Page 15 of Demon's Desire
“Right,” the firefighter agreed. “Well, it’s out. It could have been a lot worse. It looks like it sort of contained itself to the living room area. The rest of the first floor has some light smoke damage. Honestly, I’m surprised that it’s not a lot worse. You got very lucky. But it’s definitely not safe to stay here tonight. Do you all have somewhere you could go?”
“We do.” Torie nodded.
“Well, we don’t,” the woman from upstairs said, looking at Torie and Mica. “Are you two going to pay for our hotel until this place gets fixed? It was your party that caught the damned house on–”
“Hold on,” the firefighter held up his hand to cut her off. “If it was electrical, it’s not their fault. I suggest you find some family or friends you can stay with for now without jumping to any conclusions. Since the damage isn’t too bad, I expect it’ll be less than two weeks before the house is back to normal.”
“Can we at least go get some of our stuff?” the woman asked, clearly irritated. I didn’t really blame her.
“No, ma’am.” He shook his head. “It’s not safe. Now, I need the name and information of the actual homeowners.”
“I have that,” Torie offered, pulling out her phone. Before she could find it, I heard a deep, jarring sound, almost like a howl.
I frowned and looked around, but I didn’t see anything that stood out. The sound kept going. It was some kind of animal. It sounded desperate and scared.
After a second, Mica tapped my arm. “It’s the cat.”
I blinked and looked over at the rest of the family from upstairs. The cat carrier was sitting on the grass. Now that I was looking at it, I could tell that was where the noise was coming from.
“The cat does that every night?” I frowned.
“Every night.” He nodded.
“Weird,” I muttered.
Torie gave the firefighters all the information they needed. After they released everyone and said we could leave, we started heading to Kelly’s car. Neither Mica nor Torie offered to drive themselves. I could tell they were both feeling pretty shaken up.
“You good to drive?” I asked Kelly after we were out of earshot of the emergency responders.
“Oh, yeah.” She nodded. “I didn’t smoke that much. I’m sober now.”
“Good.” I relaxed as we kept walking down the block. About a third of the way, I noticed there was someone standing on the sidewalk across the street. It looked like they were watching the house. When we got a little closer, I got a better look at their face and frowned.
“Kelly?” I spoke barely above a whisper. “Do you remember that older guy who walked by earlier? He walked through the middle of the crowd?” When she nodded, I gently tilted my head in the direction of the figure. “That’s the same guy.”
“What?” Kelly frowned. “Was he watching the fire or something?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered. “It’s weird.”
Neither of us commented on it further, but we were both clearly on edge about it. The fire had been out for a while now, but he was still there… watching us. When we got close enough that he could see us, he got into a beige van, as if he thought that would hide him. Once we passed him, the further away we actually got, the more relieved I was.
“Here we are,” Kelly said when we finally reached her truck.
“Mica, do you want to sit up front?” I asked.
“Um… Sure.” He still seemed a little out of it. I wasn’t sure if it was the weed or if he was just in shock from everything, but I didn’t ask. I just got in the back seat with Torie. She actually seemed to be handling this fairly well now that she had calmed down and stopped crying.
“Hey, what radio stations do you guys like?” Kelly looked at them with a slight smile as she started the car. “We don’t know any yet.”
“Um… 103.5 FM,” Torie suggested. “That’s the pop station. Then there’s some 90s, R&B, rock.”
“Pop is perfect for now!” Kelly said brightly as she adjusted the radio. When she turned it on, it was playing “Cupid” by FIFTY FIFTY, a cute little K-Pop song I’d been hearing on TikTok.
“Oh, I like this song.” I smiled and looked over at Torie. She gave me a weak smile in return and reached over to take my hand. I squeezed hers in response.
We didn’t talk much on the way home. Luckily, it wasn’t a very long drive. I wanted to get them somewhere safe and comfortable as soon as possible.
When Kelly pulled into her spot in the alley, I looked between Mica and Torie. “I really do want you guys to sleep in my bed, okay? I mean it. It’s brand new. I only slept on the sheets once. Kelly and I have those floor pillows. I’ll get some sheets and blankets, make a pallet, it’ll be perfect, then this week, we’ll buy a couch.”