A Reckoning in Flames

d in the dim

y boarded-up windows, but ins

d with the for

e regular, focused solely

ch food, watching me eat it to

being was an

m lying in the old, s

dull. My skin was pa

st haunting

on was a sl

pering to the empty air, telling him

only comf

quent now, but each one was de

as preparing for "Angel," filled

er eyes glittering. "He's finally go

if her own daughter had been erased,

turned. I felt nothing but a

ng I had lost, everything t

era in the room. "For

ensure I didn't try to harm

constant s

e never spoke to me, only to Ethan,

ah. I was "the subj

ss was a cru

nd other than my own breathing or the frantic

came when

an was late

. The hunger

y arrived, his

he bottling plant," he mu

of their local influence, was struggling.

down, his move

r, more carewo

o softness in h

e bulge of

he said, placing hi

away from

ed. "Don't be d

t mattered. My suffe

a, for this child, festered