Phoenixfire

The past, How monsters are made

Amaris Santiago wakes with a start. The night is at its darkest, and she is not sure why she woke. Then suddenly, screams and the sound of gunfire disrupt the quiet night. Fully awake she looks around – oh she had fallen asleep again while stargazing. Carefully she raises her head to look down from the thatched roof and is greeted by the sight of utter chaos. There are some huge black Jeeps with big guns on top and a transporter off to one side. People in black uniforms all through the streets. From her Vantagepoint she can see, they had spread throughout the village and surrounded it, too, before they made their entrance known. She sees some of the grown ups fight, flame and earth, water, and air to their aid, but not many. More already too still on the ground. Wiped out in seconds. Children are forced onto the transporter. Manhandled, beaten.... When she hears commotion down in the house, her flame erupts from her hand, her Phoenix fully awake and at her side instantly, as she jumps from the roof. The pain of the landing is swept away in a flush of flame through her body instantly. The men turn to her surprised, but can't react to her Phoenix passing through them, burning them. Shocked she looks at her hand through which she seemed to have directed it. The healing she knew and the little fires, but never had her Phoenix done that. In theory she knew this was possible when she'd reach adulthood, but.... She wouldn't question it now. Now maybe she could help....

When the men have fallen, she glances into the big room, in which her sister and cousin stand. "They are in the woods, there is no way out. Hide, I'll find you later." Her sister screams after her and rushes forward, but Amaris is already gone. She is small for her years. Tiny some might say. She uses this to her advantage, rushing from hide to hide, her Phoenix attacking, whomever she gets in reach of. She had never trained for this, so she is sloppy and more often than not, only the force of her Phoenix is keeping her safe.

After a long while she finds herself on the village square with men converging from all sides. At her back she has thrown a shield over the injured woman and her small boy, whom she was just about to get to one of the root cellars to hide in, as she had done a few times in the past hours. She is tired. Her Phoenix coos in her mind "We can take them. Let them come to you and I can blast them all." Not sure how, she concedes and looks at the men weary. They surround her quickly. But don't step closer. Their lines break and a man, grey haired with a long black coat with a red kraken stitched into its breast steps through. "Give up, we have you surrounded." He states. Simple. True. She fidgets and loses her nerve, sending her Phoenix against the circle of men. The man gives an exasperated sigh. "Bring me some mutts." Amaris is still thinking What does he want with dogs? When the lines open again, and a few captured grown ups and children are pushed into the ring. Her sister is among them. She has a cut on her forehead and is carrying a small girl. Her eyes look terrified at her baby sister and she shakes her head in disbelief. The man looks around and counts the men she just injured. Without hesitation he raises his gun and shoots four of the six prisoners at random. Without thinking about it, her Phoenix rushes out of her and flies toward that vile man. It doesn't seem to have any effect on him, but that he turns around and shoots the little girl, still held by Amaris' sister. And sweeps the gun over haphazardly into the direction of her head. Still holding the dead girl, too afraid to make any movement, she shakes her head again. All fight goes out of Amaris as she hears the klick as the cock is drawn back. The fire that had coursed through her burning low, her Phoenix hiding away in its pit, low to the ground. The shield behind her dies as she falls to her knees and onto the floor as the man demands. As they raise her back up, now cuffed and gaged she sees the man looking from her to her sister and back, a calculating look in his eyes. She is pulled toward him as he nods. When she stands directly in front of him and her sister, now without the dead girl in her arms, but covered in her blood, he smiles. "This is for all my men you hurt today." He raises his hand toward the woman and boy she had protected and shoots them. Amaris jumps at the loud noise so close to her head, overpowering the soft thud of bodies on the ground, that must have been heard. Still transfixed to her sister's eyes, she sees the gun swivel around and again pressing to her sister's temple. "And this is the reminder, not to do it again." He pulls the trigger and Amaris freezes. Time slows down so she can see every detail of the bullet entering the skull only leaving a dainty hole and leaving on the other side with so much more damage; her sisters eyes break in milliseconds; She is drenched in her blood. Her ears are ringing in earnest now and all she can see is her sisters body crumpled on the ground as she is pulled toward the transporter. She sees the man smile as he puts the safety back on his gun and carefully places it back into the holster. Still smiling he nods at her and turns toward his men. Dismissing her. Her Phoenix screams in pain and wants to break free, but Amaris is too numb to grant her leave. Fourteen suddenly flashes through her mind. Today is my birthday. I am fourteen now.