Page 59 of Bells

She was dead because of me.

That’s just what my love got me. Murder. Nearly losing my family.

Ashes stepped forward with Stitches and they lifted Bells up and dropped her body in the metal burning barrel Ashes had acquired from god knew where. It was new and larger than his others. She fit nearly perfectly inside it, her blonde hair still spilling over the edge, her feet barely visible as her body bent to fit.

It was an ugly funeral. An ugly burial.

I had no idea what Ashes had put in the barrel to burn with her, but I watched as he tossed a lit match inside and it erupted in brilliant orange and red flames that licked the night sky.

The heat from the fire was so hot, we had to step back several feet. None of us spoke for hours as we stood and watched her burn.

Silent sentries, guarding the dead.

We were depraved. Sick. But we were patients at Chapel Crest. We weren’t students here. Students learned. Patients suffered.

And we suffered as we watched Bells burn in that barrel.

For hours.

In silence.

Her hair ignited. Her skin melted.

And she slowly turned to ash just like Ashes had promised.

The flames gave way to smoke before it became nothing.

It had been all night, but felt like only minutes.

Ashes stepped forward and went to the barrel and peered inside it. I looked away, my stomach sick.

Stitches and him spoke, and I heard the sound of a plastic bag.

“You’ll be OK,” Church murmured to me.

I nodded, my throat tight.

“She deserved this kind of love,” he continued. “You know she did. It’s over now. You’re free. So is she.”

I nodded again, unable to speak.

Church squeezed my shoulder before he tugged me to him and wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace. I sobbed softly in his arms, holding him back.

“It’s over, Sinclair. A new story begins today. It’ll be the best story ever told. I promise you that, brother. Do you believe me?”

“Yes,” I rasped in a wobbly voice as I clung to him. “I believe you.”

“Together.”

“Never apart,”I whispered.

“Through whatever weather,” Ashes said, joining us and wrapping his arms around us.

“From the endings to the start.” Stitches’s head rested against mine, his warm hand on my back.

“I love you guys,” I choked out. “Thank you.”

“We love you too,” Church answered.

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