in which a girl with a heavy burden tries to find her way through the trials and torments of the earth they've come home to.
OR
in which she must rebuild.
EMBERS
JOHN MURPHY
DEATHLIES 2016
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN T...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
O N E
Althea had been in prison since she was sixteen after her mother attempted the murder of Abby Griffin and Althea had been claimed an assistant. Her father was dying, but Abby said there was nothing left they could do for him, no way to save the man young, innocent Althea adored with all her heart.
Her mother was enraged. She'd grabbed a scalpel from the side and sprung at Abby with the kind of anger only love could produce. She was fierce and determined, but Abby had fortune on her side and managed to stop her mother's diving arm.
"Let go of her!" Althea had shouted as she tried to pull Abby's hand off the only thing she had left in her life.
Althea watched in horror as the woman, her mother and the only family she had left was taken from her.
Her mother was floated the next morning and Althea locked away.
But now, as the door of her cell swung open, she felt a new atmosphere surrounding her. These guards were not here to float her just yet. As they told her to stand and put her hands against the wall she complied without a single word.
She knew where she was going. The ground awaited them, she'd seen it. Every time she touched the glass she felt the image forcing itself into her mind and reminding her that she would be down there soon enough.
It never failed to remind her that she was going to die down there, just like the other ninety-nine young criminals would. She saw the knives, the running strangers among the forest's gloom and the charred bodies of the fallen.
Althea Barnes is a disturbed child. Her own dreams destroyed her faith and her grip on humanity as every night left her just one more scar to add to her vast collection. The memories were carved into her skull, burned into her brain. There was no forgetting. No chance of purity or relief in her life. Never would the poor girl have a beautiful dream of unfathomable sprawling lands of grass, tinted with early morning dew and a pretty blue sky painted above, birds dancing in its breeze.
As the wristband was clamped around her thin wrist and the needle stuck into her neck, she felt nothing. She was an empty shell. Merely a vehicle for nightmares. Nightmares yet to come.
Her eyes fell shut and her hair sprawled in front of her face as she was taken away, out of her cell to her new beginning, as she knew they called it. She would be pardoned of her crimes, but that didn't matter to her.
She would rather be floated than meet the fate that awaited her down on the ground.
The ground was their home, but it was also their grave and no one but Althea knew it, except the crows.
-
so, this is the beginning of my first 100 fanfiction and I've got to say im very excited for this! the chapters aren't going to be long but im sure it'll be packed full of darkness and sadness. I hope you enjoy it!
