Carrie Emberlyn [new] -

“You have careful hands,” he said. Not “beautiful hair.” Careful hands.

Carrie felt a crack in the dam she’d built around herself. carrie emberlyn

Carrie Emberlyn, the woman who had become a museum exhibit of one, finally had a visitor who wasn't there to stare at the glass case. He was there to open it. And for the first time, she didn't try to douse the flame. She let it flicker. Just a little. Just for him. And it felt, at last, less like a curse and more like a name. “You have careful hands,” he said

Her apartment was a sanctuary of climate control. She had a high-powered air purifier to suck up any errant sparks. Her pillows were made of a fire-retardant fabric she’d ordered online from a company that usually supplied race car drivers. She slept on her back, arms at her sides, like a vampire in a very warm coffin. Carrie Emberlyn, the woman who had become a