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Who cares whether a guy likes you when you can havemoreinstead?
"Gabe?" I ask him a moment later, reaching for his hand and holding it tight.
He looks down at me from his seated position at my side. "Yeah, baby girl?"
"I'm glad you're my creep."
He smirks. "Is that your way of thanking me for saving you?"
I laugh, and the paper wriggles with my flesh when I do. "Don't get a big head about it. I'm not saying I'm cured. You didn't just invent some fucked-up anorexia treatment. You know that, right?"
"I don't need you cured, baby girl." He leans up, still holding my hand, and with his free hand, pets my hair. "It will always be a struggle, and there's not a single thing I can do to stop that. All I need is for you to know your way back to me."
"I know my way back to you."
"Good," he releases my hand and stops petting my hair to stand. He's so tall beside me as I lie naked on the cold stone floor. My breath spills from my lungs even faster as he pulls the lighter from his back pocket, flips the lid on the black Zippo, and ignites the flame.
"Ready, Firefly?"
"Ready," I squeak.
My heart batters my chest, and my stomach somersaults as I look at him. I'm having a hard time breathing.
Broken glass, smoke, and ash.
I start to cry, blinking away the tears as fast as I can.
Screams, bleeding cuts, and the groan of crushed metal.
His image wavers behind my tears.
Fire, screeching tires, and the pressure of the seat belt against my chest.
Through my bleary vision, I watch as he drops the Zippo, and it hits my side. The flash paper ignites instantaneously and all of me goes up in blinding orange light.
I'm hot, burning, and on fire for a fraction of a second, but then cold again in an instant. I'm still crying when I look down and find that I'm naked with tendrils of smoke curling in the air above my bare skin.
"Oh my God," I tell him, trying to catch my breath.
He grins wickedly down at me.
"I knew you would be beautiful when you burned, baby girl."
I feel beautiful as I look back up at him, smoke dispersing in the air, and find him still staring at me.
23
AVERY
It's strange seeing my parents in person. I knew my entire world was about to be engulfed in hellfire after Gabe let me out of the basement, but I couldn't stay down there forever. Even without the police about to show up at my father's behest and storm the campus, I would've had to eventually leave.
Gabe led me out of the basement, and I walked down the halls, headed back to my dorm room. Staffing was thin—almost transparent—as I navigated the hallways. It was just as he said. They were so busy looking for me outside that they couldn't turn their gazes inside and find me. I almost made it to the girls' dormitory, too, before a guard spotted me.
"Hey!" she called after me, a gobsmacked expression blasting across her round face. "Hey, you!"
I kept walking, and she reached for her radio. "I have the lost student with me on level 2, northwest quadrant. Requesting backup immediately."
Then she ran forward, bolting after me, and caught me by the elbow.
