Chapter 2
Water met fire with a deafening hiss that drowned out the hum of the distant highway. Steam billowed in thick, choking white clouds, obliterating the view of the modern courtyard and turning the bright afternoon into a murky, sulfurous fog. Helen coughed, her hand rising instinctively to cover her mouth as she backed further away toward the sliding glass doors of the living room. Her patterned long-sleeve button-down shirt clung to her back with sweat. The chemical reaction of the pool shock mixed with the garden hose water created an acrid mist that burned the inside of her nose. She had calculated this exact reaction using chemistry texts from her days teaching high school science, long before Julian had swept her into a world of corporate boardrooms and hidden debt.
Julian kept his feet planted wide on the damp cedar boards, muscles straining in his forearms as he fought the recoil of the hose. The orange flames died down from a roaring wall to a sputtering, crackling bed of black rubber and melted synthetic mesh. The trampoline frame stood warped and skeletal, a twisted monument to afternoon panic. Without turning his head, Julian spoke over the roar of the water. "You could have killed us both, Helen. The gas line runs directly beneath that deck." His voice was remarkably level, stripped of anger, carrying only an exhausting, heavy fatigue. Helen lowered her hand, her fingers trembling slightly against her beige pants. She did not apologize. Apologies had lost their currency years ago when Julian forged her signature on the second mortgage.
"If I had used the gas line, Julian, you wouldn't have had time to grab the hose," Helen replied, her voice steady despite the adrenaline hammering against her ribs. She stepped over a scorched patch of decking, her eyes scanning the upper windows of the neighboring properties. No one had called the police yet, or if they had, the local sirens were drowned out by the wind rushing through the canyon. The courtyard was isolated by design, built as a fortress of modern aesthetics to keep the outside world at bay. That very isolation was now their primary threat. Whatever was coming for them from Julian’s past would not be stopped by a garden hose or a melted trampoline.
