She stared at the stove coils glowing red. They smelled burnt from various foods that had dripped and fallen below. She wondered what it would smell like if her flesh was burning. She wanted to press her hand to the coil and feel the heat. She wanted to push through the reflex screaming at her to move, to step back to a safe distance. She wanted to press her hand harder on the coil as the pain seared through her and brought out a primal noise she had never heard before.
She wondered how much of her flesh would stick to the coil when the paramedics arrived to pull her away. She wondered if the stench would make them vomit. She wondered what it would feel like to leave part of herself behind. She wondered if her body would be strong enough to regenerate, to grow new tissue, to heal.
Part of her worried she wasn't that strong. The other part of her knew she wasn't strong enough to try in the first place.
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