This is the hard part, Carver thinks. Being able to wrap your head around something for another person, but not yourself. Even now, part of him thinks he deserved it - needed it, on some level. Otherwise, would he have been strong enough to survive the fires?

But Matthew survived. Matthew made it six years and they never drowned him, never hurt him. He was just a kid, and he made it until he didn't. Maybe that's just how it was supposed to go.

He swallows hard. Watching Rosita, even as he braids her hair neat and smooth, and so careful. "I won't let anyone do it to you, either. I swear."

It's dangerous to promise things. But part of Carver thinks he needs that: to lay something out that remains true no matter what else happens. That they won't let each other be hurt like that again.