The finals were finally over. They weren’t that bad but she wished she had more time to prepare, and then maybe she would have done better on them. She was sure she’d done well in history because Ash turned out to be a better teacher than Mr. Scott. Ash kept telling her not to fret, that he was sure she’d done well. Easy for him to say, he wasn’t in the hot room, but she never contradicted him. His moods seemed to be connected to hers, whenever she was sad or worried or depressed, he made it his job to cheer her up and if she were still in that rotten mood, he would get depressed too. She found it silly, but at the same time, it showed her how much he loved her. So she made it a point to try and stay positive and happy when she was around him. Ann and Maria were moving back into the apartment now that exams were over and so were Lee’s nightmares. She was happy to have her sisters back, but she knew she would miss the alone mome

It was a happy picture, with her seated on her father’s lap and Alice in her mother’s arms with her little fingers in her mouth. Jayson was standing behind her mother and father with his huge dorky smile on. She’d missed that smile.The first day she spoke after her family got killed was the day she saw their picture in the newspaper. Her social worker had to file a motion with the court, declaring that she hadn’t died in the fire. It was a long process but she was finally legally alive. She was glad that the newspapers hadn’t found out that she was still alive, she didn’t want the attention and maybe not physically, but a part of her had died with her family that day.She looked up. Ash was standing at the door, his face distressed. She stood up and walked to him. She took his hand in hers and walked back to the living room. Without a word, she handed Ann the clipping then led Ash back to the couch. He sat down before she climbed back onto his lap, burying her head in his chest. He h

“Don’t worry, I know them all.” He sounded so casual.“Oh, you had time to talk to them when you came?”“No, not really.” There was a shadow across his face, his eyes shifted and looked behind her. She turn around, he was staring at Ash.“Dad, what’s going on?” She could see the silent conversation they were having, the trepidation in their faces was so evident it couldn’t have been clearer if the word were stamped on their foreheads.Ash stood up and moved toward them slowly, dragging out the seconds he had left to reach her. He sat on the table facing her. He took her hands in his and buried his face in them, her palms felt wet, was he crying? She’d seen him sad, angry and in agony, but this was very new to her. He kissed the inside of her palms and whispered in them. The words sounded like ‘forgive me’, but she couldn’t be sure. He was scaring her.She plac

Joe and Billy moved fast behind her. Ash took slow steps toward her, his arms wide, and his hands up.“Come near me and you’ll regret it!” she hissed the words at Ash with such venom it stopped him dead in his tracks.“Lee, you need to calm down,” he said it slow as if he were talking to an infant.“You knew about me, my dad, my family and you kept it from me! You know exactly how much pain it caused me.” She turned to him, she forgot she loved him, she forgot the fear of losing him, and all she wanted was to attack him, rip his heart out and shred it just like they’d done to hers.“It wasn’t the right time—” he managed to get out before she cut him off.“Give me that bullshit about the right time again and I swear…” She felt a rumble deep inside her.Ash inched closer to her. “It wasn’t my place.”It irritated her how

“Yes. I know it sounds impossible, I didn’t believe it myself. I thought it was my imagination, or my nightmares but more vivid and complete. But I never saw how they died. Since Ash and my dad didn’t dare deny it, I knew it was the truth.”Ann looked spacey, her eye brows were raised, and her voice a whisper, “And how did you do that?”“I don’t know.” She’d never thought about it until now. She had been able to read his mind as if it was something she did every day, it hadn’t occurred to her how abnormal it was. She also used to struggle to remember her family, but right then, sitting in that room she effortlessly remembered every experience she had in it. She was now the weirdest person she knew, as if she didn’t have enough going on in her life! “How the hell did I do that?”“What I would like to know is exactly how the guys fit into this?” Maria hadn&rsqu