for some ice.” He runs up the stairs to the Harvest Moon Cafe.

  I rest my head on the back of the chair and breathe out. “What the hell is going on?” I mutter. The dull aching in my legs subsides for a moment, and I close my eyes to listen.

  Nothing—absolutely nothing responds in return.

  Missing: 1:37P.M.

  “I found some,” Xavier says walking back from the staircase. “But something’s really wrong here.” I frown as he wraps the ice on with clear wrap that I’m assuming he grabbed from the kitchen upstairs.

  “What is it?” He finishes wrapping my knee and stands.

  “There was blood everywhere up there,” he says.

  “You’re kidding me, right?” His eyes meet mine, and I can tell he isn’t joking. He had that same look in his eyes that he did the day I woke up in the hospital—the day he explained the car accident scene. I swallow roughly.

  “And the worst part was the body,” he says. I shoot my eyes towards him. “Someone was murdered up there. I don’t know who or what did it, but—” Xavier says, but he stops and glances over his shoulder at the restaurant instead of finishing his sentence. I reach for his hand, a crash in a store down the street makes us both jump. We fling our heads in the direction it came from and then make eye contact again. I already know that Xavier wants to go and find out what made the noise.

  “Xavier, don’t,” I whisper. “Let’s just go.” He looks back at me once and then starts to take a step towards the other end of the street. I grab his wrist and pull back hard. He looks down at me, his eyes wide.

  “You cannot go down there,” I say through my teeth. “If you go there, I’ll be stuck here. I need your help to walk, remember?”

  Xavier looks down at the other end of the street and then back at my hand. “I need you to help me, Xavier,” I say. Another crash from the other end of the streets makes my heart pound.

  “Please! That could be who or whatever killed that person

  upstairs.”

  His Adam’s apple shifts in his throat and he nods. He puts his pointer finger to his lips and lifts me out of the chair. Before I know it, he’s running down the hill back towards Main Street.

  2:38P.M.

  “Where are we going?” I whisper.

  “Getting a car,” Xavier responds running towards the line of abandoned vehicles on the road.

  “How are we gonna drive them? We don’t have keys,” I respond.

  Xavier walks up to the first car and looks through the driver-side window and then keeps moving. “They were evacuating, Hayley,” he whispers. “Something obviously went wrong and they all ran. What are the odds that they took their keys with them if they were running?”

  I bite down on my bottom lip—he’s got a point. Finally, Xavier finds a car that he likes and puts me in the passenger seat before climbing into the driver’s side.

  “This car had the least amount of miles on it and was clean inside,” he says once he shuts the door. I frown at him and he laughs. “It means it most likely wasn’t owned by a college kid and that whoever the owner was, probably took good care of it.”

  I smile and laugh quietly. The pain in my knee makes me feel sick to my stomach though. “Xavier, I don’t mean to worry you, but I think I’m going to throw up,” I say.

  He looks over and his eyes flash with urgency. “We’ll go to

  Stop N’ Shop up the road and check the pharmacy,” he says. Somehow, he maneuvers the SUV out from the line of cars and drives up the wrong side of the street towards the supermarket.

  “We’ll have to pick up a gas can or two as well,” he mumbles. “We gotta fill the car.”

  I try to listen, but his words sound muddled—like I’m hearing them from underwater. I lean back on the headrest and close my eyes.

  * * *

  “I don’t know how to tell you this, Hayles,” my dad whispers.

  Somehow, I’m in the hospital again. My memory flung me back to this moment.

  “By the time the paramedics came, Cassie was already gone,” he whispers. My mother sobs into his shoulder. “There was nothing they could do.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry sweetheart.”

  “You’re lying,” I say. My dad’s face frowns with confusion. “You’re lying!” I scream. I pull the I.V.’s from my arm and try to stand, but my legs are like lead.

  “Hayley!” my mom weeps.

  “Doctor!” my dad yells, flinging himself off the chair. “Doctor, we need help in here!”

  “Where’s my sister!” I scream. I fling my body over the edge of the hospital bed and crash to the floor. My arms shake as I try to stand on my feet. “I want to see Cassie!” I can’t push myself up so I drag myself to the door frame.

  My heart monitor disconnects and starts beeping wildly. “I want to see my sister!” I yell again. I am nearly at the door when I hear footsteps stampeding down the hallway. The doctors pin me, and I feel the small prick of a needle. “No!” I yell. I try to kick but everything hurts too much.

  “Hayley,” someone calls. I can’t see who, my vision slowly

  closing into a tunnel.

  “Hayley!”

  Nightmares And Reality

  “Hayley,” Xaiver yells. I open my eyes and try to focus on his face. “Hey, are you ok?”

  I blink several times before my vision returns. “Yeah,” I say. But I can’t find anymore words. I look outside the window and realize the sun is setting behind the mountains. “What time is it?” I ask.

  “7:15,” Xavier responds. “You passed out back in New Paltz. I was worried you weren’t gonna wake up.”

  Five hours, damn. I swallow and nod my head. “I’m ok now, I promise.”

  He hands me a small bottle of pills and says, “Take some.” I frown and look up from the bottle at him.

  “It’s just a stronger dose of ibuprofen that I carry just in case,” he says. “That swelling in your knee really needs to come down.”

  I look down at my leg and wince; it’s nearly twice as big as before. I take two pills and dry swallow them. My head hits the headrest with a soft thud. “I was dreaming that I was at the hospital,” I whisper.

  Xavier pulls off the shoulder and begins driving again. “Well, you’re not that hur—”

  “The day I woke up from my coma,” I cut in. He grips the steering wheel and clenches his jaw. “I lived it all over again,” I whisper. I close my eyes and try to squeeze the images of the doctors pinning me from my mind. Xavier doesn’t say anything—he just stares straight ahead, weaving in and out between the cars on the Thruway.

  “I know you want to know why I disappeared, Xavier,” I whisper. I don’t want to tell him the real reason yet
. My heart isn’t ready. I lost the only other person that meant anything to me in this entire world, and the sting from that was still there.

  “I’d redo everything if I could; I wouldn’t have moved to the city after graduation, I wouldn’t have fought with Cassie the night of our graduation party. But I can’t.” Xavier’s grip tightens again on the steering wheel.

  “I hate myself for leaving, but I just couldn’t stay here anymore,” I say looking out the window. “I needed time to be alone.”

  He mumbles something, and my head flings in his direction.

  “What did you say,” I ask.

  “I said that Cassie needed you,” he responds. He turns on the stereo on after glancing at me.

  You’re such a liar, Xavier. That’s not what you said. You said, I needed you, not Cassie.

  I close my eyes and listen to the soft beat of the car’s tires on the road. It’s the only noise in the car besides the music.

  Nightfall

  “Hayley,” Xavier calls. “Wake up. We’ve got a problem.”

  I sit up and look out the windshield. Up ahead, two semis along with a ten-car pile up blocks the entire highway.

  “This is bad. Where are the first responders? The police?” he says. His voice is tense, his muscles so tight beneath his T-shirt that I can practically see his pulse through them. He switches the CD player to the radio—nothing but static. He clicks the button to A.M., but still nothing.

  “That’s not a good sign,” I whisper. Xavier shakes his head in agreement.

  “We’ve gotta go back to Pine Bush, Hayles,” he says. “Something’s really wrong here.” He pauses for a moment and stares off somewhere. “I can feel it in my gut. Something bad is happening right now.”

  I nod my head in agreement. I search the car for a cell phone. I had left mine at our campsite thinking we would go back to it after our hike.

  “What are you looking for?” he asks watching me search.

  “A phone,” I say. He joins me in my search and finally we find one. I open the flip screen and dial my house. The phone rings several times until the answering machine picks up. “No answer at my house,” I say closing the phone shut.

  Xavier turns the car around driving through the median of grass and heads back in the direction we came.

  “Are we going to Pine Bush or your house?” I ask. The engine of the car revs louder as it switches into higher gears.

  “Pine Bush,” he says. “Your parents could be there and just didn’t pick up the phone. Or did they go down to the condo this weekend?” I comb through my memory of the last conversation I had with them, but I can’t remember. “Hayley?”

  “I don’t remember. I haven’t spoken to them since the funeral, ok.”

  We both remain silent for a while until Xavier mutters something else under his breath.

  “What did you say?”

  “I said you’re un-fucking-believable, Hayley!” he yells.

  The car engine revs as it picks up speed.

  “Slow down,” I say. We whip by trees in a blur. Xavier weaves in and out of traffic like a bee navigating its hive. “Slow down,” I say again.

  Flashes of the car accident seep into my mind—flashes I’ve never seen before.

  “You know, your parents lost someone too!” he continues.

  I can see Cassie’s face hitting the dashboard like a rag doll, the car flipping. I shut my eyes and clutch at the side of my head. “Slow down, please,” I beg. Cassie’s scream fills my ears—I feel nauseous.

  “You are the most selfish person sometimes! Do you even care about anyone in your family?”

  “Slow down, Xav—”

  “Do you! Or are you more concerned with how you’re gonna get back to your bubble in Queens?”

  “Stop!” A deer’s blood splatters the windshield, smoke rises from the dashboard. Xavier slams on the breaks and we skid to a stop.

  I push open the door and swing my hurt leg out of the car. The weight on my knee makes it buckle, and I crumble to the ground. I drag myself through the deer’s blood until I’m face to face with its eyes.

  I scream and try to pull myself to my feet. The pain in my knee pulses with my heartbeat. I can feel the tears trying to escape from my eyes, but all I can focus on now is getting away. Getting anywhere but here.

  The car door slams, and I hear Xavier’s feet shuffle across the pavement. “Leave me alone,” I yell. I drag my bad leg and try and limp as quickly as possible.

  “Wait!” Xavier calls after me. His footsteps are right behind me so I try to run, but my knee gives out, and I hit the pavement hard. He’s next to me in seconds. “Jesus Christ, you can’t run with your knee like that, Cassie!”

  I bite my tongue to hold in a scream. The pain edges away, and I focus on the pebbles in the pavement. It’s completely silent on the highway except for both of our heavy breathing. I start dragging myself along the pavement again.

  He called me Cassie—there was no way of trying to cover that one up.

  “Wait,” he says.

  “Get away from me, Xavier!” I yell. I pull myself quicker, straining all the muscles in my arms.

  “Hayley, please!”

  “No!” I turn on my back and prop myself on my elbows.

  “I’m tired of it! I’m tired of everyone blaming my decision for leaving! I couldn’t take living in this damn town anymore. I was tired of seeing you, tired of seeing Cassie and just fucking tired of everything!” I yell. My voice seems to echo off the cars surrounding us.

  Xavier reaches a hand out, but I swat it away.

  “So yeah, I did leave for my own selfish wants! And I chose to go back to my bubble for reasons you’ll probably never understand. I wanted to be able to sleep through a night without seeing the pool of blood under my sister’s head every time I closed my eyes.

  I didn’t want people to see me and instantly feel bad anymore. I was tired of everyone looking at me and seeing Cassie.

  So yeah, I’m fucking selfish, Xavier. That’s the motivation behind all of this!”

  Xavier closes his hand into a fist and looks down at the blood on his jeans. My breathing hurts my lungs, my chest throbbed with each irritated beat of my heart. I look at Xavier waiting for him to say something when I hear a different noise behind me in the woods surrounding the interstate.

  “What was that,” I ask. Twigs snap under the foot of something heavy, and a low almost growling sound makes the ground vibrate. Xavier pulls me over his shoulder in one fluid motion and runs towards another car on the highway. He lays me down in the back seat and closes the door quietly. He looks over the roof of the car before climbing into the drivers side door and ripping the wires under the dash out.

  “Did you see anything?” I say.

  He shakes his head no. The car roars to life. Slowly, we maneuver our way out of the traffic jam until we’re back on the open road.

  We don’t speak. We just let the engine do the talking.

  Home: 9:04P.M.

  Xavier squeezes my shoulder gently and calls my name. I open my eyes and look up towards his voice. “We’re here,” he whispers. I sit up and look out the windshield. The off-white siding of my house stares at me. I push myself up so that my back is leaning against the back door.

  “No one’s here,” I say feeling my heart sink.

  “Maybe they went to the condo,” he responds. “It was a long weekend. There’s a good chance that’s what they did.”

  I nod my head, but don’t believe him. He opens his door and walks around to the back to help me out. I push myself towards the rear door and hop down on one leg. I put pressure down on my bad one and a shooting pain makes it give out. Xavier catches me and laughs.

  “Let me help you,” he says. I shrug off his arm and limp towards my front door. “Hayley, you shouldn’t be walking on that kne—”

  “I’m fine.” I pull myself up the front porch one step at a time. When I finally r
each the front door, I realize that I have no idea where a set of keys are. I try to remember where they hid the extra one, but then again, I don’t think my family ever did have a spare key. Xavier walks up the steps, pulls out a key ring from a pocket in his backpack and opens the front door.

  “You have a key to my house?”

  He shrugs, “I dated your sister for five years. It was her idea to make me a copy of it.”

  I scoff and limp past him through the front door. “Mom? Dad?” I call out, but no one answers. My knee is throbbing by the time I reach the living room couch. I sit and let out a long sigh.

  “Let me check the swelling,” Xavier says kneeling beside me. He unwraps the icepack which is now mostly water. “Jesus Christ,” he mutters. My knee isn’t as swollen anymore, but my skin is a combination of dark purple and blue. “There might be a tear somewhere in there, Hayles,” Xavier says. “We’ve got to get an X-ray of it.”

  “It feels fine,” I lie. I can’t do another hospital. They’ll probably talk about surgery and overnight stays. Yeah, I’m not ready for that. “Plus, I don’t think we’re going anywhere with the way the roads are blocked off.”

  He nods but still continues to stare at my knee. “There’s aspirin and ice in the kitchen,” I say. He nods and leaves me on the couch.

  I lift my knee with my hands and place a pillow under it.

  My head falls back on the cushion, and I close my eyes.

  “Where’s the aspirin?” Xavier calls out from the kitchen.

  “It’s usually on top of the fridge.” I reach for the T.V. remote and press the power button. The screen pops up blank. I turn the cable box off and on several times, but nothing comes up.

  I click the T.V. off. Well, this sucks.

  All I can think about is the abandoned cars, and the growl we heard in the woods. It’s like everyone just melted off the face of the earth and nature was taking back over. The thought sounds ridiculous. I would be excited if this was something I was writing—but living it was a different story.