Someone had turned up the heat. Brianna tried to drag her eyes open to tell whoever was blasting the oven to take it down a notch. It felt like the time she'd fallen asleep in front of the fireplace when she was seven. During the night, wrapped in her favorite Lion King blanket, she'd rolled right up to the edge of the hearth. A stray gust of wind had reignited the coals in the hearth, and she woke up to find herself inches away from becoming cinder. The heat had fanned against her face, making her feel as if she had a sunburn.
Same thing now. Except the sunburn was coming from all sides. And it wasn't cozy and warm, like her parents' hearth. It was absolutely terrifying.
Finally she got her eyes open; the heat made her squint. She was lying on the dirt floor of the shed. The papers in t
