Page 9 of Burn for Me

Humming a tune I only vaguely recollected from my childhood, I worked the almost empty pot of accelerant over the furnishings.

An internal door in the room remained ajar, so I pushed it open with my boot. A bare foot greeted me. Along with a red puddle.

Sighing, I stepped into the bathroom. A beautiful woman sat slumped back against the wall, a bloody wound on her chest. Crouching down, I looked into her pretty face.

The accelerant squelched between my gloved fingers as I reached forward and spread some across her forehead.

A whispered groan escaped her lips, and I fell backward, almost shitting myself in surprise.

Holy fuck.

She was alive.

Backing up, I stared at her. Her face was pale, and her elegant white dress was stained with a streak of red down the front. Dark lashes flickered against her cheeks, and my breath caught within my mask as she opened her eyes.

Despite being unfocused, they were like great pools as big and deep as the ocean itself. I’d never seen eyes quite like them. Almost too big for her face, overriding her other features.

My pulse quickened when her gaze focused on me.

‘Please, help me,’ she whispered in a hoarse tumble of words.

Leave no witnesses.

Leave no fucking witnesses.

She was as good as dead, anyway. Burning her in the home wouldn’t make a difference.

Right?

Standing up, I stepped back right as she reached out for me. Her blood-stained fingers grazed my thigh, and I sprung back as her touch seemed to burn through to my skin.

‘Please, don’t leave me,’ she sobbed, her voice catching. A trail of wetness cascaded down her cheek, and the urge to touch the salty stream made me clenchmy fingers.

I wanted to take her.

No-one would know. She’d be a ghost, like me.

If she didn’t die.

Shaking my head, I ruled out the insane idea. They’d expect a fourth body, and no matter how well I incinerated the home, they’d eventually discover a missing skeleton. Bones didn’t burn well.

I resumed humming while spreading the remaining accelerant around her, her sweet sobs harmonising with my tune.

‘Come back for me.’ Her rasping voice reached me as I stepped out of the bathroom. ‘Please?’

The words immediately transported me back in time. She wasn’t the first to ask this of me, but the last time someone did, I had promised to help—and then broke that promise.

This time, I walked away without looking back.

You couldn't break a promise you never made.

FIVE

Laura

His footprints faded as the seconds ticked by, and despair welled up in my chest.

But I was alive.

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