Traced in the Shadow/An Indecipherable Cause

She didn't want me to see her face after the fire, so we sat silent silhouetted in darkness like on some crime drama: identity changed to protect the victim.

But I knew who she was. And the way she turned her head ever so slightly when I asked how it started - the way she whispered that they thought it must have been an electrical outlet sparking with all the dramatic over-conviction of a soap opera actress reciting lines - I knew with a sickening certainty that she was not the victim here after all.