Fire That Burns but Never Dies

Brian and Reese ended up falling asleep on the couch together; Brian’s head resting on top of Reese’s. Her head tucked snuggly against his chest and his was wrapped around her shoulders holding her close to his sleeping form. The tv was still on but was muted. Other than the soft breaths coming from the sleeping teenagers there was no other sound in the house.

Reese and Brian spent their night eating cookies, drinking Cokes and getting to know one other. They played Twenty Questions despite Reese thinking the suggestion lame on Brian’s part, exchanged stories and over all got along the entire time they’d spent together.

Brian was resting peacefully, his dreams consisting of nothing more than the usual; girls, girls, and guitars.

Reese, on the other hand, was sleeping fitfully.

Once again she dreamed of the burned young boy. She realized he was younger than she’d previously assumed and the sheer terror she saw in his eyes was enough to make her own heart beat frantically in her chest. Once again, the boy tried to tell her something but the thick smoke quickly poured out of his mouth making his words indistinguishable. The smoke was quickly filling the living room. Reese looked around for a way for them to get out of the house and noticed the flames for the first time. The crackle and hiss met her ears in a malicious song as it devoured the house greedily.

Reese began coughing and her stinging eyes streamed tears down her face. Her lungs were scorching in her chest with every breath she took in. She couldn’t breathe! She quickly dropped to her knees to avoid inhaling more of the suffocating smoke. She crawled toward the front door only to be faced with solid wall. In sudden horror, Reese realized that this wasn’t her house. The front door should have been where the wall was. How was she going to get them out now?

A howling shriek pierced her ears. The loud sound made her cringe as she crawled along the wall looking for a way out. The flames were licking higher and hotter and Reese knew they would die if she didn’t get them out soon. She turned another corner and cried out when she was faced with another wall instead of the kitchen entrance. The shriek continued wailing overhead growing louder and louder until it seemed that her whole world was that sound and the heat from the fire.

“Reese! REESE! Wake up!” Brian cried shaking the sleeping girl’s shoulders.

Reese’s eyes popped open suddenly and it took her a moment before she realized that she wasn’t trapped in a burning house. She covered her ears with a groan at the sound that was in her dream. “What is that noise?”

“The smoke detector! I think!” Brian shouted over the loud alarm. “Where is it? We need to turn it off!”

Reese got up and quickly ran to the kitchen pushing her nightmare back into the corner of her mind to attend to the task at hand; getting the noise to stop before her head exploded. She pulled a chair away from the table and set it up against the wall. She removed the device from the wall and switched it off immediately cutting off the wailing sound. The house seemed too quiet after that, much to Reese’s relief.

“That was weird,” Brian commented after a moment.

“Yeah,” Reese agreed as she put the now quiet device on the kitchen counter top. “I wonder what made it go off.”

“Maybe it’s faulty?” Brian suggested with a shrug.

“Maybe,” Reese said slowly. “But my mom just bought this a few days ago. I don’t think it would break without a reason, you know?” She said staring hard at the white plastic appliance and jumped slightly when it started screeching again.

“Fucking hell,” Brian mumbled quickly grabbing the smoke detector and removing the batteries from the back of the device. “I think you should get your money back for this, it’s a piece of crap.”

Reese bit her lip and nodded. “I think you’re right,” she said and then covered up a big yawn with her hand.

“Holy shit!” Brian exclaimed. “It’s really late. Suzy is gonna kill me if she catches me sneaking back in right now.”

Reese raised an eyebrow. “Why do you call your mom by her name?”

Brian shot Reese a small smile. “I don’t. Suzy is my stepmom.”

“Oh,” Reese said looking down at her hands. “I didn’t know that.”

“It’s cool,” Brian shrugged. “We’ll get to that next time we play Twenty Questions,” he winked. “But I better head out now.”

“Let me walk you out,” Reese said nodding in the general direction of the front door. “So, we didn’t kill each other. Looks like I owe Matt twenty bucks,” she said as she and Brian entered the foyer.

“What?” Brian’s eyebrow rose swiftly.

Reese let out a small chuckle. “Matt and I made this dumb hypothetical bet that you and I couldn’t be in the same room by ourselves without killing each other in the first five minutes. We’ve gone almost four hours. Matt is never gonna believe this. He thought hell would have to freeze over before we actually got along.”

Brian let out a soft laugh. “Who would’ve guessed that we could get along?”

Reese just smiled.

“Good night, Reese,” Brian said moving toward the door and opening it. “I had fun.”

“Me too, Brian. Good night.”

“See you tomorrow,” Brian nodded and closed the door.

Reese quickly locked it before she could go after Brian and ask him to stay with her tonight. As much as she hated to think about it, her dream really shook her up. She knew that she was in her house in her dream she just didn’t know why some things were different, like the location of the front door. For a while there, Reese actually thought she was going to burn to death. She shivered; she couldn’t imagine a more painful way to go than to burn alive.

Reese went back into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, she was parched. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she felt eyes on her again. She held her breath to see is she could make out any other sounds in the house.

The floorboards creaked overhead and Reese gasped; she could hear someone walking around in the room above the kitchen. Reese felt her heart speed up and squeeze hard in her chest when she remembered that her room was the one above the kitchen.

The smoke detector sounded again and Reese covered her ears with her hands to drown out the piercing shriek. After a few moments the smoke detector cut off and Reese stared at it and the batteries beside it in surprise.

How could the damn thing still work when Brian had taken the batteries out? Afraid that the smoke detector would go off again, Reese put it in the garage under three winter blankets. Hopefully it would be enough to drown out the sound if it went off again.

Reese went back into the kitchen and turned off the lights. Tonight was weird and all she wanted to do was go to sleep. She went to her room and stood in the doorway and looked around at the floor. Most of the hardwood was covered in thick decor carpets. There was no way she could have heard anyone walking around up here unless there were stomping around heavily trying to make noise.

She couldn’t sleep in here tonight, not when she thought she heard someone whispering her name and having heard footsteps. She’d already had one nightmare tonight and wasn’t looking forward to having anymore. She quickly ran over to the windows and made sure that they were locked tightly before she ran back out, not wanting to spend one second longer than necessary in the room.

With a sigh, she closed the door and went into her mom’s room. Reese would never admit to anyone that she was so scared that she was sleeping in her mom’s bed. She didn’t need anyone to give her hell for it. She kept the bedside table on and settled under the covers.

“Think happy thoughts,” she told herself as she closed her eyes. “Bunnies, cotton candy, internet cat videos, ponies, puppies,” she trailed off. Brian’s eyes. Reese’s eyes snapped open. The thought had come from nowhere. One night can change a lot, but was it enough to let Reese realize her attraction to Brian?



Reese woke up to her mom moving into the bed next to her.

“Sorry,” she yawned loudly. “Didn’t mean to wake you. What are you doing in here anyway, honey?”

Reese yawned and shrugged, unwilling to tell her mom the real reason why she’d slept in here instead of her own room. “How was work?”

“Exhausting,” Kelly’s eyes slipped closed with a sigh. “Feels good to be able to rest,” her voice was faint.

After a few more moments Reese was certain that her mother was sleeping hard and slipped out bed and went into her room. She shivered as she entered her room; it was the coldest in the house for whatever reason. Reese rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Once showered and dressed, Reese went downstairs to make herself some coffee and breakfast. She all but inhaled her coffee and got a bowl and poured some cereal and milk into it and proceeded to eat her sugary breakfast cereal.

A loud knock of the door caused her to jump in her chair. “Fucking hell,” she cursed as she got milk and colorful marshmallowy bits all over herself and the table. Grousing to herself, she opened the door with a scowl to her grinning cousin.

“Where’s my money?” Matt asked immediately as he walked past Reese into the house.

“Hey, Matt,” Reese said happily with a large grin. “I’m doing great thanks for asking. Hey you wanna come in and hang out for a bit? Cool. I’m just eating breakfast, but I’d appreciate the company.” She said as she shut the door and made her way back to the kitchen a small frown on her face the whole way. She ignored Matt and started cleaning up her cereal mess.

“So, where’s my money?” Matt asked again as he saw Reese mopping up what looked to be Lucky Charms from the table and floor.

“What money?” She asked absentmindedly blowing her hair out of her face.

“I talked to Brian earlier this morning, he said you guys talked and hung out last night. Alone.”

Reese looked up and saw her cousin smirking down at her and shook her head. “Give me a minute.”

“I told you he wasn’t such a bad guy,” Matt said smugly as he crossed his arms over his chest. “So what happened last night with you two? Why was he over here anyway?”

“Just being neighborly,” she answered vaguely and shrugged.

Matt’s gaze was skeptical. “And you let him in why?”

Reese shrugged again. “Aren’t you at the very least happy that we’re managing to get along and not killing each other?”

“I suppose,” Matt said slowly. Truthfully, he didn’t like that Brian and Reese seemed to be friends now. It just meant that he would have to watch them around each other, make sure they weren’t getting too close. He loved Brian like a brother, but Reese was blood, if it came down to it, he had her back first. Hopefully, Matt wouldn’t have to take sides.

“We’re getting together tonight at my house later to hang out. Get some rest before you head over, okay?” His voice held a slight note of concern as he saw the light purplish bags beneath Reese’s eyes. “You look like you need it.”

“That wasn’t rude at all,” Reese said throwing away the soaked paper towels.

Matt smirked. “Just sayin’,” he shrugged. “You not sleeping okay or something?”

Reese looked back at Matt and couldn’t find a trace of insincerity in her cousin’s expression; he looked curious and concerned. She bit back the sharp retort that was already half formed on her tongue and sighed. “I had a bad dream last night and it’s still with me.”

Matt took a step toward her. “What happened in the dream?”

She looked down at her shoes. “The house was on fire and I couldn’t find my way out. There was also a little boy in my dream, he body was already burned and blistered. When he tried to talk to me, smoke came out of his mouth,” Reese shivered delicately. “It was probably one of my more vivid dreams. I could smell smoke and feel the heat from the fire. I swear, Matt, I thought I was going to die.” She looked back up at Matt and his hazel eyes were narrowed on her face in concern.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze. “It was just a dream, okay? We all have bad dreams every now and again. Next time it happens, call me and we’ll talk about it.”

Reese nodded, the motion causing her head to brush against Matt’s shoulder. “I thought you’d think it was dumb that’s why I didn’t call last night. Thanks, Matt. It wouldn’t have been so bad expect for the fact that I was alone here and some weird stuff had happened earlier.”

“What weird stuff?”

Reese shrugged Matt’s arm off of her shoulders and crossed her arms over her chest. “The smoke detector went off for no reason. A couple of times actually. Brian thinks it’s faulty and he’s probably right because after it went off the second time, he took the batteries out. And it sounded a third time after he was gone. I had to put it in the garage just in case it went off again.

“And I thought I heard someone walking around in my room last night. But I figure it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I mean, what else could it have been, right?”

Matt nodded, his face serious. “Reese,” he sighed. “Don’t ever hesitate to call me. I’ll be here in thirty seconds and you won’t have to be afraid of being by yourself at night.”

Reese bit her lip and nodded. “Thanks, Matt. I’d tell mom that the house it creeping me out, but I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on her. We were lucky to find this place and I know she loves it. Besides, she spent most of her savings on it, we’re stuck here.”

“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just offend me by dissing my hometown,” Matt smirked.

Reese chuckled. “You know that wasn’t what I meant.”

“I know. Besides, we get to hang out more now, instead of those yearly visits. That’s not so bad is it?” He smiled knowing that Reese couldn’t deny his claims.

“Honestly, Matt, that’s the sweetest thing I think you’ve ever said to me,” she lightly punched his shoulder allowing an affectionate smile to lift the corners of her mouth.

“Go get some rest,” he said gruffly. “I’ll wake you up an hour before we get together.”

Reese smiled. “What are you gonna do all day?”

“Chill out on your couch, watch tv and eat your food,” he said removing his shoes and letting them fall haphazardly on the floor just waiting for somebody to come and trip over them.

“Okay,” Reese said slowly.

Matt nodded. “If you need me call,” he kissed his cousin’s temple and exited the kitchen and made himself comfortable on the couch.

Reese went upstairs and determinedly entered her room as though she was completely confident that she was the only person there. She pulled back the covers and settled herself comfortably against the sheets. She sighed and closed her eyes, a long, loud yawn escaping her mouth.

“Reese.”

Reese’s eyes opened instantly at her whispered name and she scanned the empty room. “Matt?” Her own voice was a whisper, barely discernable over her rapid breathing. The air suddenly grew colder in her room and Reese shivered, her heart beating painfully hard in her chest.

“Reeeeeeessssseeeee.”

“It’s just the wind. It’s just the wind. It’s just the wind,” Reese chanted, the mantra calming her down a little the more she repeated it to herself. Gradually she no longer felt cold and she opened her eyes again. She could hear the tv faintly and relaxed even more; Matt was right downstairs, he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

She closed her eyes and rolled onto her side. She would sleep and Matt would keep her safe.



Reese came awake suddenly, a loud shriek was in the air and it took her several moments to realize she was in fact screaming. She clamped her mouth shut and her cry cut off sharply, creating an echo to ring in her eyes in the sudden silence.

Matt burst into the room frantically, a panicked expression on his face. His wide hazel eyes found his cousin curled up on the bed beneath the duvet, mumbling to herself as she ran her hands over her face and body.

“Reese,” Matt said as he walked toward the bed. “Are you okay? Why were you screaming?”

Reese’s green eyes met Matt’s and he could see unshed tears in them, making the green of her eyes shine brightly despite the lack of light in the room. He turned on her bedside lamp and sat down next to her.

“It was a dream,” she sighed and fell back onto her pillows, rubbing her eyes. “It was just a dream.”

“Some dream,” Matt said quietly. “Wanna talk about it?”

Reese looked back over at Matt and then turned her head to the window. The curtains were open and she could see that the sun was setting casting a golden orange glow over the neighborhood. Brian’s room was dark and Reese figured that he wasn’t home.

“I dreamed about that little boy again. He burst into fire in front of me,” she shivered. “His screams...I never heard anything so agonized before. Someone was there with us this time, laughing so evilly. He enjoyed seeing that little boy in pain. Who could be so callous as to hear that sound and just laugh like that?”

Reese turned back to her cousin and saw him shift uneasily on the bed.

“I know I sound crazy, Matt,” she said softly. “But my dreams feel so real that sometimes I believe that they are real and that I’m really there about to be burned alive. It just feels so real. I can feel the heat, smell the smoke and I just panic.”

Matt took Reese’s hand in his own. “It’s okay. You’re not crazy. We all have bad dreams every once in a while. Just remember they’re not real.”

Reese smiled softly. “I know, that’s what I was telling myself when I woke up. It’s just that ever since we moved here,” she sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe I just miss my old room.”

Matt nodded and stood up. “How about you take a shower and get ready so we can go. A night with new friends is exactly what you need.”

Reese laughed and pushed the covers off of her. “Okay. See you when I’m done.”

Matt left her room with another reassuring smile and Reese took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. She didn’t want to be left alone and quickly changed her clothes and fixed her hair. She applied a scant amount of makeup and nearly ran downstairs to Matt.

Matt turned to look at Reese in surprise. “Dude. You got ready in less than ten minutes?”

Reese shrugged.

“Damn, that was quick,” Matt said with an impressed tone.

“Where’s my mom?”

“She went into work early. She wants you home by midnight and to call her from the house phone just so she knows you’re here on time.”

Reese rolled her eyes at her mother’s message. “Let’s go.”