For You

For You

Prologue

The life of a child that survived the fire was the life of a ghost.

The children and young adults that emerged from the ashes of the old town were seen as dead within the first few months of winter. If the cold from the outside wasn't enough to kill them, the coldness from the other people in the town was enough to make them want to die. Though, not a lot of people died from the weather that winter. The beasts that would sneak into the burnt down part of town and pray on the people who would venture too far away from the town centre were the main cause of death. Hiding up in the burnt remains of houses, sitting there in the dark, until they would jump down onto the poor soul, ripping them apart with their teeth and claws. The last thing they saw were dark and sunken eyes...

If you didn't have a place to live, you were dead. If you were an orphan, you were dead. At least, that is how the rest of the town had viewed it.

If you still remained, you were dead to them. A ghost. That is what I was for a bit, one of the “ghosts” of the people from before the fire, holding onto her father's hand as we would look for food or someplace warm.

I can say that I was lucky, having survived with at least one parent to look after me. Most of the children I saw were cold, lost, and alone. Though, the winter months were cruel, the people who lost homes were stuck with living with people who still had them, or living on the streets.

In that regard, my father wasn't so lucky.

The woman who had been willing to allow someone to live in the attic of her home, she was the wife to the mayor of the town. Due to the small space of the residence, my father told me to take the attic and he would find another place to stay. I can remember begging him not to go, gripping his hand and pulling harshly, asking him not to abandon me. I believed Mother to be missing at that time, but as the burnt remains of the town had slowly been cleared out, and the grave yard getting fuller, it started to seem like a child's hopeless wish.

I didn't want to be alone.

I can remember what Father had said to me, bending down to my level in the cramped space of the attic.

“I will never abandon you,” he said softly, placing a cold hand on my cheek, “if you need me, I will always be there.”

He kept his word.

As the winter months drifted by with agonizing slowness, I became more of a secret to the Mayor's family, his son, Sedrick, only coming up every now and then to feed me. The odd times, he would stay and we would read. More so, he would read to me, seeing as his level of education seemed much higher than my own, even if we were the same age. He used to read rather thick books about monsters and the brave people that would slay them. He used to read the stories with such excitement that I found myself growing excited right along with him.

I guess I can say that he was my first friend, though the Sedrick of that time, and one of the present, are two very different people. The sweet little boy that used to read to me and bring me little treats with dinner soon grew into a young adult that had his innocence tainted with wealth, narcissism, and a general disregard for the well-being of others.

The boy who used to idolize his father grew into the young man that speaks, quite frequently, about how he can't wait for his father to pass on so he could “rule the town”.

Still, sometimes, when he is out walking the busy streets of the town, I would catch his eye. If I pay enough attention, I can see the flicker of something cross his face, until his companion would return and I would just return back to being the “Fortunate Farmer”'s daughter.

...A lot of things changed.

When spring had came around, and I started to grow tired of just being someone that lived in an attic, Father started to tell me about the house he was building in the farming lands a mile or two away from the town. It wasn't long before he took me away with him, and we started our new life on his farm. I got to enjoy the feeling off having space and being outside again, to have my own room and I got to be with Father again.

It was enough to last for years, I watched the town rebuild itself. I made new friends, experienced new things...

Though, the biggest story of my life had yet to unfold.

The monster had yet to arrive.