Free Fahrenheit by Capri Montgomery

day of school, parents would be rushing off to jobs they hated, and firefighters would be making the switch from their house to the firehouse. Soon the world around him would be awakened, carrying on as if their lives weren’t in danger. He exhaled slowly. “Avoidance won’t change who I am. It won’t change what’s coming. It only helps me continue to get away with it.” He laughed. He was living right amongst them and they didn’t even know it. Well, there was something to be said for anonymity—it allowed him to work his art without interruption. Even still, he wished they would give him a better name. He deserved better. His art deserved better.
    He snickered. “Maybe I should burn a new name into my next fire.” Yes, he was starting to like that idea even more than the other ideas he had been having lately. He turned to look at the map he had laid out on the ebony colored desk. “Where oh where should my next fire be, oh where, oh where should it be?” He hummed as he pulled a silver dollar from his pocket. “Heads to the east, tails to the west.” He flipped the coin and caught it before slapping it to the back of one hand. He peaked at the shiny coin resting on the back of his hand and he smiled. “Yeah, that was my choice to.”
    Deciding he should at least get a few hours of sleep before work tomorrow he turned off the desk lamp and retired to his bedroom. Tomorrow would be a glorious day; a glorious day indeed.

 
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
    “M r. Mayor,” Mitch tacked ankle to knee and leaned back in the oversized French Provincial ivory chair. “Now that the Espanola fire is almost completely contained what type of restoration plans will the city put in place?”
    “Well right now we’re focused on getting the fire completely extinguished,” he stroked his fingers over his clean shaven face. The lines of a middle age man surfaced at the creases in his eyes when he smiled. A smile that Eve was sure wasn’t really anywhere other than on his lips. He was having this meeting with a purpose, and that purpose wasn’t about answering Mitch’s questions in any specific order. Reelection would be coming up soon and it would look good for the mayor if he had something fabulously wonderful to say to reassure the public. Although at present the public didn’t seem to be all that concerned about the fires. Eve had noticed that as long as the fires weren’t threatening homes people didn’t care. Of course the bomb at the apartment complex had sparked a higher level of interest in the arsonist lately, but even that had been short-lived. People who weren’t affected had a tendency to move on a lot quicker than people who were.
    Rusty Davis, the mayor’s right hand, entered with two cups of coffee. “Here you go sir, black with sugar. And for you,” he handed Mitch a cup of coffee. “Black, no sugar.”
    The mayor took one sip of his coffee and spit it out. “You idiot! This doesn’t have sugar in it.”
    “Sorry sir,” he tried to clean up the mess of liquid now on the desk.
    “Just take it away and go.”
    “I’m sorry sir.”
    Mitch handed Rusty his cup of coffee too. “Thanks anyway, son.” Mitch nodded politely. Rusty looked at Eve briefly and she gave him a reassuring smile. Good Lord, some people needed a crash course in manners. A mistake was a mistake. Coffee wasn’t anything to berate the poor guy about. Rusty had been so nice to her, and to Mitch, when they first arrived. He was one of those guys, that to look at him, a person would assume he was a gentle big kid. Right now that impression was growing because right now he seemed like the kid who always got the raw end of the deal. She bet he was picked on in school too—probably from people who were just like the man behind the desk.
    “Now, where were we?” He pushed aside a few papers before turning his attention back to Mitch.
    “The fire’s almost contained. I would think this office would be trying to figure out what