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🔥 CHAPTER FOUR — "Ashes Remember Too" 🎶
Previously on Sing Me to Ashes:
Aria heard the tune again.
The same eerie melody from the night of the fire.
And when she followed it… she found Eli — alive, pale, humming.
But before she could understand how, a voice whispered behind her:
"Sing, Fire Girl… the chorus starts with you."
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The world fractured in heat and silence.
Rain hissed against the pavement, and for a second, Eli thought time itself had stopped.
The sound of her gasp sliced through the stillness like glass.
Aria.
Standing there, soaked, trembling, her eyes wide with the same fear he used to see in his own reflection.
He wanted to reach for her.
But he couldn't.
Because the air between them wasn't just air anymore.
It hummed — low, electric, alive.
The same melody. The same curse.
🎶 Light the fire, feed the flame…
He flinched. The sound crawled under his skin, twisting like smoke inside his lungs.
"Stop it," he muttered under his breath.
But it didn't stop. It never stopped.
A shadow flickered behind Aria — a woman's silhouette, barely there, face blurred like fog.
The Watcher.
He'd seen her before. In the fire. In the mirror. In his nightmares.
And every time, she was closer.
> "Leave her alone," Eli hissed, stepping forward.
The shadow tilted its head. A soft chuckle — part whisper, part wind.
> "Oh, Eli… she never left me."
The words burned. He felt them in his bones.
Aria spun around — but the shadow was gone.
Only the echo of the hum remained, fading like breath on glass.
She turned back to him, voice trembling.
"What was that?"
He should've lied. He should've told her she was imagining things.
But he'd already lied once — the night he lit the match.
> "It's what followed us out," he said finally. "From the fire."
Her lips parted. "Us?"
He took a step closer. The rain between them sizzled like steam.
> "I didn't die that night, Aria."
"Then what happened to you?"
His eyes met hers.
And for the first time in a year, he told the truth.
> "I think… the fire kept me." 🔥
A gust of wind tore through the courtyard, slamming her umbrella shut.
The fountain behind them exploded upward — water twisting into a spiral, glowing faint orange before falling back to stone.
The song started again.
Soft. Distant.
But this time, it was coming from Aria's phone.
The screen lit up on its own — no call, no music app, just a single message glowing across it:
> 🎵 "Sing with him, Fire Girl." 🎵
And then the lights around the school went out. 💡
To be continued…
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