Spark and Fall

Spark and Fall

Angelina Fuentes

04/17/2023

In a state of a curious concoction of shock and hangover after what happened last night, Autumn and Liam knocked on my front door as soon as the first ray of sunlight hit my window.

"We have to do something about this Sean! He is burning people alive in their own homes! As if the sink holes aren't enough?" Autumn silently yelled in attempt to not wake my parents before they headed to work. The bags under her eyes made their blue color stand out with urgency.

I don't understand why responsibilities like these always fall into the hands of the inexperienced youth. I get it, we are probably the only people around not working to get out of this sinking city, but ever since our high school sank last week, what else are we to do? All we have is time. Time and sorrow from what we’ve lost. About 11,000 of our fellow schoolmates and friends were crushed by rubble or burned.

"I told you guys it was him! I told you the day our school... when we..." Liam could not continue his sentence.

The day our school was destroyed, Liam ran into Abiz Issa, the deranged arsonist. He saw him through the dust and fog with a flame in his hands. His tall stature was towering over Liam when he disappeared suddenly. Minutes later, what was left of our school was in flames. The blaze killed more people in the school than the initial collapse did.

"Liam, it’s okay. Try not to think about it anymore. We all believed you when you told us what you saw, who it was. That wretched prisoner haunting our neighborhoods and threatening us with his very existence," scoffed Autumn. “Why haven’t the police caught him yet? A figure like that? You can’t miss him!”

Sinkholes have been appearing more unpredictably than ever, all over South Florida in the past year. My dad says it’s because all the limestone beneath us has been weakened by the sea level rise, so it sinks when there is too much weight and pressure on them. Miami had no choice but to start expanding upwards since the great population spike in 2100, when everyone came to South Florida for its beautiful landscape at the time. We were not alive for that, and now in 2147, all that’s left is this swamp we have no choice but to call our home. Anyways, I’m sure the regular fifteen-story buildings don’t help these sinkholes from appearing. That’s how the county prison collapsed several months before; that’s how Abiz escaped prison.

“Sean, is there anything we can do?” Liam’s voice quivered, still recovering from the thought of what he saw as our school burned to ashes. They look at me as the leader of our trio, but honestly, I am as scared as they are. The truth is I do not have an answer for Liam.
“We can lay low and hope he doesn’t see us this time,” I replied. None of us knew where he was, or where he would show up, but we all knew he was dangerous.
I closed the door behind me, grabbed my fold-a-raft, and we headed out to Publix to grab some food to continue our search for the outlaw.

You would expect people to be home after the recent tragedies that happened in the city, but by 7:30, everyone was on their way to work, our parents included. Most of them walked to their eight to six jobs, since they have not had access to public transport ever since the power crisis was brought upon us. About a year ago FPL shut down the power in the South Florida area since the sinkholes were too unpredictable. There was no way of knowing if one would destroy the plant, leaving live cables running through the bodies of water all over the city. Now they worked the old-school way. Paper, pencils, and a lot of appliances powered by batteries. What a tragedy.

The trip to Publix was particularly quiet, we were all uneasy. All we heard was the squelching of our wet shoes against the pavement. Liam spoke up, "I heard some rumors that the police are working on new technology to detect sinkholes before they happen. Maybe they can use it to find Abiz too?"

I nodded, hopeful for a moment, until Autumn said, "But that won't help us right now. We can't just wait around for the police to catch him. We are the only ones who can do something, effectively at that."

We remained quiet again, knowing she was right. Her bluntness always keeps us in check. The police were MIA in terms of law enforcement since they started working with the fire department helping recent victims of sinkhole events. Let's just say, everything is out of wack down here.

As we reached Publix, we grabbed some pub subs before we headed back to my house to start planning.

“Everything's a mess, but at least these subs are still fire!” I exclaimed, lifting the bag of sandwiches over my head, attempting to raise the mood. They chuckled. Some grocery stores had access to an ultragenerator, the only solar-powered generators that exist. They are terrific devices, but they are ultra-expensive. Luckily, the Publix closest to our houses was able to find it in their budget to get one, for the good of the people.

Traveling anywhere these days for us was a struggle. We have to repeat the tedious process of walking, unfolding the raft, paddling, reaching land, folding the raft, and carrying it until we find the next body of water. We got back to my house to break out a plan, and fast.

“Do you guys think we should find his hide out?” I asked.

“How do you know he even has one? For all we know he could be in a new spot every night, spotting out which house he wants to burn down next.” Autumn replied.

“I mean, we will never really know until we look for it and find out ourselves. We still have hours of daylight left, and we are almost certain he only sets the houses on fire when it's dark and no one can see him,” Liam said.

“Alright then its settled. We are going to look for it today I was thinking-,” I was interrupted by Autumn.

“Guys are you nuts? Why would we go back out there after last night? What if we get stuck or he decides to attack us because he thinks we are on to him? That plan is so stupid.”

“Maybe that’s why it's better not to have a girl on our team, right Sean,” Liam joked, nudging me with his elbow. Liam and Autumn were your typical fraternal twin siblings, so they are always messing with each other.

Autumn scoffed, “You guys are lucky to have me on your team. You wouldn’t last a day without me. But the plan is dumb, what if he sees you when you find his so called ‘hideout.’ What then? We don’t have any weapons or anything.”

“Autumn, come on. We will protect you. After all we are big and strong...” Liam and I flexed showing her our puny biceps “...we wouldn’t let him hurt you. Tell you what. If he gets close to you, Liam and I will push you aside and have him take us instead. Does that sound good?” I bargained to get Autumn on board. She was the brain of the operation—the very sassy brain at that. She grinned at me while giving me a side eye, as if she was saying, “yeah, right.”

“Hell no Sean, what? I did not sign up for that,” Liam exclaimed in shock at my statement.

“That’s not going to happen Liam, everything's going to be fine. Speaking of weapons though, does your dad still have that speargun from when we used to go fishing?” I asked Liam. The three of us grew up together, so they immediately knew which one I was talking about.

“Yeah, I think he keeps it somewhere in his room, I’ll go find it,” Liam took off to his house in a hurry.

“You see Autumn, we have a weapon now, everything will be fine,” I reassured her.
“So what, we kill him if we see him?” Autumn asked.

“If we need to defend ourselves, then yes,” I replied.

As we walked down the street, carrying a massive speargun, no one seemed to pay any mind to the strange sight. Everyone was minding their own business, making their wages, and keeping to themselves.

Once we reached the spot we were at the night before, we looked around for any signs that someone lives there. We were waist-deep in water, with our raft close by in case we needed to leave fast. The sunlight was reflecting off the water in the swamp; everything was much more visible than last night.

“What’s that?” Autumn pointed in the distance at a small mangrove that looked like it had been caved in.

“Should we take a look?” Liam asked.

I looked around, “I mean, the coast is clear so, why not?”

As we made our way to the mangrove, we saw a trash bag hanging from the tree, some scattered bottles filled with rags, and matches. The branches were perfectly shaped as a laying area, where even a large man like Abiz can rest.

“This has to be it,” Liam was shocked to know we were standing in a place where a murderer dwells. He played with his collar trying to ease his angst. He dragged his finger over some carvings in the tree. Some of them had grown algae, but three of the marks were fresh. “Are those tally marks?”

“It looks like it. But he’s out of prison, why would he still be marking how many days he’s lived here?” I asked.

“Guys, maybe those aren't days he’s been here. Maybe that’s how many houses he’s been able to burn down,” Autumn concluded in horror.

We stood there in marvel at the dwelling in silence for a few moments.

“We don’t have that much daylight to spare Sean. Should we get out of h-” Liam was interrupted by a small splash in the distance. Our heads shot in the direction of the sound, hoping it was not who we thought it would be.

Of course, our worst hopes were confirmed. The seven-foot, monster of a human was standing in the distance, looking right at us. It was the one and only Abiz Issa, only some hundred yards away from us. He began to speed through the water.

“Run,” I whispered frantically, “Run!”

We splashed around in the water as fast as we could until we reached the raft. We jumped on and began paddling. We navigated ourselves deep in the brush so he could not find or track us. I looked back behind us, we lost him. Not a word was said as we reached our respective houses. By the time we got inside, the sun had set. I felt uneasy about leaving Autumn and Liam alone. Their parents were out on a trip, searching for houses in another state to get out of Miami.

I lied down to try to go to sleep, knowing I was lucky to be alive today. I was exhausted. I couldn’t believe we crashed into Miami-Dade’s most infamous murderer two nights in a row. I was dozing off into sleep when I heard a small tap on my window.

“Psst. Sean, it’s me Liam. Open up!” Liam called.

I climbed out of bed to open the window for him.

“Liam what are you doing here? You have to be protecting Autumn, she’s home alone and asleep!” I exclaimed. “With that psycho on the lose you don’t know what could happen.”

“Sean I just needed to tell you that I think they caught him!” Liam couldn’t stop jumping up and down like a small child filled with excitement, “After we left he was found by the police in the streets, I’m guessing he was there since he was looking for us.”

“Wait what do you mean you think? How can you be sure they caught him?” I was skeptical, last I heard on the radio, he hadn’t been found. That would have been on every news station if it had happened. “Let’s check,” I clicked on the radio I had on my nightstand.

“Abiz Issa, the infamous county arsonist was recently detained by police, local news reports state,” the reporter declared.

“Sean you see! You see! They did it!” Liam exclaimed with joy.

“Sh sh shhh. Listen” I said.

“In attempt to Baker Act the deranged criminal, he escaped by assaulting three officers on the team and leaving one in critical condition. He is still on the loose, stay vigilant and stay safe. This is all we have heard on the case and will update you on his whereabouts,” I clicked off the radio. I looked at Liam. He had this awful look of fear and panic on his face.

“That means he’s angry,” Liam whispered, eyes wide with terror.

Liam was still outside when he heard a door creak.

“Did you hear that?” He said. Silence followed.

“Maybe my parents are home from work?” I replied. Silence remained and was broken by a high pitch scream.

Liam and I looked at each other.

“Autumn!” We concluded. I reached over my bed to grab the speargun we used earlier.

I jumped out of the window and we ran three houses down to find the fire had already begun, except there was no one in sight. We had seen him light houses on fire before, he always stood outside of the house with a menacing face. Where was he?

Liam and I ran inside, with no regard to the fire that was getting worse every second. We had to save Autumn. We split up looking for her in different rooms of the house.

“She’s here!” Liam yelled with urgency.

She was in her room, but the door had been locked, and the handle was too hot to touch. Smoke was emerging now; Liam and I put our shirts over our noses and mouths.

“Sean we have to go around the house, there is a window in her room we can break in through there,” Liam was desperate. We ran through the front door and around the house to where the window was. We shattered the glass with a rock from their garden to see Abiz standing there, holding out one clenched hand. He was holding Autumn’s sheet, with Autumn wrapped inside, struggling to escape.

I felt my heart drop into my stomach at the sight. I was stunned. Why would he do this? Why was this murder personal?

I must have been standing there for some time because next thing I knew, Liam was aiming the speargun at Abiz.

“Sean! Liam! Help!” Autumn’s muffled screams would not have been heard if we had not been there already.

The fire had already entered Autumn’s room. Abiz’s grimace turned away from us, and began swinging the sack in which Autumn was inside. He was going to launch her in the fire.

Before I could react to this sight I saw the sack hit the floor, and end of the spear sticking out from Abiz’s back. He fell to the floor. I turned to Liam who was as shocked as I was.
Abiz yelled in excruciating pain. He slowly stood again.

“Autumn run!” Liam and I yelled as loud as we could.

Abiz yanked the spear out of his back. This man is invincible.
Autumn got up, and jumped through the shattered window. Suddenly the earth started to rumble beneath us. Something we had experienced before.

“We have to get out of here,” the earth shook more violently, “Now!” I yelled.

We ran to the end of the block, not knowing where safety was anymore. We stood there, hands on our knees, panting. Panting turned into laughter, we hugged. This laughter was not laughter that resulted from something that was funny, but laughter of relief. Laughter that we got away alive, laughter that we were okay, together.

We walked back to the ruins of the house. A sinkhole had destroyed the land, and water from the surrounding streets already began flooding it. Through the muck, we saw the familiar face of a criminal, with his body covered in rubble. We stared at it until we couldn’t see him anymore.

“You guys saved me. You saved my life” Autumn said, relieved. “Wait a minute. What was I doing in the house alone?” She turned to Liam, who had a look of guilt on his face. Her face was fuming for a moment and she stepped towards him. She pulled back her hand as if she was going to slap him. His face tensed, and she gave him the most unexpected hug in existence. “Thank you Liam. You are the best brother I could ever ask for.” Even I got teary eyed.

We spent the next few minutes calling our parents and telling them everything that happened. There were laughs, cries, and hugs from each of us. Our parents decided that this place is not safe for our families anymore, and promised that we would get out of the sinking city as soon as they returned.

“Will we have a normal life? One without twenty story buildings and streets full of water?” I asked, for food of thought.

“I sure hope so,” Autumn and Liam said in unison. I guess twin telepathy really is a thing.