The Burn Down

[anthony]

Date: April 17th, 2009

Anthony was walking the street, just leaving the club he likes to hang out at. He wasn't really in the mood to party. Mainly because Katie wasn't doing so hot these past few weeks. And also that he had a strange visitor two days ago. She had brought him a vial that was full of something. He, nor did she know what it was. He pulled it out of his pocket to examine it. It was a clear substance, that had a piece of paper with his address on it. Anthony peeled it off to examine the vial more closely. Nothing was there. He looked at the paper he peeled off and was shocked at what he found.

Property of Anthony Miller
Please unfold.

Thinking that this was too wierd for right now, he stuffed it back in his pocket. His mind came back to the real world, back to focusing to his surroundings. Where he realized he was no longer on the sidewalk, but in the middle of the street. Horns were blarring and lights of the American flag blinking on the buildings surrounding the area. Shaking his head he realized that there was a fire truck headed his way. With a quick adrenaline rush, he jumped back onto the sidewalk and tried to catch his breathe. He was seconds from death, he couldn't believe it. This whole week has been to much for him. He looked off in the direction to where the firetruck/cop car convoy was heading. And in the distance he realized a large emitting bright yellow light and dark smoke. It looked close to where his father's old, which was now his, hardware store is. So out of curiousity he went to go check it out.

Five Minutes Later

Nearly out of breathe he had reached the scene. Just before turning the corner of the building. He decided to catch his breathe. Within two minutes he had caught it and was ready to see what building was on fire. Turning the corner he realized it was his very own hardware store. His eyes began to water with all the memories that he had in this place. All the memories of his father, of him growing up, everything. He walked slowly towards the blazing inferno. And was immediately taken over by panic. There were things in that house, that he wanted to keep. Things that helped him remember of his father. Like his father's ashes. He ran toward the building, but was immediately stopped by a fireman. Anthony screamed for him to let him go, but the fireman didn't listen. Five seconds later the roof had caved in. Anthony cried as he knelt down to the ground in horror at the sight, the fireman crouching with him because he was still holding him.

Two and a half Hours Later

Anthony was sitting on the opposite side of the street with a blanket around his shoulders. He was given it by a fireman to keep warm. Anthony sat on the curb staring at the still smoking, but non-fire existent building lay in rubble and debris.

[brendan]

Brendan had been given a job to do. Usually when it was outside of his region one of his sources would get given the job instead, but for some reason they wanted Brendan to do this one, and it meant travelling back to New York for it. Luckily the paper's private jet agreed to take Brendan to Brooklyn for the incident. The incident being a burning building, they were more concerned about the fact there may have been people injured or killed, and if the fire had been started on purpose or not.

So, now here he was walking down the street heading in the direction of the building in question, he could smell the smoke, and still see it, of course the building had been barricaded off, so he was having to walk to the other side of the street. As he got nearer to where the smoking building was on the opposite side of the street, he saw a young guy sitting on the curb and wrapped in a blanket. Brendan figured he must have had something to do with the building, or he was in it, so he immediately approached the scene.

"Brendan Harris, reporter with The Chronicle, were ya in the buildin' when it started to burn?" he asked the young guy sitting on the curb, and then looked around him, but there was nobody else there. The firemen and police had already left the scene, so there was nobody else he could fire questions at, so to speak. He then went in with another question to the young guy, "Did anybody ya know die in the buildin'?" he sure hoped not, but it was a question he couldn't avoid asking.

[anthony]

Anthony loved the silence, it had helped him take everything in. The scene of the of the destroyed building, and mainly the thought of his father ashes now were apart of the ashes of the building. A tear and fallen down is cheek as he had thought of all these things and more. It dripped from his chin and landed on the pavement between his legs.

This sad silence was soon destroyed by the crack of Brendan's voice. This annoyed Anthony how he introduced himself. Honestly, Anthony couldn't care less who this man was. And the fact that he wanted to ask him questions on this incident, Anthony thought was unthinkable. "No!" he yelled back at the man as he had asked if he was in the building.

But then the man had asked another question. Now this was already the final straw that was about to unleash all of Anthony's emotion/wrath. He quickly stood up, "Yes, someone had died. Now f@#$ off!". He began to walk away from the man. Tears and anger were flowing from his eyes. He hated tonight. He couldn't ever imagine this happening to him. And figuratively someone had died in the fire. His father had died... again.

"Cursed reporters." he mumbled to himself.

[brendan]

Brendan stepped back a bit when the young lad yelled 'no' at him. Alright, so it wasn't a great thing to have happened, but Brendan was only doing his job. He hadn't wanted to do this, it should have been one of the rookie reporters who got this job, but instead his boss asked him to go for some reason. Brendan was pissed off enough as it was, seeing as he should have been home in Las Vegas with Megan, instead he was stuck here on some dumb ass job.

When the young lad shouted again using profanity at Brendan, he had to count to ten to himself, to keep his cool. After all it wasn't his fault he had to be here to do this, it was his boss' call. He sighed, and walked after the guy, putting his hand on his arm. "Look, am sorry fer yer loss, maybe I didn' introduce maself properly, but d'ya think I want to be here? D'ya think I wanted to do this?" he asked in a low voice, as he kept himself steady, not growling, but not smiling either.

This was just going to be great he thought, if he couldn't get anything out of this guy, he was going to have to go back to the paper with nothing, and since he was one of their top journalists, it wasn't going to look very good on his resume. Why the hell couldn't they have sent one of the god damned rookies. Brendan sighed to himself, as he waited on a response from the guy which hopefully wouldn't be in a yell.

[anthony]

Anthony rolled his eyes as he continued to walk away from the intruding reporter. He was suddenly stopped by the reporter who placed his hand on his shoulder. This act threw Anthony off his train of thought, and almost his balance. "That's total bull shit." he yelled as he turned around to face the man. Anthony was outraged at the man, he obviously lied. What reporter would not want to cover something. Anthony slowly began to notice his change in personality. This had inturn made him feel guilty for his rudeness to the reporter. "I'm sorry." he apologized.

Knowing that should start over, Anthony reached out his hand for a handshake. "My name is Anthony Miller and I am the owner, sorry I was the owner of that hardware store." he said as he looked over in the direction of the destroyed building. Looking back at the man, he smiled.

[brendan]

Brendan stepped back a bit when the young guy shouted at him again. This really wasn't going very well. "Wha' I meant to say is, it ain't ma type of job" he replied, trying to explain what he meant by saying he didn't want to be there. Not that it would probably make much difference to the guy, he'd lost somebody in that building which was a tragedy in itself.

Suddenly the guy apologised, and then he did, Brendan allowed himself to relax slightly and gave him a weak smile. "Apology accepted fer sure" Brendan replied, wanting the younger guy to know there was no hard feelings at all for the way he'd shouted at him before. Brendan would more than likely have acted in the same way if he lost somebody in a building fire.

Brendan accepted the hand offered and shook it, and introduced himself again, "Brendan Harris, sorry about afore, but well I was uncomfortable with wha' I knew I had to do, pleased to meet ya Anthony, jus' wish it coulda been in better circumstances."

"Ya had insurance righ'? So ya'll be able to start a new?" Brendan asked, when he had clarified that he was indeed the owner of the store, or had been. However Brendan wondered how the fire had started, whether it had been accidental or on purpose.

[anthony]

Still shaking the man's hand, Alex listened to Brendan introduced himself. He smiled as he took his hand away slowly. "Nice to meet you Brendan." And with a nod, Brendan had continued. "Honestly? No, I didn't." Alex answered. Still wanting to get away from this place, he turned back around and continued on down the sidewalk. He knew that his new aquaintance would continue to follow him.

"So why were you sent here?" he asked after giving a slight yawn. By now it was late into the night. Anthony didn't know what time it was exactly. But if he were to guess, it was probably just a little passed midnight.

[brendan]

Brendan smiled at Anthony has he shook his hand and said he was pleased to meet him. So they might not have got off to a good start, but hopefully they could finish their meeting on a better note than it started. Brendan's face fell slightly when Anthony said he didn't have insurance for the building, because it meant he probably wouldn't be able to get anything back from it. "Am real sorry to hear tha' Anthony" Brendan replied in a sincere voice.

Anthony continued to walk away from the scene, which Brendan couldn't really blame him for, but since he had this god forsaken job to do, he followed him. It was very late at night, and Brendan was getting tired. "Honestly? I have no idea why I was sent here, I don' get these kinda jobs no more, but guess they didn' have nobody else they could send" Brendan tried to explain. What would be the actual reason for sending him, other than they thought it might have been an arson attempt.

"To be honest, no matter who they sent, wha' they're after, is findin' out if it were arson or not" Brendan added, giving the young guy the real answer he was looking for. Then he looked at his watch and noticed that it was almost midnight and as he was getting tired, he needed something to keep him awake. "D'ya fancy a coffee?" Brendan asked, as there was a late night coffee shop opened round the corner he knew well.

[anthony]

Anthony sighed as the other man apologized for not having insurance on the place. "No man. Don't. It's not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry about." Anthony said. He continued down the sidewalk as he had something to do, but honestly he didn't. This would be the second time Brendan had said that he didn't know why he wasn't here, and it was already getting on Anthony's nerves. He honestly didn't care if he was here or way back home.

But then the man asked if he wanted coffee. Anthony wasn't much of a coffee drinker, but when he did he loved it. "Sure," he began, "there is a coffee shop just up the block here." he said with a slight smile.

Soon approaching the shop, he looked at the sign that was still lit with neon lights, 'Alan's Late Night Coffee Shop'. With the light shining on his face, he could feel the warm glow of it. Breathing in, as if he were taking the warm glow in, he began to enter the coffee shop.

[brendan]

Brendan sighed gently and shrugged slightly when Anthony said he had no need to apologise over the insurance matter. Well of course Brendan knew it wasn't his fault, but he had said it out of common courtesy. "Yer cool man, jus' bein' polite is all" Brendan replied giving him a weak smile. It had to be a difficult time for the young guy. I mean he was young, younger than Brendan at any rate and he'd just lost his business with no insurance, that was a real bugger.

Brendan gave a warmer smile as Anthony agreed to a coffee. "Great, an' I know jus' the one yer talkin' about an' all" he replied, because Brendan had been in it a few times when he'd been called out late at night for journalist jobs just like this one he was on now as it happens.

They were soon there and Brendan followed Anthony into the shop. The soon as they were inside, Brendan immediately offered the question, "So wha' kinda coffee ya wantin' Anthony?" as he stood waiting on an answer he put in his own order of a latte with extra cream and sugar. He needed the sweetness fix when he was feeling this tired. Hopefully once Anthony had began to drink a decent coffee, he'd be able to respond to a few questions and maybe allow Brendan to take his photograph. He'd already managed to get some of the building earlier while it was burning down.

[anthony]

Anthony led the way into the small corner coffee shop. He knew it was a great coffee place, for he would have gone on here during his break. But now, ironically, he could visit here more often though it would bring memories that he didn't want. Guessing that Brendan was buying after he spoke, he waited for him to ordered. Then he approached the counter. "Hi. Medium decaf, two cream. Thanks." he smiled at the lady behind the counter.

Stepping away from the counter, he let Brendan pay the drinks. "Thanks, dude." he said after he paid the lady for the two drinks. And soon afterwards, another lady called out. "Latte, with heavy cream and sugar." she said as she placed on the serve table. Standing behind, Brendan, he waited for his drink. It didn't take long after Brendan's as the lady had called his off.

Approaching the counter, he thanked the lady as he grabbed the drink. Again leading the way to a table in the back of the coffee shop, Anthony sat down.

[brendan]

Brendan smiled at the waitress after he put his order in and waited for Anthony to do likewise, and while waiting Brendan began twiddling coins in his hands. He couldn't wait to get sitting down with his coffee, because he was really beginning to feel very tired. Stifling a yawn with the back of his hand, he heard Anthony thank him for the coffee.

"Yer welcome Anthony" he replied, as he turned and gave him a weak smile. It didn't take long for them to get their drinks. Brendan smiled at the waitress, and gave her a wink, "Thanks sweetheart" and handed over the money, giving her a generous tip which she seemed to appreciate by giving him a flirtatious smile back.

Anthony led the way to a table toward the back of the shop, Brendan sat down across from Anthony. Then before he began to talk Brendan leaned back in the chair and took a very long sip of his coffee and then let out a long sigh of relief. "Ah, now tha's a wake up call" he said with a slight laugh.

"So, Anthony, I don' really wanna intrude, but unfortunately I got a job to do, so I gotta ask, do ya know who started the fire? Do you know if it were accidental or not? Paper's tryin' to establish if it were arson or not ya see" Brendan asked the first real question which he knew was the whole point of this exercise in the first place. However, sometimes Brendan hated his job, especially if it upset people the way it had upset Anthony earlier.