Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 45
45
"Jitters!!" Valery screamed, the full horror of what was happening before her eyes slamming into her all at once. She was still in her nightclothes, and ordinarily she would have been freezing her tail off on a night like this, but the barn was ablaze, its handsome red walls now a towering inferno, sending waves of heat to wash over her. She could actually feel them pushing against her body like a thousand little hands. But worst of all were the screams... she could hear the sheep and the pigs and poor poor Jitters, screaming!
"Jitters!!" she yelled and made a mad break for the fire, only to be yanked back by a strong pair of hands around her middle. She kicked and screamed and punched and flailed her arms. "Let me go! Let me goo! Jitteeers!!"
"No! You'll be killed!" Dad screamed in her ear, pulling her back.
"Jitters!" She could hear her screaming inside, the most painful, agonized sound she had ever heard in her entire life, begging for rescue that could never come. "Jitteeers!!"
"Timothy! Hold her, for gods' sakes!"
She was roughly thrown into her older brother's arms and he hugged her tight. She kicked at his shins and scratched his face, all while he begged her to please calm down. He tried to turn them around, tried to force her to turn her back on the hulking monster of flame even now devouring her barnyard friends, roaring in the night, but she would have none of it. She fought and squirmed to look over his shoulder at what was happening, her cries of sorrow and pain deteriorating into illegible gibberish. She saw her Dad run up to the doors with his arm over his face in a desperate attempt to shield himself against the heat, but it was hopeless. The whole thing was turning into a massive pillar of fire, the doors wreathed in flame like the gates of Hell.
"Luke!" he yelled above the noise of the fire and their screaming animals. "Luke!"
Her oldest brother was standing nearby with his mouth hanging open, staring at the flames as if hypnotised.
"LUKE!"
He started at Dad's voice, snapped out of his horror-stricken stupor, and ran for all he was worth. Through her tear-laden eyes he looked like a reddish blur flying across the grass.
"Dad!"
"Get some water from the well, hurry!"
"What are you gonna -"
"Just go!"
Luke ran straight for the well, so close and yet so far all at the same time. He spun the crank like a madman, throwing fevered glances over his shoulder at the growing flames, the demonic glow dancing across his face.
It's dancing on all our faces... she thought incoherently, unable to break free of Tim's grip.
Luke finally made it back with the bucket of water, such a tiny, useless thing in the face of such destructive power.
Dad grabbed it, splashed a little bit of it across the flaming bolt and the rest he dunked over himself with a splash.
"Dad, no!" Luke screamed, coming to the same conclusion as the rest of them.
"Stay with Val!"
"I'm coming with -"
"STAY WITH VAL!!" he thundered, his voice so authoritative it actually pushed Luke back a few steps like a physical blow.
"Daaaaad!!" Valery screamed as he flung the smoking bolt out of the way and kicked the doors open.
It was like watching a monster from hell open its mouth. There was nothing in that maw save for endless flames and an otherworldly glow. Smoke poured from the opening in blackish grey plumes that completely covered the moon in black tendrils. The fire grew even more, spewing out from the doors like a vile tongue.
"Daddy, don't go!!" Valery screamed until her throat ached, but it was no use. He jumped inside that glowing orange maw and disappeared completely, as if he had been swallowed whole.
"Daddy!!" She struggled as hard as she could, nearly broke free, and was pulled back into Tim's embrace. She could feel his chest hitch against her face, could feel his tears strike the top of her head, but that was not what opened the floodgates. She could have held the tears back. Really, she could.
Were it not for the smell.
She gasped. The smoke by itself wasn't so bad, just a mixture of burning hay and wood, things she's smelled hundreds of times. But underneath all that was another smell, a putrid stench that invaded her lungs against her will and, once noticed, was impossible to ignore.
It was the smell of burning meat, of pork and lamb left on the spit for too long, of fat dripping onto the coals to sizzle; that bitter, cloying stench that got stuck inside your nose like slime.
It was the smell of living things burning to death.
"Daaddeeeeee!!" she screamed, burying her face against Tim's shirt, crying so hard she couldn't even breath, and what little air she did manage to suck in between her hitching sobs was laced with that bitter smell of dead meat burnt to blackened bits of char, making her want to throw up.
Tim squeezed her tightly, his entire body shaking almost as badly as hers. She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was staring at the inferno, unable to wrench his eyes away.
"Dad!" Luke called, his voice shrill and womanish, nothing at all like his usual macho bravado. It was the voice of a child scared to death for the life of his father.
_What will happen to us if Dad dies?_Valery thought, shocked that she could even consider such a thing. It seemed like a terrible blasphemy, a curse upon her own father, but she couldn't help it. What would happen to them out here on this farm without anyone to look after them, or any way for them to send for help? What would... what would they do without their daddy?
She tore free of Tim's grasp and sprinted for the flaming barn, her bare feet slapping against the cold, prickly grass.
"Luke, stop her!" Tim yelled, but he needn't have bothered. The heat stopped her in her tracks long before she even came close.
By the gods... this is impossible... she thought, shielding her eyes against the blaze. It felt like a thousand tiny needles were stinging her face, her nose, her hands, everything exposed to this devilish nightmare. Somewhere inside something toppled over with a thunderous crash and a swarm of sparks rushed out the doors.
"Vee, get back!" Luke screamed. He was standing right behind her, but she could barely hear him over the roar of the fire. Up close like this, it seemed even more like it was alive. A living, breathing monster that only wanted to eat and eat and eat...
A shadow appeared inside the tongue of flames, and suddenly a pig burst through and into the open, squealing its head off. The mark on her nose told her it was Dot, their old sow. Valery remembered the time she gave birth and the whole family went into town to sell her piglets. That was only a year ago.
Two more pigs came rushing outside, Twiggy and Lance, covered in soot, moving as fast as their stubby little legs could carry them. Cloud, one of their sheep, came following after, bleating in fright and pain, his once thick pelt of wool now reduced to an uneven, crusty layer of filth. He was covered in blackened patches bordered with red, glowing embers, slowly growing bigger, expanding their territory. It was like watching the weed burn inside a pipebowl right after someone had taken a long, hard drag. He ran off into the night, screaming, trailing smoke behind him.
But where was Dad? Where was he!?
"Dad!" she yelled, her voice reduced to a ghostly shriek, burning in her throat. "Daaaaad!!"
Tim and Luke each grabbed her by an arm, but they didn't pull her back. Just like her, they were too stunned, too scared, too petrified to move. All they could do was say their silent prayers to as many gods as they could reach, hoping that one of them would show mercy on their small little family. It was cracked already. Surely, they wouldn't allow it to break completely.
Please...
They huddled together, bathed in the glow of the fire: three little Foxes, well versed in the pain this world can deliver, but still no more than children.
"Dad?" Tim whispered, holding his siblings tight.
"He'll be out," Luke assured them, staring at the fire as if daring it to prove him wrong. "He'll be out any second. Any second now, you'll see."
Their father didn't come bursting out that second, nor did he come the second after, but they waited.
A shadow appeared and something large came running into the open, but it was only Claire, their youngest cow.
She was bleeding.
Valery whimpered against the palm of her hand. It felt like her face was about to be burnt off, but at the same time the cold night air was slowly creeping against her back. The same thing was happening inside her mind - two opposites vying for control. One half was denying everything outright. It was impossible for Dad to die. He said so. After Mom went to the healer and never came back, he told her he'd always be there for her, for all of them. It was this half that was trying to make her calm down, or at the very least go numb, so that she wouldn't have to feel what might be coming.
The other half was pushing her towards madness. If Mom could die, and die so easily, then the same thing could happen to Dad, and if it could happen to Dad, then it could happen to Luke and Tim, too.
It could even happen to her.
Daddy, please... she prayed. Please don't leave us out here. We need you! You promised! You promised you wouldn't leave us!
Daddy!
Part of the roof first buckled with a splintering crack, then caved in completely, sending thousands upon thousands of glowing embers spiralling into the sky. The sound was like a blast of thunder. Val stood rooted to the spot as a wave of hot air rushed against her face and bits of smoking wood scattered about her feet.
"Dad!" Luke shrieked. "I'm going after him!"
Now it was Valery's turn to help Tim reign in a crazy-desperate sibling. They grabbed hold of whatever was within reach and pulled back as hard as they could.
"Don't do it, Luke!"
"Let go! Let go of me, damn you!"
"You can't do anything! Don't -"
Luke spun around and punched Tim right in the mouth, the first real blow Valery has ever seen her brothers exchange.
Tim stumbled back, one hand automatically rubbing his bloody lip. It was the most _red_thing Val had ever seen in her life, running across his fingers and dripping onto the grass, the firelight reflecting off of it like golden scythes.
The only one who looked more shocked than Tim was Luke himself. He stared at his balled up fist, his eyes wide, as if he had never known this particular part of his body was capable of such a function.
"I- I'm sorry," he stammered, "but I have to go, I have to -"
"Dad!" Valery screamed, hoping that her burning, dried out eyes weren't playing tricks on her.
There was a new shadow in the gates of hell, too big to be a sheep or a pig, but too small for a horse or a cow. It staggered through the flames and -
"Dad!" all three of them screamed together, caught between happiness and terror, Tim's bloody mouth completely forgotten.
He fell to his knees, coughing and wheezing, his face smeared black with ash and soot, his clothes scorched and smoking.
Tim and Luke dashed to his side without a moment's hesitation and pulled him away from the flames, dragging his feet behind him while Val stood in one spot, jumping from one foot to the other with nervous, terrified energy.
"Is he okay!? Is he okay!? Daddy, are you okay!?" she rambled, completely beside herself with worry.
"I'm -" he began, then was overcome by a coughing fit. Val stooped by his side and rubbed his back until it eased off. "I'm okay, sweety. Daddy's fine."
That was all she needed to hear. She broke down completely and just threw herself into his arms, clutching him tight tight tight, weeping into his chest like she hasn't done since Mom died, and he hugged her back, rocking her gently, whispering that everything was all right, everything was fine.
Luke sat down heavily on the grass, panting for air, and Tim went one further by collapsing completely with his arms and legs splayed out, like he wanted to make a snow angel without any snow, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
"Did the animals make it out okay?" Dad asked over her shoulder.
"Some pigs and sheep did," Luke confirmed. "And a cow, I think."
Dad nodded, but he didn't say anything. He didn't have to. Val knew exactly what he was thinking about.
Storm. Nash. Blinky. Monique. Garry.
And Jitters.
They didn't make it out.
Valery cried. She cried because she loved those animals so much, and she cried because her Daddy was still alive. There was just too much emotion rolling around inside of her to keep it all in, too much relief and sadness roiled together into a big swirling ball, so she cried. It was okay. Tim was crying, too. Even Dad was crying. Luke...
No, he wasn't crying.
She wiped the tears away to clear the blurriness. He was staring at the fire, his face showing not sorrow or loss or fear, but outright fury.
It scared her. He didn't even look that way right before he hit Tim. This was something else entirely, something that made her own tears hitch and dry up inside.
"Luke?" she asked. "What are you -"
He got up. Sprang up might be a better way to put it, and stormed back to the house, walking like he would push aside anything that got in his way.
"Luke!" she yelled after him. "Luu-
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