Silence
an excerpt

Dylan never woke up in the night. Maybe it was a defense mechanism after sharing a room with Scott the snoring king for all those years, but no matter why it was, he never woke up. So when he found himself awake and staring at the ceiling well into the night, he knew there must be something wrong.

It wasn’t the room, although that was weird in and of itself. He’d left for college four years ago and nothing had changed. When his sister’s moved out, their rooms had been redecorated before you could even blink. Tarah’s was his dad’s study, Wendy’s a sewing room for his mother, and Amelie’s a guest room. It was almost as if his mother had known he wasn’t done with it.

Scott had moved into the basement not long after Dylan left for college, so the second twin bed and dresser was missing, but other than that the room looked exactly the same from the rock posters on the walls to the dirty laundry on the floor.

Not that Dylan intended on staying there long. Just until he had a decent paying job and a little money in the bank, that was all. It killed him that Scott was running his own landscaping business. Dylan had gone to college for four years and wasn’t qualified to do more than work at a burger joint, and his slacker twin brother was a successful businessman.

Life was not fair.

So there Dylan was, still feeling somewhat humiliated by the necessity of his moving back home into his childhood bedroom, when he found himself awake in the middle of the night.

Awake and smelling smoke.

His eyes widened when that registered. Smoke? Was the house on fire? He leapt to his feet and was about to charge into the hall when he caught a faint glow out of the corner of his eye. He glanced out the window.

It wasn’t his house. It was next door.

He could already see angry orange flames poking out of the downstairs windows. He reached for his cell phone and dialed 911.

“911 Emergency. How can I help you.”

“I need to report a fire.”

“Is the fire at your house?” The operator recited his address.

“No, its next door. And tell them to hurry. It looks bad.”

“Is everyone out of the house?” The operator wanted to know.

“I don’t know.” Dylan squinted at the house. “I don’t think-“ his voice trailed off.

“Sir?”

“She’s in there.”

“Sir, who’s in the house?”

“The girl,” he murmured. “The girl who never comes out.”