Her Mother’s Grave

Chapter Fifty-Nine

JOSIE – FOURTEEN YEARS OLD

Josie woke to the sound of Dex screaming like a wild animal caught in a trap—a sound that would haunt her dreams for years to come. She sprang out of bed and ran into the hallway to find smoke billowing from her mother’s room. Inside, Dex’s head was a ball of flame, and he was running around throwing himself against the walls like he was stuck in a pinball machine. On the bed, one of the pillows was alight, and fire was spreading quickly across the bedspread. A gust of air from the open window billowed the curtain into the flames and set them alight too. Dex slapped his hands furiously against his skull, but the flames were taking over faster than he could snuff them.

Josie ran back to her room and snatched her comforter from her bed. Back in the main bedroom, she screamed Dex’s name to get his attention, but he seemed not to hear her. Finally, she climbed onto the bed, trying to stay on the side that wasn’t burning, and as he passed by her, she threw the comforter over him. Her hands found the round hardness of his skull, and she pounded it with both palms. He kept screaming. She had to get him out of the room. Jumping down off the bed, she guided him toward the door. He stumbled and fell into the hallway. Josie pulled the door closed behind her, trying to contain the fire, and tried to find his arms beneath the comforter. Her hand closed around one of his. “Dex,” she said. “Come on. We have to go.”

He teetered but came to his feet. The comforter was still over his head, tendrils of smoke floating from beneath it. The smell of burnt flesh singed Josie’s nostrils as she guided him out into the living room, toward the front door. Her mother watched them from the couch, unmoving, a glass of vodka in one hand and a satisfied smile on her lips.