Inside the Fire Book One in the Warden's Series (3 page)

“
Dawn?” The dark haired
man asked the moment I entered the room.

“
Yes.” I answered
him.

He looked different than he did when I first
met him. He looked older and battle worn, all the years in the Army
taking a toll on his body. He was still dressed in his BDU’s and
his face had smears of dirt around his chin.

“
It’s nice to have you
here.” He said looking at my mother and forcing a smile.

“
Thank you for having me.”
I said politely.

“
We will get you settled
in.” He said touching my cheek. “You look so much like your
mother.” He marveled.

I pushed my blonde hair behind my ears and
smiled at him. I hated the man the moment he said those words to
me. Over the course of the next three years he would consistently
be caught cheating on my mother. I was always the one to comfort
her about his infidelity. She never did anything about it just let
it happen like it was allowed.

I couldn’t understand why she would just
stand there and look around like she was the one doing something
wrong. I also could grasp why she wasn’t more upset? Did I miss
something about this marriage arrangement the day she dumped me
with my father?

****

“
Dawn?” My step-father
called. It was my seventeenth birthday that day. It was of course
hot as summers in El Paso tend to get. I had made way into the
kitchen of our trailer house my ear buds secured in my ears,
jamming out to the newest Three Days Grace album.

A lot had changed over the years. I
abandoned the sweet rich girl behind the grocery store a year after
I got here. My apple pie attitude didn’t mesh well with those of
the surrounding students. One day I woke up and realized the world
wasn’t rainbows and butterflies. My entire demeanor had
changed.

Then I had met Jeremy, my first real
boyfriend. Let’s just say it wasn’t the most innocent relationship.
In fact it wasn’t innocent at all but I was sixteen and
impressionable and he was eighteen and knew exactly what he was
doing. After he got what he wanted for me he dumped me for a girl
that went to his school. This is probably another reason things
went dark from there on out.

“
What’s up?” I asked
pausing my music and pulling the buds from my ears.

“
We got you something.” He
said smiling.

I had to admit the last few months had
seemed ok. There were no women hanging on him, and my mother seemed
in love with him. It was odd because I never saw her look at him
the way she was looking at him now. I would be lying if I said I
wasn’t curious to know why there was a sudden change in them.

Suddenly for my mother it was no longer “I”
but “We” and I slowly hated the man a little less and less. He was
nice and all, I just didn’t like him walking all over my mother
like he had been.

My mother came up behind me and wrapped her
hands over my eyes. I laughed as she led me outside. Every year
they do something for my birthday that is outrageous. Last year
they took me skydiving. So what does this year hold? She pulled her
hands away. Sitting in the driveway, right in front of me, was a
car. It was an older black hatchback and on the back window my
mother had two decals. One was an Angel and the other a Demon. I
looked at her and raised my eyebrows as she shrugged at me. I then
looked at her husband, he was grinning from ear to ear.

“
I had a whole new stereo
system installed for you. It also has a rebuilt transmission. I
thought that you and I could work on it together. You know as a way
to bond.” He meant well, I knew he was trying to make up for the
last few years and what he did to my mother.

“
Yeah, I would like that.”
I smiled opening the driver’s side door and laughing, the driver’s
side seat cover had an intricately stitched demon on the headrest
and an Angel on the passenger side.

My mother raised me to be proud of who I
was. Not to feel I needed to ignore my demon blood because I lived
with her. She gave me free rein to try out my powers and gifts as
they came. Sadly they had landed me in some trouble within the last
year. We will touch more on that later, for now it’s my
birthday.

My step father’s phone rang, and he stepped
to the side to answer it. There was a muffled argument followed by
the usual. “Yes, Sir. I understand Sir. On my way Sir.” He put his
phone back in his pocket and looked at us sadly.

“
As you can guess that was
my CO. I have to get to the base now. I will change real fast
honey.” He kissed my mother’s cheek, and she smiled at him. “Dawn,
don’t you take that car out until I get back I want to see how you
like it.” He pointed at me and I laughed.

That night he broke it to us that they were
sending him overseas. Something had happened and they need
reinforcements. Since my step-father was one of the best of the
best his entire troop was being shipped out. We were looking at six
months to a year before he could come home. Until then it would
just be my mother and I.

He was picked up the next morning at four
am. We were all up waiting with heavy hearts. I watched my mother
and him share a moment where she had tears streaming down her
cheeks. He made a promise to her. As soon as he got home he would
put in for retirement. I was almost done with high school. We could
travel the world just as she always wanted to do.

Here’s the thing….
He
never
came
back.

Twenty One Gun Salute

There was an unusual knock on the door. One
of those slow drawn out knocks that makes you wonder what could be
so important. My mother pulled back the curtains and sighed; this
was her confirmation she had been right.

"Stay here Dawn, I have this." her eyes were
already watering.

The pain of losing him had already taken a
toll on her and it wasn’t even confirmed yet. For weeks she had
been walking around like a zombie trying to find ways to get in
touch with him.

"No, Mom. You will not go through this
alone." I demanded taking her hand in mine as we walked to the
door.

"Are you Angelina Peterson?" The uniformed
man asked. My mother nodded slowly, gripping my hand tighter.

He spoke about my step-father and the rest
sort of fades out in the background. My ears buzzed my mind racing
and my mother’s facial expression fighting the want to cry and
scream. It had been true he was gone.

We weren’t sure. There was no hard evidence
that the visions had been of him dying.

My mother had a dream he was caught between
worlds. Something had happened to him she was sure of it. The void
in her heart told her he was gone. So for the last few weeks she’s
been keeping her fingers crossed and praying it was nothing. It was
something, it was something bad.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Peterson, your husband was a
brave man." the uniformed gentleman shook her hand softly.

“This was his final tour. We were going to
travel the world.” She collapsed on the steps the uniformed solider
catching her. “We were going to see the world.”

His promise didn’t seem possible
anymore.

She pulled herself together quickly and
stood back up. Shaking the man’s hand again she shut the door and
looked at me before breaking out into another set of sobs. I
grabbed her before she hit the floor but it was already too late
she was broken.

“He’s gone Dawn.” She sobbed “What am I
going to do now?” She asked looking at me.

“I will take care of you mom.” I answered
wiping her tears away.

“I cannot do this alone. I cannot raise you
by myself. I cannot protect you.” She sobbed. I did not understand
why she relied on him for all of that.

“Yes you can mom. I’m old enough now let me
pay you back for all the good you did for me.” She nodded and
rubbed her eyes.

****

She took it well, even when the uniformed
men handed her the folded flag at his funeral. She stood tall, and
she didn't shed a tear, just stood there blankly looking at the
casket. She was broken now, well more like shattered.

Ever since the men came to our door she had
been a zombie. I couldn’t get her to eat, she hardly ever slept.
All she would do is go through photo albums and fawn over pictures.
She had lost a lot of weight in those weeks. Her eyes not as bright
and her smile was never visible. My concerns were increasing.

I had put the flag they had given us on the
mantel over the fire place, next to their wedding photo. I figured
it was the best place for it. This way whenever she was in the
kitchen she could look out and see him.

The plan was to stick it out till I finished
high school but that would not happen. The longer we were in that
house the more broken she became. All she would do is get up and go
to work each day only to come home, make dinner for me, and go to
bed. I spent more time alone than I did with my mother. I was
worried.

This phase lasted for several months. My
junior year ended and summer began. She was slipping further and
further away from me. Something had to be done soon before I was
left alone.

****

"I was thinking Dawn." My mother was
standing over the stove stirring a pot of noodles.

It was about two weeks into summer vacation.
This was the first time in forever she had stayed outside her
bedroom with me.

"I'm thinking we need to get out of here and
start over." She said loudly.

I had been expecting this honestly. The
blank stare on her face when she looked towards her door, the way
she avoided his pictures. Inevitably she would want to leave.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked her.

She put the spoon down and looked at me with
her sad blue eyes.

"Well I was talking to Pastor Rylie, and he
told me about a little town in Missouri. He said a church there has
an opening for a counselor. I figured it was worth a shot, you know
to get us a new start, so I applied. He gave me a great
recommendation for the position." She tried to smile but her lips
just wouldn't curve.

She had done this without discussing it with
me first. Not that I was upset about it. By all means I welcomed
going somewhere new it was just who it was that had put in her
recommendation.

"Yes. I see. Pastor Rylie said. So because
he said this we are supposed to pack up and move everything to a
little town in Missouri." I rolled my eyes.

"He's been good to us." She gave me a stern
look. "I wouldn't have my job if it wasn't for him."

"Yeah well, he gives me the creeps. There is
something about that holy man that isn't so holy." I tucked a
strand of blonde hair behind my ear.

"That is neither here nor there. What he
does in his spare time is none of our concern." She groaned.

“Mom he showed up on the door step wanting
to do ‘private Bible study’ I think that’s a concern.” I said
making air quotes.

The man always had a way of singling me out
of all the other youths. It was like he knew that something wasn’t
right with my blood. He was constantly asking me to keep looking
for redemption, to be cleansed of the sins of my father. If only he
knew the sins of my father, he would have to eat those words.

"What do you think Dawn?" My mother asked me
softly. She was obviously choosing to ignore my last statement.

I knew she could no longer stand the home we
had in the desert. It reminded her too much of my step-father. The
emotional distress was too much for her. This change might actually
give her the life she had before he ever came into our lives.

I don’t blame her! I may have never warmed
up to the man. My mother claimed that she loved him even though he
cheated on her for three quarters of their marriage. Again the
curiosity takes over when you look at the differences in the last
few years. Especially in how she looked at him before he was sent
overseas, it wasn’t the same as ten years ago.

"Let’s do it." I gave her a reassuring
smile.

“Are you sure?” She mustered a smile.

“Yeah.” I said as she threw her arms around
me and hugged me tightly. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I found this beautiful house online.” She
said happily. “It’s large so there is more than enough room and a
huge backyard. It will be perfect for a garden.”

I had not seen her excited in a long time.
We danced around the kitchen as she sang one of her happy songs. My
mother spoke Italian fluently so when she sang it was always in
Italian. I’m not sure if Italian is the language of the Angels
though, or if it was just something that my mother enjoyed. When
she ended the song she pulled me into a big hug.

“You will not regret this Dawny.” She said
clasping my face in her hands.

“Oh I’m sure I will on some level.” I
joked.

She gave me a sour face and then danced off
to the phone to call the Pastor and accept the position.

****

So that became the plan.

On my eighteenth birthday we packed
everything up in a U-Haul truck and we moved from Texas to
Missouri. So we are starting over. It's my senior year and lucky
for me I get to go to a new high school. No friends, no enemies and
most of all no more reputation.

First Day Stalker

So here we are it’s August in Missouri. The
weather is not too hot, but super humid compared to the Texas dry
heat I was accustomed to. We had found a house in a small town
outside of Midvale. It was large for the two of us, but mom had
made it feel like home in no time.