Chapter 62

• ELOISE
• Matthan took my hand and led me out into the cool air and towards the woods behind the house where his car was. I looked back and watched as the fire swallowed the house, the last remnants of it fading into a cloud of red smoke. I couldn't help but smile seeing it burn to the ground. I truly hoped no one decided to make this double tragedy another social experiment. The horrors that had occurred in this ground deserved to remain just ash and cinders forevermore.
• I could hear faint sounds of a siren coming from town; someone must have called an ambulance, but I doubted they'd get here before it was too late. Matthan opened the car door and helped me in, then buckled me in. He sat down on the opposite side of the car, putting on his seatbelt. The moment he clicked in his keys and started up the engine, I looked at the house one last time. I had wanted to stay but Matthan had been against it. Even with many in high places acknowledging the existence of shifters, most still didn't see it as something to celebrate or be grateful for. They saw us as a threat and that's all we are to anyone, a threat. So I had to leave. Let the firefighters get there themselves and let those in high places spin up whatever story suited them. I was content with that. There was a warmth that blanketed me. It was different from the one that did when I first accepted that it wasn't selfish or wrong of me to want to live. It felt like peace. When Matthan finally drove away I allowed myself to lean back and rest my eyes. My body seemed to relax and grow lighter. This was what life should've been like, what I imagined life would've been if I had not been born to that man. As cruel as it was, I was grateful he was no longer in this world. Judas Carnation deserved death.