The walk home felt different tonight. For the first time, I wasn't just staring at the cracks in the sidewalk. I was thinking about the way Asher's office smelled like sandalwood. a scent that felt me safe.
"You were meant to live in color."
His voice was still a low hum in my ears as I pushed open the creaky back door. I tried to keep my breathing quiet, but the floorboard groaned under my weight.
"You're late again."
The voice didn't come from the table this time. It was right behind me.
I jumped, my heart leaping into my throat. Uncle Levi was standing in the shadows of the hallway, his face flushed a deep, angry red. The smell of whiskey was so thick it made my eyes water.
"I... I was studying, Uncle. The new director"
"I don't care about your director!" he roared, stepping into the light. He looked at my wrist, his eyes zeroing in on the pink ribbon. "I told you to get rid of that trash. You think you're some princess? You think you're too good to come home and cook because some rich guy in a suit gave you an umbrella?"
My blood ran cold. How did he know about the umbrella?
"Give it to me," he growled, reaching for my arm.
"No!" The word left my mouth before I could stop it. It was the first time I had ever said no to him.
The silence that followed was terrifying. Levi's eyes turned into dark slits. Before I could move, his hand clamped around my throat, pinning me against the cold kitchen wall. It wasn't enough to stop my breath, but it was enough to remind me who held the power in this house.
"You're getting brave, Sarah," he hissed, his grip tightening just a fraction. "Too brave. You think that school is going to save you? You're a ghost. And ghosts don't need pretty ribbons."
With his other hand, he reached down and violently ripped the pink silk from my wrist. The fabric caught on my skin, leaving a stinging red scratch behind.
"Please," I choked out, a single tear escaping. "It's all I have left of her."
"Now you have nothing," he said with a cruel, jagged smile. He walked over to the stove, turned on the burner, and dropped the ribbon onto the blue flame.
I watched in frozen horror as the pink silk. the last piece of my mother, shriveled into black ash in seconds.
He shoved me toward the floor and walked out, leaving me trembling on the linoleum. I sat there in the dark, the smell of burnt silk filling the room. My wrist felt naked. Cold.
I looked at the black ash on the stove and then at the bruise already forming on my neck.
Asher said I was meant to live in color. But as I sat on the kitchen floor, surrounded by the gray shadows of Levi's hate, I realized that if I wanted to bloom, I first had to survive the fire.