Then Bradley looks up. Maybe he felt me watching him. He doesn’t say a thing, we just look at each other a long time, neither one of us moving. Fire lights his face and makes his eyes look hollow. The only sound is wood cracking in the fire.

I rise halfway to my feet and jump. I stay calm until the second my shoes leave the branch and I see the bonfire coming at me like a giant orange mouth. People are screaming. I hear the crash I make, and there’s wild, rippling heat in my hair and clothes. Then I’m on the beach, rolled and pounded by a weight that is Bradley, pushing me into the cool sand, smothering flames with his body.