was thick with the choking smell of burning wood and melted plastic. My cheek was pressed against

ter

y muscles aching with a phantom memory of abuse and exhaustion. I looked down at my hands. They were covered in soot, but t

my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. This was real. The flames licking u

ire. The beginning of the e

was back. I had been given a second chance. The boiling oil, the tra

t cans are hidden properly! The fir

ngly familiar. It was Chloe White. It came

the insurance report will show faulty wiring. They' ll never suspect a thing. Ava will be devastated, she'l

cial kind of torture. The casual cruelty, the meticulous planning-it was all there. I w

h hitched in my throat. The naive, trusting Ava was dead, boiled away in a vat of oil in a future I

ld it felt like ice in my veins. The shock and confusion

ve

rs. I wouldn't just survive this time. I would make them burn in the very fire they had

most deafening. Footsteps hurried from the storeroom. It was time. The performance was about