Ashes (Flame Ash Burned Backstory)

Chapter 1: Kids

31st October 1997

The golden glow of a blazing fire in the fireplace illuminated the small living room, accompanied with the strangely relaxing sounds of cracking and rumbling from the flames.

Lula Jackson, a two year old, sat beside the fireplace and watched intently as the graceful tongues of fire danced while smoke from the burning logs twisted and spiraled up into the chimney. The images reflected back in her innocent green eyes.

Joe, her older brother by two years, was sat beside her. However, he was more occupied with scraping up old ash, which had drifted from inside the fireplace to the furthest part of the hearth, and using it as something he liked to call 'war paint.'

Joe's so-called 'war paint' usually ended up getting him in lots of trouble: even though it started out on his face and hands, it gradually found its way onto all the walls of the house as well.

Lyric, who was three years older than Lula, laid beside the chair on which their mother sat reading Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone. Wrapped around her wrist and arm was a delicate daisy chain made from the flowers found between the blades of grass on their front lawn. She inspected each daisy carefully, admiring her delicate creation of each chain.

Evie, the non-identical twin of Lyric, was far too focused on brushing her tangled, crimson red hair to prevent her younger brother from rubbing ash all over his face or to stop her youngest sister from falling into the fireplace, or to do anything to draw her twin's attention away from the flowers for five seconds at the least.

Evie was different from the other kids. An outcast in her own family, or at least, that's how she felt. And all because of the color of her hair; a trait which she had been told had been inherited from her dad.

The dad who none of the children had ever seen, and hadn't visited their mother for the past two years and nine months. It seemed like he only ever came to see her to get her pregnant with yet another child, and she fell for him every time.

But despite the dad who never showed his face to the kids and the slight nagging feeling of "I'm different" clinging to Evie whenever she looked at her family, everything was fine.

The house was located in a remote village, and life could be difficult getting the necessary supplies sometimes, but everything was okay. 

Little Lula Jackson, sitting by the fire, had developed faster than other kids had done; she had learned how to understand basic words and phrases by the age of four months, walk by six months and be unnaturally perspicacious for a two year old.

"Mum..." Joe had stopped applying his 'war paint', and was staring through a gap in the curtains from beside the fireplace. "There's a man outside. He was looking at you through the window..."

As if on cue, there was a loud knock at the door. Only after a brief moment did the knocking turn into more violent and relentless banging. The four children immediately jumped up in fright, huddling together; their mother stood up in front of her children protectively.

"Go upstairs now." Their mother's usually sweet voice was commanding, her gaze moving from the door to the windows in the room. "Do not come downstairs no matter what. Lyric, Evie: if this man manages to get in, there are knives under my bed. As the oldest two, I want you both to protect your siblings. Can you do that?"

Evie nodded without hesitation, grabbing the two youngest by their wrists and quickly dragging them upstairs into their mother's bedroom. Lyric followed closely behind her, shutting the door. Lula -completely terrified- had begun to cry, but quietened when Joe gave her a hug: a hug which got some of his 'war paint' smeared on her cheek.

Lyric crawled underneath the bed and pulled out two long but slightly rusted knives. The blades were still quite sharp. Lyric and her non-identical twin took a knife each, and stood in front of their younger siblings the same way their mother had stood in front of them just moments ago.

Four pairs of eyes were fixed on the door, and the room was filled with silence that was only interrupted by quiet, shaky breaths and pounding heartbeats. Downstairs, the banging continued until-

CRACK!

The sound of wood splitting.

A door being kicked in.

No scream from their mother, but from a man instead.

"Mum must have hit him with something." Evie whispered to her siblings, still not taking her gaze off the door. Ready to attack. Ready to kill the moment something threatened the people she loved, no matter how scared she was. "I hope she hit him hard."

"Evie..." Lyric's voice was hushed, and her breathing was shaky as if she were having a panic attack. "I can't do this. I-I don't want to hurt anybody - I don't. I-I... I can't... I can't do it."

"We have to protect Lula and Joe." Evie told her, as their mother's scream rang through the house followed by a loud thud. Her heart pounded louder, faster, as if it were about to burst out of her chest. "Joe, Lula: get under the bed and hide right now. Don't make any noise whatsoever."

The two youngest did as Evie ordered immediately, just as the sound of heavy footsteps begun making their way upstairs, getting closer and closer to the door.

The lock on the door had been busted ever since the children could remember, and all the furniture in the room was far too heavy for them to drag in front of the door.

 The footsteps stopped right in front of the door; the handle screeched as it was turned and the door was opened...

This was it. The only way to survive was to fight...

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I'll do a picture of a character and put it at the top each chapter along with a song! Pic at the top this chapter is Evie!

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See ya later, my little demons!

-F (admin)