The Bench Where Everything Changed
The moment Maggie stops, and Beth starts to matter.
It’s New Year’s Day. A grey, raw afternoon. And Maggie stops walking.
She doesn’t know why. She should be heading home, maybe nursing a hangover, maybe avoiding reflection. But there’s a girl under the flyover. Again. And this time, Maggie can’t just walk past.
This scene from The Alpha Flame: Discovery marks the first real interaction between Maggie and Beth, two lives on a collision course neither of them fully understand yet. It’s hostile. It’s messy. And it matters.
Excerpt from Chapter Eight: Threads of Fate
“Don’t you think it’s a bit late in the day to still be out here?” Maggie asked.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit soon in the year to be harassing strangers?”
“You don’t have to be rude.”
“No, but it helps.”
…
“You think you’re better than me?”
“No. I think I’ve been you.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I do. And if you don’t take help when it’s offered, if you keep pushing everyone away, you’ll be just like the old tarts that sit here sometimes. Cold, worn out, and invisible.”
Why This Scene Matters
For me, this is the moment when Beth stops being a figure in the background and starts becoming someone Maggie has to reach. It’s not compassion alone that drives Maggie, it’s recognition. She sees echoes of her own fire and pain in Beth. And instead of walking away, she stops. She chooses discomfort over indifference.
Beth lashes out, sarcastic and guarded. But there’s a line that strips the bravado bare:
“Every day I wake up and wish I was dead.”
There’s no pretending after that. Maggie doesn’t flinch. She responds with honesty, even cruelty, because she knows soft words won’t land. Then she does something unspokenly intimate: she trades jackets. Gives Beth warmth, her own. And walks away.
This isn’t friendship. Not yet. But it’s a shift. It’s the crack in the wall.
Read More
If this moment caught your breath, the rest of the chapter may just knock the wind out of you. Beth doesn’t soften. Maggie doesn’t give up. And what begins here under the flyover sets the stage for everything that follows.
The Alpha Flame: Discovery is available now.
What would it take for you to stop, really stop, for someone you barely know?
Sometimes, a single conversation changes everything.