After the Ashes

CONTENTS Spotify playlist Prologue 1. Maddie 2. Penn 3. Tatum 4. Kip 5. Penn 6. Kip 7. Maddie 8. Tatum 9. Kip 10. Penn 11. Tatum 12. Maddie 13. Penn 14. Kip 15. Tatum 16. Kip 17. Tatum 18. Penn 19. Tatum 20. Penn 21. Tatum 22. Penn 23. Tatum 24. Penn 25. Tatum 26. Penn 27. Tatum 28. Penn 29. Tatum 30. Penn 31. Tatum 32. Penn 33. Tatum 34. Penn 35. Tatum 36. Tatum 37. Penn 38. Tatum 39. Penn 40. Tatum 41. Penn 42. Tatum 43. Tatum 44. Penn 45. Tatum 46. Penn 47. Tatum 48. Penn 49. Tatum 50. Penn 51. Tatum 52. Penn 53. Tatum 54. Penn 55. Tatum 56. Penn 57. Tatum 58. Penn 59. Tatum 60. Tatum 61. Penn 62. Tatum 63. Penn 64. Tatum Epilogue Acknowledgments Also by DL Gallie Copyright © DL Gallie 2023 After the Ashes First published 1 April 2023 Email: [email protected] All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a database and retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the owner of copyright and the above publishers. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be stored or reproduced by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the produce of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to the actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and meant with no prejudice or harm. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the various products referenced in this works of fiction, which have been used without permission. The use of these trademarks is not sponsored, associated or endorsed by the trademark owner. Edited by Karen Hrdlicka, Barren Acres Editing Proofread by Lisa Edwards, More Than Words Proofreading Cover Designed by Amanda Walker, Amanda Walker Design & PA Special edition cover designed by Kate Farlow, Y’All That Graphic. Interior formatting by DL Gallie I never pictured a life without Kip. It was supposed to be me and him until the end, but the universe always has a way of screwing things up. Moving on after losing him wasn’t something I thought I was capable of, but when Penn Brookes comes into the picture, I realize I’m not so alone. Suffering the same kind of loss as me and trying to be the best dad he can, I start to gravitate toward him. We’re one and the same, building our lives around broken pieces, and suddenly, something I never thought possible happens. That spark I’ve only felt once before returns and lights something deep inside me. Can we overcome our grief and build something great, or will the circumstances of the past stand in the way? SPOTIFY PLAYLIST Down Under - Men at Work Wonderwall - Oasis Never Tear Us Apart - INXS Every Breath You Take - The Police Down in Flames - Daughter Jack I Will Return - Skylar Grey With Arms Wide Open - Creed Hello - Adele Over You - Daughtry Broken - Seether feat. Amy Lee Zombie - Bad Wolves Silence - Blindside Something in the Way - Nirvana Eye of the Storm - Blindside Snuff - Slipknot Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day Fix You - Coldplay 100 Years - Five for Fighting All The Right Moves - OneRepublic Two is Better Than One - Boys Like Girls feat. Taylor Swift She’s So High - Tae Bachman These Days - Powderfinger So Far Away - Avenged Sevenfold The Flame - Cheap Trick Here Without You (acoustic version) - 3 Doors Down Ashes to Ashes - Faith No More Lost It All - Black Veil Brides Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana Fall to Pieces - Velvet Revolver Fear on “Sometimes you have to kind of die inside in order to rise from your own ashes and believe in yourself and love yourself to become a new person.” ― Gerard Way To all the firefighter superheroes on the front line, thank you! PROLOGUE Romeo and Juliet may have been on to something, going together into the afterlife but there’s one problem, I’m not like Juliet, I don’t have the guts to take that final step. You’re gone and I’m still here. My heart is irrevocably broken, and now, I have to live without you by my side, but how do you go on without that one person who was your everything? The person who loved you at your worst and adored you at your best. The person who made you a better human being. How do you go on? I’m lost. I’m alone. I’m without you. I miss you. My soul is searching for you, but it will never find you because you’re in another place now … and me? I’m still here, breathing. They