Fire That Burns but Never Dies

Even though the sun was shining brightly down on the new neighborhood that Theresa Samuels, who preferred to be called Reese, and her mother, Kelly, just moved in to, the 75 degree weather plus the slight breeze that was blowing lightly, made goose bumps raise on Reese’s skin as she pushed her arms through the sleeves of her purple hoodie and pulled the hood over her head, covering her straight, long dirty blonde hair.

Too freaking perfect, Reese thought bitterly as she took in the white-washed picket fences and the perfectly manicured green lawns, most of which had freakish chubby ceramic lawn gnomes adorned with pointed hats and leering grins as decorations. She felt all of their beady black painted eyes staring straight at her making her scowl in annoyance.

With a shake of her head she turned back to the U-Haul truck and unloaded another box labeled KITCHEN in her mom’s loopy handwriting and headed back into her new house.

Reese and her mother moved to this new town for a fresh start after her parents’ divorce. Most kids her age would be hurt that their family was no longer a single, nuclear unit, but truthfully, Reese was fine with her parents divorcing each other. All they had done for months was fight about every little thing and it was driving Reese completely crazy.

“New town, new start, new life,” her mother had said when she told Reese that they’d be moving to Huntington Beach, a city in southern California, a few months ago; from one side of the country to the other.

Reese wasn’t especially keen on leaving her home or her few friends back in Newport, Vermont, but at least she had her cousin to help with her transition into her fabulous new life.

Reese’s cousin, Matt Sanders, and his family lived right next door to Reese’s new home. After searching for months, Reese and her mother couldn’t believe their luck when the very large home was sold to them below the asking price, which had already been incredibly low to begin with. From what her mother told her about the previous owners, Reese just assumed that they couldn’t wait to have the place off their hands and were willing to accept any offer on the place no matter how ridiculously low.

Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Kelly pounced quickly and here they were, only four days later, moving into their new home. Reese entered the house and walked toward the kitchen. She had taken in the cream colored walls and hardwood floors when she and her mother had gotten there a couple of hours ago. It all seemed too impersonal to Reese but her mother had said that it would make it easier for them to make it their own.

Reese put the box on the floor by the kitchen table that the movers had put in earlier. As she straightened up and pushed her hair out of her face a shiver worked its way through her body. Reese stiffened in place and couldn’t fight off the feeling that someone was watching her. Slowly, she turned on her heels and looked around her.

Nothing. There was no one there.

Shaking her head at herself for being an idiot, Reese moved through the kitchen to go get more boxes. As she chuckled to herself for getting worked up over nothing, Reese walked straight into her mom and let out a small squeak of surprise.

“Fuck, mom! Scare me half to death why don’t you,” Reese said as her hand clutched at her throat.

“Watch the potty mouth, Reese,” her mom said with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry,” Reese muttered her apology. “I didn’t hear you pull up and you scared me.”

Kelly smiled at her daughter. “Aren’t you a little too old to be afraid of being left alone at home?”

Reese made a face at her mom and rolled her green eyes. “Whatever.”

“Come on scaredy cat, let’s take a break and eat some dinner,” her mom laughed as Reese groaned in irritation.

After eating a meal that consisted of cheese burgers and fries, Reese and her mother went back to bringing the last of the boxes into the house. It was nearing ten and both women were nearly sleeping on their feet from the back breaking work of moving their belongings into the house and placing them in the rooms they belonged in.

“Okay, kiddo, I’m beat. Let’s get some sleep. We’ll unpack the rest tomorrow.”

“’Kay,” Reese mumbled as she walked upstairs to her new room. With an exhausted sigh, she fell face first onto her bed, which the movers had moved in earlier along with the rest of the heavy furniture that morning when she and her mom got there to let them in.

Reese glanced at her cell phone. Ten o’clock on the dot, which meant it was one in the morning back home in Newport. She groaned as her body started to relax on the unmade bed.

“Reese, at least make your bed before you pass out on it,” Kelly said in a tired voice as she leaned against the doorframe.

“No. Too fucking tired to move,” Reese answered her mom with her eyes closed as she buried her head into her pillow. “I’ll do it after I get like forty hours of sleep, I promise.” She opened one eye when her mom didn’t scold her for cursing again. She must be really tired, Reese thought as she closed her eye again.

“Thanks for all the help, kid. We still have some things to do downstairs, I need to make some calls and you still need to unpack your things—”

Reese groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

Kelly chuckled. “Good night, sweetie.”

“Night,” Reese mumbled as she heard her mom move away from the door and her retreating footsteps fading before falling into an exhausted sleep.



Unfortunately, Reese didn’t get to sleep those forty hours liked she’d hoped. She ended up waking suddenly after having an incredibly vivid nightmare about the house she just moved into. Only in her dream, the house wasn’t in disarray with boxes littering the place; it was completely furnished and had pictures on the walls of a happy, smiling four piece family; husband, wife and two boys.

Reese sat up on the bed and remembered seeing a young sandy haired blonde boy, the younger of the two boys in the photos, who was probably no older than nine or ten, in her dream. The left half of his body was scarred and a gruesome, blistering red color as though half of him had caught on fire. He kept trying to tell her something but thick, black smoke was the only thing that would come out of his mouth.

The smell of smoke had lingered in her nose when she woke and Reese had to remind herself that it was just a dream, she couldn’t actually smell smoke or burned wood and flesh; it was all in her mind.

Shivering slightly, Reese shook her head of the thought of the burned boy and stretched. She checked her phone and sighed at the time; seven in the morning, which meant that it was ten back in Newport. She’d only gotten six hours of sleep. Still no calls or texts from her friends. Reese really hadn’t expected any but it still kind of stung to have her suspicions reaffirmed.

“Fuck my life,” she said rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

After some long stretches, Reese got up and the first thing she did was locate the box in her room with her bed stuff and made the bed, knowing that that would be the first thing her mother asked her about when she saw her later.

She pulled the light purple sheets onto the queen-sized bed before smoothing out the dark lavender duvet on top. “Pillow cases,” she muttered to herself before spotting the black cases just under her bed. She bent over and picked them up and fixed them over her pillows. She nodded in satisfaction at her work.

One less thing for her mom to bitch about Reese smiled.

A gust of really cold wind blew in through the window and Reese quickly ran over to close it.

Reese stared down at the window with a frown and firmly locked the latch into place. She didn’t remember leaving the window open last night. In fact, she was sure she had closed it yesterday afternoon before her mother left to pick up dinner. Maybe I just thought that I had closed the window, she thought. Or maybe I’m losing my mind. She chuckled to herself when a movement caught her eye.

She was looking into her neighbor’s window, which was directly across from hers, and two teenage boys that were both dressed in black band T-shirts and black pants were openly staring at her in her tank top and black boy short underwear. One of the boys was her cousin Matt and he was doing his best to push his friend away from the window so he would stop staring at Reese standing there in her nothing but her underwear.

Not bothering to look embarrassed, Matt’s friend smirked at her and then winked as he gave her a thumbs up. Reese smiled sweetly at the dark haired boy and flipped him off. The look of surprise on his face at Reese’s gesture made her laugh. She gave Matt a small wave before turning away from the window.

She grabbed some pants from a brown box labeled REESE’S CLOTHES and went into her en suite bathroom to brush her teeth and shower, already not looking forward to the rest of the day of unpacking her room and helping her mom with the rest of their shit.

First thing I’m going to do is put thick, black curtains up, she thought bitterly as she washed the shampoo out of her hair.

But the time Reese was done showering she’d all but forgotten about giving her cousin and his perverted friend a small peep show and wandered downstairs in search of her mother and some breakfast.

When she neared the kitchen she could smell brewed coffee in the air and her mother’s voice and assumed she was on the phone until she heard Matt’s deep voice answering her mother. As she got closer to the kitchen she heard another guy’s voice and nearly cringed. She had a feeling that she knew exactly whose voice that belonged to.

Reese made sure she had a pleasant smile on her face when she entered the kitchen and saw her mother talking to her cousin and his friend and the smell of coffee was stronger.

“Hey, honey,” her mom said spotting her at the entrance of the kitchen. “How’d you sleep?”

Reese shrugged. “Not too bad,” she answered as her mother handed her an empty mug. “Hi, Matt. Matt’s pervy friend,” she nodded in acknowledgement.

That caught her mother’s attention. “What was that?” Her eyebrow rose at the two boys who had matching sheepish expressions on their faces.

“Just a bit of a misunderstanding,” Matt’s friend said with a soft chuckle as he flashed a charmingly polite smile and was probably meant to disarm Reese’s mother and convince her that he was a good, decent boy.

Reese’s nose twitched as she realized that Matt’s friend was trying to make less of the situation that she found it to be to her mother. “I don’t know what is so hard to misunderstand about you peeping through my window this morning while I was standing there in my underwear,” she said casually as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

Her mom choked a bit and turned to look at the brown eyed boy whose cheeks had flamed an impressive shade of red.

“I... It’s really not how... Uh, Matt, help me out here,” he begged.

“What Brian is trying to say, Aunt Kelly, is that Reese’s windows don’t have curtains up yet and we accidentally saw her this morning when she woke up. It was completely unintentional, right Brian?”

Brian nodded quickly. “Yes, ma’am. It will never happen again.”

“Just the same, I’d appreciate if you’d apologize to Reese for making her uncomfortable,” Kelly said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Brian turned to face Reese and she quickly scanned over his features for the first time. Brian’s hair was too black to be natural and Reese assumed that he had dyed it to get it to that color. His eyes were a medium dark brown, he had high cheekbones that were actually quite prominent and his nose was narrow. His lips were slightly thin and were a soft pink color. His jaw was squared and sharp. All in all, Reese thought he could be attractive if he hadn’t been staring at her with anger blazing in his chocolate eyes, promising revenge at the earliest opportunity.

“Reese, my name’s Brian Haner and I’m really sorry for looking through your window this morning and making you uncomfortable. I really hope you can forgive me and believe me when I say that it will never happen again. Friends?”

Brian’s voice was everything that was polite and sincere and Reese didn’t buy his words for a second, but for the sake of her mother, she took Brian’s outstretched hand in her own and shook it.

“Apology accepted,” she smiled a tight smile at him and fought off the urge to glare.

Kelly nodded at the teens in approval and resumed drinking her coffee. “Okay, kids, I’m off to buy some breakfast seeing as how we have zero food here at the moment. McDonald’s okay with everyone?”

After receiving an affirmative from the three teenagers, Reese’s mother grabbed her keys and purse and was off after suggesting in a firm tone that the boys help Reese unpack some of the boxes in her room until she returned with food.

“Follow me,” Reese said with a shrug as the two boys followed her up the stairs and to her room.

“That was a real bitch move,” Brian said once they were up in Reese’s room, a sneer on his face.

Reese rolled her eyes. “Matt, let your buddy know that he’s free to leave if he’s not going to help.” She bent down and opened up a box that her book collection in it. She carefully stacked some books in her arms and moved over to the wooden bookshelf and started organizing her them in no particular order.

Matt exchanged a look with Brian that clearly told him that he was in the wrong and to lay off or get out as he opened up a box that held Reese’s DVD and CD collection. “Hey, Reese, where do you want this stuff?” He nodded toward the box.

“Just leave it in there, I’ll take care of it later,” she turned her attention back to the bookshelf.

Brian rolled his eyes as Matt picked up some books and handed them to Reese as she put them on the shelf. He sighed and opened up a box that was near the bed and smirked widely as he rifled through the contents.

“Hey, Reese,” he called smugly, trying not to laugh. “What are the odds I’ll get to see you in these someday?” He asked with a large grin as he held up a sheer, black lacy thong.

Reese’s face burned from embarrassment as she ran to Brian and snatched her panties back. “You’re such a pig.”

Brian only laughed and Matt had to hold Reese back before she could punch Brian.

“Dude, not cool,” Matt said as he struggled with Reese in his arms. “Reese, fucking calm down.”

Reese stopped trying to get to Brian and settled for glaring at him. “Get out.” She demanded angrily.

Brian’s laughs finally died out. “Fine, fine, this is getting boring anyway. Matt, I’ll catch you later,” Brian said moving to the door. “Oh, and Reese? You looked amazing this morning,” he smirked at her as he watched her face go red again in anger.

“Fuck off,” Reese snarled as she started to struggle in Matt’s tight hold again.

Matt didn’t let her go until he heard the front door slam signaling Brian’s departure.

“God, he’s such an asshole,” Reese grumbled as Matt pushed her down to the bed.

“Not usually,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck with an apologetic smile. “Brian usually gets along with everyone and doesn’t try to antagonize them.”

“Lucky me,” Reese said sarcastically. “I’m special.”

Matt chuckled at his cousin’s sour face and threw one of her shirts at her. “Let’s get some of this shit unpacked before your mom gets back.”

The two teenagers got a lot done in the twenty minutes that Kelly was gone. Reese was no longer pissed and was able to laugh and joke around with Matt as they ate breakfast with her mom. After breakfast the three set about fixing the kitchen, living room and unpacking more boxes.

They didn’t stop until after three for a lunch break. During lunch Kelly called the cable company and set up an appointment to get both cable and internet installed. She also asked Matt how his mom, her sister and Reese’s aunt, was doing. They exchanged stories and news and Kelly asked Matt to make sure that his mom came over as soon as she got back from her business trip.

After lunch, the trio continued to unpack and make the new house feel more like a home. Later that evening at six, Kelly gave Reese and Matt some money for pizza and went off to bed. Kelly’s back had had enough and she needed to sleep off the pain.

As soon as Kelly went upstairs, Reese and Matt ordered pizza and chose a DVD to watch. Matt wanted to see an action movie and Reese wanted to watch a horror movie. They resolved their dilemma by flipping a coin; Matt won.

After eating and watching movies, Matt said he was going home.

“Call me if you need me,” he told his cousin and hugged her goodbye. “Lock the door after me,” he said at the door.

“Okay, dad,” Reese smiled and locked the door as soon as Matt stepped through it. “Good night,” she called loudly knowing Matt would be able to hear her.

“Night!” He called back.

Reese chuckled to herself and shook her head. All in all, despite the whole Brian thing this morning, today hadn’t been so bad. Maybe Matt’s other friends wouldn’t be so horrible when he introduced them to her the following day. As Reese was walking through the dark halls of her new home she paused mid-step and looked over her shoulder. She had the sudden eerie feeling that she wasn’t alone and that whoever was with her was watching her.

The thought caused a chill to run down her spine.

She was on edge. She’d had too much coffee today, she knew that.

Get a grip, Reese, she chastised herself.

After all, she was far from a window and she knew for a fact that she wasn’t all alone; her mother was upstairs if she needed help, or a hand to hold. And Matt was just next door.

She shook her head and continued to walk through the hallway determined to forget her momentary silliness.

But she still couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes on her away and before entering her room, she cast a subtle glance over her shoulder.

Nothing.

Well what did you expect, Reese? She asked herself. Someone to come out and yell “boo”? She laughed to herself and got a change of clothes and entered her bathroom to take a shower. After her shower, Reese checked that both windows were shut and that the locks were still firmly in place. She closed her black curtains and as she was closing the other set, she saw Brian in his bedroom. He looked up and winked at her with a smirk. Grousing to herself, Reese closed the curtains tightly and crawled into bed ready to crash hard.