Fall of the Phoenix

Chapter One

Phoenix

Wedding bells. Crows. The faint sound of waves crashing against the cliff face hundreds of feet below. The silence of the small crowd- only about 40 or so, small enough for a wedding. The sounds that I had yet to know would haunt me in the future. The very near future. Too bad I didn't know sooner, but it was for my own good.

"Do you, Trevor Harrison, take Alessandra Phoenix as your wife, through sickness and through health?" the priest asked my loving fiance. I pretty much blanked out at that stage. Weddings are mighty borig. "I do", Trevor answered instantly. He'd probably practised saying 'I do' to his mirror at home. In fact, I was quite sure that he did. The perfect, rich city boy for Sovia Phoenix's plain, pastey, seventeen year old, brunette daughter, Alessa. Our wedding was set on a cliff-side just outside of Phoenix, more in the country-side area. My long, deep chesnut hair was pulled back into a braided bun so tight that it hurt the sides of my face before I even tried to smile. The bitterly cold wind wormed its way through the thin layers of my dress and in through my shoes, freezing my squashed toes. Mama Phoenix's ivory coloured vintage boot-heels didn't do much to help. They had four material covered buttons down the outside of the boot but on her right foot, one was missing. The overly large 'Grace Kelly', whoever that was style dress was so long that even in Mama's shoes, was still long enough to trip on. The front of the dress was hand-made lace that came across my chest in a single strip and would scrunch up if I moved my arms too much. The dipped back let the wind and cold in and sent shivers up my back. The skirt was flowing white chiffon with a couple of silk ivory sashes. I shouldn't be here. I should be in England or exploring the destroyed lands of the rest of the States, well, whatever's left of it, if there is any, apart from Phoenix, itself.

My parents divorced when I was eight. Nine years ago and it still feels like yesterday- when my dad died. I lived with that man for six months. Six months of being Daddy's princess. Then one night I came home to a version of my father that I had never seen before. A drunk version. It's all your fault, you know, he had said. That your mother left me. And then he left me, an eight year old girl, alone in the biggest house in Phoenix, the town house, vunerable, so he could go and get my mother back. Waste. Of. Time.

He crashed the car into the old well in the city. Killed instantly. No body found either.

"Alessa?" the priest asked. "What?" I snapped back at him. "Do you take Trevor as your lawfully wedded husband?" I could feel Lawrence, my bestfriend, stare at me. It was no secret that we had more feelings for each other than just bestfriends but we knew that my mother would never approve of a petty, little townboy and the two poor inlaws. My mothers ice cold eyes bored into my back. She is going to kill me for this. "I-I- I don't know, I'm sorry" I looked around the crowd until my eyes locked on Lawrences steel grey ones. "I can't, I can't marry you. I don't love you. I'm sorry" I whispered. "I have to go"

And I fled.

^^^^^^^^^

The buildings were a blur. Silver/Grey streaks of light in my peripheral vision. My dress billowed out behind me in a big cloud. My feet pounded on the ground as I sprinted past homeless people, the ones that fled from the wars of the mainlands. I came to a stop, panthing hard. The poor heels were covered from top to toe in mud. I pulled them off slowly, sighing at the sight of the skin blistering on my feet and the skin, starting to peel. I began to walk again, in my bare feet, along the abandoned streets of the unfinished city. Shards of shattered glass littered the roads and pavements, wedging their way into my aching feet. The blood leaking. Drop for drop. Staining the pavenment as I walked. For miles and miles, I walked through endless empty streets. Through more glass, through smoke, water and disguisting flies, sitting on the homeless's arms and nesting in their hair. My feet had become extremely muddy and raw as such that I collapsed onto the pavement. I threw the shoes aside and ripped the dirty fabric from my dress for a make-shift bandage. I rubbed my forehead from sweat, smearing blood across it and into my eyes. A tall, dark figure appeared out of the corner of my clouded vision. "Miss. Phoenix", the figure seemed to say. "What a surprise, what is a pleasant girl like you doing wondering the back streets of the city?" I went to answer but my crackled lips and dry throat limited me to just croaking to the stranger. "Lawrence?" I croaked. - Yes, that is Lawrence's voice, isn't it? I questioned myself. "Aless? Why are you bleeding?" the voice asked in a taunting tone, as if it knew that I couldn't answer. "Why did you leave your mother alone at the wedding? Why haven't you married Trevor yet? WHY ARE YOU RUNNING AWAY?!" He screamed. The many different voices rushed at me all at once making me scream. I sat up quickly not even realising that I had been lying down on the pavement. I looked around for the strange man that had spoke to me but only found a poor old man with a beard and white wiry hair. I stood up and hobbled my way over to him. "Sir, please, have you seen a boy, about my own age pass through here?" I asked the man hunched on the path. He ignored me. "Sir?" I asked again. He sat there still as ever. Then my eyes widened. I knelt down to brush his hair out of his face and to see if he was breathing. Suddenly he jerked up out of his position and grabbed my shoulders roughly. "Miss. Phoenix", he hissed. "You have great, great things ahead of you. Head for the well at once!" he demanded. I just looked at him, too stunned to say anything. "Don't waste a moment, Aless", he said a bit quieter. "You are very important to your father, don't forget that." "You must be mistaken", I mumbled. "My father is dead-" "Don't believe in events that never happened, Miss. Phoenix, many people will deceive you! Trust no-one! I have already kept you for too long, he is rooting for you, Miss. Phoenix! Now go, quickly, they are after you, they will find you before dusk! Be gone, too the old well at the other side of the city! Run, Miss Phoenix, save yourself! Save us all!" I stood up slowly and winced at the stinging pain in my feet. "Um, thanks", I said to the man as I turned at started for the otherside of the city. "Tell Dimitri I said hello, won't you Aless?" the man called after me. "Sure..." I replied, thinking about how mad the man was. "She will do great things, Zara, I know she will." I heard him whisper to whoever Zara was. I looked over my shoulder to look at the man but he was on the ground. Dead. So I ran.

As fast as I could.