Hide Your Fires - ONC 2023

Chapter One- Blood will have blood

TW- death, fire, skulls, swords, blood, devils/demons (please let me know if I missed any)

Runa- nine years ago

The clock on the wall had broken that morning, and Runa had never quite forgiven herself for it. She hadn't meant to do it, but the sunlight had danced against her skin, and she couldn't help but run around with its light in her veins. And she had knocked it and let it fall to the floor with a huge thud. There was nothing she could do but watch, her childish eyes filled with panic as it ticked, ticked and then-

The first scream came as the clock stopped.

Runa couldn't count how many followed just a second later.

She didn't know if she was breathing when she tore her eyes from the unmoving hands and ripped the door open. She didn't even remember how she ran down the stairs, leaping onto each one faster than ever before. All Runa knew was one word. Run. Run as fast as she could. Run to get anywhere that wasn't there. Just run.

Outside, blood and chaos filled the once-peaceful streets. The glorious rays of light now rejoiced in the blood glinting off the soldiers' silver swords, sending the harsh emptiness of shadows to feast upon the corpses piling up in the city centre. Runa's feet scratched against the coarse stone of the ground, but it couldn't stop her, wouldn't stop her. She couldn't let them catch her. The thought of what the King would do to anyone sent a shiver down her spine. Run. Focus on that later.

Fire twisted through the air, and orange embers blurred into ribbons as Runa darted between the legs of adults. She should help them- do something. She stopped running. A swirl of lightning coursed through her veins, ice meeting it at her fingertips as she raised her arm towards a soldier and-

"What do you think you're doing? Get out of here!" her neighbour pushed past her, directing a spike of earth straight through a soldier's chest.

"But-"

"Go!"

And so she ran, trying to pretend she didn't just hear the blood of her neighbour gurgle as a soldier slit his throat open. She ran, pretending she didn't smell the burning of bodies.

But then rough hands gripped her shoulders. She stopped. No. Please, no.

"Look what we have here," the voice sneered- grip tightening, "another monster to put on the fire. I wonder how you will burn."

The frost that had coursed through Runa's veins now turned her muscles to ice. Seconds later, she was under an ocean of flames, fire licking her skin. Numbness joined the heat slipping through her flesh as the smell of her burning body became stronger and stronger, clinging to her nostrils. It took her years to realise she never remembered crawling out of the flames and debris- never remembered how she clambered to her feet, arm still burning. But, when she blinked, she was running- the pain was nothing compared to the scent of fear. She had to keep running- return to the steady rhythm her feet had created against the stone floor.

She tripped.

And fell.

Runa didn't stop falling until her body slammed against the floor, her bones cracking against the icy, hard surface. Its coolness seeped through her skin, soothing the aching in every inch of flesh. Strangely, wherever she had fallen from was no longer visible. All that remained was an echoing blackness, a welcomed silence from the screams and panic. She hadn't felt this calm since before the clock broke, before her parents had left her with strict instructions to behave, before the screaming and the bodies and the soldiers and the fire and-

Her parents. She sat straight up, ignoring the protesting of her muscles at the sudden movement. Would she ever see them again? She had focussed so much on getting away from everything that she hadn't stopped to think about finding them. They couldn't be dead, she decided almost instantly, because if they were, then Runa could do nothing. She was only ten; how would she survive?