Of Smoke and Dust 🖋

Leonie is dead, but she isn't gone yet...
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There are two beginnings to this story.
With one comes the promise of dust and ashes, of flickering flames and tendrils of smoke reaching up to the heavens. The other brings with it an ordinary sidewalk and two ordinary girls, playing in the sun and bonding over beetles.
These two tales are connected, a string of manipulations and choices that lead to one girl trapped behind a glass window as fire licks at her feet and another girl hidden away in her own churning, broken mind.
It leads to betrayals.
It leads to bonds so strong they'll never break.
And Death.
Everything leads to Death in the end...
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When thirteen-year-old Maia Owens retreats to her room, refusing to speak with anyone but her best friend, Leonie, there's certainly cause for concern. But when you add in the fact that fact that Leonie is dead - and has been for two weeks - it sparks something terrifying.
Maia's parents are convinced that Leonie is a hallucination conjured by grief. Maia is equally sure that Leonie has come back from the grave to give her a second chance. But why would she need that chance? And what really happened the day of the fire that took Leonie's life?
As the weeks pass and Leonie doesn't go away, Maia becomes certain that Leonie wants something from her, and she's desperate to deliver. But reality is not always what it seems, and as facts and falsehoods begin to blur, the truth becomes harder and harder to grasp.
Time is ticking. Maia is losing herself. And one among them can't accept that it's too late to change the past.

Cover credits go to @DaneAndKnight and @TheMythicalCommunity
** updated once a week