Beneath The Ashes.

en years, but I could still trac

tho

est Flame Festival

on both sides of the road, tall pines like crooked sentinels watching my car crawl along the winding path. The summ

't slo

ot inside. When I left, I swore I'd never come back. But here I was older, sharper, and drag

ust a date and

r what they kne

ecade deadening. I should've thrown it away, i should've deleted t

, the angry part, still needed an a

windows still had the same lace curtains, drawn tightly shut like the house was ashamed of itself. Aunt

ght open on its own. My reflection in the windshield looked like a stranger. Pale skin,

Somewhere in the t

home, Se

slowly, touching the doorframe where my height was still marked in f

e that never moved, my family, me at eight, squinting at the sun, my sister, Rowan, with her wild red curls and chipped hair, Dad with his arm around Mom,

came from the kitc

"You're st

s on a dish towel. "You're

here,

. The kind of scent you didn't appreciate until it was gone for years. When she pul

letter," she

"You didn'

ped lower. "But I th

olded piece of paper toward me, the same

e said. "No return addres

word. It felt li

a. "I haven't told anyone you're

always

someone asked about you, a boy... well, a man now

turned. "De

ar above his eyebrow, sai

the last person to see her alive before the fire. The b

een him in

at the street lamp flickering across the road, the one outside the old Kincaid place. That

ept

ed alive. Along with Mom and Dad. And I'd spent ten years tryi

wanted me

pocket and lit it with a match. W

y knew the w

r what they kn

crooked bell tower. But the inside had changed. New carpet, new shelves.

up. "Can

r newspaper rec

d. "You're not f

ed to

am

al

ed from her fac

odd

We thought yo

small smile

files boxes, I spent hours sifting through yellowed pages, grainy photographs, old f

ething

id 3:03 AM. Some names were redacted. The police report was missing pages. Buried b

ccident. They m

roat

pocket and left the libr

fenced off now, overgrown with weeds. The burned foun

d over t

mewhere deep in the earth, the fire s

ed foundation and whispered the one

what happe

e, a twi

sharply a

rr

the fence, watching m

voice low. "You shou

dn't

did you?

dened. "Because it