Chapter 2 "Fire and Ash"

EMBER

Ember's consciousness returned in fragments.

First, awareness of her body heavy, foreign, like it belonged to someone else. Her mouth tasted like copper and something bitter. Her head pounded.

Second, sounds muffled music, distant voices, her own breathing.

Third, sensation fabric against her skin, cold air, something uncomfortable and wrong that she couldn't quite identify.

Her eyes fluttered open. Darkness. No, not complete darkness a sliver of light under a door. Where was she?

Ember tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. The room spun violently, and her stomach lurched. She pressed her hand against the mattress beneath her a mattress? Not her bed. Her bed didn't feel like this.

Panic fluttered in her chest, but her thoughts were too slow to catch hold of it. Everything felt distant, wrapped in cotton.

Where am I? What happened?

She remembered the party. Remembered Maya dragging her inside. Remembered the bathroom, and then

Nothing.

A blank space where memory should be.

Ember forced herself to sitting, moving slowly to keep the nausea at bay. Her clothes felt wrong. Twisted. Her cardigan was buttoned incorrectly. Why was it buttoned incorrectly?

She looked around the dark room, making out shapes a desk, a dresser, posters on the walls. Not her room. Definitely not her room.

How did I get here?

Her purse. She needed her purse, needed her phone. Ember slid off the bed, her legs shaking, and fumbled on the floor until her hands closed around the familiar leather. She pulled out her phone, the screen painfully bright in the darkness.

2:23 AM.

Eleven missed calls from Maya. Fifteen texts.

The most recent: EM WHERE ARE YOU IM FREAKING OUT

Ember's fingers trembled as she tried to type a response, but her coordination was shot. The letters kept swimming on the screen.

She needed to leave. Needed to find Maya. Needed to get out of this room and away from whatever had happened here even if she couldn't remember what that was.

The door was unlocked. Thank God, the door was unlocked.

Ember stumbled into the hallway, using the wall for support. The music was softer now, the party dying down. A few people still moved around downstairs, but most of the crowd had dispersed.

She made it to the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands, taking each step carefully. Her body felt bruised, tender in ways that made her stomach twist with dread she couldn't quite name.

"Ember!"

Maya's voice. Maya's face, suddenly in front of her, eyes wide with relief and fear.

"Oh my God, Em, where have you been? I've been looking everywhere" Maya stopped, really looking at her. "Jesus, are you okay? You look terrible."

"I don't" Ember's voice came out hoarse. "I don't feel good. Can we go home?"

"Of course. Come on." Maya wrapped an arm around her waist, supporting her weight. "Did you drink more after I lost you? You're totally wasted."

"I only had one cup. Maybe two. I don't remember."

"Well, it definitely hit you hard." Maya guided her toward the door. "Never again, okay? I'm never dragging you to another party. This was a bad idea."

The cool night air hit Ember's face like a slap. She gulped it down, trying to clear the fog from her head. Students lingered on the front lawn, smoking, talking in low voices. A few couples were wrapped around each other.

Everything looked normal. Like just another Friday night.

So why did Ember feel like something terrible had happened?

"Can you walk?" Maya asked. "Sterling Hall is only like ten minutes."

"I think so."

They walked in silence, Ember leaning heavily on her friend. The campus was quiet at this hour, most students either still at parties or already asleep. Streetlights cast long shadows across the pathways. Somewhere in the distance, a siren wailed.

"I'm sorry," Maya said quietly. "I shouldn't have left you alone. I got caught up talking to Josh and I just , I'm really sorry, Em."

"It's okay," Ember whispered, though she wasn't sure if it was.

Something had happened tonight. Something important. But every time she tried to grasp the memory, it slipped away like smoke.

By the time they reached Sterling Hall, Ember's legs were shaking so badly Maya had to half carry her up the stairs to their third-floor room. Their RA, a senior named Brittany, poked her head out of her room as they passed.

"Everything okay?" Brittany asked, frowning.

"Fine," Maya said quickly. "She just had too much to drink. First time."

Brittany's expression softened. "Make sure she drinks water. And if she starts throwing up, take her to health services."

"Will do."

Inside their room, Maya deposited Ember on her bed and immediately filled her water bottle from the mini-fridge.

"Drink," Maya ordered. "All of it."

Ember obeyed, the cold water soothing her raw throat. She drained half the bottle before setting it on her nightstand.

"Do you want to change?" Maya asked, pulling pajamas from Ember's dresser.

"Yeah."

Maya helped her out of her clothes Ember's fingers were too uncoordinated to manage buttons and into soft cotton pajama pants and an oversized t-shirt. The whole time, Ember kept noticing little things that were wrong. A button missing from her cardigan. A small tear in her tights. A tenderness between her legs that shouldn't be there.

But she said nothing. Because she didn't know what to say. Because she couldn't remember.

"Better?" Maya asked.

Ember nodded, even though it was a lie.

"Get some sleep. You'll feel better in the morning."

Maya retreated to her own bed, and within minutes, her breathing evened out into sleep. She'd always been able to fall asleep anywhere, instantly.

Ember lay in the darkness, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember.

The party. The bathroom. The hallway.

And then nothing.

Just a blank space where hours of her life should be.

She touched her forehead, which felt hot despite the cool room. Her fingers came away damp with sweat.

What happened to me tonight?

But there was no answer. Only silence and the steady rhythm of Maya's breathing and the inexplicable certainty that her life had just changed in ways she couldn't begin to understand.

TYLER

Tyler Brett woke up at 3:47 AM feeling like a god.

He lay in his own bed he'd moved to his actual bedroom after disposing of the girl with his hands behind his head, grinning at the ceiling. Another night where he'd gotten exactly what he wanted with zero consequences.

The girl had probably made it home by now. Probably thought she'd just gotten too drunk, blacked out, woke up in a random bedroom. She'd be embarrassed, maybe confused, but she wouldn't know. They never knew.

Tyler reached for his phone to check social media, see if anyone had posted photos from the party.

That's when the first wave of heat hit him.

It started in his chest a warmth that felt pleasant at first, like drinking hot coffee on a cold day. But it grew, intensified, spreading through his veins like wildfire.

Tyler sat up, suddenly wide awake. His skin felt too tight. His heart was racing.

Must be the alcohol. Or the adrenaline.

He got up, stumbled to his bathroom, and splashed water on his face. The reflection staring back at him looked flushed, his pupils dilated.

The heat was getting worse. Not just warm now burning. Like his blood had turned to acid.

"What the fuck?" Tyler whispered.

He grabbed his phone again, fingers shaking, and tried to Google his symptoms. But his vision was blurring. The words on the screen wouldn't stay still.

His forehead began to throb a sharp, stabbing pain that made him gasp. Tyler pressed his palm against it and felt heat radiating from his skin.

I need help. I need to call someone.

But when he tried to dial, his hands wouldn't cooperate. The phone slipped from his fingers, clattering to the floor.

Tyler collapsed beside it, his body convulsing. The pain was everywhere now his chest, his head, his limbs. Like he was being torn apart from the inside.

He tried to scream, but only a wet gurgle emerged.

His last coherent thought was: This isn't possible. This isn't real.

Then the darkness took him, and Tyler Brett thought nothing at all.