"Elizabeth!?" Maple cried, standing up when Kat began to flail side to side. "What's wrong?!"

"Lizbeth's hurting!" Trout proclaimed

"What's going on!?" Gust shouted, looking between the chaos behind and in front of him.

"It's coming!" Lilly shouted, her eyes snapping open. "It got past us!"

Like a many-legged spider, the shadow was advancing towards them, its prey dangling and flailing in the air above it. The grass around the small family began to grow wild and tall. The trees nearby closed in, digging through earth and stone to form a protective circle. Roots erupted from the earth, slapping and twisting, threatening anything to come near. Lilly was screaming, blood running down from her nose.

"You're pushing yourself too far!" Gust cried, looking around at the trees as they moved closer and closer together, barely allowing an inch between them as they encircled the Quincy's. Gust looked upwards, the only gap offered by the loose branches. "Damnit!"

With a cry of effort of his own, Gust shot his tree-arm upwards, the shield growing taller and wider, spreading open like an umbrella until it blocked off the last bit of light above them.

By this time, Kat had stopped flailing, but she had hunched over on the ground, still trying desperately to close her ears. Maple hovered over her, looking around as her siblings formed a fortified dome between them and the shadow. A bitter tear rolled down her face as she watched them hunched over in pain. Was this the best they could do? Was this all she could do?

There were only fragments of light that could pierce through the defenses, but it was enough for her to see Trout as he crouched over Kat, rubbing her back as she continued to lie, trembling. As he did, she could see his head moving between Lilly and Gust.

"Everyone's hurting," he said, as if an aside to himself.

"Give me my power back!" Maple shouted, stepping up to Trout. The anger was familiar, almost comfortable, but there was no outlet. No spark to ignite it. "If you are just going to sit there and be useless then give it back to me!"

Trout finally looked at her, but she could only make out shadows on his face.

"Maple, don't shout," he said. "You're being mean."

The trees began to groan around them. Aged wood aching and bending. Lilly wasn't giving reports anymore. Maple could barely make out her form, but she could see her slumped over with her face in the dirt.

"We are all going to die if you don't do something!" Maple snapped. "Trout, please!"

"Death is not a necessity."

Maple felt another shout catch firm in her throat. Even through all the shifting and rustling of the wall of trees around them, the voice was clear. Like before, it whispered, light as air, but seemed to surround them like a frigid chill.

"Surrender. Join me, and no one shall die. Allow me to use each of you until the boy is free and then I will free you."

Teeth clenched, hands tightened into trembled fists, Maple whirled away from her brother and looked around the wall of trees. "Just try it! You get any closer and I will burn you away!"

"You currently lack the power to do so, do you not? Gustifer's foresight tells me there is nothing you can do to stop me. No fire will come."

Then, Gust started to scream. His face went pale, head tossing side to side as he began to rise up from the ground. Maple blinked against the light that suddenly invaded their dome as the top – Gust's arm – was slowly being lifted away. In a panic, Maple ran and wrapped her arms around his dangling legs, pulling back against the darkness with all her might.

"It's tearing! I feel it tearing!" Gust cried out.

"Let him go!" Maple hollered.

"This can be done painlessly. There is an easier way. Simply surrender yourselves."

Groaning, cracking, splintering. Gust going paler, tears spilling down his face as bits of bark rained down around them. Then, with a final abrupt snap the dome was ripped away, Gust's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he and Maple collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Immediately, Maple was back on her knees, shaking Gust's immobile form, shouting his name, tears blurring her vision.

"Please, cease this needless struggle."

Hands twisted in what remained of her brother's shirt, Maple looked up to the now exposed sky. Where her brother's arm once covered, several figures could be seen. Stallion, Ms. Garcia, and another boy all hovered above the trees, their necks craned back and dark tendrils shoved down their throats. They all hung suspended around a fourth, twisted body. It hung there, legs and arms twisted, white, sagging face hanging to the side over the source of the many tendrils: a deep neck wound.

"Clearly the ones I am forced to hurt are close to you and you would do anything to keep them safe. I understand that. I sympathize with it. There is someone I cannot live without. Someone who—"

"You're mean!" a small, yet forceful voice declared.

Broken from a stupor she had not even realized she was under, Maple turned from the horrid sight above her to her youngest brother. Trout had stepped up beside her, angry tears in his eyes as he glared up at the puppets.

"Mean?" the voice repeated, echoing out from somewhere behind the tendrils, somewhere hidden within the wound. "I do not understand."

"You shouldn't hurt people!" the boy pressed before pointing at Kat, Gust, and Lilly who all lay still on the ground and then pointing up at the dangling bodies. "You hurt seven people! That's too many!"

"Trout," Maple hissed, "be quiet!"

"No, you be quiet!" Trout snapped back, turning his head to her but keeping his eyes on the ground. "You hurt people too!"

"The child is right," the monster consented. "I have hurt too many people, and I have hurt more than who you see before you."

"See?" Trout said to his sister, as if exasperated with her.

"But I do not do so to be cruel. Sometimes you must hurt others to protect the people you care for."

Trout paused at this, chewing on the inside of his cheek. Maple slowly stood, scanning around the small circle of trees. The others were still not moving. The monster could have easily cut down the trees, but it left them on purpose. It knew they were trapped. But, somehow, Trout talking to it was keeping it from attacking. Maybe if they could stall them until Lilly regained consciousness...

"I don't like it," Trout finally answered.

"I do not like it either. That is why—"

"I don't like you!"

"Trout!" Maple snapped, her eyes going to the tendrils, body bracing itself to move.

But neither the bodies nor the tendrils made to attack them. Everything hung motionless and silent. With no immediate way to escape, Maple could only watch, afraid that even speaking would break the impossible chance Trout had given them.

"Though I do not truly know it, I do not believe I am liked by anyone," the monster finally spoke up, speaking slowly, as if unsure of its own words. "I never found it a necessity, but it mattered a great deal to the one who matters to me. Tell me, child, what do you not like about me?"

"My throat hurts," Trout muttered.

Maple could only stare at her brother.

"Would you like some water?"

Trout nodded.

"There is a stream nearby. I will return."

Hardly believing her own eyes, Maple watched as the tendrils and bodies turned and disappeared from the opening. She listened for the shifting, crunching sound of their retreat through the fallen debris beyond before racing over to her sister. She fell to the ground beside her, shaking her shoulders violently.

"Lilly! Lilly! Come on, wake up! You need to help us get out of here!"

"Don't hurt her," Trout warned through a raspy throat.

"I'm not!" Maple snapped back at him. Lilly hung limp in her hands, head rolling to the side and her dark tangles of hair splayed every which way.

"She's hurting. She needs to sleep."

"We need to get out of here," Maple countered, glaring at her brother who continued to avoid meeting her eye. "Before that monster comes back."

"I want water."

"I'll get you water!"

Trout paused, considering. "Okay."

Letting out a sigh mixed with both relief and irritation, Maple turned back to her sister. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw that her eyes were open, but immediately she could see something was wrong. Lilly wasn't moving—she was breathing, but didn't stir an inch. Her eyes were half-lidded, staring at nothing.

A groaning tore her attention to Gust. His eyes were shut tight and he let out the occasional pained moan as his body curled in on itself, his torn tree arm lying limply at his side. Trout was kneeling over him, gently rubbing his brother's trembling back.

"Don't hurt," he murmured.

"You know," Maple started, an idea coming to her, "Ms. Garcia could heal people. Do you remember, Trout? Just by touching them she could make their pain go away."

He had his back to her, didn't turn his head to look at her, but Maple knew he was listening. Did he need to see the person to steal their power? Could he hold on to more than one at the same time? Would—

Gust suddenly let out a shuddering breath. In that same instant, Maple no longer felt alone. Her head grew heavier, like being dosed with a sleeping drug while her veins pulsed with fresh warmth. She could hear her own heart beating in her ears. Could hear the rush of her own blood circling within her.

It was just like the first time. Just like it. She could even picture the exact moment. Walking through the halls of her grandfather's cabin. Seeing the tangled foliage breaking and overwhelming every inch she could see. Hearing the cries of fear and pain of her brother. Of him. Alex Foxy. Her mother. The ones who betrayed her, their faces dancing and mocking her inside her mind. In that moment, the anger and her power coalesced and fused forever.

Maple clenched and unclenched her hands, watching them as her skin tingled with fresh sensation.

Shortly after, as if it were fated, Kat slowly pulled herself off the ground. Maple looked to her with little surprise. They were as much linked as she was to her power. Wildwood might have freely given her a familiar to monitor and one day ensnare her, but from day one she had planned to use their gift to destroy them and burn it all down.

Now, finally, today was that day.

"Maple," Kat said, her voice weak, raspy, confused.

Maple smiled in return.

"Please knock out Trout. Painlessly, if you can."

Maple turned away when Kat moved around her, little interest in watching. There wouldn't be a lot of time.

Lifting up an arm, palm flat and pointed towards a section of the barrier of trees, Maple focused her hatred and anger and warmth to a single point. Her vision grew darker at the edges, a rush of adrenaline and endorphins pumped throughout her body, and her skin alighted with goose pimples as a ball of flame erupted from her hand and plowed into the barrier. The fire easily burned through and Maple flinched when she heard screams erupt from her sister.

No time to look. Keep pushing.

Black smoke rose quickly from the carnage, the fire spreading. Sucking in a deep breath, Maple willed the flames to return. Though they looked, smelled, and felt like real fire, the flames were really a part of her. A part of it. Whatever dark thing that currently shared her body and gifted her its power and whispered inside her mind. When she willed, it allowed. The fires slunk away from their feasting of the branches and bark, snaking down the trees, extinguishing the damage so they could form a wall of living fire around her. The charred hole they left behind was enough to allow her to pass. Enough to see the shadowy thing and its puppets lumbering towards them.

"Glad I don't have to seek you out," Maple said. Though it was really only half of her. The feeling was there. Revenge. Anger. But when she spoke now it felt like strong hands had a hold of her face, forcing her jaw to open and close. Forcing her tongue and throat to form the words it wanted to say.

"I see," the cold, wispy voice responded, coming from the dangling corpse that hovered higher than the other bodies. "If you choose to attack me as you are now, you will only do harm to the ones I hold prisoner."

Maple spared the bodies a single glance. "There's no one you hold that matters to me. You chose your tools poorly."

"Ah."

Before Maple could react, the shadow retreated. Swift as sound, it retracted itself from the bodies. The corpse, the horse familiar, Maria, and the chubby boy all collapsed to the ground—the latter three coughing and sputtering—an instant before the shadowy form slid backwards across the ground at an incredible speed, disappearing into the woods.

Its origin wasn't the bodies! Maple realized. It was hiding it. It—

The shadow didn't give her time to think further. As swiftly as it had retreated, it attacked. Nearly a dozen sharp pointed tendrils suddenly shot out from the woods, whipping and tearing through the air towards her. With a shout, pooling her power, Maple forced the wall of fire to become hotter, brighter, and taller. She couldn't help but flinch when the tendrils made contact, but took a sickening delight in watching them bounce back, wriggling and thrashing against the fires that caught hold.

The pleasure was short lived when she noticed that not all the deadly tentacles had been directed at her. Several more had moved around and were already past her, seeking the opening she had created.

"Kat—!" Maple cried, whipping around, but stopped short when she saw that the attack had been halted. The four or five tendrils that avoided her were stuck in a hardened wall of wood that filled up the hole.

"We'll talk about what you made Kat do to Trout later!" Gust shouted to her from somewhere behind the wall. "Kill this fucking thing!"

Maple nodded even though she knew he couldn't see it. Turning back to the woods beyond, she planted her feet firmly in the ground and threw her arms out wide. Already knowing her intentions, the wall of flame responded by bursting outwards in all directions, striking the remaining dark tentacles, burning them away in moments.

"It has a host," her familiar spoke, landing on the charred grass beside her. With the hole still being plugged up by Gust, Maple had to assume Kat had leaped over the trees to get to her. "If we work together, we can get to him."

"No hard feelings then?" Maple asked, shaking her head free of the invisible, grasping hands for a moment.

"After we get Foxy and Leaf back we can talk."

With that, Kat started moving forward. Maple stared at her thin form, holding back a sneer as her fingers twitched.

"Whatever you say."

The Master and familiar didn't make it more than a few steps before the shadow attacked again. A dozen more tendrils, all looking to pierce through the both of them.

"Change!" Maple commanded.

As soon as Kat changed, her form growing smaller, racing across the grass on all fours, Maple unleashed another wave of fire though the air. Sailing above and over the blonde and brown cat, the fire struck out against the darkness, burning away the obsidian spikes as if they were nothing but paper cutouts.

"This is a new experience," it called out from the woods as Kat and Maple continued their approach. "I was unsure if I could still feel pain."

"Show yourself and we can make the experience a quick one," the Master called before snapping to the familiar to change once again.

"I can hear in your voice that you are lying. Where is the younger child? I brought him water and wish to engage in conversation with him again."

"You aren't getting one step closer to him," Maple snarled. She and Kat stopped just outside the thicker clumps of trees where the recent attacks had come from. It was obvious that it was waiting for them to come further inside where their movements would be more restricted. It was on the defensive now. Maple smiled at the thought of it cowering somewhere in the dark.

"Last chance to come out," she proclaimed.

Waiting a few moments and with no response, Maple lifted a hand towards the cluster of trees. Another ball of fire answered her summons and exploded across the nearest tree, engulfing it in flames and smoke in mere moments.

"Watch the tree line for anything that tries to escape past us," Maple hissed to her familiar before taking a few steps closer and, speaking up louder and over the crackling of the fire: "I have all the power here, shadow! I can consume this forest in moments, or slowly burn you out tree by tree. Your death will come either way, but you still have a choice on how painful you want it to be."

"Certainly, you hold a great deal of power."

Maple whipped her head left to right. It sounded close. It always sounded close. Like it was mixed in with the very air around her.

"However, you are only grasping at what you can do. The bond you have is weak, tenuous, and unbalanced. My connection with the boy was strong from the start and has only become stronger in the years since."

Sharing a glance with her familiar, the latter could only give her a subtle shake of the head. No movement.

"Still, you will prove a useful tool."

Maple let out a shout of surprise and pain when her arms were suddenly pinned together. A tendril had gotten behind her and was wrapping up her body, seeking to grasp her throat. Sucking in a quick breath, Maple spat out a gout of flame straight down. She flinched at the heat as pain twinged in her chest and arms, but pushed aside the worst of it when the ashy tentacle fell away and allowed her to jump back.

More were coming for her. Dark spikes, hands, whips, coils all rose from the shadows dancing on the ground around her. They were jagged and jittering, matching the patterns of the darkness they arose from as the tree continued to burn and turn the surrounding darkness chaotic. Maple flung her arms around as if to match their movements, arcs of flames forming in the air to quickly and violently burn away the grasping shadows. The attacks were becoming more unpredictable, the movements of the jagged tendrils darting and cutting through the air in odd angles. Without meaning to, Maple found herself taking steps and leaps backward to avoid what her flames couldn't burn. With what seconds she could spare her attention diverted to the small cat who tried its best to remain at her side. Even with only three legs, it ducked, jumped, and dived away from the shadows, but Maple couldn't spare Kat's assailants any of her flames. For each one she struck down, it seemed two more would arise from the flickering shadows to replace it.

Was there a limit? Could it tire? If not—

Maple's train of thought vanished when she chanced another look to her familiar and saw that Kat had mistepped somehow. She was in the midst of landing right as two spikes of darkness were descending, aiming to pierce her through. No time for flames. Only...

"Change!"

Kat cried out as the spikes pierced into her right leg. It was the lesser of two evils, but her familiar was still being dragged to the ground. More shadows were rising. This wasn't enough. Her power wasn't enough.

More!

Less a word, and more a feeling clawed at her insides. Eating her from the inside. Demanding. Burning. Choking.

More! More! More!

Maple shouted, the sounds of her own pain nearly matching her familiar's. Steam was rising up from the pores in her skin. Gouts of flame erupted from her fingertips as she threw out attack after attack. Hotter and hotter. Brighter, springing tears from her eyes just to watch as the yellow embers ate away at the darkness.

The air around her shimmered from the heat. Her skin cracked in places from the sheer lack of moisture. But the dark spikes that had pierced her familiar were shrinking away. The brittle grass and trees were igniting just from their proximity to her. The shadow could no longer get near. It was being pushed back

"Maple..." a dry voice croaked. It was Kat; sweating, bleeding, nearly burning, but alive. Her familiar would recover. She had to make sure this creature would not.

"Your will is strong," the shadow said from somewhere in the burning forest. For the first time, its voice wasn't so clear. It struggled to make itself heard over the cracking and searing of the world around it. "I acknowledge it, and the power you wield. All I seek is freedom for a young boy. Neither of us wish to be ruled over, so why not cooperate? Together, we both may achieve what we desire."

"I have no use for a tool I cannot command," the voice hissed from between Maple's lips. The young girl brought her arms in close, building the growing fire within her until it was at a fever pitch. She intended to unleash it all in a destructive wave, igniting everything around her, burning away the shadow wherever it was trying to hide.

"Maple..." the voice came again. Maple wanted to look to it, but her body wouldn't cooperate. More, it said. Burn hotter, burn brighter. Everything else is just fuel. Made to burn. Created to be destroyed.

Even you.

Maple groaned as her flesh seared. Her arms were splitting in places, but instead of blood a sizzling red mist was seeping out and into the air. The heat pouring out was suffocating. The smell of her burning insides nauseating.

"Stop," she tried to plead, but the word was swallowed by the sweltering air around her. The pain of her burning body brought her to her knees, but still it was building, eating. She felt her own eyes drying out, threatening to pop in their sockets, vision blurring and going black. In that darkness all she could hear were her own feeble moans and cries as fire licked and cackled.

Then, it was gone.

The immediate absence of heat brought in its place a sharp chill that made Maple's body shudder. Her body was sore, skin still broken, but the jagged marks were filling with blood and not smoke. Tears filled her eyes as she looked from her own body to the woods. Dozens and dozens of trees were blackened, gnarled and smoking, but there were no flames. Kat still lay nearby, though she was sitting up, gripping her injured leg and looking somewhere past Maple.

"That hurt," a small voice said. Maple whirled around to see Trout glaring at Kat, Gust and Lilly standing beside him, both with wide eyes and shaky legs. "Why did you do that?"

"I'm sorry, Trout," Elizabeth said meekly, her white hands pressing tightly against her pierced leg, almost as if willing it to heal faster. "I really—"

"I made her do it," Maple said, finding her voice as she dragged herself up to a standing position.

"Why?" Trout demanded, eyes wet and focused on the ground.

"Because you were in the way," Maple answered, glaring at her brother but refusing to meet the eyes of either Gust or Lilly when they looked her way. Instead, she stretched out a hand as though expecting something to be placed in the palm. "You took my power again, didn't you? Give it back. This isn't finished."

"It is!" Trout snapped back at her. "It's done!"

"Says who?" she asked, but then shook her head before her younger brother could answer, her hands clenching and unclenching, searching for the fire. "Stop this, Trout! Do you want us to die!? Is that what this is?"

Blood was trickling down her arms, the muscles twitching in pain, but she ignored them as best as she could as she took steps towards Trout. She stopped when Gust and Lilly stepped in front of him.

"That's enough, Maple," Lilly warned. She had her arms splayed out, fingers stretched out in all directions. The ground around them cracked in places, the life beneath threatening to break free.

"Don't get in my way!" Maple cried. "I'm trying to save us, what's left of us. Or do you want to die like dad and Meadow?"

Lilly visibly flinched at her words, but Gust only continued to glare. His tree arm was half the size it used to be, but the end of it was swirling in on itself continuously, forming a hardened ball of bark.

"Will you try and kill us like mom if we don't?"

"That..." Maple started to say, but faltered. Without the fire, the memories of that night were too clear. The sight of charring skin, the exposed bone. The sharp smell of burning hair and flesh.

"This is different," she continued before the memories could make her sick. "Of course it is, but I am still trying to protect us like I did then. Mom was just as much of a monster as this shadow."

Glancing back into the blackened woods, Maple did not see any immediate signs of it. But it had to still be there. Waiting, lurking, preparing to strike at any moment.

"We don't have time for this! That thing will be on us any second! Give me back my damn fire, Trout!"

While Lilly and Gust did not move, their expressions softened somewhat as they looked back to the youngest Quincy. Trout still had his eyes focused on the ground, the corners brimming with tears.

"No."

"You—!" Maple cut herself off before she could say something horrible. Just a child, she had to remind herself. He doesn't know—doesn't understand. Wildwood had him for years. Brainwashed. Turned against her. "That's it, isn't it?" she asked again, but softer. She relaxed her hands, her bloody body sagging. "I'm too late. They turned you against me."

"That isn't—" Elizabeth croaked out, beginning to regain her footing as her leg injury healed.

"Shut-up!" Maple snapped, mostly in reflex, and was surprised to see her familiar's jaw snap shut.

That's right, her power wasn't tied to her familiar. Trout didn't steal everything.

"C'mon, you know that isn't how this is," Gust said, taking a hesitant step forward. He winced when his tree-arm twitched at the movement. His olive skin was pale and he panted between each word, clearly fighting to even remain conscious. "Lily, Leaf and I did what we had to to survive, but now we are fighting to be free just as much as you."

A sudden dizzy spell seemed to overtake the boy, making him sway in place. Lily reached out to steady him, though it was with trembling arms. Weak. They were all terribly weak. Maple flexed her fingers, trying to will the numbness to abate for a moment. She was on her last legs too, but she only needed the moment.

"Attack Gust and Lily!" Maple shrieked to her familiar before charging her youngest sibling. "Keep them busy!"

"Shit!" Gust cried out both in fear and pain as he forced his tree-arm to re-shape in a small, ineffective shield as Elizabeth leaped in their direction. Lily fell to her knees, perhaps seeking to shove her hands into the earth again, but as soon as she raised her arms her body gave out, eyes rolling into the back of her skull as she fell over to one side.

Gust called for her, but was forced to stumble backwards as Elizabeth threw staggered but powerful blows into his shield. The familiar's healing leg kept her from immediately overwhelming the child, but it would only be a matter of time.

All this occurred in the seconds it took for Maple to reach her brother. He might have her power, but she gambled he wouldn't have the time or the stomach to use it on her. He didn't even look at her until she was practically on top of him. Even then, when his eyes finally left the withered ground, it was to look past her.

"Did you get water?"

Something terribly cold and strong wrapped around Maple's midsection, pinning her arms to her sides before sending her into the burnt grass, the smell of ash and smoke filling her nostrils as she let out a gasp of surprise. Those sounds turned to pain as she tried to struggle, her injured arms flaring as the coldness tightened, threatening to numb everything.

"Unfortunately, all the water evaporated," the shadow answered.

Gust let out a cry. Elizabeth had sweeped his legs, knocking him on his backside and was looming over him. The younger boy held out his meager defenses as she bore down upon him.

"The shadow!" Maple cried to her. "Stop—!"

The chill raced up her body, snaking around her neck and gripped around her mouth, cutting off her words. Elizabeth had turned around, but did not move. Her one working eye was almost stuck wide open with fear.

"You can no longer use your fire," the soft words of the shadow mused. Its grip on Maple's body made it hard to look up from the brittle grass. She could only make out Trout's bare, dirty feet as it addressed him. "Can she?"

"Don't ..." Gust gasped out. He remained on the ground at the frozen Kat's feet, sweating and panting but seemingly unable to do much else as his injured tree-arm swirled in the air above him.

"Don't hurt her," Trout finished for him

"She nearly killed the one most precious to me. I nearly ceased to exist."

"She's sorry."

There was an odd, airy, and dry chuckle that filled the air as Maple used what little strength to twist against the ice cold bindings, grunting and groaning, trying and failing to scream through the tight grip on her throat and mouth.

"I doubt that."

Run! Maple screamed in her head. Tears filling her eyes as she glared at the feet of her brother. Get away!

"I overheard you speaking with your sister earlier," the shadow continued. "Her fire is not gone. It is inside you, yes?"

"It's hurting her. She can't have it back."

Maple's eyes darted past her brother. She could only see her familiar's legs from her current position, both coated in sweat and dirt, though one shook in place as the gouge in its calf was slowly closing. They were otherwise in stiff, awkward angles. Joints locked up. Unable to move. Lilly and Gust were still on the ground, the former unconscious while the latter battled to remain conscious. Gust's breathing was getting faster, his chest rising and falling in spasms as he fought to even pull his head off the ground. The tree-arm had fallen to the side, its own spasms becoming less and less frequent. It almost looked like a normal, crooked tree branch that grew from his shoulder.

The only one left, the only one who could fight, was the youngest Quincy.

"Oh, I agree with your judgment," the shadow said to his remark.

You have my power! Maple screamed in her head, as if thinking it loud enough would get the attention of her brother. Use it! Burn it! Save us! Save me!

More bitter, useless tears poured from her eyes. Everything was so cold; she could hardly feel the pain anymore. Wrapped up in the shadow was almost bliss compared to what the fire had done to her. Where it had been sudden, demanding, and suffocating, the cold was patient and inviting.

At any moment she could just slip away, give herself over to the numbing nothingness.

Wait, she said to herself. Wasn't this sudden? Where was the fire from before? Why are we alone? Where...Where...

Gone, the cold answered. Gone.