Elizabeth Miles - Eternity

“Hey—hey you.” A police officer approached. Em prayed he wouldn’t come too close.

Crow disengaged and turned to face the officer. “What?”

The police officer was staring at him suspiciously. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Colin,” Crow answered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “I’m—I’m a friend.”

The officer, whose brass nametag read D. GOUDREAU, glanced to Em for confirmation.

She nodded, still in a daze. “It’s true,” she said. Please cooperate, she begged Crow in her mind. Please don’t make things worse.

“And why are you here?” Goudreau’s pencil was poised above a small notebook. Em’s senses started to kick back in, one by one. The air was tinged with the chemical scent of firefighting foam mixed with acrid smoke.

“I was—I was just dropping by,” Crow stuttered. They all heard how feeble the excuse sounded. Em shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, feeling the night breeze whisper along her bare arms.

“You two boyfriend and girlfriend?” Goudreau asked.

Em sensed eyes on her; she looked up to see her parents staring at her and Crow from where they were standing in a clump with the Founts.

“No,” she said quickly. “Nothing like that.”

“Uh-huh?” The cop wrote something down in his little book, seemingly unconvinced.

“No, sir,” Crow said, speaking in a clipped tone Em had never heard come out of his mouth. “We’re just friends, and I was just coming over because . . . just to visit.”

The officer looked Crow up and down. “You were coming over in the middle of the night? Strange timing, huh?”

It was strange timing, that much was true. Em didn’t want to consider the implications of what Goudreau was implying.

“What do you mean?” Crow’s eyes narrowed.

“Just what I said. It’s a pretty good coincidence that you stopped by while there was a fire going on.”

“Look, you want to accuse me of something?” Crow took a menacing step forward.

“Crow, stop,” Em said, putting a hand on his arm. A snap of electricity went through her fingers. “Officer, Crow—Colin, I mean—Colin is just my friend. And he stopped by. That’s all.”

Mr. Winters appeared behind them. “Is everything all right here?”

“I’m just trying to figure out why this friend of your daughter’s is skulking around in your yard in the middle of the night,” Officer Goudreau said. “Right before a fire almost takes down your whole house. Reeking like he just came from Eddie’s Tavern.”

“Well, I think the morning is as good a time as any to figure that out,” Em’s dad said, giving Crow a quick—and disapproving—glance.  “I think we’d all like to go inside and warm up.  Our neighbors have offered us their guest room for the night.”

Em turned to see her mom walking in the Founts’ front door, looking curiously in their direction.

But Crow wanted to have the last word. “Sorry to disappoint, Officer ,” Crow sneered. “But I wasn’t at Eddie’s. But maybe you just came from there yourself?”

Goudreau reared his head, pissed off. “Don’t mess with me, boy,” he said.

“How about you not call me ‘boy’?” Crow countered. As he spoke, he pitched slightly to the left, like he’d been pushed by an invisible force.

Em’s father cleared his throat and Em dropped her head, mortified and angry. Why did Crow do this all the time? She wanted to slap it out of him—and pray he’d just shut the hell up.

“These goddamn kids,” Goudreau said, more to Em’s dad than to anyone else. Then, to Crow: “I’ll be in touch.” He stalked off into the night.

Once he’d gone, they made an odd, awkward trio—Em, her dad, and Crow, standing silently on the lawn. Firefighters milled around the yard, shouting to one another and trudging back and forth between their trucks and the house.

“Well, the fire seems to be out,” Mr. Winters said. “Didn’t get upstairs, thank god. Just the kitchen and the laundry room, mostly. Dryer lint, they said.”

“That’s lucky,” Crow said. His voice was back to normal—slow, disinterested, and slightly slurred. He nodded quickly at Em and her dad, barely lifting his eyes from the ground. “Sorry for the trouble, Emily. You too, sir. See you soon.” Without another word, turned to leave. She was terrified he’d find more trouble tonight. Was he driving? What if he just wandered off to find another fight?

“I’m not even going to ask, Emily,” her father said as they watched Crow stumbling across their front yard toward the street. She felt like he was spiraling away from her, and had the powerful sense that she was on the brink of losing him to something terrible. The darkness was eating away at him; it was obvious. And Em couldn’t help but feel it was her fault. If she’d managed to get rid of the Furies, maybe he’d be getting better instead of worse.

“There’s been enough excitement tonight,” her dad went on, putting his arm around her shoulders and leading her toward JD’s house. She stole one final look behind her, but Crow had already been enveloped by the shadows of the woods.

The adrenaline was wearing off slowly. Inside, Mrs. Fount fluttered around the kitchen, making tea and clucking about the terrible luck . JD, in sweatpants and a cardigan, had hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter. Em leaned in the doorway and tried to avoid eye contact with him, which was next to impossible. Every time she looked up, he was staring at her—and every time, she shifted her eyes away immediately.

She couldn’t get the visions from her dream out of her mind. How realistic they’d been—the flames, the smoke, the sense of panic.

“Thank you so much for the hospitality,” Em’s mom said. “We won’t really be able to assess the damage until tomorrow.”

“Don’t mention it, Sue,” JD’s dad said, coming into the kitchen with a pile of extra linens in his arms. “I’ll set up the guest room for you two down here. Em, Mel’s already gone back to bed, but you can have JD’s room.”

“Oh no, that’s fine,” she said hurriedly. “I’ll be fine down here on the couch.” No way was she going to boot JD out of his own bedroom. No way was she going to fall asleep on his sheets while he sat down here, probably hating her. No way in hell.

“I already set things up for myself down here,” JD said, cocking his head toward the den. “You look exhausted. You’ll get a better night’s sleep upstairs.”

She was too tired even to be offended by the fact that he said she looked tired. Of course that didn’t mean she would be able to sleep. But at least she could lie down and think. For the first time that night, she allowed herself look him straight in the eyes. “Thank you,” she said. “I think I’ll head up now, actually.”

JD jumped off the counter. “I’ll make sure you have everything you need.”

Once they were out of earshot, Em turned to him and said in a low voice: “You don’t have to do this. I’m fine.”

He kept following her, up the stairs and into his bedroom. “We need to talk,” he said, closing the door behind him. “I’m glad you’re okay. But now that I’ve got you here, there are some questions I need you to answer. Not about the fire.”

“Does it have to be right now?” Em’s voice was trembling. “I’m so tired—I’ve been dealing with so much. . . . ”

“Yes,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “I’ve noticed.” The way he looked right now . . . so focused, so concerned. It made her want to burrow into his arms and stay there forever. “And I think I know what’s been going on.”

No, you don’t, she thought. You can’t.