Aria’s imagination was plagued by worst-case scenarios. She tried to decipher who was and who wasn’t OK through the turbulent screen of fire. Anthony was pouring his last two bottles of water onto a group of flames that were nipping at the edges of his tarp. It was an exercise in futility. He tried to untie the ropes that affixed it to the tree before giving up his efforts and running toward them. Wolf, who had woken up Robert just in time, was yanking the older man to safety. Robert was visibly in a daze. Already mauled by age, he was lethargic and still half asleep.

It took them all a minute to comb through the dizzy collage of disbelief in order to accept what was occurring. Luke ran to what tents and cars that he could, checking to see if anyone was still in them before he couldn’t access them anymore. Palin’s crazed barking cried out above it all. She was barking in the direction of Ciarra, who was manically squeezing the liquid from a small pile of white jugs of lighter fluid before throwing them toward the fire. “I know one of you fuckers did it … Come out and show yourself!” she screamed, before throwing another one. “I know you’re all fucking narcs.”

The holocaust of her fury was painted across the car lot as the fire that was decimating all of it. From the spaghetti-like trails that the flames followed, Aria could see that while they had been sleeping, Ciarra had poured lighter fluid in a deranged maze across the expanse of the lot.

Terrified that Mike had been killed by Ciarra’s rage, Aria scanned for him frantically until she found his outline. He was standing just outside the fence behind his tent, watching it burn to the ground. He did not intervene in the destruction. He watched everything he had to his name evaporate into smoke and ash, as if he deserved it. His arms were folded in defeat. He made no attempt to respond to Ciarra, who continued screaming insults and fueling the fire until there was no more lighter fluid left. Watching her tantrum, Mike thought about how much Ciarra was just like her mother. From the years he had been married to her, Mike had learned that confronting either of them once they had tipped over the edge like this would only add fuel to the fire.

Ciarra abandoned the scene before a fire truck arrived but only made it a few blocks before she was arrested. Aria, Taylor and Anthony eventually ventured around the perimeter of the chain-link fence to reunite with Luke, Robert, Wolf, Mike and Darren. But once they did, they barely talked. Instead, they all stood in the darkness just beyond the reach of the light being discharged by the fire; watching the firemen scamper around the lot, watching everything turn black. There was nothing to be done.