Free Darkness & Shadows by Andrew E. Kaufman

rollercoaster. On the good days, it was simply mesmerizing. On the bad ones, it was simply horrible. Her moods could turn dark without a moment’s notice, and Patrick never knew what to expect.
    On this day, everything was better than good. They’d just finished taking midterms and decided to blow off some steam at the beach. A spectacular sunset was on the way, the horizon painted in purple, red, and a thousand shades between.
    Marybeth ran ahead of him. She knelt and picked up a shell. “It’s a conch,” she said, turning it over, examining it. “They’re my favorite. Supposed to be bad luck, but I never believed it. There’s no way something so beautiful could ever be bad.”
    Patrick watched her in wonder. With the fading amber sunlight playing across her face, he was sure
he’d
never seen anything so beautiful. At that very moment, he could no longer hold back. He pulled her close, pressed his lips to hers, and they kissed.
    Later that night Marybeth painted their initials inside the shell with nail polish. “Now it’s ours forever,” she said.
    Hopes for a lifetime of love, turned into a lifetime of pain. Patrick regarded the shell with sadness. Marybeth had been beautiful—nodoubt about it—but now he wondered whether that beauty had blindsided him.
    He tossed the shell back into the sand and let the memory fade.
    He opened the paper, turning his mind to another heartache: the latest on the Clark case.
    Charlene Clark’s Body Dumped, Burned in TJ
A source close to the Courier has confirmed that Charlene Clark’s body was found burning on a hillside in the Tijuana neighborhood of La Azucena during the early morning hours after she went missing. Authorities are still in the process of arranging to return her remains to the U.S.
As of yet, Dr. Wesley Clark’s whereabouts are unknown, and no suspect has been officially named in the case.
San Diego Sheriff’s Homicide Detective, Steve Pike, refused to comment on the investigation.
    The newspaper fell into his lap. He looked down at it but could only see one thing:
    Fire then, fire now.
    Patrick’s mind started spinning out, taking him into dangerous waters. He couldn’t help it. The parallel between past and present was hard to ignore. What if the first fire wasn’t an accident? What if it had been set by someone who knew about Marybeth’s fear and had tried to use it as a weapon to make her final moments on earth a living hell? What if she’d managed to survive and escape that fire, and now, after all these years on the run, she’d crossed paths with that someone again—and this time they’d covered their losses, making sure the job was done right? If that were true, then this fire wasn’t just about murder; it may very well have been an act of terror fueled by untamed rage.
    They would have succeeded too, because there was nothing in this world that terrified Marybeth more. Patrick knew that from firsthand experience: he’d gotten a real-time glimpse, the size and scope of which he’d never forget.
    It was their one-month anniversary, and for Patrick, a momentous occasion. His first girlfriend—his first love—had become everything to him.
    Up until now, he’d never experienced the joys of intimacy with anyone; he’d never even dreamed they could exist. Growing up with no father and a mother who detested him hadn’t left him much hope. Finding Marybeth felt like an act of divine intervention.
    He wanted to mark the occasion and make it memorable, because honestly, he wasn’t sure how long the joy would last; nothing good in his life ever seemed to, and Marybeth was better than good—she was amazing. He would savor every moment he could with this beautiful creature, for as long as he could.
    On the eve of their anniversary, Patrick snuck into Marybeth’s dorm room while she was at night class. He covered her bed in rose petals, and on her desktop placed a bouquet bursting with white lilies—her favorite. To top it off, he’d saved his