Revenge

When the world crashes down

It seemed like just yesterday she was by my side, beautiful dusky blond hair falling in her sparkling blue eyes as she laughed. Now I sit here staring at her cold lifeless body, just laying here in the forest. We had gone out on a camping trip to get away from all the problems and stress we had; and now here is my best friend, the girl who was the closest to me in this horrible world, laying stiff and cold on the late spring ground. There were no leaves on the ground, but as if there was some sick joke Madeline was surrounded by dead plants. Her soft warm peachy skin now pale and cold, tear tracks on slightly dirty cheeks. Her clothes were the same, only natural bruises on her skin. I couldn't move, I couldn't think, I could hardly even see. Tears blur my vision, hitting the ground 'plop, plop' warm salty tears becoming cold as pain was shooting into my temples. It felt like I was in a dream; maybe all that was happening was just a dream?

I hadn't even noticed so many hours had gone by, I wasn't even in the woods anymore. I was sitting in a dark grey foreboding room, the one bright light shining on me not helping the headache I had as I winced.

"name?" a gruff deep voice called out

"Lilja Awendela" my own voice foreign to me came out raspy, broken, and painful to listen to.

"age?"

"s-seventeen" if I looked close enough I could see the guy speaking. He was thick and rough looking, maybe around 40, with stringy dark hair and oily skin.

"So, Lilja, can you tell me about why two high school girls were in the forest on a school weekend? Oh and if you could possibly put in the facts about how the second girl turned up dead, that would be nice"

His voice was sickening, his snide snobby way of speaking angered me. I could tell he was one of those 'famous' and so very hated people of the new task force of fire mages. They talked down to everyone because they were the only ones who can control the element of fire.

"Madeline and I were going camping to get our minds off of the stress we were having in school, her boyfriend just broke up with her..." Flashes of red faces, loud voices, clenched fists, and screaming run through my head. "we got into a fight about her ex and I stormed off; when I came back she wasn't there anymore so I went searching for her. She was dead when I found her" I could feel a lump forming in my throat making in painful to just breathe. Her voice still rung in my ears, angry and hurt. We both said things we didn't mean and now there was no way to fix it, no way for me to say sorry, no forgiveness. Just lonely darkness and an empty space where she once was.

"Well if you have no idea it can only be ruled as an accident, naturally caused death" he sounded like he was bored and couldn't care less about what had happened to Madeline and before I knew what I was doing I was already up, the noise of my fists hitting the metal table reverberating throughout the room. I could feel the burning sensation of pain as blood rushed to my fists.

"Madeline was perfectly fine and healthy! What about an autopsy! She was murdered!" I felt warm salty burning tears rolling down my cheeks again "It wasn't an accident, didn't you see the dead plants all around her like some sick joke?! SHE WAS KILLED! ISN'T IT OBVIOUS? DO YOUR JOB YOU IGNORANT SNOTTY MEN!" Suddenly someone rushed in to the room and grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me away.

"Calm down Lilja, everything will be okay" I suddenly felt calm as the person with large warm hands on my shoulders guided me down the hall. His voice was calm and was like velvet in a way, soft and warm. I could smell peppermint in the air which was somehow cool and calming. "I am taking her home" the voice spoke to one of the officers before leaving. He led me out of the police building and to a car, and could feel to coolness of the dark night rush over me. Soon enough he was driving me, the loud noise of the newly invented car filling up the silence between the two of us. I had already stopped crying and it felt like suddenly everything was going to be alright. I took the time of driving in the loud silence to look at him as white streaks fro the moon peeking behind building gave me a source of light. He had warm colored skin which reminded me of coffee with a bunch of creamer, short blonde hair that was spiked up in a way that it looked like he ran his hand through it a lot. He had soft pinkish lips and he was surprisingly muscular without over doing it. He was looking straight forward at the road, his clear light green eyes deep in thought.

"Madeline wa-" I start to speak

"I believe you, she was murdered" at this I was baffled, and he stopped the car and looked at me. "I have been tracking a series of mysterious deaths.... just like your friends. It's unlikely they were just coincidences, and I thought it odd that there had been no evidence of any possible reason why they had died." His eyes felt as if they pierced into my mind, like he saw through me. "What happened to your friend happened to my parents, and I intend to find out who did this" he gave me a sharp smile, bright white teeth sparkled faintly from the light of the moon, the cobble stone road quiet.

"b-but the police..." he grinned more.

"tell me about yourself Lilja, I will drive you home while we talk" he started the car again. Baffled I start speaking to my surprise, just going by his flow.

"Well... I can't remember my parents faces, for as long as I can remember Madeline was the closest thing to family I had.."

"oh?"

"yeah... we used to live in the same orphanage."

"used to? I assume you don't anymore?"

"heh yea, we ran away... turn right here" soon enough the houses are few at a time and trees are seen more "now we kind of live in an abandoned house... I guess I mean I live there now... Madeline would walk to work early on the weekends, and would stay out late to work after school, she used to say school was the most important next to food and water. She said we could get a good education and then we'd get out of this rut..." I smile faintly, the cobble stone road turning to dirt and the car jolting and bumping along on the uneven rocky pathway as I point to the left. "That's probably why she couldn't hold up a relationship" I could feel my lips trembling and I took a deep breath. "I tried to do my best to study, next year Madeline was going to go to an academy... I remember how excited she was" we stopped in front of a dark house, it was blue with white shutters falling off, the paint chipping and rotting wood on the porch, floor boards coming up and holes in areas. The yard was over grown with weeds and tall grass, only one pathway to the house of brown dead grass stomped to the ground.

He turned off the car and sat back, studying my living space "can I walk you in and we can talk more?"

"I guess if you really want to" I led him in and navigated around holes in the already falling apart termite decayed wood.

The inside was actually well kept and tidy, the floor patched up in places and ratty badly patched blankets covering the windows. I light candles and sit back on an old, ratty, torn, and stained couch "So how about you?"

He flashes a grin that actually makes me smile faintly. "My name is James, and I am 21" he laughs lightly "I started working for the police as soon as I could so I could bring down the murderer of my parents... they died when I was 12, I walked down stairs and found them like you found your Madeline, cold.. the plants in the room were all dead too" he smiles wryly "Anyways I live mainly in my car as you could probably tell, because I can't stand the idea of going back to that place.... I've been on my own since..." Silence fell between us as we sat there before I spoke up again.

"Why did you want to know about me?" at that he flashed a shy grin.

"Well... I've been working alone on this for a while and some fresh eyes may be just what I need to solve this. So, I want to offer you the chance to be my partner, this house could be our base and we can track down the perpetrator together" these words sparked hope in me, he didn't just believe me, he wanted to help me. "and I need to know about my partner don't I?" I could feel my lips turning up into my own grin.

"yea... let's do it...." at these words he stood up quickly and surprised me "I am glad to hear it, let me grab a few things from my car" he soon came back with 2 bulletin boards with newspapers, a map with pins on it, and pictures. He went back out and brought in a small radio and a writing pad. After he set up in an empty room we sat back in the living room, talking through out the night. I felt like I had found someone I could trust. That night we spoke about funny times, sad times, likes and dislikes, as the moon faded and the sun came out. I fell asleep at some point early that morning, feeling like everything was going to work out. We were going to get our revenge.