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hotels that lined the street streamed past as he made the trek back to school.  The Madison, Grove Street House, Main Street Plaza. Each hotel more lavish than the last. But none caught Ien’s eye as much as Clinton House.
    Everything about it screamed opulence. Heavily draped walls, tapestry-like upholstered furniture, rich mahogany woodwork and gilded accents. Clinton even had the newest lighting—electric instead of oil.
    The darling of the upper crust, Ien fantasized of celebrating his wedding with Kiera there, assuming Mother came to her senses and accepted their union.  
    He lingered at the hotel, staring into the large windows and imagining his future. The wedding. The wedding night. A lifetime together.
    …I’ll love you forever…
    Kiera’s words floated through his thoughts. Finally, we’ll be together. Ien touched his lips. When he’d met her two months ago, he’d never imagined spending a lifetime with her. And now, she was the only thing he wanted. The only thing he was willing to fight for.
    Ien’s senses detached from everything around him as he remembered seeing Kiera for the first time. James had dragged him to a concert in an effort to take his mind off of school, Mother, and the tragedies he had shared with no one—not even James. Ien had tried to protest, making excuses about his workload. But James wouldn’t have it, and all but forced him to go.
    Ien was mesmerized by Kiera from the moment she took the stage. Violin tucked under her arm, she walked with an air of both confidence and defiance that left him breathless. He had watched as she placed the instrument under her chin and drew the bow across the strings. Bach’s “Chaconne” filled the room. The sound was more than anything Ien could have expected, deeper and filled with an emotion he couldn’t define, only feel. The music varied from haunting to hopeful within a single motif. Every measure pulled Ien into another world, one filled with hope, love.
    Promise.
    The same promise he’d felt on her lips as she’d breathed ‘yes’. The same promise that would allow him to finally stand up to his family. A promise he, they, would be forever bound to.
    Noises punctuated his thoughts, collapsing his memories.
    A slight clicking sound.
    A loud gush.
    Drops of something, maybe rain, fall onto his head.
    Not rain.
    Oil, thick and sticky coated his head, arms, body.
    A silent shudder shook the windows, traveling up his arms. A brief moment passed, pausing the world around him. And in a moment, a whooshing sound filled his ears and the entire world he knew ripped apart.
    Glass shattered, embedding jagged shards deep into his skin. They tore at his face, his arms, his neck, shredding everything in their path. Fire and ash rained over him, igniting his hair and clothing. The impact of the blast lifted him, hurling him backwards with impossible force. The hotel itself turned inside out as it disintegrated into smoke and flames.
    Ien’s mind spun with the images surrounding him. Past and present. Nightmare and dream. It all wove together, fragmenting every part of him. Skin—his skin—melted from his arms, his torso. Everywhere. What was left of the hotel creaked and groaned.
    Get out , his mind screamed to no one. Get. Out.
    The ground trembled and moaned.
    Get out. Get out. Get out.
    Ien pushed himself up on his elbows. Pain scorched through him, causing his entire body to shake. Within a moment, the walls caved down on him, pinning him to the ground. His face smoldered down to his bones as he released a feral scream. His thoughts bled, the horrid kaleidoscope of his life’s images spinning around him until all that remained was utter and complete emptiness.
    No breath.
    No thoughts.
    No memories.
    Nothing but crushing darkness.
     

 
    4.
    “What lies behind us and what lies before us
    Are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
    ~ Henry S. Haskins
    ~~
    Pain, blinding and hot, sears through me as my thoughts float above the