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Black smoke works its way up into the air taking my breath along with it.
“Light the damn rag,” my father orders.
But I can’t seem to move. Even breathing has become difficult, and it has nothing to do with the smoke.
My father steps closer to me. A monster dressed in the finest suit money can buy. “She. Must. Die.”
“I t—thought it was empty.”
“You thoughtI’dcome all this way to set light to an empty house?” My father barks out a laugh, shaking his head. “You know me better than that.”
He’s right, I do.
The screams come again. This time punctuated with calls for help. It’s hard to tell, but I think I can hear two voices. Both female, one younger. A mother and a daughter, perhaps?
“Who are they?” I whisper, still stuck in the same position. Still unable to move.
“That’s irrelevant.”
There are more screams, more calls for help. I can barely make out the words over the roaring flames, but I know that whoever’s inside, my fatherfearsthem. I see that written all over his face. Whoever they are, they must be powerful for a man like my father to come all this way to kill them.
“But—”
“If you don’t do as I say, there will be consequences.”
The screams that pierce the air are blood-curdling. Bile burns the back of my throat. I shake my head and lift my thumb off the flint wheel. “No.”
“No?! You dare tellme, no?”
“I—I won’t do it.” Lifting my chin, I look into my father’s eyes. “No,” I repeat, firmer this time.
“I thought you might say that,son,” he snarls, emphasising the fact that I’m not his flesh and blood, that I am disposable, unlike Jakub who he’ll beat until he’s on the verge of death, but will never kill. Jakub has Brov blood running in his veins. I’m just a poor farmer’s son taken by The Collector as payment for a debt. I’ve only survived this far because, up until now, I’ve always done everything myfatherwanted.
Not this time.
“If you don’t light the rag, Jakub’s dog will die.”
“There are people inside!” My stomach churns at the thought.
The screams get louder and I swear I can hear the little girl call for her mama. I start to tremble, her screams scoring my skin, tearing it apart just like the flames tear apart this cottage. I feel like I’m inside along with her, drawing in clouds of black smoke into my lungs.
I can’t breathe.
“Mama, Mama, Mama!”
My father doesn’t even notice her pleas, or if he does, it has no effect. He narrows his eyes at me. “Then his precious Star dies.”
“So be it,” I whisper, dropping the lighter to the floor. Jakub loves that dog. She’s the only thing that keeps him sane, and I’ve just signed her death warrant. But what choice do I have?
Above us a window is shoved open and a girl, no more than eight or nine, leans out, plumes of black smoke billowing out of the window behind her. “Help me,” she cries, her face and hair covered in ash and soot, her eyes and teeth bright white against her blackened skin. She looks like a demon crawling out of Hell.
Only she isn’t a demon. She’s a child. An innocentchild.
“Help!” she screams, gasping for breath, her tiny frame shaking as she coughs and splutters, tears streaming down her face. “Please, help!”
She doesn’t look down, oblivious to us standing below her as the smoke wraps around her in a suffocating blanket. It won’t be long until the poisonous fumes kill her.
I have to do something.
