His face is painted to look like a skull, dark hair covering his forehead, and black shadows around his eyes concealing them from this distance. But I can see his lips as they curve into a smirk, the tiny pinprick of fire as it blooms to life, and Gianna as she waves goodbye dramatically.
"No."
It's all I can manage to say, but I say it loudly enough that Coach stops talking to glare at me in surprise.
The fields are dry, and it hasn't rained in months. If they drop the match, that fire will spread fast and it won't discriminate.
I don't think any more. I just react, running down the steps toward my family as the crowd of mourners part for me, creating a path.
"Get out!" I yell, swinging my hands around so that everyone knows it's a general warning.Everyoneneeds to leave. "Go home!"
"Easton?" Mom clutches Sophie against her chest. "What is wrong with you? You're scaring your sister."
She should be scared.
"Go home, now!"
"Going home won't be enough," Gianna says from somewhere over my shoulder. I freeze with my hand on Sophie's arm, from where I tried to pull her away from our mother.
"Krowe?" Sadie asks, her bright eyes full of worry as they flit from Gianna to me. "Who is that?"
"I'm the girl he raped and murdered." Gianna says gently. "And I'm going to burn this town to the fucking ground."
Mom looks like she's frozen in shock, and Sophie has tears in her eyes as she tries to bury her face in mom's shirt. But she can't look away, her gaze fixed on the woman behind my shoulder.
"Go!" I beg them, my voice cracking beneath the desperation.
I flick my gaze to the back of the cornfield, just in time to watch the match tumble through the air until it catches on a dried-out cornstalk. It catches flame immediately, easily, and then the man takes a few steps, lights another match, drops it.
Screams ring out through the night, mixing with the sounds of delight from the people still on the rides, the rushing, trembling sound of the rollercoaster as it passes behind us.
"Fire!"
"Go!" I tell them again, one last time. I'll catch up with them after, but they need to leave now, before everything goes up in flames and they get trapped.
Sadie grips mom by the arm and begins to pull them toward the side of the field that hasn't yet been set on fire, but Gianna steps before them, halting them in their tracks. Around us is chaos as people run in every direction, calling out for loved ones, pleading for mercy.
Gianna squares off with my sister, who trembles as she stares at what I'm certain has to be a ghost... or a fucking zombie.
Whatever she is, she's not human. She looks like herself, the way she did before we fucked her up too badly. But the way she moves, the speed... it's like she's somethingmorethan a human.
"Take the little one and go."
Relief rushes through me and I expect she'll turn her attention to me. I'm going to square off with a fucking ghost... but she turns her gaze on my mother instead.
"Not every monster shoulders the sole responsibility for their crimes. Some of them just look the other way while bad things happen... right, Christine?"
"I... I don't..."
"I might not have been there all those years ago, but I can see the guilt in your eyes. I can feel it." Gianna laughs. "It's stifling, honestly. Don't you know your remorse won't change anything?"
"Mom?" I swallow. "What is she..."
Gianna shifts her attention to my sisters. "Leave this town and don't ever return. Not to the smoldering ashes, not to the wasteland that remains, not ever. Do you understand me?"
"My family..." Sadie shakes her head, her gaze cutting to me in confusion.
"It's too late for them. It's not for you..." I watch her look up a moment before there's another whoosh, and a gust of wind spreads fire through the air. When it lands, it takes more of the cornfield up in flames. The smoke is thickening, casting a dark cloud over the fairgrounds. "Go to the abandoned house on thehill. The woman there will help you escape. Everyone else..." She turns her attention to my mother. "They're doomed."
