Lost Souls - 5. Felix Rhodes: 10,000 candles and a hero in the dark

Mathei’s eyes darted from left to right outside of the cabin, sweat was running down his neck and forearms and he knew it wasn’t only due to the jolly bonfire before him.

“Dude what the fuck are we doing?” He knew that should have come out a bit more forceful but what actually peeped out was a panicked whimper. Francis looked back to his friend with scorn.

“Mat don’t pussy out now man, they’re done for. Did you see what they did to your brother back there.”

Mathei’s chest heaved, he continued to survey the woods like a hare on an open field. Francis was right about one thing, something needed to be done about his unconscious twin brother, but this. Burning two people alive?! He wasn’t a goddamn animal and he knew Travis wasn’t either.

Jermaine was standing right next to Francis looking about as content as Hannibal Lecter at a day-care.

What the hell is wrong with these guys, they are burning two people ALIVE!

Mat’s mind wasn’t so much tormented now as it was scheming, he needed to find a way out of there and get help… fast.

Fuck it, I’ll just run for it

Mat took off to his right, away from the two guys.

“What the…”

“Leave him” Francis grabbed Jermaine’s arm “we won’t be here when he gets back and it would be 6 of our testimonies against his; the guy’s whose brother is the victim of the beating. He just signed his own jail sentence” Francis smirked and set his eyes back on his handy work. The massive door had been barricaded and wedged shut, there was no way the two of them could get out of there.

*****

Scott parked the pickup near Lisa’s hatchback Subaru Impreza.

God you would think with an off road ride like that she wouldn’t have mind heading up the hill to the Bridges instead.

Scott shook his head but made his way up the hill to the small cabin he and Lisa used several nights a week. His mind snapped back to that phone call. He couldn’t be sure what he heard, it sounded like someone turned on a grill. Scott was always one to jump to the worst conclusions, some call him a pessimist but he knew he was a realist. They had no grill up there, and unless Felix decided to pull off a last minute brisket (fat chance, Felix couldn’t boil water and not burn it) that only left on thing.

Fire.

As if Murphy felt the need to pat him on the back, he saw it; a faint orange glow in the darkness.

“Oh God no, please, don’t tell me this is happening.” Scott darted back down the hill, and climbed into the bed of his truck. Rummaging around for a few seconds he found what he was looking for, he didn’t know how it would come in handy but he knew it would. Swinging the large axe over his shoulder he set off again.

“*Cough*, *cough*… Harmony, keep your nose down, just keep it close to my chest”

Harmony wheezed, taking in another lungful of smoke. “Felix, I…I can’t Breathe”

“No! Just stay with me a bit more… please Harmony” Felix held her tighter; a single tear ran down his cheek, burning his flesh as it fell.

The house was black, thick with smoke; small fires could be seen breaking through from the hardy exterior, but the integrity of the building remained. Felix couldn’t break out, especially in his condition. He was fatigued and the conditions were horribly anoxic, the slate tiled flooring was heated up and he had several burns on his legs. He had Harmony cradled in his lap.

“It’s going to be… *cough*… It’s gonna be alright Harmony.” She looked up from his chest, clinging to his shirt as tightly as she could. She smiled, God it was painful for him to see that, it was meant to be penance, his release, their release and forgiveness but what he saw was pain. He saw failure and a lifetime of repression and regret, a lifetime of shielding himself form an invisible sin only to commit countless others. Her smile penetrated his soul, and layers and layers of guilt pooled behind his eyes and broke free in a surge.

Harmony lifted and shaky hand up to his cheek. “he.. hey, *cough*. We were never a mistake, *cough*, *cough*. I kno…*cough*, I know that look Felix.” He held her tightly, and buried her face back into his chest, he couldn’t bear to look at her, and she was taking in too much smoke. He himself was losing vision, and beginning to feel tight chested, the fire had penetrated the cabin now and he knew there was nothing he could do. He forced a smile back at Harmony, more for his own benefit as she couldn’t see it.

“It’s ok” he whispered into her hair. “it’s ok, we’ll get out of here”

****

Scott bounded up another ledge moving through the woods like a mountain lion, he couldn’t feel the axe’s weight on his shoulder he was far to concentrated, his mind working over possibilities based on his last observation. The flames from the cabin were smaller now and more smoke could be seen; both signs of a dying fire. He was hurdling over a clump of fallen pine branches when he saw the flash to his left. He wasn’t moving quickly, Scott knew he could catch him and he might have info on what was happening to Felix

Besides the obvious

Scott turned on his heels, no time to debate his decision now he was already closing in on the stocky guy.

“Travis?” it couldn’t be, Lisa told him what had happened to Travis, no this had to me Mathei Travis’s twin.

“Mathei! Mat wait!!” Mat stopped dead in his tracks, Scott caught up to him and spun him around by his shoulders. He was heaving, as if he was running a 10K. Scott who was visibly fitter than Mat just waited for the guy to calm down first.

“We.. we gotta get help Scott”

“Mat, don’t tell me man…”

“I don’t know what the fuck they were thinking” Mat rubbed his eyes harder than he normally would. “we were chasing them, I mean when I heard what Felix did to Travis, at first I couldn’t believe it…”

Yeah that makes two of us. Scott thought

“but... but, then I saw it, God I was piss, I just wanted Felix’s head”

Scott tensed up at that, clenching his fist and moving closer to the man “Mat what did you do”

“we chased them to a cabin, that wasn’t the plan, actually the girl wasn’t even part of the plan I just wanted to rough up Felix. Anyway, we chased them there, then when we couldn’t get in we were gonna wait ‘em out till the rest of the guys got there.” Mat was looking around nervously now, trying to regain control of his breathing. “Francis got a call and I saw him and Jermaine throwing gasoline all over the place.”

“With them still in there!!?? ARE YOU GUYS INSANE!?”

“I know, I know” Mat was a little panicked now, with Scott’s hands firmly on his shoulders. “after they lit it up and just stood there watching it I had to leave. It’s like I didn’t even know them; the look they had on their faces was empty almost calculating, I never seen anything like it. I left them and decided to run off and find help… but… Scott, I’m sorry but its al….”

“shut up!!” Scott grabbed his arm and yanked him up yet another ledge. “take me to it”

“Scott there’s no wa….”

“damnit Mat just take me to the cabin”

“ok, ok… follow me, just promise not to slug me in the back with that axe ok?”

“At least not until we get there, no”

*****

He couldn’t hear a thing. It was that feeling like a bomb went off beside you, minus the ringing… only silence. He wished he could swap the loss of his hearing for the dulling of his nerves; he burned, exposed flesh, pink, black and bloodied boils covered his body. The fire was encroaching, his breathing was sharp and rapid and the only sensation he wished to feel was now numb in his hands. Lifeless, a sticky pulp of discoloured flesh, her hand still clung to his cheek.

He dare not move it. There her flesh melded with his, the sick irony wasn’t lost on him, not even as another gut wrenching scream passed his lips. He couldn’t protect her, he never gave her what she wanted, regardless of how happy she thought she was. In the end the smoke spared her a worse fate.

Thank God!!

And oh how he wish that would be his last thought, he wished that he didn’t cradle the slowly blackening remains of her. He wished that his nerves would go next, he couldn’t think straight without earth shattering pain invading his thoughts.

It was his vision, again. The third time it was leaving him.

“I’m so sorry Harmony” he managed before his sight left him, praying that it would never come back again…

*******

He was getting closer now. It was a boundary area, the grass was shorter, more weeds and crab grass with their sharp citric smells. The larger ferns were behind him and up ahead he could see the clearing, the cabin that Felix would be in. What he saw was rubble, charred wood and smoldering smoke. Scott looked over to Mat and saw the sadness in the man's eyes immediately turn to fear when he locked eyes with him. Scott closed the distance between the two of them with murderous intent and grabbed his shirt; Scott’s eyes were glazed over but showed no signs of weakness.

“They better have gotten out of there.” Scott spoke slowly with a cold air hanging around his repercussions. “Let’s go”

“Scott I..”

“I said LET’S GO!!!” Mat flinched a little but followed him into the rubble, now wasn’t a good time to cross the man.

Nothing could have survived this. Scott thought as he turned over another charred piece of wood.

“there’s no way they were in here”

“Scott, when I left they were still here, and there was no way they could have gotten out”

Scott mulled that over for a bit, no, this wasn’t right. Felix didn’t deserve this, he wasn’t innocent he had his flaws but he didn’t deserve to die, not when things between them were finally looking up; there was finally some hope for whatever Felix tried so hard to destroy.

“I know Felix, he’d find a way out of here” If there was one thing about Felix he knew how to hide, even from himself

Hmph look where that got him. Scott shook himself, those dark thoughts birthed by his pessimism was the last thing he needed.

“then tell me Scott” Finally deciding the guy needed some realism. “If you’re so sure he got out, why are we looking here?”

Scott looked a little cross, and opened his mouth to retort but he saw something; the very thing he was hoping he would never see here. There, underneath a slab of charred fallen roof a blackened hand stuck out, completely indistinguishable if not for a ring on the index finger. Scott had given Harmony that ring a few months ago for her birthday.

“No” he whispered and moved closer to the site. “Mat, help me with this.” They tipped the wood over only to be hit with and earthy tinged of flesh and wood. The smell wasn’t particularly harsh the bodies were fresh after all; the sight however, what they saw was painful. Clutched into Felix’s arms Harmony’s blackened naked body was fused to his chest, Felix’s chin was stuck to the top of her head, his arms now forever wrapped around her. Felix’s lips were singed straight off, and his slightly stained teeth were exposed and the only normal looking thing Scott could gather from his face. Scott backed away and turned, leaving the cabin; rage and sorrow battling for dominance in his mind. He clenched the forgotten axe in his hand tighter.

“Scott?” Matt tentatively came up behind him. “Scott, I’m so sorry”

“Which way would they have gone?” Scott didn’t acknowledge him behind him or anything he said, his voice was raspy and direct. “Which way do you think they would have fled to Mat?”

“Scott, I know you’re angry right now bu..”

Scott spun around with frightening speed, pinning Mat to the ground with the hilt of the axe. He spread his legs on the floor with his knees and came right up to his face; he saw the discomfort in Mat’s eyes.

“I’ wont ask you twice, but if I don’t get an answer out of you, one of two things will happen” Scott had a devilish expression on his face and quickly got an answer of him.

“They probably would have gone back up to the Bridges, now get off of me!”

What the hell did he mean by that. Mathei thought, his groin and head weren’t in sync with his own discomfort but now wasn’t the time to address that, not with a mad man with an axe on top of him.

“Gladly” Scott eased off and made a straight dash back to Bridges. He was determined to find at least one of them, he needed something, a reason for what they did, or at least a cause for his judgement.