After I Was Gone
Bobby had suggested taking her, but Audrey had said, "Bobby, every time I think of them, I remember their burned-up bodies. It's terrifying."
Afraid she'd live in the past, Bobby never brought it up again.
But those bodies she found so disgusting—they were the people I loved most.
Audrey's own birth parents had died in that same fire. And yet, every October, I'd see her sneaking off to the cemetery, placing flowers at their grave.
She wasn't afraid of corpses. She just never saw my family as anything more than a place to feed off of.
I clutched those two medals tightly, my teeth grinding so hard I could hear it.