KENDRICK SCREAMED, but air barely entered his lungs.
Flames leapt from the ground to his body. They met the kerosene, and his skin bubbled.
Black marks dotted his pupils, and he wriggled his body back and forth.
In the distance, he could see the older man from the cave. Walking down from the road.
Smoke billowed through Kendrick’s vision, but he saw fireflies dancing in the night air. Coming to rest all around the man’s arms and head.
Kendrick squinted, looking at the man’s feet. They weren’t touching the ground. He was floating.
“Fortune can be won back,” the old man hollered. “Fortune is everything.”
Kendrick could hear a buzzing sound somewhere above him. Far in the distance.
The man rose high up in the air. Out of Kendrick’s line of sight.
And the flames covered Kendrick’s chest until he could no longer breathe.