Chapter Eight

          Taran gritted his teeth as he tried to find a way out of the burning room. One hand was curled around his mother's wrist, holding it tightly as if she might disappear at any second. Obviously he was afraid for his mother's life. He waved his other hand in front of him frantically, batting at the smoke. Coughing and sputtering as he dove for the door before the flames could reach it. For something that started out as a tiny flame on the bed, it had quickly raged into a blazing inferno.

          Shit, he swore inwardly as he broke into a run. He was racing down the hallway now, with Adele in tow. He wanted to risk a glance back, to see if the flames were catching up, but he was afraid of what he might see. Fighting the urge to stop and look back, Taran forced himself to run faster, bolting down the stairs as fast as he could manage. The smoke was still inflaming his lungs, the smell of it choking him. He could still feel the heat from the flames, as if he was all but five inches away from it.

          Suddenly, he heard his mother scream. He felt her stiffen in his grip and knowing that something bad must have happened, he slowly turned around. Spiders' legs of fright crawled down his back, sending chills along his spine as he realized that yes, the flames were dangerously close behind. In fact, the fire had singed part of Adele's shoulder.

          "How'd they get here so fast?" he croaked.

          He willed himself to run faster, leaping down the staircase two steps at a time, but then he stopped short when he realized that there were flames blocking the path in front of him.

          "What the-"

          Just what the hell were you thinking? Eduard chided himself, finally coming to senses about what he'd just done ... and what evil thoughts had been in his head at the time. You idiot!

          For a while, he'd buried his face in his hands and wept. But then he realized that it didn't help much, he went for a long walk in the neighborhood. After all, he had never really had a chance to go out much and that pretty much made him a stranger there, despite the fact that he had been living there for all his life. But then again, what had his entire life been all this while? His family wasn't really his family, and it was all a great fat lie.

           Liar, liar, pants on fire. The pills go down and gets you fucking higher, Eduard mused inwardly.

          He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked down the street miserably, wondering what exactly was he to do next, now that his so-called mother and brother were dead. Or at least, he supposed that they were dead, considering how quickly the fire had spread.

          His mother and Taran. Dead.

          He mulled this over, turning the thought round and round like a carousel in his mind, testing the idea. They were dead. Dead, dead, dead. Dead-dead-dead-dead ... Dead ... He wondered why that somehow, he didn't seem so bothered by the thought. And it bothered him so, how he wasn't the least bit shaken by the idea of his mother (she may not necessarily be his biological mother, but she was his mother after all, right?) and his brother being killed in a fire. Just what the heck was wrong with him? What was he, a monster? No human in his or her right mind would think such a thing!

          "Doesn't matter," he murmured quietly, "doesn't matter."