INTO THE FLAMES

Nick Bostic was troubled. Aimless. Then one night, everything changed.

- Nicholas Hune-Brown

AT FIRST, IT WAS ALMOST IMPERCEPTIBLEA FAINT ORANGE LIGHT at the edge of his vision as Nick Bostic drove down the streets of Lafayette, Indiana. Bostic rolled past the two-story house before he could process what he was seeing. Then he slammed on the brakes. Oh my God, he thought. That house is on fire.

It hadn't been Bostic's best night, but it hadn't been his worst either. The 25-year-old-burly and 6-foot-3, with a messy beard that often framed a puckish grin-was still figuring out how to make his way through a life that hadn't always been easy.

Bostic had spent his childhood shuttling back and forth between his mom in Lafayette and his dad in Arkansas, with neither home providing the love and safety that he needed.

If you'd asked his friends to describe him as a kid, Bostic says, they'd probably have said "a fool." He got into trouble, acted like an idiot, tried to use humor to make friends but never quite got it right.

As he got older, his troubles got more serious. Bostic began using methamphetamines. He lost friends to suicide. At times, his own life didn't feel worth living. But over the past few years, he had started to turn things around. He'd quit hard drugs. He had a girlfriend, Kara Lewis, and was working at a Papa Johns making pizzas. If people around Lafayette had to describe him now, they might say he was a guy with a big heart who maybe didn't know exactly what to do with it.

That night, July 11, 2022, Bostic had had a petty squabble with Lewis and he'd stormed out of their apartment, leaving his phone behind so she couldn't contact him. He filled up her car with gas, then smoked some weed in an auto-parts store parking lot; he liked to go there when he needed to be alone. He looked up at the stars and sat in silence for 15 minutes or so. Then he decided to head home. He was on the road back to the apartment just after midnight when he saw the house on fire.