My Slice of Haven

Following the young Poppi through a hidden door situated behind the house she led them as quietly as they could tread to the kitchen. "It's there." She pointed to the space were a dining table sat in the real house, but in this one it had been replaced with a door in the floor.

"It leads to the basement, it's where mother keeps daddy." Her little fingers were twisting into her nightgown. "I'll keep watch up here."

Dwight stepped forward and tugged on the trap door until it began to open and they peered in. Blackness met them. "I'll go first."

Following Dwight Duke was next and then Nathan. The trio felt around until a light switch was found and flipped on. There in the middle of the room was a bound and gagged Thomson Amber, his eyes widened as he looked back at the three strangers in the room with him. He didn't recognize any of their faces although he should have.

"It's okay Mr Amber." Nathan cautiously approached Thomson. "We are here to help get you out of here. Now I am going to take that gag off but you have to keep quiet." He reassured the old before reaching out and removing the dirty material. "Are you okay?"

Thomson was desperate to reply but there was a forced stopping him from uttering a sound, a force that was squeezing his throat. He nodded.

"Something's wrong." Duke pointed out as he tugged at the ropes knots holding Thomson's wrists together. "Poppi is panicking...I think something bad is coming our way."

"Well let's just be quick about this, get Poppi and leave." Dwight replied working on the binds across Thomson's ankles.

"Smart boy." Lily's statuesque form began to appear before them from thin air. "However not smart enough to keep away from here in the first place."

Smoke began to rise around them in thickets so dark it would smother them in moments.

"Stop it!" Poppi shouted as she hit the last stair of the basement, the desperation in her voice turned to her trouble and killed the smoke. "Get him out of here." She looked to Duke. "And hurry up." In the moments running through the house towards the basement an unsure plan had begun to take shape in her head.

It was risky but there was nothing else left out there. When Lily had said her body was buried out in that cursed place a thought had sprung to mind.

"He will come back out here." Her mother chuckled. "This is my home dear girl."

"I know." She replied keeping one eye as the men worked to free her father. "And it shouldn't be. You should be home in Haven. Tell me where he buried you so I can take you home as well." Being so close to both her father and Duke meant that there was twice the emotions running through her. Fear, anger, excitement, adrenalin and love concentrated into her body.

For a moment her mother looked at her daughter with a glint in her eye, caught off guard at the suggestion. "What makes you think I want to go back to Haven?"

"Little Poppi can you get my friends and dad back to Duke's boat?" She asked.

"I can." Little Poppi stepped out from behind her older self having followed her down.

The wall behind them began to smoke and spark. The pressure Poppi was placing on it with her troubles saw it crumble without effort. "Go now!" She shouted directing the flames around her mother before they caught the gang exiting through the desolated wall.

"Stupid girl!" Lily shrilled at the top of her lungs and her body came rushing through the flames catching fire. Her hand took hold of Poppi's arm.

She yelped at the touch and drew her arm back to see a messy wad of fire burns had left it's mark around her forearm. "You need to get out of here! I won't leave this place standing." It was a threat and a warning from her daughter.

"I will burn your friends to the ground before I let your father escape this place!" Again she had dissolved into nothing.

The dark early hours of the morning were chilling as Dwight, Nathan and Duke with Thomson hauled between them ran as fast as they could towards the Cape Rouge.

"It's just there!" Little Poppi shouted and pointed.

"NO!" A ring of fire blazed up before them and they stumbled back from the heat. "No one is leaving this place." Lily could feel an ache in her spine from the display but kept her stature. "I want this sad little man to feel the agony I have felt for years in this place." She was furious and nothing more at being left to rot so far away from everything she had loved.

Thomson found himself being set down and the men that had saved him were putting themselves as a barrier between him and the fire. "I...I never wanted to come here." He spoke. Looking down at his hands he flexed them. "I remember that night, at least part of it."

"Tell us on the boat when we get there Mr Amber." Duke leant back. "Cause we are getting on that boat."

"Duke? Duke Crocker?" Thomson had barely recognized the man inside the house but now he was away from that twisted place he was able to register the faces around him.

"Yes sir." Duke replied still keeping an eye on the flames as they seemed to draw closer.

"What do we do now?" Dwight asked.

Nathan looked back over his shoulder catching Thomson. "Mr Amber, can your wife be touched? Like if I went to grab her would it work?"

Thomson nodded. "Yes, I have tried to catch her many times but she just disappeared. Though whatever she is now is able to be touched."

Looking to Duke he pressed his lips into a long line. "Right now, and I hate to say this, your trouble might be able to get us out of here."

"What if it doesn't work and I end up making things worse?" He knew what Nathan was asking him to do.

"If it does work though you can get us out of here and rid Poppi or at least one of her troubles."

Duke was torn between the decision.

Dwight stepped back as flame lunged at him. "I don't think this can get much worse!"

"Fine!" Duke growled. He dug a hand into his pocket and produced a pocket knife and handed it to Nathan. "The minute your blood touches me be ready to get the hell away."

Again Poppi found herself racing hoping to reach her friends in time before her mother did. But her plan still hadn't failed and she was determined to put an end to this. Relief began to flower as she saw the Cape Rouge ahead but was short lived as her eyes clamped into the sight of an ever growing fire pushing the group back towards Lily.

Coming to a stop Poppi could see and feel Duke, but there was something in his face that was making her nervous. She could feel uncertainty but also a need to protect them all radiating from him as if he were standing right beside her.

Poppi knew what he was about to do. "NO!" She screamed out before Nathan could lay a cut hand on Duke. The animosity of every emotion entering her and clashing with her own fanned itself into the fire making it her own as quickly as it had been lit. The sensation of liquid fire hit her and she gasped, dryness hit the back of her throat and stung her eyes.

"This is too big for you Poppi-cake. You don't know what you're doing." Her mother laughed.

"Poppi, you can do this my sweet girl." Her father called from the group and pushed past them to see his daughter standing feet away from them. "You are stronger than you think, I can feel it."

She nodded. "Get onto the boat." Focusing on the flames Poppi found it hauntingly easy now for her to control them. Her want was to draw them back enough to make a clear path to the boat but for them to keep burning and they did just that.

"Come on Poppi." Duke called her over but to his dismay she shook her head. "Get it started and I will be there."

Duke could feel her fear but over that he could feel her confidence and that spurred him on to do as she said. "If you're not on that boat before it leaves I am going to come back and force you on it."

"I am counting on it." And she was. Her attention turned towards Lily. "If you won't leave I will still help you. This place has twisted you into something chaotic, you aren't my mom here."

Lily looked back at her daughter and nodded, she was weak and unable to put up a fight. Lily had woken up on that far away place disorientated and heartbroken, over the years that had turned her into the psychotic monster she was now. "I don't know where he buried me though."

"It's okay." Poppi was making her way towards the boat and turned before she reached the flames. They flared back up again hiding the Cape Rouge from view. This was her plan and it had been since the basement. "I'm sorry this happened to you mom, I wish it hadn't."

Her mother wrapped her arms around her waist. "Sometimes I forget who I am out here, but I remember you. I always remember you Poppi-flower, I loved you so much. I just wish I had been there to see you grow up."

Poppi could feel tears prickling her eyes. "I wished that too, every day. Good bye mom." Letting go of every single feeling crushing her in that moment the flames behind her feed deeply into her and rushed forward like a sea of lava devouring the haunted island they'd been bought to. Poppi could see into the fire around her as it ate away at the trees and swallowed the fog as it searched for the place her mother's bones were kept to do away with those as well. They would be taken by the fire of trouble and finally Lily would be able to move on.

Back on the boat the men watched as the fire over ran the island feeling the heat radiate over them. "What is she doing?" Nathan asked with high alarm.

"Freeing her mother and me." Thomson replied. "Duke, she needs you."

"I know." He nodded quickly to head off the boat.

Dropping to her knees Poppi's palms connected with the ground. The fire had done it's intended job and was now recoiling back into her. The island was black and charred, nothing around her had survived. There was nothing but weakness and languor left in her and the overwhelming feeling of her trouble starting to grow again inside her. It felt like it were about to take her over as retribution for what she'd just done. The child killing it's mother.

"I said I would come back for you." Duke's arms were scooping her up and bundling her close to him.

Her vision was blurry and smoke stained her skin but as Duke's flesh touched hers that very feeling of faltering soon ceased and was replaced with a feverish tenderness emanating from him to her. With a smile so frail and small she reached a hand up and stroked his cheek. "You're really pretty."

"And you're really out of it darlin'." Lifting her onto the boat and having left Dwight in charge of coasting them back to Haven, he took her below deck.

Feeling the softness of Duke's bed meet her back Poppi let out a sigh. "Where's my dad?"

"Above deck." Duke had moved to the end of the bed and was now removing her boots. "He's okay, I can feel you worrying. But he's okay, a little dazed though.

"You can feel that?" Her voice croaked.

"Yea, I guess that vice versa connection opened up. That was something extraordinary you pulled back there." Duke rested a hand on her knee and kept an intent gaze upon her.

Poppi sorely rolled to her side and glanced down at the melted skin on her arm. "There wasn't any other choice. She didn't know where she was buried and if I didn't do what I did she would still be there."

Duke smiled wearily at her down at her as her eyes began to close, they were all exhausted. "Get some rest for now." He tenderly pushed her hair behind her ear and stayed until he knew she was fast asleep.

Thomson watched from the entrance as Duke tended to the burn on her arm and quietly fussed around her. "I knew I was wrong about you, Duke. When you came and saw me that day, I knew I was wrong."

He looked up. "You weren't to know, after all I am a Crocker and you know what we do."

Entering the room Thomson sighed, there was a sag in his broad shoulders. "You're not like your father boy, if you were none of us would be here. You would have kept doing what your father and grandfather had done and wiped us out."

Duke stared at Thomson from the side of the bed, is hand stroking Poppi's ginger hair as she slept. "We will be back in Haven by the afternoon."

"Good, I have some things I need to sort out."