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Talia gave me simple directions after her soft kisses in the hallway before class started. Her hand teased the bulge in my pants, getting me worked up.
She pressed her forehead to mine. “Just do this for me, Tommy. When we get home, you can sit by the fire and play ‘Hotel California’. Close your eyes, baby.”
That sounds like heaven, strumming my guitar with my girl in my arms. Even though Talia isn’t my girl—and she will never be. A girl like Talia cannot be tamed and my heart belongs to someone else.
She’s all sweet whispers and kisses right now, but Talia Vital is testing me. Everything Talia does is manipulative and serves her own agenda, but I’ll be damned if I don’t like it. I’m an agent to her dark agenda, and I don’t ask questions—it’s easier that way.
The professor starts his lecture, taking center stage in his too-small suit, pushing up his aviators with every student pouring over his every word. The students scribble away with their pencils, some crinkling their noses at the small amounts of kerosene Bax left around the room. He doused this curtain as well. Oily sweetness tickles the back of my throat.
I stand perfectly still, and Talia’s eyes don’t leave mine as I watch through the small slit in the curtain.
Her eyes are smoldering, black smoke swirling inside of them as the light dances from the fancy chandelier above her. Whenever she’s about to cause chaos, her energy shifts like ashes in the wind.
Light the match.
I hold the matchbox, take one out, and play with it with my fingers, studying it. Seconds tick by, and before I know it, the hour is almost over, and all I can do is gaze through this slit in the curtain as my adrenaline spikes. Sweat cascades down my neck, and the rough burlap scrapes against my skin, making it hard to breathe.
I’m a lover, not a killer. Killing people doesn’t come as naturally to me as it does the others. And if I get caught, we could lose everything.
Our parents’ ability to protect us has limits, and should I fail, my father will have my ass. Revealing this town’s secrets could lead to multiple death sentences.
Light the damn match—
I clench my teeth…goddamn it. With a twitch of my fingers, the fire flickers into existence, and I hold it in front of my face, opening the curtains a crack. I scan the audience one last time, staring out at the poor suckers who are about to have a terrible day.
Rather than darkness, a beacon of light illuminates from the shadows. A beautiful ghost from my past.
The white of her eyes shine, even from way over there. Her head’s down, pencil in her hand. She’s still the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.
“Firefly…” I whisper, too stunned to breathe, and I pull my mask off so I can get a better look at her. She has the same frosty eyes and the same face. God, I miss her face. She takes my breath away.
Except it’s not her. This girl has dark hair.
Tommy…now!
I blink and Didi’s gone, and a blaze of fire shoots up the curtain, causing dark plumes of smoke to fill the room and the chaos we carefully constructed erupts.
Damn. I actually did it.
Everyone screams and pushes each other over to get to the exit. As a student in this class, my sudden appearance won’t be suspicious. I move into the crowd and pause, looking back toward where she was.
“Tommy, let’s go, man.” Bax is suddenly behind me, pushing me forward, and I fall into the smokey hell. I’m not budging; I just saw Didi, I swear it. I just saw a goddamn ghost.
“We gotta go, man.” Bax continues to urge me forward as the room behind me begins to disintegrate into flames and dark smoke. People are trying without success to escape the theater, scrambling over the seats, desperate to exit. Many have abandoned their bags and books, and they all pour out of the room before the fire takes over.
I stand, frozen in time, desperate to see her again. Desperate for any part of her until her memory consumes me.
Did I actually see her, or did I imagine it? How did I overlook her before? I’ve seen her in recent months, or at least, I thought I did. But each time, it turned out to be someone else.
I shake my head and pull back into myself.
It can’t be Didi. It’s impossible, because she’s dead…and I need to come to terms with that.
After all, I’m the one who buried her.
The sprinklers finally go off, a cool mist hissing over the flames, and I stand perfectly still as the water washes over me and the flames hiss around me. I should let the toxic air suffocate me.
Talia emerges from the darkness, her eyes fiery. She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the exit, where a bottleneck of people are pushing each other. “Tommy. Let’s go.” She’s not concerned about the black smoke building around us; this is an order. She’ll give me hell later for freezing and choking up the way I did. We follow the crowd, and eventually, everyone files out of the burning room.
