Ashes (Flame Ash Burned Backstory)

Chapter 15: Ruby

5th November 2006

A shot rang through the house...

Blood splattered against the wall...

Flame, her gun propped up against the top of the couch she was hiding behind, watched as the man's body hit the ground with a loud thud before tumbling down the basement stairs. She got up and walked over to the top of the basement stairs, looking down at the man's dead body, before firing another two bullets through his brain. Just to be sure.

"Flame... When the hell did you get here?" Jaws asked, breathlessly, still trying to get over the fact that he could have died if Flame had pulled the trigger on her gun a second too late.

"Same time as you two." She answered in a casual tone, looking over her shoulder at the two. "I was told to follow you and get rid of the target if something went wrong." Flame looked back down at the man's lifeless body, and ran her finger along one of the skeletal fingers on her skeleton-hand necklace.

Phoenix, still in the middle of a panic attack, turned his head to look up at Flame. "I-I'm... I'm glad... that you showed up..." He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Jaws might've...gotten shot..."

"I know..." She replied, walking over to her best friend and kissing his forehead, before returning to the basement stairs. "Jaws, take Phoenix back to the school. I'll go sort out those kids in the basement."

"You got it." Jaws nodded, standing up and pulling Phoenix to his feet beside him. "What time do you reckon you'll be back at the school?"

"No idea." Flame replied. "Depends how long it'll take me to sort the kids out."

"Alright, but if you aren't back by the morning, then we'll come back." Jaws said, Phoenix's arm around his shoulder to support him and help him walk in his panicking state, as he walked around the back of the house towards the open window that they had entered the house from. "Good luck."

Jaws and Phoenix exited the house and began their way back towards the secret school, blending into the shadows. Meanwhile, Flame entered the basement, and what she saw was absolutely horrifying.

The basement was fairly large, with only one flickering light hanging from the ceiling and ice-cold stone flooring. The white brick walls were splattered and streaked with blood, old and new, and the older blood had found its way into the cracks of the wall, eventually turning a rusty orange color.

Around the outside of the room were cages, no larger than one you would keep a dog in, with thick metal bars and a padlock on the door. Inside the cages were young children. Dead.

So many were crammed into each cage that their bodies were squashed up against the sides, to the point where the pressure caused the bars to leave red marks on their skin. The stench of rotting bodies was overpowering. Flame gagged at the scent, but controlled herself so that she wouldn't throw up.

There was a wooden table in the center of the room, which looked like it used to be a dining table but had been redesigned for torture. Shards of glass had been attached to the flat part of the table, and handcuffs were attached to the top and bottom end of the top of the table, stretching out the limbs of the unfortunate child who laid upon it.