We finally see the ceiling access point and the staircase that has already been pulled down. My younger self leaps up the steps, still screaming Theo’s name. There’s no response, her cries becoming more and more desperate.

I understand Theo’s silence when I reach the top of the staircase and see the flames already covering the room, the smoke overwhelming in here. Without protection …

“THEO!”

This time, her scream is one of relief as she sees the boy, but it turns to a broken sob when she realizes he’s not moving. Flames are licking at his clothes … at his flesh.

“NO!” she screams.

And with her cry, the world turns white.

It’s not just a flash of light—it’s a burning supernova of power that bursts from within her. From within me.

Like blowing out a candle, the flames are gone in an instant, the smoke still painfully thick but the blaze no longer tearing through the building.

It’s pitch-black, and I presume it’s because the fire is gone, but then I realize it’s because my younger self has passed out. I know this because, from one blink to the next, I’m no longer in the burning building, but instead in some kind of hospital room, the space blurry as my memory-self slowly opens her eyes. As she focuses, so do I, allowing me to see the sign on the open door that says “SCARS In-Patient Care” and my name scrawled on a small whiteboard beneath it.

SCARS—there’s that word again. But now isn’t the time to question it, to question why it would be written here, of all places. Because I can see my younger self begin to panic as she awakens enough to remember what brought her here, as she sits up in bed and looks around, terrified.

Suddenly, Riley is beside her. I didn’t even see him sitting in the chair, didn’t notice him waiting like a guardian angel for her to awaken. For me to awaken.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he says quietly. “I’m here.”

He sits on her bed and wraps his arms around her, holding her close until her shaking eases.

“Theo?” she croaks out.

“He’s fine. You got him out—you saved him, Lyss.”

“I—I—” She pulls back and looks at him, tears running down her face. “I have no idea what happened. I just knew I had to get in there. Just knew I had to help him, and that somehow … somehow I could. Does that make sense?”