[3rd Person]
"Damon! Hey, you're home late," Sarah said, a smile on her face that quickly faded as she saw his expression. "What's wrong? You look awful."
Riley turned, that familiar easy smile on his face. "Hey, D. Had a late one, huh? Sarah insisted I stay for dinner."
The casualness, the utter lack of remorse in Riley's eyes, was the final straw.
"You son of a bitch," Damon's voice was low, trembling with suppressed violence.
Riley's smile faltered. "Whoa, hey. What's up?"
"Don't 'What's up' me!" Damon stepped further into the room, his hands clenched into fists. Leo and Maya looked up, sensing the sudden shift in the atmosphere. Sarah stood frozen by the table, her eyes wide with alarm.
"Damon, what are you talking about?" Sarah asked, confusion and fear mixing in her voice.
Damon ignored her, his gaze fixed on Riley. "I know, Riley. I know what you've been doing. I read your notes."
Riley's face went pale. "My notes? I don't know what you mean."
"Yes, you do!" Damon's voice rose, raw with pain and anger. "Dinosaur DNA! Injecting me! Using me as your goddamn lab rat! You betrayed me, Riley! You poisoned me!"
"Damon, stop it! The kids are here!" Sarah pleaded, stepping between them.
"Stay out of this, Sarah!" Riley's voice was sharp, losing its composure. He stood up, trying to look imposing, though Damon felt an unnatural calm settling over him, a cold focus born of fury and the strange physical changes in his body.
"Riley, how could you?" Sarah cried, looking between the two men, horrified understanding dawning on her face as she processed Damon's accusations.
"It was necessary! For science! For progress!" Riley blurted out, his justification pathetic against the backdrop of the family dinner he had crashed. "You were the perfect subject, Damon! You were already healthy, strong... I just enhanced it!"
"Enhanced it?!" Damon roared, taking another step forward. "You experimented on me! You lied to me! We were brothers, Riley!"
"Brothers don't hold back progression!" Riley yelled back, his own fear fueling his aggression. He pushed Sarah aside roughly to face Damon square on.
That push was a mistake. Seeing Riley lay a hand on Sarah sent a surge of uncontrollable power through Damon. He lunged.
The confrontation exploded into brutal violence in the heart of Damon's home. Chairs were knocked over, the table crashed to the floor, sending food and plates scattering. Sarah screamed, rushing to pull the terrified children away from the chaos. Damon, fueled by a strength that felt both alien and terrifyingly natural, grabbed Riley, slamming him against the wall. Plaster cracked under the force.
Riley fought back with desperate ferocity, but he was no match for Damon's enhanced strength. Damon threw a punch that sent Riley staggering across the room, colliding with a shelf holding decorative candles. The candles, lit for the dinner, toppled. One fell onto the fallen tablecloth, another onto the carpet.
Flames ignited almost instantly, small flickering points that grew with terrifying speed, feeding on the spilled wine and fabric. Smoke began to curl upwards.
"The fire!" Sarah screamed, grabbing Leo and Maya, pulling them towards the back of the house, away from the dining room.
Riley saw the flames, saw the inferno quickly consuming the room. Ignoring the fight, ignoring the family, he scrambled towards the front door, choking in the rapidly thickening smoke. He pulled it open and vanished into the night.
Damon barely registered his escape. The fire. His family. All thought of Riley vanished, replaced by a primal need to protect Sarah and the children. The roar of the flames was louder now, a hungry beast devouring his home. Thick, acrid smoke filled his lungs.
"Sarah! Leo! Maya!" he yelled, stumbling through the smoke-filled wreckage of the dining room. He could hear their coughing, their frightened cries from the back of the house.
He pushed through the heat, the flames licking at his clothes. Using his unnatural strength, he shoved aside a burning armchair that had fallen into the hallway. He could see the orange glow under the door leading to the back bedrooms.
He reached the door, the wood hot to the touch. "Sarah! Open the door!"
"It's stuck!" she cried, panic escalating in her voice. "Something fell against it!"
He slammed his shoulder against the door, feeling the wood groan and splinter. He hit it again, harder, feeling the strange power surge through him. With a final, desperate heave, the door burst inward, tearing away from its frame.
The room was full of smoke, visibility almost zero. He could hear their frantic breathing, their sobs. "Mommy! Daddy!" Leo cried.
"I'm here! Where are you?!" Damon choked out, shielding his face from the heat, his eyes burning. He lunged into the room, guided by their voices. He tripped over something – fallen debris?
Heat seared his skin. A burning beam crashed down nearby. The roar of the fire was deafening. He felt searing pain on his arms, his face. He crawled forward, blindly reaching out. His fingers brushed against something small, a child's leg.
"Leo! Maya!" He grabbed for them, trying to pull them closer, to maybe shield them with his own body, to find a way out. Where was Sarah?
He felt hands on him, pulling. Not his children's. Stronger. Smoke filled his lungs. His vision blurred... the heat was overwhelming...
He woke to the sterile smell of antiseptic and the dull ache of widespread pain. His body felt heavy, wrapped in bandages. A low, steady beep filled the air – a heart monitor. He was in a hospital bed.
He tried to move, a searing pain radiating from his arms, his chest, his face. His throat was raw. He coughed, a dry, rattling sound.
A nurse, her face kind but weary, entered the room. "Mr. Ryder? You're awake. That's good."
"Sar... rah?" His voice was a whisper. "Kids? Leo? Maya? Are they... are they okay?"
The nurse's expression softened with pity, a look Damon had seen before in movies, but never imagined directed at himself. She didn't answer immediately, just adjusted his IV drip, fussing with the blankets.
Then, a doctor entered. He was older, his face grave. He introduced himself, but the words didn't quite register. Damon only cared about one thing.
"My family," Damon croaked, trying to push himself up despite the pain. "My wife, my children. Are they safe? Did they get out?"
The doctor sat on the edge of the bed, his voice low and gentle, the words falling like stones. "Mr. Ryder... I'm so sorry. There was extensive smoke inhalation... and the fire... they didn't make it."
The world tilted. They didn't make it. Dead. Sarah. Leo. Maya. Gone. Because of Riley. Because of the argument. Because of the fire. Because of the lies.
He didn't shout. He didn't cry immediately. He just lay there, broken, the pain of his burns a dull throb compared to the agony in his heart. He was alive. Riley was likely alive, escaped into the night. But his family, his reason for living, was gone, reduced to ash because of a friend's mad ambition.