Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 (2 page)

If Mina was someone who swore, she would
have been swearing up a storm at the moment, but instead she tried
to think level-headedly for a sixteen-year-old. But in the face of
being burned alive, that didn’t happen.

She gave up searching for the key and took
an aluminum baseball bat that she kept in her room for protection
against surprise fairy-tale attacks and began to swing at her desk.
It wasn’t a sturdy desk, and now that she thought about it, it
probably wasn’t the best place to store the Grimoire, since after a
few hits to the underside of the drawer it came loose. She grabbed
the small book and headed for the fire escape.

Normally, she would take the ladder up to
the roof, but now she had to get the ladder to release and go down.
It was stuck. She tried kicking it and jumping on it, but it only
slid down a few feet. It would have to do. She turned and had
started to climb down the rungs when she thought she heard someone
call her name.

“
Charlie?” She looked up
and could have sworn she saw someone walking around up on the roof.
The heat was getting intense, and the smoke made her cough. Even
knowing it was highly impossible, she felt she had to check. Could
she have missed him, and he’d gone onto the roof?

But there it was again, the sound of someone
calling. She’d just begun to climb back up the rung when the
unthinkable happened. With her added weight, the ladder finally
became unstuck and slid down toward the alley. She lost her grip on
the rung and fell backward. In a rare moment of d��jà vu, she
thought she was flying. No—falling. She tried to scream for help,
but her words were lost in a rush of air. She saw the sky grow
distant as she fell. Arms wrapped around her, and then her world
went black.

Chapter 2

A voice spoke through the pounding of her
head. “Are you okay, miss?”

“
My b-brother.” Something
was covering her mouth, making it hard to concentrate.

The sirens were echoing between the
buildings, making Mina wince in pain.

A young man with “EMT” embroidered on his
jacket flashed a small light between her eyes, ignoring her
attempts to remove the oxygen mask covering her face.

“
Miss, do you know where
you are? Do you remember your name?”

Mina looked around and saw that she was a
few blocks away from her home, lying on a stretcher. Her eyes tried
to focus, but it was now dark, and the yellow blazing fire lit up
the night sky, distracting her. Was that her home? It sure looked
like it was.

“
Ch-Charlie?”

“
Your name’s Charlie?” he
asked.

“
No. Where’s my brother?
He was in the apartment, and I couldn’t find him.”

More yelling followed as additional firemen
rushed past them, toward the burning building.

“
MINA!” A frantic woman
pushed past the police tape and darted around the EMTs to run to
her daughter. Sara Grime’s hair was falling out of her bun; her
eyes were puffy and red from crying as she pulled Mina into a hug.
“Oh, God! I’m so glad you’re okay. I was so worried! When Mei Wong
called me and told me, I rushed over here as soon as I could.”
Sara’s words spilled out as she quickly craned her neck back and
forth, looking in the other ambulances nearby. “Mina? Where’s
Charlie?”

“
Mom, I…I don’t
know.”

“
What do you mean, you
don’t know? Mina, where’s your brother? How could you leave your
brother in there?”

Mina started crying harder. “He was there
before the fire, and then once it started I went back in and
couldn’t find him.”

Sara dropped Mina’s arms and stood
stock-still. Her face paled, and she began to shake. Then she
turned and ran toward the burning building.

“
MOM!” Mina screamed, and
tried to get off the stretcher.

A policeman caught Sara Grime at the yellow
caution tape and held her back as she tried to claw her way to the
building, screaming out Charlie’s name.

“
Ma’am, you can’t go in
there. It’s not safe.”

“
My boy’s in there!” Sara
cried. “He can’t talk. He could be stuck in there, unable to call
for help, and you wouldn’t be able to hear him. Do you understand?
He can’t talk, and he is in there!”

The policeman shook his head in
understanding. “The building is about to come down at any second.
The fire has done too much damage. It’s too late.”

“
No, no, no! He’s in
there,” she argued.

A small Asian woman emerged from the crowd
and wrapped her arms around Sara’s shoulders. “Shhhh, shhh, Sara.
It’s okay.” Mrs. Wong tried to comfort her.

“
Where is he, Mei? Where’s
my boy?” Sara crumpled to the street, and Mrs. Wong knelt down with
her, whispering and rocking her. Tears covered both women’s faces
as they watched their home and business go up in smoke.

Mina got up from the stretcher and made her
way over to the women. Sara’s eyes burned brightly with judgment as
she looked at her daughter. “What happened? What did you do?”

“
I didn’t do anything! I
don’t even know how the fire started. Do you?” Mina turned to Mrs.
Wong.

Mei Wong shook her head. “No, it came fast,
appear out of walls and cover ceiling. Never see the likes before.
It was alive. Barely had time to get customers out, before poof!
Gone.”

Mina stood there, numb; her mind began to
play out the possibilities. She turned to look at her apartment
building. The firefighters were spraying water through broken
windows into what once was their living room. Others were soaking
the buildings next to theirs to keep the flames from spreading. A
policeman came up to Sara and Mrs. Wong, and they were filing a
report on Charlie. He was shaking his head, saying that no one had
seen a young boy exit the building. The firemen didn’t find anyone
other than Mina in the alley, but he would check with the other
cars. He pulled out his radio and put a broadcast out for her
brother’s description, in case he had escaped the fire and was
wandering the streets.

She ignored him and walked the perimeter of
the yellow caution tape, trying to get a closer look at the
building and the fire engulfing it. Charlie had to have gotten out
before the fire started. He just had to. Maybe he saw the fire and
went to find help? But if that was the case, why didn’t he try to
warn her before he took off? He had to have left a clue. She
couldn’t even begin to imagine he was still in there. He would show
up. Any minute he would come running out of the crowd with a smile
on his face, wearing the stupid Star Wars helmet, and all would be
well.

Mina studied the people gathered on the
streets. She began to run among them, calling his name. A few
people stared at her as if she was crazy, but then she probably
looked a wreck. Her brown ponytail had slid sideways and was now on
the side of her neck. Her face was smeared with soot, and her brown
eyes looked crazed with worry. Yeah, she was a definite picture of
madness.

But her brother couldn’t have vanished into
thin air, could he? A cool wind blew across her skin. Impossible,
with all the humidity and the heat from the fire, but blow it did,
and with it came an intuitive warning. This wasn’t an accident.

A siren call erupted into the night again,
and Mina turned to stare at the fire in disbelief. She had heard
that sound before when she was in the apartment, and it wasn’t the
police sirens. She closed her eyes and took a calming breath before
purposefully moving closer to the fire. She ducked under the police
line and made her way to the alley, where there was less foot
traffic. One of the windows had been broken out and smoke still
poured out of it into the night sky, but she could see inside the
first floor, into the Wongs’ restaurant kitchen.

Something was in there. It was large and
covered in fire, but it hopped around, floating or flying from
place to place. It was hard to distinguish because the color of
flame around it was an intense white and gold. She had to
continuously blink to even focus on the beast, for now she was
certain that it was alive.

Her eyes hurt from staring at the gold
flame, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away. There! She saw
something—the tip of a flaming wing. Or maybe her mind was playing
tricks, but she didn’t think so.

A scream ripped through the air, and intense
white-gold flames erupted as the roof collapsed into the building.
Mina ran away from the building to a safe distance as smoke, dust,
and debris rained down from the sky. Something shot out of the
building, hidden by the flames, and disappeared into the dark,
rolling smoke of the night.

“
Did you see that?” Mina
shouted, pointing upward, turning to see if anyone else had noticed
the apparition. The neighbors and tragedy-gawkers were startled
when the roof collapsed, but it seemed as if no one else could see
what she saw.

More tears slid silently down her cheek as
she watched the fire devour her family’s life. Something plastic
crunched under her shoe, and she gently lifted her foot to see a
partially melted object. As she scooped it up, her heart cried out
in despair when she recognized the red gingerbread man from
Charlie’s board game.

It was still warm, scorched, and its base
had melted into a small blob. Collapsing to the sidewalk, Mina
stared at the plastic piece and felt her heart break in two. The
shock had finally worn off, and all she could do was cry.

Chapter 3

The funeral was supposed to be small,
consisting of the Wongs, a few of Charlie’s teachers, and his
friend from up the street. The service was held at a small
Methodist church that her family attended infrequently. But the
media had made a tragic event story out of Charlie’s death and the
fire. Signs, flowers, candles, and teddy bears were piled up in a
memorial to Charlie, and the pews of the church were filled with
strangers, brought together only by the tragedy of a small boy’s
untimely death.

Mina was numb. Her mind barely functioned,
and she had the hardest time completing the simplest tasks, like
eating and getting dressed. It was too painful to breathe, and when
she did remember to inhale, every breath was complete agony. Sara
had always been the strong one—during her husband’s funeral, and
even now as she held Mina’s hand during the eulogy. The pastor was
saying very nice things about her brother—what kind of boy he was,
who he would have been if he’d had a chance to grow up, and how he
was now in the arms of the Lord. The pastor’s words brought some
comfort, but they did little to erase the guilt that was slowly
eating away at Mina. Negligence. That was the word a reporter had
used when describing the fire, and how the older sister who was
supposed to be babysitting was negligent in her duties.

She stared at the child-size coffin and felt
her throat seize up with more guilt and sadness. She had cried all
she could and was unable to cry anymore—her tears had dissipated,
but the pain hadn’t. Someone, probably a choir member, sang a
beautiful song about heaven and angels, and Sara was moved to
tears. The pastor ended with a prayer. Finally, it was time. The
moment she’d been dreading. The burial. Sara and Mina rode with the
Wongs behind the hearse as they headed to Gray’s Lake Cemetery.

It wasn’t a beautiful plot, or a prime spot.
It was actually close to the road and near the entrance, but it was
all they could afford. Mina thought her brother deserved better,
somewhere shaded and maybe with a view, but then again, it wasn’t
like Charlie was actually in the coffin. His body was never
recovered. The flames had burned so hot and so quickly. The
firefighters said there wasn’t anything left to recover other than
the sole of one of Charlie’s rain boots, which had been found under
the couch. It was then that they had to face the truth—he had died
in the fire.

The memories of that night were always close
to the surface, like a teakettle about to boil over, ready to send
her into a spiral of hurt and pain and loss. They had stayed up all
through the night and watched in vain as all the possessions they
owned went up in smoke. That same night, the Wongs were taken to
the police station, where they filled out paperwork and gave their
statements about what had transpired and who could have started the
fire. There were some nasty accusations being thrown out about
arson to collect insurance on the building, but Mina knew those
accusations wouldn’t stick.

But that left Sara and Mina alone. Once the
blaze was contained, rescue workers asked if they could notify
family to come and get them, but that sent Sara Grime into a
frenzy.

“
No! There’s no one. We
have no family,” Sara answered.

The young man looked saddened. “Well, then,
ma’am, let me at least take you to a shelter. They have showers,
and you can get a warm meal. I’m sure— ”

The slamming of a car door cut the young man
off, and Sara looked up in surprise at the white Lexus. Sara’s
boss, Terry, stepped out of the driver’s seat and walked sternly
over to Sara.

“
Now, Sara, I know that
you are going to try and tell me no, but as your boss, I’m telling
you that you can’t. You’re coming home with me.”

“
Terry, I can’t
possibly…you can’t be serious.”

Terry’s heart-shaped face and blue eyes
peeked out from behind slim jeweled spectacles. Her grayish-white
hair was pulled into a severe bun. She wasn’t wearing the Happy
Maid uniform of khaki pants and polo that Sara and the other
employees wore. She was in a gray business skirt, white blouse, and
jacket. Expensive rings covered each of her short fingers,
displaying evident wealth.