Page 47 of Are You Scared, Krowe?

Spade grins at me, extending a hand out for me to take.

I take it happily, giggling as he spins me into him, his mouth stopping just inches from mine.

"Ready for whatever comes next, Little Wraith?"

Whatever comes next.

It may not feel as good as this, but I expect it to be gentler, more fulfilling.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as the flames catch Jackson's foot. He doesn't scream, even as the flames crawl higher, devouring him beneath their hunger.

"I'm ready." I tell him, taking one last moment to close my eyes and savor the feeling of his mouth on mine, the way it sinks into my soul.

The walls begin to crumble around us, and we stand together, devouring one another as the flames shoot out around the home and the staircase breaks away from the walls.

Together, we begin to rise... up above the carnage we left below, above the rotting and burning house and the souls we trapped inside of it, above the place where our lives ended, but our infinities began.

Below us, the town burns away to nothing.

And above us?

Above us, the stars stretch to eternity, a promise of something far better than everything we're leaving behind.

And in Spade's eyes?

An echo of that promise... a guarantee that whatever we face, it will be together.