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🌑 CHAPTER ONE: The Night of the Fire 🔥🎶
The bass thumped so hard the walls felt alive.
💃🏽 Red cups. Sweaty laughter. Someone shouting "turn it up!" like the music could fill the cracks in all their lives.
But Aria Hale stood at the edge of it all — quiet, glass in hand, pretending she belonged.
The smell of cheap vodka and vanilla candles made her dizzy.
Her black dress clung to her skin, and her reflection in the window looked like a stranger.
She told herself this was normal — that she could be normal — just for tonight.
Then she heard it. 🎶
A hum. Soft. Wrong.
Not from the speakers.
Not from the crowd.
It slithered under the noise like smoke.
Slow, low, almost beautiful.
Her chest tightened. The air around her grew warmer — too warm.
> Light the fire, feed the flame… whisper the names the ashes claim…
She froze.
That voice. She'd never heard it, yet it felt like a memory.
And across the room — Eli Ward was staring right at her. 👀
He wasn't smiling.
He never did. The boy everyone warned her about — the fighter, the heartbreaker, the secret she couldn't stay away from.
He tilted his head slightly, like he heard it too.
The lights flickered. 💡
Laughter broke around them, but Aria's heart skipped.
The hum turned into words.
> Sing, Fire Girl… sing for the ones who burned.
🔥 Her breath caught. The cup slipped from her hand — shattered glass, red liquid like blood.
She blinked, but everyone was still dancing. No one else reacted.
Only Eli moved toward her, slow and careful, eyes dark as sin.
> "You heard it too, didn't you?" he whispered.
She didn't answer. Couldn't.
The air trembled — heat crawling along her skin, the taste of smoke suddenly sharp.
And then—
A shout. A crash. Someone pushed past them, knocking into a table.
The candle flames jumped, hungry.
The hum came back — louder, layered — like a hundred voices now. 🎶🔥
It was everywhere.
The room spun. Someone screamed "FIRE!"
Eli grabbed her wrist, pulling her toward the door, but she hesitated — because in the reflection of the window, through the blur of flame, she saw someone standing still.
A woman. Pale. Smiling.
Her lips moved, but no sound came — only that humming tune, echoing through the roaring fire.
> "Every flame has a song," the whisper came, inside her head. "And you, Fire Girl… are the chorus."
The ceiling cracked.
Heat swallowed the room.
Eli shouted her name, voice breaking—
Then everything went dark.
🖤🔥🎶
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