Foreigner of Fire

28 - Embracing Death

"I demand to see my daughter!" Helen Powell shrieked at the counsellor again. Her husband, Gerard, stood with his arms crossed.

"Trust me, ma'am, we are trying our best to locate her." Regina attempted once more, trying to maintain her annoyance. The three of them turned and froze when a young man with raven hair and silver eyes walked into the cabin.

"You called for me, Ms. Regina?" the man said slowly.

"Yes, lovely of you to show, Ash." Regina began in a passive aggressive tone.

"This is Ash?" Helen questioned, her demeanour suddenly changing. "This is the Ash my daughter has been spending time with?"

"Your daughter?" Ash began. It suddenly hit him. These were Lily's mortal parents. "Oh...You're Lily's parents?"

"You're Lily's parents my —" Gerard advanced towards Ash and without another word, punched him in the face. "How dare you! She is a woman of god!" He continued to deliver blow after blow, while Ash endured them quietly. The counsellors around the cabin quickly stepped in and managed to pry Lily's father off Ash.

"She's no where within camp. She left this in her cabin." A younger counsellor arrived inside the cabin and put Lily's phone on the head desk. Helen slowly moved towards the desk and picked up the phone, full of shock.

"My Lily..." She managed.

"I swear on God, Ash." Gerard spat at Ash and pointed a finger at him. "I will make you pay for this. Give us our daughter back or I will call the cops on you or so help me."

"I honestly don't know anything about where your daughter is, sir. Honest." Ash began.

"Oh, shut your lies, she told me everything in that damned letter." Helen piped up. "Come, Gerard." She walked over to her husband and grabbed him by the arm. "We will return, boy. And when we do, we will bring the police with us."

"I don't understand why you're being over protective of her. She's a grown woman she should be allowed to make her own decisions." Ash protested.

"Own decisions. Not if they're about spending the rest of her life with the likes of you." Helen said in anger before she turned and pulled Gerard out.

"Ash...?" Regina began after the deafening silence that followed for a full 10 minutes inside the cabin. Ash turned around to face the older woman. "What is going on?"

"It's..." He sighed quietly. "Lily left for Colorado on the 9 AM bus."

"What?!" Gasps echoed around the cabin. "Why didn't you tell her parents?!"

"I can't. They abuse her. You saw what her father did to me! I didn't even do anything. I just helped her pack up." Ash confessed to the counsellors. It wasn't exactly a lie. But being the king of hell had it's perks, when everyone believed him and sent him off to pack.

• A PEREGRINO IGNIS *

"And that is a wrap, to our successful camp, once again! Hope you all enjoyed, and of course — socialised, like you promised you would." Regina joked. Ash turned on his heel and walked back to his cabin. The buses had started to pile in and the campers were slowly getting on.

His shoes crunched against leaves and twigs as he walked around his cabin. Slowly, he approached the tree that had done the deed.

"Will it hurt?" she asked.

"Only a little." he promised. He stepped back and ran his hand across the bark of the tree. It began to burn slowly, from the inside. Turning to a mushy magma-like living structure. It scorched Lily's perfect white skin and pulled her closer to itself. Lily shut her eyes tightly and tried not to yelp. He looked away from her, not wanting to watch her cry.

The magma-like tree trunk was slowly devouring her. Although she could feel the heat, it wasn't burning or scalding her like she thought it would. It wasn't the burning that was painful either — it was the tightness within the trunk. The tree was devouring her. She was turning into a part of it. Her chest tightened as the tears stopped. Lily could feel her body shutting down and her life slowly dragging out of herself. She opened her eyes once, only to see nothing, but pure darkness.