Hope.

Dying Fire

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CHAPTER 2

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Charlie's body lay cold on the floor by the door, the Old Man still on the couch. Both dead. All was quiet and peaceful. I felt happy. Not because Charlie was dead or because I was an angel, simply happy.

I walked out of the house leaving the door open. The night sky blanketed the mountains outside, I'd never seen the stars shine so bright. The moon was full and in the middle of the sky. In the distance, I saw the shadow of the tree by the pond. It was cold, but i didn't feel the need to put a sweater on or anything. I turned back and I saw a ghostly figure rise from each of the bodies. The Old Man's shot up straight to the sky, it was gone from sight in matter of seconds. Charlie's, though, just stood up. He was completely naked, he seemed confused as he looked at his body. In the place where his heart belonged (not that I thought that he ever actually had one) was what looked like the flame on a candle but it was all white. He turned and saw me, his expression changed instantly along with the flame that was in his chest. He was angry and the flame turned to black.

He turned towards me. He lifted his foot to step my direction, behind him appeared three figures of persons. He didn't notice them, or didn't care for them because of his rage. There was two young men and one woman. All of them had white wings. The guys both had short brown hair, the woman had long blonde hair. They all wore black T-shirts and jeans, had brown eyes, and carried a black bag-pack. Before Charlie put his foot down again, the woman punched through his back reaching for the flame. She grabbed it and she pulled it right out of Charlie. As she pulled it out, Charlie began to fade away like vapor from a boiling pot does when it leaves the pot. The flame turned back to white.

They turned and saw me standing there, one of the two boys asked, "Do you think she can see us?"

The woman replied, "No, that was probably her dad or someone related to her." She handed him the white flame that she held in her hand.

"Okay," said the boy and took the flame. He reached back with it and put it in his bag-pack.

Before I could say anything, they spread their wings, and with a whooshing sound, were gone. I didn't know what had just happened, but I guessed they took their souls, I never thought that Charlie had one.

I started walking towards the pond. Once I got there I looked for my reflection, but there was none, all I saw was the full moon above me.In the pond, I saw one of the leaves that was endlessly swimming, stuck there, just waiting for nothing. I reached for it and took it out. I put my hand against my mouth and blew the leaf away, like an airplane it left my hand and flew away into the sky. It was free. After a while I walked to the road that was about a quarter of a mile from Charlie's house. I followed it. About thirty minutes after, a red truck pulled on the side of the road ahead of me.

I walked and when I got up to the window, the guy who was driving said, "You shouldn't, be alone in the middle of nowhere at this hour, where you going anyway?" He was wearing a red hat that, he wore a heavy white jacket.

"I don't know," I replied.

"I can give you a ride into San Miguel," He said and opened the door, "It's not too far from here."

I didn't know what city that was, I'd been stuck in Charlie's house for too long. "Okay." I said and went in. When I got in I noticed the flame inside his chest, it was like Charlie's except that this one was a light shade of green. I looked in the mirror and saw myself.