Sweetheart Made Me Cross Exploding Fire, I Pushed Husband

We went back to Alfred's hometown for the wedding, and his parents had set a fire pit at the door.

An outsider who wants to enter this house has to step over the fire pit.

It burns away the bad luck from your side and a girl's pride, so you'll settle down and live a proper life.

I was furious, and without a second thought I meant to refuse.

But my husband, Alfred Edwards, took my hand and begged me.

"I had Julia set up this fire pit specially. There's no open flame at all. Just lift your feet and step over it."

"If you won't cross it today, tomorrow the whole family will be a laughingstock."

I couldn't refuse, so I swallowed my anger and agreed.

But the moment I stepped close, the pit that looked long since burned out suddenly exploded into roaring flames.

When I woke, I was burned over my whole body, in a state worse than death.

Alfred, though, wept with joy and signed to end my treatment right in front of me.

"That motion-triggered exploding fire pit Julia prepared really worked."

"Go in peace. Julia and I will treasure the inheritance your parents left you."

I understood everything, and I could change nothing. I died with hatred in my heart...

Given a second chance,

I looked at the four people in front of me, each wearing a different expression, and I smiled.

If crossing the fire pit was so good, then the unluckiest one, Alfred, should cross it too...

One:

"Rissa, I know you're highly educated, and I don't understand any grand principles. All I know is that a bride crossing a fire pit is a custom. It's for a smooth start, for peace."

"You married into this family, so of course you want the best for us. For the family's sake, surely you can do this one small thing?"

"If you won't, then next time anything goes wrong in this house, people will say it's because you refused to cross the fire pit today. Wouldn't that be terrible?"

My in-laws, Grant Edwards and Anna Harding, stood in front of me smiling so wide their eyes disappeared.

They pointed at the fire pit and ran through the speech they'd prepared in advance, then moved to flank me, one on each side, ready to lead me across.

I swallowed the refusal right there.

Because I realized I had been reborn.

In my last life, when I found that the Edwards family, who had promised me no feudal wedding customs, had set out a fire pit anyway, I was livid. I refused on the spot and turned straight for the car to leave.

But Alfred blocked me, refusing to let me go, and cried and pleaded through so much that I had no way to back down. Cornered, I was forced to cross the pit, and Julia Pruitt, his little childhood sweetheart, had rigged it to explode. It burned me badly.

After I was admitted to the hospital,

these same people turned it back on me in front of the investigators, weeping that the fire pit had been mine.

"We told her crossing a fire pit was dangerous. We didn't want to do it."

"But Rissa insisted she was some kind of cursed jinx who'd doomed her own blood relatives, that she had to cross the pit to burn off the bad luck. Who knew the pit she'd set up would suddenly explode?"

Because there was no evidence that they'd done it, the investigation was wrapped up carelessly.

And that wasn't enough for them. So no one would suspect them of seizing a childless spouse's whole estate, and so they could profit off my death,

they even put the whole thing online, smearing me, until warmhearted strangers who'd had doubts came around to believing I'd gotten myself killed. One after another they said the Edwardses had a blessed house, and I was the one without any blessing to enter it.

After Alfred and Julia announced their marriage, everyone piled on with congratulations....

Two:

Standing there, I wanted nothing more than to grab all four of the people in front of me and shove them into the fire pit, one after another, so they could taste the same torment I had suffered in my last life.

I said nothing, and made no move toward the pit.

I only stood where I was, my face dark.

Alfred grabbed my hand at once and started apologizing, all guilt and warmth.

"I really did tell them not to do this feudal wedding nonsense, but my mom and dad said everyone does it, and that it's a sign they've accepted you."

"If you won't step over it, word will spread that you refuse to follow the customs the ancestors handed down, and people will say you're a vicious wife."

"Once the wedding's over, we'll be leaving, and my parents will never be able to hold their heads up in the village again."

"Just think of it as showing some kindness to the old folks. Do it for me. Just lift your feet and step over, all right?"

Every word out of Alfred's mouth sounded sincere.

I wanted so badly to tear the mask off him right there.

But I knew it was useless.

They had twisted black into white after my death; they could just as easily call this a misunderstanding if I went to the police now, and since the "misunderstanding," the "accident," hadn't injured anyone, it would come to nothing in the end.

More than that, they had planned all of this long ago.

Alfred and I were already legally married, and we'd held a grand wedding back in the city where we lived.

He was the one who'd insisted the whole village had to see what a beautiful wife he'd married, that he had to bring honor to his parents, and he had begged me to hold this second ceremony.

This wedding was a simple affair, no officiant, no photographer, and every guest here was his own family and friends.

Even if I called the police now, these relatives and friends might not testify for me.

Of course, I could ignore all of it and simply tell Alfred I wanted a divorce.

But going by Alfred's plan, he would never agree, and divorce proceedings were long and tangled; there was no guarantee they wouldn't smear me online, exactly as they had in my last life.

Three:

So I swallowed my anger and gave a hesitant, frightened little nod.

Then, just as quickly, I tugged at my skirt and shook my head.

"I've got leggings on under this embroidered bridal gown. If those silk threads catch fire, I'll be burned. And getting burned on a day like this, wouldn't people say even louder that I bring bad luck?"

It was a reasonable enough thing to say.

And besides, I hadn't refused at all, so Alfred had no reason to be angry.

He took it to mean I was willing to cross the fire pit, only a little afraid, and he actually relaxed, quickly pulling over the maid of honor, Julia, and signaling her to help talk me into it.

Julia looked at me, her smile never reaching her eyes.

"I think it's feudal nonsense too, just like you do. But old people, they love their rules."

"Don't worry, though. Alfred adores you, he was afraid you'd get hurt, so I prepared this fire pit myself, especially for you."

"See for yourself. The coals in there are still black, I doused them with water, there's not a single open flame, it can't possibly light. You could reach in and touch it and it wouldn't even be hot."

"It's just for show. How could it hurt you?"

"Alfred has given up so much for you. The whole village already laughs at him for marrying into your family. If you won't step over the fire pit, they'll say it even more."

"Refusing now, are you saying you doubt I set it up right? Or that you doubt Alfred would let you take a risk?"

Julia's tone was intimate, almost fond, but listen closely and the barbs were there.

Grant and Anna cared about one thing above all else, that my family had more money than theirs, so those words, marrying into your family, made their faces go dark too.

"Carissa Mason, this isn't the city. Here, you listen to us and you follow our rules."

"Now that we've brought this fire pit out, there's no question of you not crossing it."

"Either you cross it yourself."

"Or we help you across."

Four:

I didn't argue.

I just stared at the fire pit that looked like it had gone cold long ago, playing the part of a woman who wanted to step across but didn't dare.

After a few seconds of hesitation, I threw my head back and started to wail.

"Nobody told me beforehand that I'd have to cross a fire pit. If they had, I never would have worn something this heavy and cumbersome."

"And you all keep saying this is an old family rule, but when Alfred came home for other weddings, how come there was never any old rule then?"

"So is this actually a real custom, or is it because you see I'm an orphan, so you're bullying me on purpose, backing me into a corner?"

I cried like my whole world was ending.

The villagers had come to watch a show. Seeing me, the bride, get bullied was one kind of show, but watching the Edwards family squirm, watching me put them on the back foot, was another kind entirely, and a much better one.

So they all started smoothing things over, chiming in that crossing the fire pit was voluntary, that nobody should be forced into that kind of feudal nonsense.

Just as I was about to ride that momentum and refuse the whole thing.

Julia Pruitt lost it. She forgot all about sweet-talking me and jabbed a finger right in my face.

"Carissa Mason, why won't anything get through to you?"

"You're a cursed jinx, that's what you are. You already got your whole family killed. You won't cross the fire pit today, so what, you want to jinx Uncle and Auntie and Alfred to death too?"

Her losing her temper was exactly what I'd been waiting for.

So I turned and slapped her across the face.

I put my weight behind it, and Julia wasn't braced for it, so that one slap knocked her straight to the ground.

She sat there stunned for a moment, and when it finally registered, the tears came pouring out.

"Alfred, how could she hit me?"

"Everything I do is for the good of the Edwards family."

Alfred's heart went out to her. Never mind that this was our wedding day, he rushed over, pulled Julia up, and tucked her against him.

"Carissa Mason, what is wrong with you today? Have you really been possessed by something?"

Five:

I knew what Alfred was doing. He wanted to use this "possessed" excuse to force me across the fire pit.

I only let out a cold snort.

"Funny, that's exactly what I'd like to ask you."

"My parents died saving people. Everyone calls them heroes. So how did that turn into me jinxing them to death in Julia's mouth?"

"She has that little respect for my parents, standing here on my wedding day calling me a cursed jinx, and I'm not even allowed to hit her?"

"And one more thing."

I gave neither of them a chance to react, pointing at the two of them pressed so close together.

"You won't stand up for me, your wife. Instead you shield Julia. So does that mean in your heart, Julia matters more to you than your own wife?"

"Have the two of you had something going on all along?"

"So today I cross the fire pit, and tomorrow you tell me there's a custom about taking a second wife?"

"You'd better make this crystal clear to me. Otherwise I'm not crossing any fire pit, and I don't want you as a husband either. I'll go file for divorce right now, and the grounds will be your infidelity!"

The moment I finished.

Alfred let go of Julia at once.

"No, it's not like that."

"Rissa, you've really got the wrong idea. Julia's like a little sister to me. I just panicked back there and wasn't thinking straight."

Grant Edwards and Anna Harding forgot all about their grudge over the marrying-in arrangement too, both talking over each other, begging me not to be angry, not to bring up divorce on my wedding day.

I didn't argue with that either.

My cold laugh only got louder.

"Right. Panic makes you forget who your own wife is, makes you throw your arms around her and turn on me. So how am I supposed to trust that you won't 'panic' again later?"

"The way I see it, when a normal man sees his wife being humiliated, the first thing he does is go after the one doing the harm, not turn on his own wife."

"You want me to cross a fire pit for you, to do something this dangerous, and you can't even manage to protect me."

"Tell me, Alfred. What gives you the right?"

Six:

Everything I'd said sounded perfectly reasonable, and I wore the face of a woman who would file for divorce right here if Alfred didn't give me an answer.

Alfred looked at me, then at Julia, and in the end he gritted his teeth and chose me. To get me to cross the fire pit like a good girl, he shot Julia an apologetic glance, closed his eyes, and slapped her hard across the face.

"Julia, apologize to my wife. Now."

Julia looked ready to die of the unfairness of it.

But the instant her eyes fell on the fire pit again, she swallowed it, knelt, and told me she was sorry.

Then Alfred apologized to me too.

"Rissa, you know how I feel about you. I only lost my head because I was so anxious about the fire-pit crossing."

"You've gotten it out of your system now, and the fire in the pit has died down."

"Just step across. That's all."

"If the ritual allowed it, I swear I'd carry you across on my back!"

While Alfred was busy coaxing me, Grant hurried to signal the onlookers with his eyes.

The onlookers, not wanting to leave him hanging, all started pressing me at once.

"A husband this good, and you're still not satisfied?"

"Everyone else can cross the fire pit. Why can't you?"

"Don't tell me it's exactly like Julia said, that you're a cursed jinx who's afraid to cross."

Anna Harding listened to all of it, then dropped onto the ground and started wailing.

"How did I end up with a daughter-in-law like this? Throwing punches at her own wedding, and on top of that looking down on us, refusing to follow the rules?"

"Take it as your mother-in-law begging you. If that's not enough, I'll kneel just like Julia did, I'll kowtow to you a few times too. Will that do?"

Anna really was about to go down on her knees to me.

I gave in fast.

"Mom, don't do that. Fine, I'll cross. All right?"

Anna sprang up at once, laughing, promising over and over how well she'd treat me from now on.

I nodded. But I still didn't move.

"I'll cross the fire pit. But I have one condition!"

Seven:

Alfred nodded and nodded.

"One condition? A hundred, a thousand, name them all!"

I pointed at the fire pit.

"I'm scared to walk over there alone. Will you walk with me?"

"You don't even have to cross the fire. Just walk a few steps with me. I'm willing to sacrifice this much for youyou won't say no, will you?"

Alfred, Grant, and Anna knew what the fire pit really was, so they hesitated at once.

But Julia started making faces at Alfred, winking and gesturing.

I followed her eyes and saw a length of colored ribbon laid out in front of the fire pit. That had to be the safe zone. As long as you didn't cross past the ribbon, the blast from the fire pit wouldn't reach you.

Alfred trusted Julia, so he gritted his teeth and agreed, taking my hand and starting toward the fire pit.

I walked very slowly.

Alfred was thoroughly impatient.

The moment we finally reached the marked spot, he stopped dead.

"That's it, this is as far as I go. Any closer and there's no point in you crossing at all."

I caught his sleeve, quick as anything.

Before he could get angry.

I pointed at the fire pit first.

"Alfred, I'm still scared. I can't make myself do it."

"So could you give me a push? That way I can just shut my eyes, open them, and it'll be over."

Anyone crossing a fire pit normally would keep their eyes open, but Alfred knew what crossing would mean for me, so he didn't refuse. He couldn't have asked for more.

He nodded right away, ready to shove me across with everything he had.

I laughed to myself, cold, and used years of dance training to twist my body aside. I watched, wide open eyes, as Alfred lost his balance and pitched forward into the fire pit.

Grant and Anna shrieked, again and again.

Julia screamed for him to stop.

Too bad.

In the very next second.

Alfred's cries for help were swallowed by the flames....