Burning Sand 2 Novels & Stories

I cried as I kept telling her I was sorry, but she just smiled and said, "I've already forgiven you." She told me she hoped I could move on from this and live a good life. Her warm hand stroked my hair as she said those words, just like I had once imagined when I was younger. But I might never be able to move on. This was what I owed her. Not long after, Brandon—whom I had tricked—found his way here. He grabbed me by the throat and demanded, "Where's Daniella? Where did you take my Daniella?" I told him Daniella was dead.

Inside, it was choked with dust. "Don't worry, Connor," one of his friends had told him during a conversation Samantha had overheard. "We've already set up the timed incendiary. You just need to lure her in and lock the door from the outside. Once it starts burning, she won't be able to get out. Based on the last fire, wait fifteen minutes, then go in and save her. She won't die—maybe just a few burns. But when she sees you coming through the flames, she'll be so grateful and start crying." Samantha had heard it all. And she was ready to let "Samantha" be buried in this fire for good.

He landed beside me a second later, already pulling me toward the dunes, away from the burning stilts. The house went up fast. Cedar and old insulation and whatever accelerant had been used turned the place into a torch that lit the beach for a hundred yards in every direction. We made it to the first rise of dunes before the heat became impossible. I turned back once and saw the windows blow out in a shower of glass that glittered like the diamond studs still in my ears.

My fingers hadn’t made sense of its heat yet. “Smoke,” he said, before the wind brought it to us. He didn’t lift his chin to smell like a man in a story. He closed his eyes. I felt the brand wake hard against my chest, not heat, pressure—like a stranger pressing their palms to a window and looking in. Then voices, human ones: “Fire! South storehouse!” and “Get the boy out!” and “Where is the sand? Where is the sand?”

"I don't believe in miracles anymore, Ben. I believe in stubbornly refusing to die. There's a difference." "Is there?" he asked, his voice softer now. "Sometimes I think your stubborn refusal to give up is the closest thing to a miracle I've seen since The Burning." The mention of The Burning made my chest tighten, as it always did. The memories were still too fresh, too raw. I could still smell the smoke, hear the screms, see the sky turning that terrible shade of orange as the world caught fire. I pushed the thoughts away, focusing instead on putting one foot in front of the other.

My lips burn from several splits now packed with… sand. I wipe my face which only spreads the sand further. I spit more water, gulping down air and choking on it like my lungs aren’t used to breathing anymore. My hair sticks to my face in wet, sandy clumps. My skin is raw and blistered from the sun. It comes back to me in fragments. Fractured memories of a fire, of a fight, of death, hurtle to the forefront of my mind. I remember the wave last. I remember wrapping my arms around Logan’s waist and…

As I watched the flames flicker, I felt a strange calm wash over me. Suddenly, the door burst open, and Sandra rushed in, wide-eyed with shock. Ignoring the searing heat, she lunged forward and snatched the burning photos with her bare hands. She beat at them frantically to smother the flames. Anxious, she demanded, "Why are you burning these things?" Sandra finally managed to put out the flames, but her hands were blistered from the heat. Her eyes filled with tears as she glared at me. "Fred, do you remember what these things meant to us? How could you burn them? I sent them to you because I thought…"

Do you even know what that feels like, huh, you lustful b*stard! King Sandros was extremely enraged, glaring straight at Blaze. “You will pay for what you did, Rockefeller!” “Hey old thing, your little guy is practically a fossil at this point, how shameless can you be? Get out of my way if you don’t have the stamina! What are you trying to achieve by holding onto her? Do you want to die earlier or something? I’ll burn you to ashes then!” Whoosh- Flames burst out of nowhere, filling the skies.

The debris was so sharp and pierced deep enough to blind him. “YOU!!!!!” He instantly became crazy. The tension unintentionally rose as Second was still celebrating among the fallen sand around him. “This is the biggest present ever. Sha– The Holiness will certainly love it.” Second mumbled alone, his blow irises excitedly eyeing the angry sand dragon. “I’ll kill you!!!” Second round commenced!

In a matter of seconds, fire sprung up on those warriors and started burning them alive. Waves of miserable screams could be heard all over the place, and flames soared into the sky. “Stop it!” An extremely old voice sounded in the Fryee family. A pile of yellow sand in the distance exploded in the next second, and a package flew toward them. Sand began to rise from all directions, forming a shower of sand as it fell from the sky. It put out the flames that were consuming those warriors. “Greetings, Osraed!” “Greetings, Osraed!”