Free Twisted Fate (Tales of Horror) by Jonas Saul

possible, little man, since you’re only a boy. The family who lived in the house that burned down were the founders of our little village, Mr. and Mrs. Novar. They had a boy named Mark, but they all died in a fire in 1944.”
     
    I caught a breath in my throat. In that moment, I too, recognized Kirk Sutton. It came to me in a flood, like the dam had surrendered. I remembered everything—the tree line, the landscape, even where the train tracks were. I saw men hammering spikes into the rails as they put the tracks in. My mind’s eye showed me the details of their clothes, their tools. What surprised me more was why I hadn’t known any of this before.
     
    I used to watch my son Mark and his friend Kirk catch frogs as I sat on my porch and sipped lemonade. The yellow dress that I’d worn today was the same dress I had torn off on the day of the fire so I could protect my son from the smoke and flames that licked up the walls. Another incarnation, another time. What I found curious was why I had forgotten it.
     
    Mark and I died in the fire. I knew that now. We’d failed in our joint mission in that incarnation because of Kirk, the man standing before us. And we came back together to live the life that we never got the chance to. I stepped close to Mark/Jacob and reached for him.
     
    That’s why we’re here now. Together.
     
    Our eyes met and we could see the secret between us that had lasted seventy-five years. Jacob knew. All those years and he knew. Together we would kill today and together we would be killed.
     
    I simply couldn’t wait to die. And what an honor to die with my son at my side, again.
     
    Jacob stepped away from me. He reached into his pocket and moved further into the foliage.
     
    “Jacob, where are you going?” John asked.
     
    Jacob ignored him as he moved deeper into the field. I would’ve ignored him, too. He was a straggler now, the only one who didn’t know his part in all this.
     
    “I know it was you,” Jacob said loud enough for all of us to hear.
     
    The old man looked from Jacob to me and then back to Jacob.
     
    “You couldn’t help yourself,” Jacob continued. “But you got burned, too. I was told all about it, but I had to meet you for myself.”
     
    I had stepped into a new realm and left behind my old reality. The gig was up. No more playing human.
     
    “Who told you about me?” the old man asked.
     
    “Your brother. He’s coming today.”
     
    John, that’s you. Getting it yet? You’re his brother.
     
    “I don’t have a brother and I do not have to stand here and listen to this craziness.”
     
    John yelled for Jacob to come back. I turned and rebuked John.
     
    “We’ll handle this,” I said.
     
    The old man started away on his cane. I was ten meters from my son but still close enough to see the matches he pulled out of his pocket. He flipped the top, lit one and touched the rest with it. The matchbook flared in his hand.
     
    The old man glared at the flames in Jacob’s hand.
     
    “That’s right. Watch the fire. That’s what you did all those years ago. You watched the fire while your brother and I burned along with my mother. You listened to our screams and smiled. You stared so long that you got burned, too. It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it? Just watching the flames …”
     
    Jacob tossed the lit matches into the air. I expected John to scream in protest, but heard nothing from behind me. The high grass was seriously dry for this time of year. The old man’s house was too far away for him to escape.
     
    Kirk Sutton used his cane like an expert as he tried to run from the flames. But it wasn’t the fire he ran from, it was my husband. He’d finally gotten it. He knew who he was, or rather is.
     
    “Get him, Daddy,” Jacob shouted to his father.
     
    My brain felt bent. Everything was good, as it should be.
     
    I watched as John tackled the ninety-year-old man. They were lost to sight in the tall grass.
     
    The fire rose above the