The front door!
Fire caught in the kitchen. It was spreading too quickly to be natural.
Another gust of wind — this time warm — fanned the flames even higher in the house. Curtains caught in other rooms. The crackling sounds of flames eating everything in their path clogged Curran’s ears.
He heaved the font door open.
And felt the cool air outside greet him.
Down the front steps.
Out onto the street.
The first neighbors came running out of their homes.
Curran laid Lauren down against his car.
And turned.
He could hear small explosions erupting from inside the house.
In the distance he could hear the sirens coming.
Flames licked the corners of the windows on the second floor already. Paint bubbled and boiled off the eaves. Shingles blew off the roof.
A huge crack sounded and half the roof sank suddenly. Another crack a few seconds later as the flames ate their way through everything like old newspaper. The roof shuddered once and sank in toward the center of the house.
And then the lower floor exploded, blowing out plaster and wood into the yard. Everyone ducked as bits of debris blew out into the cold November night.
Curran sat down and leaned against the car next to Lauren.
Sighed.
Beside him, Lauren stirred.
Opened her eyes.
She looked at Curran.
Smiled.
“Where am I?”
Curran felt his eyes grow hot and wet. His vision clouded. His voice cracked. He hugged Lauren close to him.
“You’re safe,” he said finally.
And then as an afterthought, “Thank God.”
Epilogue
“Some night.”
Curran smiled. “Some night.”
They sat in the same bookshop on Newbury Street that Lauren favored so much. All around them, people sat enjoying cups of gourmet coffee and reading international newspapers. Intellectuals and beatniks mixed with students and corporate types. Quite a mix, Curran decided.
“You’re not smoking?”
Curran grinned. “Don’t know if I ever will again. Somehow, I don’t feel much like lighting up.”
She stirred her coffee. “You saved my life, Steve.”
“No,” said Curran. “I didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
The way she was looking at him, she had an answer in mind already. She wanted him to say it. He actually smiled. “Not really a who. More of a what.”
“Yes?”
“I guess it was faith.” He took a sip of coffee and decided the answer was one he could live with after all.
“Your faith is back?”
“Well, honestly, I don’t think I’ll be a gung-ho church-going cop anytime soon. And I certainly won’t be embracing every new age religion that I hear about.”
“But?”
“But, yeah. Yeah, I think it’s back. When I was trying to get you to wake up, I could see you. But you were different. You were all happy and warm and so incredibly beautiful. I couldn’t do anything but try to reach out to you.”
“You brought me back from wherever Darius had hidden my spirit away. It was your faith — your belief that you actually could get to me — that did it. Not me.”
“I don’t know if I want to take all of the credit for what happened there tonight.”
“Maybe God deserves some of the credit.”
“Maybe. Maybe goodness is its own divine power.”
Curran sighed and thought about Kwon. About how much he owed his best friend. Lauren reached out and touched his arm.
“He’s at peace, Steve.”
“Yeah, I know. I just wonder how long it’ll be before I am.”
“We’re all destined to die, you know. It’s what we do with the time between when we’re born and when our personal destiny comes true that counts.”
“I guess so.”
She fixed him with a stare. “After everything that’s happened — after what you witnessed — there’s no doubt left in you is there?”
“Not a speck.”
“Did he speak to you?”
Curran nodded. “He wanted me to leave Darius alone to suffer rather than shoot him. I’d never heard anything that emanated so much evil. I’d never heard anything that scared me so absolutely. And I hope to God I never hear anything like it again.”
Lauren took another sip and regarded him. “Do you think your last bullet put him out of his misery?”
“I don’t think that was the point. I think…he…wanted to see if he could get me to be evil.”
“But you didn’t give in to the temptation. Even after everything that Darius put you through. After everything he said.”
Curran shrugged. “I guess I just didn’t think he deserved to die like that. He was an evil being, yes. But not like that. I didn’t think of it as doing him a favor. I just wanted to do it.”
“A selfless act. And not at all a gray decision.”
“Guess so.” Curran sighed and stayed quiet for a few minutes while he drank some coffee. “We came pretty close to dying ourselves, huh?”
“Yes. We did.”
Outside the window, the late night city inhabitants crept past. Some dressed for a night on the town, others looking for a warm place to huddle for the night. “Will it happen again?”
“Undoubtedly.”
Curran drank some more. “That’s not exactly the answer I wanted to hear.”
“I know. No one wants to hear that. But one thing Darius said was true. Good and evil can’t exist without the other. And even though good won this battle, there’s still a war being fought. All the time. On many fronts. Sometimes we win.”
“Sometimes we lose?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think happened to Darius?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Perhaps he died, but I tend to doubt it. I rather think he’s back in Hell with his master. Who is probably not very pleased with him right now.”
