The glow of the fire lit the sky like lightening; it was beautiful and terrifying in the way that storms were, and all of the people were awestruck…unable to look away. As they watched the empty, abandoned building turn to ash none of them realized that a storm was coming. A storm that would change them all and leave the little town forever scarred.
In the coming daylight the residents of Love’s Falls were ashamed. Ashamed at the way they watched that building burn the night before. Not one resident lifted a finger to help extinguish the flames. All of them would say it was out of fear that they stayed away, the building was old and could have collapsed at any time! The firemen would say that it was more dangerous to save it than let it burn, since there was no risk to life or property. Every one of them knew why no one intervened: It was beautiful and terrible- it was the most exciting thing any of them had seen in a long time.
The fire slowly drifted from everyone’s mind as the weeks went on. The house that burned was set for demolition and at worst the owner was spared the trouble and expense of the thing. Whispers about the fires origin had all but died out by the time fall came. The weather was cooling down and the excitement of football was in full swing. Sirens broke the celebration as the school band marched through half time at the playoffs. Everyone froze. Almost the whole town was at the game, anyone who was not was too elderly to leave their homes made sure to attend. The thoughts that swirled around were all somber, only 200 people lived in the town and they all knew each other.
The normally slow after game pace was rushed and without the usual sense of celebration. People were anxious to find out where the sirens were going on such a joyous night, they soon saw that the baseball field had been turned into a bonfire. No damage was done but, unlike the home that burned in the summer, no one was around to watch. People again started talking about fire, it consumed them for weeks. The police determined that the bonfire on the baseball field was likely a prank by a student of the competing team’s school. There was no evidence as to who had set it and since no damage was done the investigation was dropped. By the time winter had stripped the leaves from the trees, the fires no longer occupied dinner conversations and the town seemed to have returned to normal.
The town’s only restaurant held its annual Valentine’s Day dance to help bring the town back to life after a long winter. There was a dance for the teens in the town and then later on the restaurant opened up a larger party for the adults. The adults were just taking control of the room when smoke filled the restaurant. The party went still and silent for minutes before someone finally made a move to leave the building. People began to run out, their haste not in fear but in curiosity, to see that the store next door was burning. This time the firemen did their job.
The ashes of the building were still smoldering when the gossip started. Could this fire be related to the ones last year? Everyone had their own suspect and motive in mind, every theory more dramatic than the last. In public, the townspeople pretended to be aghast at the horrors of their supposed serial arsonist. In private most of them wished for the next fire, the next round of excitement.
Sally climbed out of the back of her mom’s truck. Her friends all wondered why she wanted to move to the middle of nowhere just to live with her mom; they didn’t understand how fascinated she was by the town’s sudden change. She had spent many summers here, at the festivals and car shows. It used to be the glowing beacon of America, the perfect small town. Crime rates were zero, cost of living was low and neighbors were just down right neighborly.
That was then. There had been 5 confirmed arsons in the last 3 months, 8 in the last year. Her mom was bothered by the fires and even more terrified of the change in her neighbors. The locals had become so entranced by the fires that no one seemed to be interested in catching the person who was starting them. They all waited and waited for the fires to come, and when they did no one helped. They only watched.
Her mother thought that her psychology degree would help lend some insight into the odd behavior. Sally doubted things were as awkward as her mother made them out to be. Genni could be a paranoid woman at times, a tendency which helped push Sally into a psychology degree in the first place. Leaving Texas for school in Chicago had been a big step but she had felt a need to get out of the stifling confines of Love’s Falls. This was the first time in 7 years she had been back to the town and the landscape looked nothing like she remembered.
Downtown here was just a strip of shops facing each other with a road leading either way out of town between them. The name came from the small series of waterfalls that followed the man made creek behind town hall and the police station. Surrounded by desert the town was like a small green paradise with a stack of buildings in the middle. It had been picture perfect before, now there were half burnt buildings littering the view.
She was just unpacking the first time she heard the sirens. Watching in horror as the town’s local grocery burned just across the street, she saw people flooding out of their homes and business’ to stare at the glow against the evening sky. No one comforted one another, no one cried. They just watched it. The fire trucks idly sprayed at the blaze but didn’t put any real effort into saving the building. Even the grocer just gazed on…seemingly emotionless at the loss of his livelihood.
Sally’s first feeling was confusion. They must be in shock, all these people couldn’t be that emotionless otherwise. The fire had spread over to the evacuated daycare and the children were just as stoic as the adults, none of them begging for comfort. When the blaze went out the townspeople started talking again. Even from inside of her mother’s home she could sense the excitement.
As the days went by the fires became more and more destructive. There was not a single abandoned building left standing and whole by the end of the summer. The only occupied buildings to be taken since the string of fires started were the boutique beside the restaurant, the grocery store and the daycare. The extra surge of fear and curiosity made the people want even more than they had been given. A blood lust had been born in the heart of Love’s Falls and Sally feared it was about to be sated.
State police had been invited into the city by insurance companies to investigate the fires. The townspeople were not impressed with their governments’ ease of allowing the extra help. They were all being scrutinized like criminals and, even worse, they had to once again fake their dismay and empathy. The town’s Police Chief Allen assured everyone that it was obviously an outsider doing these terrible things and that the state police had come to protect them, not to harass them.
The Love family left after the grocer’s place burned. Their ancestors built this town, but they were not prepared to go down with the ship. A few others had left as well; these were the ones who saw what was becoming of their neighbors long before any tragedies could strike. Genni had contemplated leaving many times long before anyone else, instead she had called Sally to beg for her to come. The government program Sally worked for with underprivileged youth had just shut down and she was not finding any replacement work. Genni had offered her a place to come home to many times and had been turned down. Sally was much too stubborn to accept help from anyone, so the fires gave the perfect excuse to get her home.
Though there had been no fire for a week, Sally thought on how it seemed to be all you smelled here anymore when she woke to the familiar scent of smoke in her room. Then she heard it, the screams. Through her window almost the entire town was in the streets staring at the blaze unfazed by the screaming, watching the neighbor’s home burn as the Gaines family pleaded for help from the inside.
Sally twisted her ankle running down the stairs but she still l
imped across the street and into the home. Laura was holding her small baby in one arm and her unconscious husband in the other trying to move them both out at the same time. Grabbing the baby she ran outside, the flames growing too high behind her to fight back into the home. Handing the baby to the first person she saw, her mind raced on how to get back to the people inside. She didn’t even hear the sirens of the fire trucks yet, they had to come from a different county. A pick axe was lying on the porch and Sally dragged it to the side of the home where Laura was trapped inside. Her hands bled from the splintering wood as she broke through the houses walls, each crack melding her flesh with the tattered wood.