Raindrops and Ashes

First Sparks

Phoenix young tossed and turned in her bed, trying to ignore the sounds that haunted her tonight and every night for the past few weeks. Her parents were fighting again.

She rolled over to her bed stand where her alarm clock was, squinting to read the angry red numbers. 2:00 AM was blinking on the small screen. She groaned and covered her ears with a pillow, hoping that the angry voices from downstairs would stop, but hoping did nothing and the yelling continued. It's as if they didn't even realize that they have a daughter upstairs that could hear them.

She never could decipher exactly what they what they were saying but she knew one thing, they were fighting over her.

She was their only child and, genetically speaking, she wasn't even their child. Three years ago, she learned she was adopted, the hard way.

She was in the attic cleaning. She picked up a small folder and strode eagerly through the narrow corridors between the boxes in the crowded attic. The usual her, she was trying to get it done as fast as she possibly could so that she could go down stairs and relax. Her frustration got the best of her. As her distracted mind wondered, she forgot to pay attention to where she was walking and her leg got caught under a box. She fell to the floor as the folder went airborne, papers spreading across the wood planks of the attic floor. Angrily at her stupidity and in realizing that it just became a more complicated task, she got up and inspected her injuries (just a small scrape on her knee.) She then went to grab the papers from the floor.

She had been picking up papers that seemed to all be bills when she found one that looked significantly different. Curious, she grabbed it from the pile and sat down to get a closer look. It was more neatly decorated, with a small intricate border around all the edges of the small paper. She held it tight, trying to keep her hands from shaking from what was either excitement or fear, and read:

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 Phoenix Cameron Rosewater

2510 Burning Springs Kentucky

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It she now kept the certificate neatly hidden in her nightstand where she privately took it out every so often. She knew keeping it there was a risk but she felt that she needed it. It was a reminder of who she really was.

 And so, the pain of abandonment hit her again like it did every time she remembered that day. She didn't like to think about it. 

Those thoughts lead to a thread of thoughts and those thoughts led to another thread of thoughts and so forth. The thoughts were never positive. They sent her through a dark tunnel of depression that led the office of the nearby councilor her parents made her go to every week.

 However money her money her parents spent, the councilor could not heal the wounds in her heart. She may never know her real parents.

She checked the clock for the time. To her despair, she had only been absorbed in thought for five minutes, even though at the time it had felt like she had wasted at least ten minutes. There were still three hours and fifty-five minutes until she got to get up for school, something that most kids hated but Phoenix enjoyed. 

Unlike most kids, She loved school. She enjoyed having her troubles drift away as she learned about Napoleon in History, or different organisms in science, or read Shakespeare in English. She checked her alarm clock to check for the time.

Unfortunately, the time wasn't passing any quicker. So while every agonizing minute passed and her parents continued to fight, he reached for the only thing other than school that could calm his troubled mind, her book.

 She had been angry many times. Angry at her adopted parents for not telling her, angry at her real parents for giving her up, However, she learned that her anger did nothing to help the situation.

 Her book was always a good distraction. She knew he was a nerd ever since he was little. She had decided a long time ago that instead of using it as one of her flaws, she should be proud of it and use it as a way to identify herself. While other kids ran around at recess, she would sit in the mulch by the swing sets reading. She opened Percy Jackson:The lightning Thief and started reading it for what must have been the thousandth time. She gave a long sigh as her mind transitioned from the real world to the fictional world of Percy Jackson. She kept reading until she was so tired that her book felt like a heavy weight in her hands and her eyes began to close. Peacefully, she drifted off to sleep. **************************************************************************** "There is no way I'm "There is no way I'm going to tell her. It's too dangerous! It would be too much of a risk." "Well, we have to tell her sometimes, Alice. We've kept it from her for far too long already. She needs to know who she is, what he is." They had been fighting for at least two hours now and still hadn't come to a solution. Alice gave a long, exhausted sigh. "I know. But You know how it is Brian, I just don't want him to get hurt." "So it's settled." Brian continued, "Tomorrow?" Alice gave a small nod. "Tomorrow." **************************************************************************

 Pheonix woke up the next morning, her clock radio blaring annoying pop music. She turned over with a groan of exhaustion and read the time. It was 6:00 AM, the normal time she woke up on school days. She yawned as she got to her feet and walked to the light switch. The light filled the dark room, reminding her that it was time to get ready for school. She opened her dresser and pulled out a random t-shirt and jeans. After she had pulled on her clothes, she reached for his phone and started to play music. She always had to keep it at a very low volume because her parents were sleeping and wouldn't wake up until eight or nine.

She had started playing her favorite song when she heard noise coming from his parent's room. Slowly, careful not to be loud and wake them up if they were still sleeping, she walked towards their room to eavesdrop. she had just put her ear next to the door when she heard a voice calling her from inside the door, the loud voice hurting her ears. "Fin. Come here Fe-Fe, we want to talk to you." It was her mom. Fe-Fe? She hadn't called her that since she was six. She got to her feet and still startled from the situation took a few steps back. What did they want from her? Her parents called her again and she realized she was still frozen by the door. Without enough time to gather up her little courage, She stepped towards the door. slowly, she turned the handle and eased the door open.

Her parents were sitting on their bed waiting. "Sit," they said patting a spot on the bed for me, "We need to tell you something we should have told you a long time ago." Pheonix checked the digital watch. "Don't worry about school, we can drive you." Her dad said as if reading her mind. "We know that you found your birth certificate. We're sorry we sorry we never told you. We were just trying to keep you safe."

At that moment, she let out all of the anger she had been holding in for the past three years in a storm of range. "Safety? How does this have to do with my safety? I trusted you as my parents and you lied! You lied to me!" Light began to fill the room as her screaming continued, but she was too angry to notice. "Do you know how hard everyday life is when you're adopted? When you don't even know who your birth parents are? And worst of all, you have to keep the feelings in because no-one can know." Her body filled with heat and her vision turned red. "I wish you had never adopted me. I wish I would never have been born!" and with that, her body was so hot, she felt like she was about to faint. Suddenly, she felt the heat in her hand and saw fire spray out from her palms. She watched the fire spread through the wooden floors as she lost consciousness and fainted.