By the time I got home, my hands were still shaking. The adrenaline that had fueled me earlier had begun to fade, leaving behind a dull, aching sense of exhaustion. I stepped inside, locking the door behind me with trembling fingers, but I couldn’t let myself stop. Not yet.
I stripped out of my clothes right there in the hallway, everything from that night in a heap at my feet—my jeans, my shirt, even the socks I had worn. They all had to go. I scooped them up, carrying the pile with me as I made my way to the living room, my mind already buzzing with the next steps. I tossed the clothes onto the floor in front of the fireplace and grabbed a match from the mantle.
It was methodical, almost automatic at this point.
The logs in the fireplace were dry, the perfect fuel for the flames. I li
