The daughter of Carmelia

Waking up

The sun rises, a warm light illuminates the place, the wooden floor, now grey and black doesn't react to the light, like it did before last night.
In the house there's a lot of dust and ash, the wood in the ceiling and even in the floor is all burnt, the place smells differently now. Everything has changed, now a new style decors the house, a fire caused not by accident, changed the whole life of this lone survivor. A girl, hidden in the basement, wakes up in her bed, which miraculously was saved from all fire that night.
The girl wakes up and walks around, her black clothes seem to be still intact as every strand of her hair. She wasn't harmed by the fire, as if the flames itself avoided catching the little girl. She stands and looks around, confused by the sudden change of her home. She feels her stomach empty, something that contrasts with the daily meal her mother used to offer during her awakening in the morning. The girl's black and eyes and hair seem to match the place perfectly in colors but differently from the house wood, they still have the bright in their colors.

"-Where's mom?" She wanders and searches through the empty basement, finding in the end only a letter under her pillow, the writing was a bit confused, as if someone had written it in a hurry, but she could read the most important thing.

"-Take care, be brave,
Love you Serena."

Flames pouring out of the walls and ceiling, while screams could be heard outside. A kiss in her forehead and a blank covering her face were the only things the girl could remember from last night.

The girl understood she was now alone and as her heart flooded with sadness she holded her feelings in it and tried to find a way to get out of there.

She noticed something hidden in the shadow, and looking better, she noticed a strange figure. The girl was confused of what that would be and waved to the thing with big eyes. The thing somehow waved back, surprising the girl.
"What, what is that thing?" She whispered to herself. Usually a girl at her age would be terrified of finding an unusual creature at their home, but Serena somehow didn't fear the creature.

"-Why is that, i'm not scared by you, would be that maybe my feelings were burnt with these flames?"

*CRACK*
A strange sound was heard above her outside the basement and suddenly a piece of wood pierced the weak and burnt basement ceiling demanding to fall over the girl.
Before she could react the wood had already fallen on the floor.

"-What, how?" She looked and saw the shadow thing stretching an arm like thing above her head like a big net and then returning back to the shadow.

She was now surprised as she saw the gelatinous squishy body of the creature. It was the same size as her, but it had a funny form, like if someone had worn a black blanket and cut open eyes on it.
The creature noticed the look and went back into the shadow.

"-No, wait, you helped me right? I don't feel fear when looking at you, please don't leave me alone again..."

Her heart full of sadness, now had a bit of curiosity. The creature, seeing she was friendly, decided to move out of the shadow and now his body was all shown. The girl looked and laughed a bit, as she remembered the pudding her mother used to make.
"Pudding, you've been burnt by the flames too, like my house?"

The creature looked around and bent it's "head" a little to the left, as if it hadn't understood what she just said.

"-Pudding, thanks for protecting me, I need to look out for my mother, She might be somewhere outside of here. Where's your mother?...You seem to be alone too, come with me, so none of us won't be left behind again"

Serena forced the basement's door, which was quite hard to open, but with Pudding's aid she opened it. The girl walked through what had left of her house, pieces of wood and house items now all black, destroyed, burnt. The burnt doll on the floor, brought a knot up on her throat, but the girl remained silent. She noticed the grey clouds gathering, the place without a ceiling made it easy for her to notice it. She found her mother's umbrella, now it was only the metal support.

"It's going to rain soon, mom always says to protect myself from the rain."

She walked out of the grey place, the street was the same as always, made of cement blocks for the carriage to pass, street lamps along the way, the wind brought to her a newspaper, dated to January 13 of 1221. The girl walked through the streets looking further, while at her side Pudding slid over the cement and stone blocks that compound the sidewalk.
Civilians passed through her, Pudding was invisible to their eyes as the girl noticed. She was starting to think the same as herself, since no one in the street seemed to care about her presence, but a man bumped in her.

"Look where you walk!"
He screamed while walking away.

"Well, they can still see me, i'm glad"
She then looked to Pudding and gave it a hug since she was the only one who could do it.

Arriving at the park, Serene sat on the bank, the park wasn't empty, but there were lots of people going and coming out from all directions, like it ever was.
"Maybe they didn't know about the flames"
She wondered.
Raindrops now started to fall on her head, one drop at a time, until it started increasing. She took her destroyed umbrella, opened it.

Her mind was through a lot of thoughts that she hadn't noticed Pudding's stretching again his arm like a net to protect her from the rain, since a broken umbrella wouldn't be able to do the job.

The whole park was soaked as the water continuously fell, but the girl remained dry, thanks for the aid of her only friend.

"Serena, you're a very intelligent girl"
"Serena, be careful when running around"
"Serena, wanna go to the square to buy some fruits?"
"Serena, what do you want to eat today?"
"Serena, knows that mommy loves you so much!"

Suddenly, the memories of her mother and all the things the girl had restrained started pouring out of her. Her heart's pain brought tears to her eyes as she couldn't help but burst into a loud cry.
She cried and cried.
The people running from the water, with their clothes soaked, badmouthed the rain and cursed it's waters. The girl, ironically, the most protected from the rain, had drenched her clothes with her tears, and her voice was stuffy by the heavy sound of the falling drops. She was the most different figure of that scenario, still no one seemed to care about it.