Ashes, Ashes We All Fall Down

Prolouge

"Good Morning littl- uh I mean big girl now," I flew out of bed, speeding passed my dad (who'd just woken me up) I barely had time to roll my eyes at him. But I couldn't hold back my elatement today I was a "Big Girl". Finnaly, I'm 9! 9 is a huge deal, 9 is when you're eligible for your first trial. 9 is when you finally get answers. At 9, yeah you're a big girl.
I danced from place to place getting ready for the day. My first trial! There are numerous trials in peoples lives, they rank how far you're improving and if you do really well your family would get rewarded. We've always done well, and my parents expected nothing less from me. I can finally prove that I can learn the secrets. Whenever I asked something concerning them I would be given a stern look and told to wait for the trials. This is the day! I shook my 6 yr old brother awake, practically singing my new age, it feels weird saying it. He just wanted to go back to bed. In all the noise Little woke up, "Scary's going trial?" he asked in his adorable 3 yr old voice. "Snap out of it!" a harsh voice brings me back to reality, I was so innocent back then, life was so simple, I think to myself hastily, I don't have time for this.
It was a huge, white, modern, freindly looking building; the kind that tried too hard to make you feel good. The Sun reflected off of it giving the place a pleasant glow. Mom, Dad and Little had come with me, there really wasn't any danger in my other brother staying home. We parked and went inside. There was some sort of huge loby with many doors leading out of it. People of all ages were running around, kids being embarrased as their parents kissed them goodbye, adults striding purposfully to their designated locations, and, "Come on Scarlet, you're going to be late!" I kept walking, peeling my eyes away, intrigued. We reached a desk with a busy looking lady sitting at it. My mom spoke with her for a bit, the desk lady smiled (not genuinely but because it was her job) and placed a sticker on my shirt saying N⃣E⃣W⃣.

I had already said goodbye to my family and I was with a group of kids my age being led by a young woman with a clipboard that looked like she was used to dealing with kids. "Okay everybody, are you all exited for your first trial!!!" she asked with an anoyingly exited tone of voice to which the kids replied "Yeeaaaeees." "Ugh!" I thought, "Why am I being treated like a baby? I'm 9 now that's like practically halfway through my childhood."

We took some IQ tests and were quizzed on our learning skills and speed. Next came reflexes. Then Science (I had to coduct a mock experiment). My favorite was at the end when we were given a long and difficult book which we had to analyze and write about in 4 minuites. Mine was E͟͟x͟͟t͟͟r͟͟a͟͟t͟͟e͟͟r͟͟r͟͟e͟͟s͟͟t͟͟r͟͟i͟͟a͟͟l͟͟ L͟͟i͟͟f͟͟e͟͟.

The whole group met together again. We sat at some sort of waiting room to hear how we've done. A boy to my left was called up, a minite later he came back in tears holding a crumpled peice of paper. We all got quiet after that. A shy looking girl shuffled forward as her name was called but then afterwards skipped back prowdly displaying some sort of rubric. I sat anxiously keeping as still as possible trying to relax. "You're the epic, fantastic, most spactacular Scar!!! Why wouldn't you do well," I thought with an accent cheering myself up.

Suddenly out of nowhere a hideous creature materialized in front of us. Right there in the waiting room. Umm... WHAT? Yeah. It was just there like some sort of abomination of nature. The thing was hideous, fake almost, it had the body of a snake with fat legs of I don't even know what. Its fangs were impossibly long and needle sharp. Some kids screamed, most just looked puzzled. One kid yelled that maybe this could be part of the test, there were nods of agreement before a girl was swalowed whole, just like that. That was when caos broke. Yells and screams. The only exit was locked. Someone tried battleing the creature to no avail it just swatted the kid away like nothing. I was just paralyzed, frozen, no idea what to do. It spotted me. Why me? With surprizing speed it launched. It was too late. I stared at this creature, stared hard. Just before it reached me a net built itself and wrapped around the monstrosity. Had I͟ done it? The snake-thing disappeared as if it were a hologram, "Duhh!" I thoght, "Maybe its some sort of hologram!?" Unbelieveable but certainly more than if the thing was alive. This was just a huge troll, right? The girl that was supposedly eaten was just there unharmed, was she in on it? The clipboard lady retured helping the other kids out. She stopped me when I followed, the girl looked at her. The lady nodded. What was going on!?! A bunch of people came in, one hit me in the back of my head, knocking me out. Darkness.