I hated fire. I hated how the smoke wrapped around my naked body, stinging my skin with defiant embers. I hated the smell of burnt flesh, the ashes heavy on my tongue, my charred soul like splinters deep in my chest. She's dead, Juliet. There's nothing else you can do- Dragging my bleeding feet across the concrete, I walked toward the flames. Heat licked at my cheeks. Sirens off in the distance cursed my ears. Dead, dead, dead. All of this started because I made a choice-because I fell in love, because I was a lonely girl clinging to dangerous men. She was dead because of them.
