From the Ashes

Prologue

\x/ PROLOGUE \x/

“What are you doing?!”

Tyler rushed forward as thin plumes of smoke began to rise in slow twirls from the yellowing grass in front of him when an arm quickly caught him across his middle.

“Chill, dude,” the larger boy with a buzz cut leered at him and looked back at the burning patch. “Look, it really picks up when it’s this dry.”

Tyler eyed his friend warily before following his gaze down to where the smoke billowed increasingly thicker with every second that ticked by.

It was late September and Tyler had just started fifth grade. He was out in the field behind his house, which mostly consisted of tall grass left to its own devices in unkempt tufts and a scattering of trees that grew into a thicker grove before eventually becoming the forest that flanked this side of town. It was separated from Tyler’s backyard by a small ditch and bordered all of the houses on his street in the same way.

Being eleven and twelve years old, both Tyler and his new friend Jacob were full of mischief and pranks, but in slightly differing ways. Tyler was a boy who, even if he went against his parent’s wishes quite often, at least knew right from wrong. Jacob was the kind that did whatever he wanted and intimidated his peers with threats of a beating if they didn’t do what he said. He’d started the grade above Tyler’s that previous spring semester and was already a bully. But after meeting at try-outs for the baseball team, Tyler and he mostly got along and had taken to hanging out after school until their parents came home from work. Maybe he shouldn’t, but Tyler couldn’t help to be kind of proud of being the only one Jacob wasn’t mean to all the time.

Tyler’s mom had started giving him this lopsided, disapproving scowl and a short ‘hm’ whenever he said that Jacob was coming over or told her about something he’d done in school. She’d even sat him down at the dinner table once, saying that “this Jacob boy” seemed like a bad influence and maybe Tyler would be better off with his other friends. This only served to make Tyler roll his eyes and tell his mom to stop being annoying. Even though he knew deep down that perhaps she did have a point, he wasn’t about to let her tell him who he could and couldn’t hang out with. He wasn’t a baby anymore!

He was reminded of his mother’s warning words now though, when Jacob was messing around with the lighter he’d taken from his older sister’s room. Tyler had been curios about what Jacob had in mind when he’d wanted to explore the field out back, but now that he knew, he wasn’t so sure he wanted any part of it. It seemed stupid to set things on fire just for the sake of watching it burn, especially when it was this dry out.

The day was warm under a blazing sun that hadn’t relented since late July and all the greenery of summer that wasn’t withered and dead already was well on its way of befalling the same fate as everything in its surroundings. The county had issued a fire and watering ban, stating that the subsoil water levels were at an all time low and that preservation and care was of outmost importance. Not that Tyler paid attention to any of those details, but he did understand that maybe burning grass wasn’t such a good idea right now.

“Okay, I’ve seen it. Now put it out,” Tyler looked back up at Jacob from the ever thickening smoke in front of them.

Jacob didn’t answer him, however, and Tyler watched the smile on his face grow a little wider as he kept avidly staring at the fire.

“Put it out, Jake!” Tyler tried again, a bit louder this time and was about to step forward again when a loud voice called his name, halting him in his tracks.

“Tyler! Are you out of your mind?!”

Whipping around to look in the direction of his house, Tyler saw his mom rush out through the patio doors and felt his heartbeat speed up. Oh, he was in big trouble now.