Supernatural Fresh Meat

TWENTY-THREE




Sam jumped out of the van, running to the front door of the Nest. The place must have just caught on fire because even the fire department wasn’t there yet. Sam called 911 and reported it.

Johennie joined him and they looked for a way in. The kitchen seemed to be the seat of the fire.

“Bobby!” Sam yelled. “Marta!”

He didn’t see any movement inside. He ran around back. The door was open. Marta appeared in the flaming doorway, her arms full of old books.

Sam rushed to her. “Where’s Bobby?”

“Inside,” she said, coughing. Soot coated her face, stained her brown hair ebony. “He’s getting the last of the manuscripts.”

Sam ran in, saw the burning hallway and Marta’s office just to the right. A blast of heat hit him like a visceral force, and he felt as if every little hair on his face was instantly singed off. The office hadn’t caught yet, but the fire was drawing dangerously close. Thick black smoke hung heavily, so dense he could barely see. He ducked low, entering the office. Bobby stood at the desk, scooping up spices and a few ancient leather-bound texts.

“Bobby!”

He saw Sam and ran to him, dumping the books and supplies into his arms. “Wait for me outside!” he ordered, then coughed.

“Not a chance!” Sam yelled back. The fire hissed and sputtered, working its way down the hallway. Sam choked, trying to bend down lower to get beneath the layer of acrid smoke.

Bobby took another stack of books and added them to Sam’s load. “This is the chance I never got with my place!” he said, then went into a coughing fit. “These books are irreplaceable.”

He returned to a shelf, got two armfuls of books and staggered back to Sam. “Now we get out!”

They passed through the outside door, the wave of cool night air a blessed relief. Sam breathed it in, then started hacking.

Marta passed them and ran inside.

“Marta!” Bobby called to her in protest.

Sam and Bobby rushed to the van, dumped the books inside, and sped back. Sam didn’t see Johennie around.

As he and Bobby went back inside for the rest of Marta’s research material, Sam heard the wail of a fire engine’s siren in the distance. Relief flooded over him.

Inside the office, the air temperature had grown searingly hot. Sam could feel it burning his lungs as he grabbed the last of the books and retreated with Marta out of the door. Bobby was the last to leave, rolled manuscripts tucked under both of his arms.

They carefully piled the ancient books and scrolls inside the van, then sat catching their breath and coughing.

Sam looked around for Johennie. “Something’s wrong,” he wheezed.

Bobby wiped soot from his eyes. “You mean other than the towering inferno?”

Sam moved away from the van, checking the other side of the building. “Johennie was with me.”

Marta looked incredulous. “Odysseus left his shop?”

“It was sort of an emergency. But I don’t know where he is now.”

The sirens grew in volume and soon red flashing lights filled the night sky. Firefighters piled out of the truck, ordering them to move to a safe distance. Instantly the hose was out, water pouring onto Marta’s restaurant.

She watched the flames consuming the kitchen and two of the walls. “This is sickening,” she said.

Neighbors emerged from houses and nearby restaurants and shops, all staring at the blaze.

They moved Bobby’s van farther away, and got out.

Sam stared around the faces looking for Johennie, then a glint caught his eye in the darkness, off to the side of the restaurant in a vacant lot. The lot stood on the very edge of town, with no buildings beyond it. Sam lifted a hand to block out the furious brightness of the fire, and peered at it.

There was another flash of light, and Sam saw it wasn’t one pinpoint, but several. They blinked and moved, and he realized he was staring at eyes.

A flashlight clicked on in the lot, and illuminated in its beam was Leather Jacket, holding a knife to Johennie’s throat.