and the fire did n't burn him , it dripped out of him like sweat , and his stepmonster yvette had shrieked at him to stop , kevin , stop , but he did n't know how , and whatever she did did n't help , and when he found his dad and tried to drag him out , the skin just- i pulled free of kevin 's horrors with a yank that i felt through my entire soul , and tried to touch as little as possible while i sped through those filthy , polluted halls of memory , avoiding the traps where things whispered and beckoned , looking ...