Issue 4 - 10/1/2026

Mina screamed. Shane was on the floor beside the overturned chair, his body twisted against the side of the bed. The back of his head rested against a dumbbell with a pool of blood forming underneath. Smoke still drifted from behind the computer.

"Mina?" Shane's mother called from the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

Mina didn't answer. She wasn't sure if she could. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat and speak but no sounds came out. She heard footsteps coming down the hallway and finally pulled her eyes away from Shane. That's when she saw the lighter sitting on the desk. She'd almost forgotten why she'd come over in the first place.

She grabbed it and shoved it into her pocket. Whatever was happening, the lighter was hers. It had been Omar's.

"What happened?" Shane's mother appeared in the doorway with his little sister right behind her.

"I don't know. I just found him like this." Mina started to back away slowly.

His mothers eyes moved to her son lying on the floor.

"Shane?" His mother pushed past Mina and dropped to her knees beside him. "Shane! Wake up!" She grabbed his shoulder and shook him, but he didn't respond. She lifted his head from the dumbbell, and blood dripped onto the weights beneath him.

His little sister tried to follow her into the room. Mina caught her by the arm. "Don't go in there..."

"What's wrong with him?" She looked up at Mina, puzzled.

Mina shook her head. "I don't know."

"Shane! Oh, my baby!" His mother screamed his name again, then looked toward the hallway. "Call 911! Hurry!"

The girl stared at her brother for another second before running toward the living room. Mina backed out of the bedroom and leaned against the hallway wall. Shane's mother was crying now, calling his name and begging him to wake up.

A few seconds later, his sister's voice carried down the hall. "My brother's hurt. He's not waking up." She went quiet while the dispatcher spoke. "I don't know. There's smoke in his room."

Mina stayed out of the way. She didn't know what else to do. She could hear Shane's mother crying in the bedroom and his sister answering questions in the living room. She wasn't sure if it had only been seconds or hours, but outside she heard sirens getting closer.

By the time the police arrived, there wasn't much room left in the trailer. Two EMTs worked on Shane in the bedroom while another spoke with his mother. His little sister sat on the couch clutching a throw pillow against her chest. She hadn't said much since making the call.

Mina sat beside her and watched people move back and forth through the narrow hallway. Nobody had officially told them Shane was dead, but she knew. She'd known the moment she saw him on the floor.

One of the police officers eventually walked over and crouched in front of them. "Which one of you found him?"

Mina raised her hand slightly. "I did."

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

She followed him outside. A second police car had arrived, along with an ambulance and a fire truck. A few people from neighboring trailers had come outside to see what was going on.

The officer led her away from the front door. "What's your name?"

"Mina."

He took down the rest of her information before asking what happened.

"I knocked and his sister let me in. His mom said he was in his room, so I went back there. I knocked on the door, but he didn't answer. I smelled something burning and saw smoke coming from underneath it."

"You opened the door?"

"Yeah."

"And that's when you found him?"

Mina nodded. "He was already on the floor."

The officer wrote something down. "Did you touch anything in the room?"

Her hand moved toward the pocket of her hoodie before she stopped herself. "My lighter."

He looked up. "Your lighter?"

"Shane took it from me earlier. That's why I came over."

"What do you mean he took it?"

"He borrowed it and wouldn't give it back."

"So he stole it?" The officer glanced toward the trailer. "Was there a fight?"

"No. He was being an asshole. I got mad and left."

"What did he take?"

"Just the lighter."

"And you found it in his room?"

"On his desk. I already got it back."

The officer nodded and wrote that down too. "Anything else?"

"No."

"Did you move Shane?"

Mina shook her head. "His mom did. I didn't touch him."

"Okay. Hang around for a little bit in case I need anything else."

Mina went back inside. The EMTs weren't working on Shane anymore. His mother stood in the hallway crying while one of them talked quietly to her. Mina didn't need to hear what he was saying. Shane's little sister still sat on the couch with the pillow against her chest, staring at the television even though the screen had gone dark.

Another officer came out of Shane's room with one of the firefighters. "Looks like the water went straight over the back of the desk," the firefighter said. "Power strip's cooked."

The officer looked into the bedroom. "That what knocked the chair over?"

"Could've been. One of the wheels is wrapped up in the cord. Probably heard the electrical pop, jumped back and the wheel caught the cord. Unfortunate."

Mina looked down the hallway. From where she stood, she could see part of the overturned chair and the cables stretched across the floor.

"And the head injury?"

"There's a dumbbell right where he landed."

"Any idea what he was doing when it happened?"

"No. Computer is fried. Probably just homework."

That's it? Mina thought. A glass of water. An old computer. Too many cords. A chair rolling the wrong direction. And my friend is dead?

Nobody asked about the lighter again. It was dark by the time Mina was allowed to leave. Shane's mother was still crying when she stepped outside. His little sister hadn't moved from the couch.

Mina walked home with both hands buried in her hoodie pockets. The lighter stayed in one of them the entire way.

~~~

Two weeks passed.

Shane's chair stayed empty in school. For the first few days, it seemed like everyone wanted to talk about him. Teachers gave speeches before class. Someone left flowers outside his locker. Kids Mina barely knew stopped her in the hallway to ask what happened.

She got tired of telling the story.

By the second week, most people stopped asking. The flowers disappeared. His locker stayed closed. Teachers took attendance without hesitating when they reached his name. Life kept moving.

Mina sat with Alice in the cafeteria, picking at a plate of fries while Alice complained about an exam she'd probably done better on than she thought.

"I completely fucked the last question."

"You say that after every test."

"Because I always fuck up the last question."

"And then you get an A."

"That's not the point."

Mina smiled and reached into her pocket. Her fingers found the lighter without thinking about it. She'd started doing that lately. Sometimes she'd just hold it in her pocket. Other times she'd take it out and flick the lid open and closed. She didn't even smoke that often. She just liked having it with her. It reminded her of Omar and gave her a strange sense of comfort.

Mina turned the lighter over in her hand while Alice stole one of her fries. The spiral was worn in places from being handled, but the engraving on the other side was still clear. She'd looked at it plenty of times without ever paying much attention to what it said.

"Iterum et..."

"Mina."

She looked up. Alice was staring at her.

"What?"

"I've been talking to you for like thirty seconds."

"Oh." Mina set the lighter on the table. "Sorry. I was a little distracted."

"By what?"

"Nothing..."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I said Connor wants everyone to go over to his place Friday."

"Who's everyone?"

"Everyone. Bobby, Charlotte, you, me... David." She made a kissy face.

"Shut up! He doesn't even like me back."

"That's not what Charlotte said."

Mina slipped the lighter back into her pocket and grabbed another fry. Whatever she'd been about to read was already forgotten.

"So are we going or not?"

Alice shrugged. "Depends. You driving?"

"Will there be beer?"

"Probably."

"Then absolutely not."

"Then I guess we're walking."

Connor's house was already crowded by the time Mina and Alice got there Friday night. Music played from a speaker in the living room, and someone had dragged a cooler onto the back porch. Mina recognized most of the people from school, along with a few she'd only seen around.

David was there. Alice noticed him before Mina did. "Look who it is."

"Don't start."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were about to."

Alice grinned and disappeared into the kitchen before Mina could respond. Mina grabbed a soda from the cooler and found Charlotte and Bobby sitting around a patio table out back. Connor was leaning against the railing with a beer in his hand.

"Finally," Charlotte said. "I was starting to think you weren't coming."

"Alice takes forever to get ready."

"Bullshit!" Alice yelled through the open door.

Mina laughed and sat down. It had been a while since she was able to unwind with her friends. It felt good to be around everyone again. Nobody asked about Shane. Nobody asked what happened at his house. They talked about graduation, who was going where after summer, and whether Connor's neighbors were going to call the cops before midnight.

Bobby pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and stuck one between his lips. He patted his pockets, then looked around the table.

"Anybody got a lighter?"

Mina reached into her hoodie. "Here." She handed him the silver Zippo.

"Thanks." Bobby flicked it open and lit his cigarette. Instead of handing it back, he turned it over in his hand. "This is nice."

"It was my brother's."

"Was? What happened?" Bobby looked at the spiral.

"He died." Mina reached for the lighter. "It means a lot to me."

"No shit. I'm sorry."

Charlotte laughed. "Jesus, Bobby... Have some decorum."

Bobby turned the lighter over again and squinted at the engraving on the other side. "Iterum et Iterum. What the hell does that mean?" He reached out and handed it back to her.

She took it back and slid it into her pocket. "No idea. My brother had some weird hobbies."

"Probably something deep and mysterious." Connor took a drink of his beer. "Like 'smoking makes you look cool.'"

"You're stupid." Charlotte rolled her eyes at him. "Can we please talk about something besides Bobby looking cool?"

"Jealousy isn't a good look on you." He smirked at her.

"Neither are those pants."

~~~

By the time it got dark, most of the party had moved into Connor's backyard. Someone started a fire in the pit near the back fence, and a few people dragged chairs out from the garage. Bobby eventually disappeared inside and came back carrying an acoustic guitar.

Charlotte groaned when she saw him. "Oh, God."

"What?"

"You're not seriously going to play guitar at a party."

"What's wrong with playing guitar?"

"Nothing, if you're good at it. Are you?"

Bobby put a hand over his chest. "You wound me." He smiled at her. "Why don't you tell me if I'm any good?"

He sat on the stone edge of the fire pit and started playing anyway. Mina sat nearby with Alice and David while Connor fed another piece of wood into the fire. She'd had one beer and was still working on it, mostly because Alice kept making faces whenever she caught Mina looking at David.

Bobby played a couple songs. He wasn't terrible, which Charlotte seemed almost disappointed about. By the third one, he'd stopped pretending he was playing for everyone and turned toward her.

"Is this supposed to impress me?" Charlotte asked.

"I hope so..." He shrugged. "Is it working?"

"Not even a little." She smiled at him.

"Liar." Bobby grinned and kept playing. When he reached the end of the song, he let the last chord ring and looked directly at Charlotte.

"I've heard better," she said.

"Where?"

"Everywhere."

Everyone laughed. Bobby shook his head and stuck the guitar pick between his lips while he reached up to adjust one of the tuning pegs. Charlotte said something else, but Mina didn't catch it. Whatever it was made Bobby laugh.

He sucked in a breath and suddenly grabbed his throat.

Charlotte laughed harder. "Oh, fuck off."

Bobby stood up quickly, dropping the guitar onto the ground. His other hand went to his throat as he stumbled away from the fire.

Connor pointed at him. "Dude, that's not funny."

Bobby's face was turning red. Connor ran up to check on him. "Bro, are you being serious?"

Bobby nodded, pointing to his throat.

"Help him! He's choking!" Mina yelled.

Connor moved behind Bobby and wrapped his arms around his waist. Bobby panicked and fought against him while Connor tried to get a grip.

"Stop fucking moving, dumbass!"

Connor pulled hard against his stomach. Nothing happened. He tried again. Bobby jerked backward. His heel caught the raised edge of the fire pit, throwing Connor off balance. Connor lost his grip and Bobby fell backward into the flames.

Charlotte screamed as everyone rushed toward the fire.

Connor grabbed Bobby by the legs while David caught him under the arms. They pulled him out of the fire and onto the grass. Someone dumped a drink over his burning shirt while Charlotte screamed for somebody to call 911.

Mina stood frozen for a few seconds before reaching into her pocket for her phone. Her fingers closed around the lighter instead.

She pulled it out. The spiral was glowing blue.

Mina stared at it. The light filled the grooves for only a few seconds before fading away. She turned the lighter slightly in her hand, watching the last of the blue disappear.

She'd seen that before. Shane's bedroom came back to her. The smoke. The overturned chair. Shane on the floor beside the dumbbell. She'd seen something blue when she opened his door. At the time she'd assumed it came from his computer.

But the lighter had been sitting on his desk.

Mina looked toward Bobby. Connor was beside him while Alice talked frantically to someone on the phone. Charlotte stood nearby crying. Earlier that night, Bobby had borrowed the lighter. He'd turned it over and read the engraving out loud.

Mina looked back down at the lighter. Omar had owned it too. She'd taken it from his apartment after he died. Her stomach tightened.

"Mina!"

She looked up. Alice was yelling for her, but Mina barely heard what she said. Her attention went back to the lighter in her hand.

She turned it over and stared at the engraving.

ITERUM ET ITERUM.

For the first time, Mina was afraid of it.