Page 37 of Jacob Michaels is Dead

He wasn’t ashen-faced or terrified anymore. He just looked sad.

“Get in the car.” He said. “There’s enough gas to get you out of town. Don’t stay here. Maybe you can…I don’t know…get far enough away that you’ll have time to figure something out? Maybe you can figure out how to do something about…him…if you have time. But if you stay here, I’m afraid of what’s going to happen.”

For the space of several breaths, I stared at Lucas.

“What happens if I don’t stay?” I stared into his eyes.

Those green eyes that held nothing but kindness. Now they looked defeated. Resigned. He had accepted something.

“The same thing,” He shrugged, “except you won’t be one of the casualties.”

“Will you?” I asked. “And I can’t believe I’m asking this, but will Oma?”

I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder at the house.

“Not that I care.” I looked away.

“I only know how this ends if you stay.” He whispered.

“Specifically?” My eyebrow raised precipitously.

“Well…I mean, no. Of course not. But there’s already fire, and—”

I stepped up to Lucas, silencing him. Doing my best to be reassuring, I smiled and took his face in my hands.

“I’m a fireman,” I whispered. “Remember?”

A small smile came to his face.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “I said that. Somehow, at the time, I didn’t really think this day would come, though, babe.”

Looking past him, over his shoulder, I looked off toward town, the red and yellow light showing over the tops of the trees still. In fact, I was pretty sure that the fire was growing. Soon, it might even consume the whole town. Maybe it would work its way to Oma’s. It didn’t matter.

“The day came.” I shrugged dismissively. “I say we go in there, find out what the crazy old lady has to say, and we face this together. Because if I leave—and you stay—and I lose you, there’s no way I could face it alone. If I know my final day is coming, I want it to be with you. Okay?”

Lucas nodded. “Okay. I just want you to know that I wouldn’t be upset if you ran away. Because you can.”

“Oh, please.” I gave him a quick kiss, then grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the house. “You’d hold it over me as long as you could.”

“I would totally fight you in Hell.” He agreed with a laugh.

“What?” I laughed as we began climbing the porch stairs. “You still don’t think we’d get into Heaven?”

Lucas turned at the top of the stairs to look out at the fire raging in Point Worth.

“I think we’re too used to Hell to ever do well in Heaven, babe.”

“Fair enough.” I kissed him quickly again. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” He nodded.

“Are you two gonna suck face out there all day or are we gonna do this?” Oma bellowed from somewhere inside the house. “I’m too old to be waitin’ around this long for anybody—even you two.”

I rolled my eyes, and Lucas laughed, but hand in hand, we entered Oma’s house, prepared for whatever awaited. No matter what that thing was, we were going to meet it together.