Free Caustic by Morgan Black

you up. She didn’t give me a lot of information.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, I haven’t been here since I spent my summers here is a child. Obviously, someone has, but it wasn’t me. After Leia disappeared, my relationship with my parents deteriorated. I didn’t think it was fair for me to be walking around, looking just like her, and living my life, I knew it hurt them. But it was better for me to stay away. I know that. I’m not even sure of the last time my grandfather visited this place, probably before my grandmother passed. And that was a few years ago.”
    “So, the power being on was just wishful thinking?” I heard a clap of thunder above us. The thin walls of the cabin shook.
    Her eyes grew wide. “Yeah, I guess so. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, haven’t I?” She ran her fingers through her long dark hair, playing with the curl at the end.
    I moved and sat down next to her on the couch. Our knees pressed against each other, and I felt electricity run through my body. It was like she created a fire in my veins. I just wanted to hold her, to make everything better, but I didn’t know how. Her demons were deeper than mine might’ve been. And I wasn’t good for her; I was dangerous.
    She wrapped her arms around her body as I heard the rain begin to pound on the roof.
    “We need a fire,” I said, pointing to the open fireplace across from us.
    “It’ll fill the house with smoke,” she responded. “You’re supposed to clean those every few years.”
    “Well, it’s worth a try.” I knew nothing about fireplaces honestly, but I didn’t want her to be cold. I stooped down next to it, and felt the few logs inside. They were dry. A matchbox laid on the brick, so I lit one, tossing it into the wood. Nothing happened.
    “Here,” she said, offering me some newspaper. “Light this, and put it under the wood until it catches.”
    I took the paper and followed her instructions; it quickly ignited. “You know what you’re talking about.”
    “You won’t like that when we can’t breathe.” She made a face at me.
    She sat back down, this time on an adjacent armchair. The room was beginning to get dark from the storm. I was glad we had light, and hoped we wouldn’t smoke the whole place up as she had suggested.
    I sat down on the floor at her feet. And that was when she fell apart.
    “I just don’t know what to do anymore! I don’t know where to go from here.” Tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes as she lost control. “How am I supposed to find her? When she doesn’t even want to be found?! This isn’t my life. I have a life, I have friends and… well, I had a job. It that doesn’t matter.”
    “What doesn’t matter?”
    She shrugged. “I lost my job a couple days ago. It’s the reason I can be here, and not worry about taking off like you. Oh, and I made you take off work. I feel so stupid.”
    “Don’t feel stupid. You’re not. You’re just trying to do right by your grandfather. No one thinks you’re being dumb for doing this. You obviously love him very much.”
    “And this place,” she added. “I loved coming here in the summers. Learning how to garden, how to play chess, swimming in the lake. It was everything to me.”
    She stood up her hands, shaking in frustration. “But, this is my fault. At the end of the day, the reason that Leia was carted off is my fault.”
    I stayed seated but questioned her. “What do you mean? How is her illness your fault?”
    She ran her hands through her hair, this time more raggedly. “I didn’t listen to her. She might’ve been asking for help, and I had no idea. I was so wrapped up in my own life that I wanted nothing to do with her and her dark places. I could’ve pulled her out. I could’ve fixed her. And the things that I said in therapy… Well, they didn’t help either.” She started to pace around the room.
    Now I stood. There was just a coffee table between us but it felt like the space