Ignite

Prologue

Burning. I can smell burning on the soccer field.

Not gas, but wood. A campfire smell.

"Hey Jakey, do you smell that?"

"What?"

"Smoke."

Jake stops the ball in its tracks and takes a whiff. "I can't smell anything."

"You sure?"

Jake sighs. "Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry, Claude, everything's fine."

That's when Jake grabs my shoulders and the world rocks.

I'm not surprised. The timing is just right. Sometimes I don't even make it this far.

I wait, relieved, as his hands absorb the soccer ball, then the field, the sky, the air. Atoms roll together until everything is black.

Only then do my eyes open to darkness.

Bed sheets form rivulets underneath me, my feet pressed bare against the mattress. Sweat runs down my back and Jake's hands are heavy on my shoulders.

The breath I let out was ready to burst.

"Hi Jakey."

His hands leave me and the bed shifts. I can't see him, but I know he watches the same black space as me, the one that separates us.

"You had the dream again," he says.

"Yeah."

He doesn't speak.

"Was I screaming?"

"Yeah, you were."

My eyelids fall. "Sorry."

"S'alright. Had to get up soon, anyway."

Jake stands up and switches the light on, walking out of my room and towards the shower.

I stand up, switch the light back off, and retreat deep into my room. As far as I can go, until I'm pressed against the window. The curtains twitch as I peak through the cracks, watching the night. The faintest pink is soaking the horizon, and it fills me with dread.

I don't want the sun to rise. Not today.

Because today they're sending us to school. Today is unofficially named the day of forgetting. Today everyone expects Jake and me to move on.

But that only makes me miss it all even more.