Chapter 12: 12. Natasha: Fire Never Comes When Wanted

Making fire had seemed almost instinctual before.

Damon raised his eyebrows in anticipation. Shaking her hands out to warm up Natasha concentrated on the tension she had through her muscles before. First she tried straining her muscles as much as she could almost shaking with the effort. The sight earned a chuckle from Damon.

Natasha let her muscles go slack hoping the flames would burst out like before. Nothing happened.

“You looked like you were taking a huge dump,” Damon said through a bout of laughter.

“Shut it, let me try again,” Natasha spat.

“Sorry, sorry, yeah go on. Let’s see it.” He couldn’t stop laughing much as he tried.

Frustrated Natasha tried a different approach, if it wasn’t the physical action that did it then maybe it was the emotional. Natasha had heard of actors thinking of dead puppies to make themselves cry; could it be the same concept here too? She thought of what she had felt then. It was an instinctual dread, her body had automatically reacted to the threat of being attacked.

With a concentrated expression she closed her eyes and brought herself back to that moment. Back to the—what had that guy called it— shadestalkers, with their swirling smoke-like bodies and razor sharp fangs, snapping at her back. Then there was the guy who’d commanded them. He had such an intense look about him, his eyes sharp and dark. Natasha groaned at herself internally: ‘don’t focus on the guy, the monsters!’

She’d lost her focus already though and looked kind of silly standing amid the trees arms out at the ready like she was about to command the elements themselves. Why was it not working now? Dropping her arms she opened her eyes with a grimace. Damon was fighting back a grin. Beside him Aiden was giving her a soft cringe. They must have thought she was going crazy.

Every part of Natasha’s body felt tired. It was an exhaustion like a vehicle when there’s no gas to make it go. She must’ve run out of the spark that was needed to make the magic work. That spark of fear. Her shoulders fell in disappointment.

“Look, it's probably best you stop now. You’ve embarrassed yourself enough,” Damon said, sticking his hands into his pockets. “I’ll just keep this rolling around in my head. Endless amounts of stupid.”

He turned and, shaking his head, he made his way back towards the car. Aiden stuck with Natasha, going up to her and patting her shoulder.

“Something must’ve happened, right? I’ve got photo evidence.” He nodded and then gently pushed Natasha forward to encourage her to walk back to the car.

“Keep your eyes open, okay?” Natasha looked her brother in the eye; concern knitted in her eyebrows. “All of this is really weird. Dad taking us on our first trip ever, out of nowhere, mom not here and not answering our texts. Even if you don’t think about the other weird… magic, this isn’t right.”

“Totally agree. Dad is acting really weird,” Aiden said.

It was a relief that someone at least was agreeing with her on that. “Thanks Aiden, I really feel like I’m going out of my mind.”

They walked back to the car together and climbed in

“Where’d you guys go?” Stephen asked, turning to examine all of them as the kids got themselves buckled in. “I told you to stay in sight, and you disappeared.”

Worry and anger coloured his voice as his brows knit.

“Sorry dad, we were just exploring.” Natasha lied.

He waited for everyone to finish before putting the car into reverse and heading back to the highway.

“Next time, don’t go off on your own.” He sighed. “We’re not on the island.”

That was that—the trip continued onwards with an uneasy quiet. As the night settled in the flurry of snow began to fall heavier and pretty soon their vision was heavily obscured. They drove in a tunnel of snow blasting around them. It piled up on the street and the car had to slow as they plowed through it. As a few towns flew by their street lights bathing the family in welcomed yellow lights. At one point they passed a plow clearing up the road going the opposite way. It sprayed a fountain of snow onto the curb creating a wall along the shoulder. The moon was out when they reached a fork in the highway and took the one that led north-east.

“Hey! Finally we have some bars again!” Damon exclaimed as he checked his phone.

Natasha looked back to see the brothers both staring at his phone. A wave of relief washed over her, now she could see if mom had answered the message she’d sent that morning. Bringing out her phone she turned it on. The messages filtered in too quickly to read through.

Natasha wasn’t so popular that she would be getting so many notifications on her social media. She unlocked her phone and scrolled up to start from the top. One message after another on her timeline people were asking for confirmation, checking in to see if what was on the news was real, and so on. Pictures of their home—or what Natasha thought was their home were sprinkled in. All that was left of it was a blackened frame. A couple people seemed to be writing what read as eulogies. Natasha was in shock, unsure what to do as she continued scrolling through.

“What the hell?” Damon exclaimed. “Wait, this can’t be right—Dad, what’s going on?”

“Everyone’s saying we’re…we’re dead?” Aiden added, voice low.

Natasha couldn’t bring herself to say anything. It was too much, her cheeks flushed as her mind began to shut down. What was happening?

“Kids, I can’t explain right now.”

Natasha opened up the web browser and searched “Fire Nanaimo Sinclair”, it took a while to load as the data signal was too low quality out there. After a half minute of anxious waiting, several articles that had come out about an hour ago loaded onto the screen. She clicked the one on the top of the page. The title read: “House in Nanaimo Destroyed in Massive Blaze, Resulting in Deaths”. Underneath was a photo of their home covered in bright red flames. The article was mostly a cold retelling of how emergency crews tried to put out the blaze but were unsuccessful due to the heat and how quick it burned through. At the end of it they listed that the entire family was found inside and passed away. Natasha’s brain was on overdrive.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“This can’t be happening…” She finally managed. “Dad, our home. It’s gone.”

Stephen wore a stoney face, not reacting to their news more than a flinch. He wiped his mouth as if to stop himself from talking.

Their home was gone and their dad was keeping a secret; where were they really going?

Natasha brought up her group chat with Nick and Darby. There were a few messages she’d missed just after school echoing what Derby had said before. Then the messages changed rapidly.

‘The news can’t be right, D?’

‘Nat, you just said you guys got onto the ferry.’

‘She said she got on the ferry. The news must be wrong.’ Derby had sent along with a screenshot of the earlier exchange with Natasha.

‘Yeah. It has to be wrong. Natsa, come on, tell us this is wrong’

It came one after the other. The next few messages were Nick trying to console Derby and after a few exchanges they agreed to meet up. Natasha’s stomach fell as a sudden wave of nausea overtook her. This wasn’t right. Her friends thought she was dead and they were completely beside themselves.

Natasha wasn’t sure what to do. She was lost in a swirl of confusion and felt.

After a few tries at typing out a reply Natasha eventually settled on, ‘I don’t know what’s happening, I’m here, I’m alive.’

It took a moment for it to send as the signal was still extremely bad in the heart of the mountains. Natasha’s heart flitted between anguish, fear, and anger. She was flooded with the memory of Tucker watching them pullout of the driveway. He’d been trapped in there. Natasha made a strangled noise, acutely aware of the panic he must’ve felt—smoke filling his lungs. How could they have left him alone? He was family too.

“Tell us what’s going on! You owe us an explanation,” She yelled and hit her dad’s shoulder with a sharp slap. “What about Tucker? We left him there, all alone trapped in the house. What happened to mom?”

Tears began streaming down her cheeks. Her brothers looked up from their phones, eyes wide. Stephen glanced over at Natasha with an unplaceable emotion written across his face. For the second he took his eyes off the road he swerved and Aiden called out the error. Stephen managed to center the car in their lane again with a grunt. He swore under his breath.

“Look, kids really—I don’t know. I had my suspicions that something was wrong.” Stephen was thinking as he spoke, the flood of emotions taking over as he gripped the steering wheel. “I promised your mom that I would take care of you if someone ever came for her. We had a secret codeword worked out if ever I needed to get you guys to a place in the mountains. Take you to someone she trusted to hide us.”

He spoke quickly, finally allowing himself to spill out the secrets he’d been keeping. No one knew how to respond. Natasha was spiralling; what he said all fit. This spontaneous road trip, someone saying they were hunting them down, their mom not responding to messages. Despite the supernatural there were already odd things happening.

“What are you talking about, someone came for her?” Damon asked, shocked. “This is crazy.”

“It is, I know it is.” Stephen said quietly “But I can promise you, your mom and I are just trying to protect you.”

“From what?” Damon was shouting, face turning red with frustration. “Monsters? Magic? Hah, you’re all going insane!”

He flung his arms up, gesticulating wildly. Aiden was staring ahead face blank. Suddenly he inhaled and murmured something.

Stephen looked up into the rearview mirror and said, “It sounds crazy, I know, but your mom has more than proved to me that there’s a whole other world that she—”

Aiden interrupted Stephen before he was able to finish the thought, “Dad! Mom—”

Natasha reacted following Aiden’s wide eyed gaze as he flung his hand out to point out the windshield. As they’d been plunging further into the full on storm a shape emerged in front of them. It was the shape of a person, completely dark against the blinding white. As the lights of the car finally reached her she could tell that it was their mom standing with her arms outstretched in the middle of the lane.

Natasha yelled out and grabbed the wheel of the car. They managed to just skirt around her as they skidded into the next lane. The car scraped along the barrier between the two directions of the road. Natasha watched as their mom’s hair blew over her face and the shirt she was wearing billowed at the car’s wake. Even with the darkness of night her skin was darker than it should be, made of completely black shadow rather than her normal deep brown. It wasn’t her.

Natasha’s ears buzzed as she tried to keep her eyes on their mother’s lookalike. They passed and Stephan corrected the car’s direction. The blur of snow overtook the shade and she completely vanished behind them.

“What are you doing?” He exclaimed.

“There was a person on the road!” Natasha replied completely breathless. “Didn’t you see her?”

Natasha felt another heat wave overtake her. A warning signal. She grabbed onto the dashboard trying to recenter herself. From the ferry she’d learned not to tense so rather she let the energy roll over her in waves. She groaned from the effort.

Aiden let out a muffled scream. “Dad! Watch out.”

Natasha’s eyes fluttered back open just in time to see the same face pull up beside her window. The woman’s face didn’t have any features beyond just having the vague shape of their mom. Whatever calm she’d managed to keep disappeared as the blood drained from Natasha’s face.

Losing any control she might’ve had she pushed away from her side of the car flinging her weight into her dad’s arm. The car swung to the right straight into the creature.

It phased through the window and reached a transparent hand to caress Natasha’s cheek. He over corrected and the car violently pulled to the left setting the family into a spin. The twins grabbed a hold of any solid object they could. The thing’s cold fingers managed to drag along Natasha’s skin. A deep void was reaching out to her, beckoning her to plunge in.

“No, please—” A pulse of panicked heat radiated from Natasha.

There wasn’t much in her to expend, she was still overexerted from the ferry, so instinctively Natasha reached outside of herself for a source of flame. Without thinking she placed a hand on the console of the vehicle, creating a solid connection between the car’s engine and her own energy. She felt each strike of the internal combustion of the spark plugs.

“Natasha!” Stephen cried out trying to grab her as her eyes began to glow like coals ready to ignite.

In the chaos of the car spinning out Natasha didn’t have the mind to think about what she was doing. With a screech the vehicle flung off a small bluff. Natasha’s mind connected with the spark of the engine. With a breath she commanded it to flare and it listened.

It was over in an exhale. Fire overtook mechanics, burst through the pipes, and into the fuel tank. There was a groan as the metal of the frame contorted. The force of the explosion caused the car to flip end over end. Once, twice and then with a high pitched squeal of rending metal a white hot blast tore apart the vehicle.

What was left of the car skidded to a halt at the base of a large pine tree. The horrid sounds of the crash quieted to a slow roar of flame and Natasha’s world went black.