The morgue was cold, and Stella could hear something dripping in the corner. She hated coming here, and yet this was her third trip this week. Her friends kept dying, and she had to identify their unpleasant remains. When Lily had been killed in a car accident, Stella had been devastated but wasn’t suspicious of anything. Accidents happen all the time, and Lily was never the best driver. But then Monique’s hair straightener fell in her tub and electrocuted her, and Stella began to wonder. Now she was a wreck of conflicting emotions as she waited for the morgue attendant to reveal the corpse laid under a thin sheet before them. Panic and anxiety overwhelmed her senses, but there was also hate for whoever had done this and self-loathing for her own inability to stop it. She was confused and scared, but also determined. To do what? She did not yet know. But when she did, she was determined to see it through. The morgue attendant removed the sheet, and she could see what remained of the body. It was Lily’s lover (and sometime-boyfriend), Danny. Stella sobbed upon seeing his pale, lifeless flesh exposed on the metal table. “What happened?” She managed to ask between choking gasps. “He drank himself to death.” The attendant escorted her out after taking down Danny’s information. The police couldn’t help her. They wouldn’t even humor her when she told them she believed herself to be in danger. All they would say was that it’s easy to see patterns when you’re grieving. As if she were some crazy person just seeing what she wanted to see! Her house was cold and empty when she returned. She had been steadily growing lonelier throughout the week as her roommates met their tragic ends. Now she was the only one left. She shuddered to think about it and then resolved to make a fire, if only for the figment of company it would provide. She set to shifting the long-dead coals that still sat in the fireplace, hardly able to remember the last time it was used. The box of fire starters they kept on the mantle was coated in a thick layer of dust. She arranged the kindling and struck a match, gazing intently at its lone flame before igniting the fire starter. Stella had always hated this house. Within it, she felt as if she were another person entirely. She only continued to live with Lily, Danny, and Monique because it was so affordable between the four of them. Now that they were gone, there was nothing to keep her living in the house. She certainly could not continue living there with the memories of her friends everywhere. Stella used a poker to scatter the now blazing fire, sweeping burning logs out into the living room. She waited while the fire spread across the carpet and began to consume the tables and chairs. Smoke filled the room with dark, choking clouds. She waited for most of the room to catch before calmly walking out of the house and calling the police from her cellphone. They’ll see it this time, she thought as she waited for them to arrive. They thought I was crazy, but now they’ll see.