Ashes (Flame Ash Burned Backstory)

Chapter 5: Lava

31st October 1999

It had now been two years since everything had gone wrong for the family, one year since Joe had died and Lula had sworn to herself that she would kill the nameless man. She had been planning ever since that moment, and knew one mistake would lead to her own death. She knew that if she died, Lyric would be alone until she inevitably met the same fate.

There was no way she would ever let that happen.

But besides planning the nameless man's murder, Lula Jackson had made a friend during the year. It was the boy next door: Griffen. He was the boy who Joe had become friends with before he had sadly died. Lula had been the one to explain to Griffen, when he came over one day asking if Joe was there because he was lonely and wanted to hang out, about Joe's death.

From November 1998 until September 1999, Lula spent most days hanging out with Griffen. They walked around the village and found random areas to turn into their own little hide-outs. Lyric came with them each time, as Lula certainly didn't want her older sister to be home alone with that dreadful man.

After September, Griffen had come down with some sort of sickness, and so was reduced to spending his days indoors. Lula and Lyric visited him every day for a few hours, but over the month leading up to that day, their visiting hours began growing shorter. This was simply because Griffen's parents insisted that he stay in bed and rest, undisturbed.

 Lula could tell that Griffen was never going to get better. It seemed to her that all the things she loved were taken away from her.

It wasn't fair. No other people in the village ever had to deal with the same thing. Sometimes she'd grow jealous of those other kids, hand in hand and laughing with their parents and siblings. The only bit of bad luck they had ever been subjected to was living in an incredibly remote village, but so had everyone else and it was just something that they all put up with.

Stones and discarded small lumps of coal crunched under Lula's feet as she walked the streets of the village. Her eyes were fixed on the ground ahead of her, never looking up at the faces around her. She couldn't take the pitiful looks given to her by those she walked past.

An icy chill had settled over the village that day. The sky was dark, threatening to rain or snow. Lula still felt the cold, despite being wrapped up by one of Joe's jackets. In her arms, she held a large stack of sticks she had been told to collect for kindling by Lyric.

Whenever Lula left Lyric alone in the house nowadays, she felt an intense nauseating feeling of overwhelming worry consume her. It didn't leave her alone until the moment she saw Lyric perfectly okay inside the house, so whenever Lula had to leave for a while, she always made sure to hurry back.

The sound of footsteps heading towards Lula became noticeable from Lula's somewhat zoned-out state, but just before she could look up and make an attempt to move out of the way, the large figure slammed right into her. The little girl was knocked flat on her back, her head smacking hard against the cold hard ground.

She sat up, rubbing the back of her head. Her fair, blonde hair was wet, and when she looked at her hand, it was covered with warm blood. A toxic mix of anger and fear surged through Lula's body in the space of one second, as she glared up at that nameless man.