tones, curling around the iron gates like it had a mind of its own. I stood just outside, staring past

ing. "Third from the left. No

ace weathered and discolored, the entrance blocked with iron bars t

t leaves and gravel. Aunt Helena's warning echoed in my h

notebook tighter

twin-flame symbol carved faintly into the lintel above the arch. Time had almost

his satchel and p

prepared,"

"I knew you'd come he

e iron bars - just enough to slip through one at a time. Inside, the air

plaques. Just six stone slots carv

wa

e room to the open niche. There was a wooden box in

. My breath echoe

e box, the air changed-grew cold

pieces of a story that

iece of fabric with scorch marks. And at the bott

one who

with tremb

id not silence you. My name is Lenora V

inheritance soaked in fire and silence. I watched them burn

h the archives. Beneath memory. That is

art p

ther. The woman we were

the letter. His

he center of it."We didn't speak as we left the cemetery. The fog had

en table: the flame pin, Rowan's notebook, Lenora's letter, th

ly spoke, her

ht she w

knew

er saw that letter. I never knew what she was part of. She disappea

aid?"

e town. The whispers. I didn't

missed at first as childhood fantasy. A series of tu

e the heart of the Ci

years," Jerry said. "Condemned. Th

hat if that fire wasn't

e go carefully. If there's a heart to t

it down. She flipped through the pages until she found one-an old blac

a metaphor."That night, I couldn't sleep. I sat in Rowan's old bedroom, the jo

rcle didn't

ed to er

'd left

was fo

I went to the window. Across the field, at t

. Unm

't loo

, neither

s weren't j

ere wa

bobbing ahead of us like a lighthouse in a

n. Charred o

ed the box and f

his was wri

tape deck and ins

ed. Then

a v

d. Male.

raphine. Just like your moth

ic

le

d to me. "What th

chill of dread creeping into

he'

interrupted

l spinning in the machine, and the weig

d me to find this. And t

sn't don