A police officer, a woman in her mid twenties that looks much older due to her premature crow's feet, leads a cuffed Morgan to her squad car. She opens the back door and places her hand on his head, roughly shoving him inside. He opens his mouth but, before a single word can slip out, she slams the door shut callously. It's obvious to him that she knows what he did. Well, she is arresting him after all so that is a no-brainer. And in a small town like Riverside, it's just a matter of time before word spreads so he better get used to the treatment.

Besides, he deserves it.

Sheriff Martinez peers down at his phone screen, seeing the icon flashing from the GPS app showing that Millie must be somewhere nearby. Or at least her phone is. He glances up, seeing the cabin engulfed in flames a few yards ahead and a sudden instinct overcomes him that wrenches at his gut. Behind its deteriorating arched roof, the sun peaks as it slowly rises through the clouds.

A nearby deputy, one of the many standing guard at the burning building to ensure that the fire doesn't spread into the forest, approaches him with an obviously fake smirk. "Sheriff, the fire department is on the way."

"Well aware." Martinez grunts, not wanting his reassurance. He looks to the left, seeing the medical examiner crouching at the edge of the field as he peeks under a blood drenched blanket.

Henry Wallace, one of the few forensic experts housed in the town, has been in this profession going for over thirty years now. And never has he worked so hard in his life. He shakes his head and frowns, exaggerating the deep lines bordering the corners of his shriveled lips, and—even though he's prepared for such gruesome sights—can feel his lunch surfacing in his throat.

"It's a shame." He mutters, gazing up at the sheriff. "I met him briefly during one of my visits to the hospital. Nice kid."

"So you thought." Martinez replies coldly, staring at the body with utter disgust. Although what happened to Garrett the night of the accident was tragic, it was no excuse for him to go on a deranged murder spree. "Bag the son of a bitch when you're done and get him out of here."

A set of lights flashing behind him snags his attention and he turns around, spotting Taylor as she sits stiffly next to a paramedic on the edge of the ambulance's deck. The woman loosens the blanket around Taylor to get a better look at the purple splotch that garnishes her right shoulder. The massive bruise nearly leads down to her chest and underarm but, surprisingly, Taylor doesn't feel a thing as the woman lightly touches it. Martinez quickly approaches the vehicle, figuring that he has given them enough time to examine her.

When he first arrived, she wouldn't talk. She just sat there, completely unresponsive as she stared blankly into the lake. And, after everything she went through, he truthfully doesn't blame her. But he needs answers. More importantly, he needs to know where his daughter is.

And that's exactly what he asks her. "Taylor."

Still distraught, she slowly gazes up at him. That's already more than what he got from her before. The only time he saw her relatively attentive was when the first ambulance was taking away Marc and she was refusing to leave his side.

"Have you seen—" He gulps, as if afraid to finish his question. The tone in his voice quickly shifts from overly aggressive and intimidating to that of a terrified child. "Have you seen Millie?"

She nods and his eyes immediately light up with the faintest glimmer of hope. He can't help as a smile widens across his face. And, as he watches the tears quickly form in her eyes, it fades away just as fast as it had appeared.

He knows instantly what that means.

"Wh—" He chokes on his own voice. "Where?"

Taylor's eyes gaze past him and, as deep down he had feared, he slowly follows her stare to find his eyes settling back on the burning building. His body grows numb and, if it wasn't for a sudden rush of adrenaline, he would have found himself falling to the ground.

"No." He stutters, shaking his head in denial and looks back at her as if she were lying. If only she was. "No!"

She finally breaks her silence, her voice just as shattered as his. "I'm sorry."

Although he can't feel his legs at this point, he quickly turns around and hurriedly darts toward the cabin. The same deputy, wearing the same stupid ass grin, extends his arm to block him.

"Whoa! Sheriff, the—"

A clenched fist interrupts him as Martinez sends his knuckles flying into the officer's jaw, the now unconscious man plummeting face down into the dirt below.

Completely baffled by the sudden assault, another nearby patrolman attempts to jump in. At least this one is not stupid enough to try touching him. "Sheriff?!"

"Get the fuck out of my way." Martinez aggressively slams his shoulder into the man as he rushes past him and up the pile of crumbled steps, running into the engulfed building through the deteriorating doorway.

The smoldering door to the cabin had fallen off its hinges during the fire and he quickly steps over it. Somehow—even to his own surprise—he managed to enter the building unscathed. But will he leave that way?

Immediately, his eyes are drawn to the black, misshapen figure resting amongst tall flames in the hearth. He can hear footsteps on what remains of the front porch and expects shortly he'll have visitors, but he doesn't care, and the crackling blaze coming from the fireplace begins to drown out all the noise surrounding him.

The roof, more like a few surviving wedges of timber, groans from above as it seems to vibrate with each slight movement. He approaches the mantel, quickly falling to his knees the second he recognizes his daughter's corpse staring back at him. Her burnt skin is to the point where it is peeling completely off, revealing brittle bones as her body continues to sizzle on the cinder. Tears fill his eyes as he struggles to breathe, and not just from the massive clouds of black smoke entering his lungs.

"Sheriff?" The same deputy who had last called out to him enters the cabin, followed by two other officers. He spots Martinez kneeled down in front of the fireplace, centered in the incinerating room. "Sheriff!"

"No... Millie..." Sobbing, Martinez reaches through the fire to grab at the body. Both hands hiss the second they make contact with her charred arm, smoke drifting from underneath his melting fingers, and embers fly all directions as he tries to pull her out from the hearth. "MILLIE!"

"Sheriff!" The man calls out again and, suddenly, the three officers grab him and pull him away from the fire.

"NO! GET OFF OF ME!" Martinez struggles to break free as he attempts to crawl forward, reaching back out to the pit with his seared hands. Blisters cover both palms and each of his fingertips, his skin continuing to peel down to his wrist. "MILLIE!"

The ceiling creaks even louder and the officers all look up, worried any second now that it'll cave in and the fire will consume them all. Martinez, still not paying it any notice, finally surrenders. The rising flames reflect in his eyes as he stares forward, feeling his body being pulled back as the others hastily drag him out.

"Millie..." He whimpers as she fades out of sight through the thickening smoke and, in this very moment, he has never felt so detached from the world. So lost. So broken.

The three policemen lift him up as they exit back out of the same doorway they entered through and, not too long after they have reached a safe distance and set the sheriff in the grass, the roof of the cabin collapses inward. The flames quickly spread across each of its four walls, the remnants of the small structure entirely ablaze until the fire engine finally arrives.

And by then, it's too late to recover her body. All that's left among the ash and embers is a pile of bones.

♫ ʙᴀᴅ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ / ʀᴀᴅɪᴄᴀʟ ғᴀᴄᴇ ♫ 

Only 5 chapters left.
Are you ready to say goodbye to your Riverside pals? Or at least... what remains of them?