Read this and know how Alessa Gillespie died and was risen again.
She was in the circle.
The lamp was off.
Choking on smoke.
Falling asleep.
Then a glow around the door.
A bright light.
Fierce heat.
Wide awake now.
Fire everywhere.
Crying for Mummy.
The flames licking around her clothes.
The smell of her own flesh, cooking in the circle.
Leaving the body behind.
Dreaming of the dark before the flame, of soothing rain.
Of rain splashing on her skin.
Water on skin.
Tears of another.
Not Mummy.
The nurse.
Tending her wounds.
Caring for her.
Crying for a girl she didn't even know.
She held her hand through a latex glove and they wept together.
They knew that neither of them would ever be the same.
Andy wasn't sure what it meant. Was Alessa still alive?
Claudia would be excited to know that her dad was telling the truth.
He realized he was shivering. He was still sore. Very hungry and tired now too. Slipping himself into the creaky bed, he pulled the rough blanket around him. Slowly, his shivers got less and less. He could see his breath.
Soon he began to feel a little warmer. He closed his eyes to rest them and drifted off to sleep.