"I... thank you Ruth but they aren't. They never will be and it is all my fault."

As he said the words streams started to stream from the corners of his eyes. He'd never talked about it before, not with her, not with anyone. He'd known that they'd all speculated what it was that haunted him, most knew that he'd lost his family and guessed he blamed himself. But he'd never actually shared that aloud because he didn't want to burden anyone else with the truth.

"I started the fire, it was an accident. I never should have been doing such dangerous experiments inside the house. That they died and I survived when I was in the same room the fire started? This has to be god's punishment."

That was what he'd truly believed. It wasn't right that he'd somehow managed to get himself outside of the house in a daze while his wife and unborn child were left to burn. It could only be god ensuring he had time to properly understand the gravity of his sin before he burned in the fires of perdition. He could see it now, burning eternally in the same fire that had taken his family from him. It was what he deserved.