The house was perfect. Everything Erica was looking for in a home. Security she never had growing up, physical space she couldn’t afford during college and her first six jobs, an inheritance, nor her first couple jobs as a professional engineer.

3000 sqft home, 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, living room, dining room, attic, basement, garage and 3 acres behind the house, complete with a beautiful 6 ft fence. A beautiful, walkable neighborhood with a good school district and nearby expressways. With a price of $280,000, it would be the perfect home to grow into, as soon as she found the right partner.

She’d kissed many frogs in her life, a couple who could’ve been good choices, but she was too focused on work and creating security.

Several months alone in the house passed before Robert, a past relationship helped fill the emptiness. Robert was curious about why the house was so affordable. Erica assumed the seller was in a rush to get into their retirement home in the Caribbean. She was not one to question luck after all of her hard work.

Robert was “the one who got away”. The difference this time was they reconnected when she had a patio designed and installed in her backyard. She enjoyed cooking so it included a full outdoor kitchen, grill, firepit, eating and lounge area. It turned out that the company with the best quote and reviews belonged to Robert. Robert was equally, if not more focused on work than Erica. They made their relationship a priority rather than an afterthought because they didn’t want to lose eachother again. It was difficult but worth the effort.

One day while at work, her security company called her cellphone because the system detected smoke and there was no response inside the home when they called. First responders were notified of a fire and were on there way. Erica called Robert but there was no response. She immediately left work and continued calling, in hopes that he was in a meeting and didn’t have his phone on him.

When she arrived at the house, it was taped off, she wasn’t allowed to go near it. There was a crowd of people outside watching in as much shock as Erica. She was even more shocked that she couldn’t reach Robert but his car was on the property.

Erica would learn that not only was Robert at the house but he had died of smoke inhalation. He was in his home office near a fire and waterproof safe she had not known about.

Once the investigation was complete, she learned the fire was not the first to occur on that property.

It was originally burned in the 1700’s by colonists who wanted to take over the space to start a new town. The original inhabitants were forced out or burned. It followed that for one reason or another over the centuries, a fire would occur on this specific location. The last happened just over a century ago. It was forgotten history. However, the new homeowners never lived in the house more than a few years.

Once the safe was returned to Erica, she learned what was so important to Robert that he would risk his life for that safe. His inquiry into the reason the house was sold for such a low price lead to more research. This was natural for him as a Historian. He’d learned that her family had originally owned that space before colonists burned it down. And a relative eventually would end up living there again and the house would burn, but the relative would survive. The previous owner had come across the repeated fires on the property, those records were in the safe and would explain the quick sale and silence about the issue.

The previous owner did not know about the genealogy related to the property, so chances are it wouldn’t have burned had they kept the home. Robert learned that the house burned whenever a relative lived in the home but were unaware of their supernatural abilities. They channel heat, used in healing, but whenever they aren’t balanced, healing people, their home burned.

Erica would have to learn how to channel her healing abilities and learn whatever else Robert hadn’t learned