Firebug: A Short Story Read online

  The trophies in the case, however, were self-explanatory. There were more than fifty pictures, dating back to the early-nineties, pinned to a giant sheet of corkboard behind the glass. Pictures of red-haired women from all across the country. Pictures taken from a distance and enlarged so that their faces were clearly visible as they struck a specific pose, one in which they were photographed looking back over their left shoulders at the camera.

  And pinned in the center of each one was a firefly.

  There was no doubt that the DNA collected from the microscopic bits of human tissue excised from the sharp tips of their feet would match that of the victims whose mouths they had been inside, even if it was impossible to compare them to the lacerations.

  No one even thought to look for the cuts in the back of Moore’s throat, however. Nor did they compare the crescent-shaped wounds on the backs of her fingers to his teeth. They hadn’t thought twice about the non-functioning flashlight Behrent had commandeered from her partner or connected it to the melted batteries fused to the concrete. They’d even kept it safe for her in the ER with the rest of her belongings. By the time she transferred its lone contents—the firefly she’d crawled to the habitat to collect, even as she burned—into a jar, it was barely still alive.

  Now, its abdomen glowed fluorescent green as it repeatedly tested its confines.

  While darkness descended, Behrent thought about two young redheaded girls and contemplated what made the lantern of the firefly in the jar glow.

  When she finally stood, it was with tears in her eyes. She set the jar on the barbecue grill, lit the charcoal, and watched the flames lick the glass before engulfing it. The firefly darted from one side to the other, faster and faster, until the jar turned black and she could see it no more.

  She watched until the glass shattered and the flames chased the smoke high into the air, where glowing embers danced like fireflies.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Michael McBride is the bestselling author of Ancient Enemy, Bloodletting, Burial Ground, Condemned, Fearful Symmetry, Innocents Lost, Sunblind, The Coyote, and Vector Borne. His novella Snowblind won the 2012 DarkFuse Readers Choice Award and received honorable mention in The Best Horror of the Year. He lives in Avalanche Territory with his wife and kids.

  To explore the author’s other works, please visit www.michaelmcbride.net.