Clara’s heart raced in the suffocating heat, her mind warring against the roar of the flames that twisted and cracked through the house. The heat pressed down on her, suffocating, as if the walls themselves were alive groaning in agony, trying to keep her within their burning grip. She stumbled through the wreckage of the kitchen, the tips of her fingers brushing over scorched counters, her skin stinging as though the very air had become an enemy.

Then, like a ghost from the past, the memory hit her.

A church bulletin. Distant, forgotten. A slip of paper tucked within a magazine she hadn’t thought to throw away. The priest’s words an odd piece of advice that had seemed laughable at the time now sparked to life with terrifying clarity.

"Blessed salt binds what darkness fears most. Keep it near the hearth."

She had laughed then, a hollow, nervous laugh. A relic of her own superstition. But she had kept it, tucked away, half-forgotten. A mother’s instinct no more, no less.

Her hands shook violently as she yanked open a low cupboard, pulling the contents out without thought. Her breath caught as her fingers closed around a small glass jar. She stared at the label: Blessed. Consecrated. Her pulse thundered in her ears as the sound of crackling flames filled the space, growing closer, the inferno crawling up the walls.

Her breath was ragged, but the jar felt strangely cold in her hands. She turned toward the living room.

And there, standing amidst the flames impossible, terrifying was Ivy.

But not Ivy.

The child she had once known stood there, her form twisted, her small face a mask of something older, darker. Her eyes were black pools, voids that seemed to devour the light, her smile impossibly wide.

“Mommy,” Ivy said. The voice that came from her wasn’t hers at all. It was ancient, mocking. “You burn so easily.”

Clara’s heart clenched. This was it. This was the moment.

“I remember you,” Clara said, her voice steady despite the chaos around her. “You loved lullabies. You hated loud dogs. You had a freckle behind your ear.”

Ivy blinked slowly, her expression unreadable, vacant.

“That one’s gone,” Ivy said, her voice a sharp, venomous whisper.

“No,” Clara breathed, her grip tightening around the jar of salt. “She’s still in there. And I’m bringing her back.”

With trembling hands, she uncorked the jar. The salt glistened like diamonds in her palm. Her body burned, every nerve screaming in agony from the heat of the inferno, but she didn’t hesitate.

Ivy flinched, a small, almost imperceptible twitch of fear. The first sign of something that wasn’t demon, wasn’t darkness. Clara took a step forward.

“You’re not her,” Clara said, her words like a weapon. “You never were. But I am her mother.”

With a cry, she flung the salt in a wide arc across the floor. The moment it hit the ground, the air seemed to crackle with energy, and the fire faltered, its flickering shadows twisting into jagged veins of white light. The smoke swirled upwards as though it were choking on the brightness.

Ivy shrieked. The sound wasn’t just hers; it was a chorus of voices, a cacophony of pain and rage that split the air, and the house convulsed around them.

Beams cracked. The roof groaned, sagging dangerously.

Clara didn’t stop. She charged forward, her heart beating so loudly it was the only thing she could hear. Ivy fought back—clawed, scratched, but Clara threw herself onto the child, her arms wrapping around her like iron chains.

“I’m not leaving you,” Clara whispered through her tears, her body burning. “You’re my baby. You’re mine. Come back to me.”

Outside, the world screamed. Neighbors shouted, confused, terrified. But in here, in this house everything was burning. The very foundation of their lives was cracking and splintering.

Clara poured the last of the salt in a wide circle around them, a barrier between them and the hell that pressed in. The fire pulsed with a malignant hunger.

And Ivy’s eyes blinked blue.

Once.

Clara’s chest clenched. Was this her daughter? Was she truly coming back?

“Mommy?” Ivy whispered, her voice fragile, like the first breath after a nightmare.

Clara kissed her brow, her tears mingling with the ash.

“Yes, baby. I’m here.”

But the house was no longer a home. It was a tomb.

Clara held Ivy close, her arms tightening around her daughter as the fire raged, as the demon fought with everything it had to keep its hold. The air thickened with the scent of burning wood and flesh, but Clara didn’t let go. She couldn’t.

And in the final moments, just before the walls came down, just before the ceiling caved in and the world swallowed them whole Clara felt it. A force inside Ivy. It tore, it buckled, it fought against the light, against the salt. It was the demon, fighting to survive.

Clara’s skin cracked open, her hair ignited, and she held on. The words slipped from her mouth, desperate, raw.

“Take me instead.”

She didn’t know who or what was listening. Maybe it was God. Maybe it was something darker. But in that instant, she gave herself body and soul away.

And in the dark of the fire, in the very heart of the inferno, Ivy’s tiny hand reached up. Not to claw, not to fight. But to touch, to reach for her mother.

“Mommy?” Ivy whimpered again.

Then the world broke.

The house fell.

A column of fire consumed them both.

And everything turned to light.

       THE END

University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository

The University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository collects, preserves, and opens access to the research output and scholarly materials produced by the Law School community. It is a central service run by the Law Library that increases the discoverability and impact of faculty scholarship, student journals, center reports, podcasts, and digitized special collections.

What the Repository is and what it does

The Repository is an institutional digital archive operated by the University of Minnesota Law Library. It provides full-text open access to a wide range of law faculty scholarship, law school journals, research papers from centers and institutes, multimedia such as recorded lectures and podcasts, and digitized items from special collections. Materials deposited in the Repository are indexed for search engines and given persistent web links for stable citation and sharing. 0

Platform and network

The Repository runs on the Digital Commons platform created by bepress (now part of Elsevier). This is the same software used by many law school repositories across the United States. Law school repositories on Digital Commons interconnect to form the Law Commons, which allows networked discovery across multiple institutional collections. That network effect improves discoverability for faculty authors and the Law School as a whole. 1

Main collections and content types

The Repository is organised into several main collections that reflect the Law School’s scholarly ecosystem:

• Faculty Scholarship — peer reviewed articles, working papers, preprints, and finished scholarship produced by University of Minnesota Law faculty. 2
• Journals — archives of student and faculty journals hosted at the Law School such as the Minnesota Law Review, Law & Inequality, Minnesota Journal of International Law, and the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology. These journal archives are fully searchable and provide downloadable back issues where copyright allows. 3
• Centers and Institutes — reports, policy papers and working papers from the Law School’s centers and research initiatives. 4
• Multimedia and events — recorded lectures, podcasts and event materials made available for wider public access. 5
• Special and rare collections — digitized selections from the Riesenfeld Rare Books Center and other archival holdings that the Law Library makes accessible online. 6

Who can submit and how submissions are handled

Submission privileges are limited to University of Minnesota Law School faculty and staff with faculty-like appointments as defined by University policy, and to the Law School’s affiliated centers and institutes. Before adding an item, authors must confirm they hold the rights to post the work, or the Library will seek permission from the publisher. The Repository team advises on copyright compliance, embargoes, and acceptable file formats. To submit work or request assistance, authors are asked to contact the Law Library via the submission page or by email. 7

Visibility, metrics and impact

The Repository enhances visibility through search engine indexing and by participating in the wider Digital Commons Network. The repository provides public metrics such as top downloads and activity by year so authors and administrators can see which works draw sustained attention. Popular items and "Top 10 Downloads" lists are displayed on the site and individual item pages show download statistics. These metrics can be used by faculty to demonstrate impact and reach beyond traditional subscription journals. 9

Examples of recent content and research themes

Recent submissions demonstrate the breadth of scholarship hosted in the Repository. Sample 2023 to 2025 items include research on administrative law, corporate governance for platform workers, constitutional questions, legal technology and empirical studies on the justice system. The Faculty Scholarship and Articles pages list working papers and final articles with downloadable PDFs where allowed. 10

Copyright, licensing and author rights

Depositing authors retain copyright to their materials unless they have transferred those rights to a publisher. The Repository documents the exact posting permissions: some publishers allow the published version, others permit only the post-print or an accepted manuscript and may require an embargo period. The Repository staff assist authors in checking publishers' policies and in uploading the appropriate version to comply with agreements. 11

Why the Repository matters

Institutional repositories serve several strategic roles for a law school. They preserve institutional memory, surface faculty expertise to students, practitioners and policymakers, increase citation and download counts that reflect broader real-world engagement, and provide a free public portal to scholarship that may otherwise be locked behind paywalls. For practitioners, journalists and researchers looking for law scholarship on a topic, the Repository is a reliable first stop. 12

Useful links and contacts

• University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository home. 13
• Repository FAQ and submission guidance. 14
• Faculty Scholarship collection. 15
• Journal archives hosted in the Repository. 16
• Law School scholarly publishing and faculty support (contact info for Ben Keele and Library support). 17

Quick recommendations for researchers and readers

1. Use the repository search and the Digital Commons Network search to find law scholarship across institutions.
2. Set up alerts if you track a topic; the platform offers RSS/email notifications for new additions.
3. If you are a faculty author, check your publication agreements and work with the Law Library to deposit permissible versions to maximize reach.

Primary sources: University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository home and FAQ, Faculty Scholarship collection, Journal archives, Law Library scholarly publishing pages and the Digital Commons Network. See site pages linked above for the most current counts and item lists. 18