Ashes of the Innocent

Breathe

A soft wind picked up in the lower class neighborhood of New York.

In the wind carried Ava's fate.

Just one breath was what it took to turn her life upside down.

---------2 hours earlier------

I pushed open the doors from my video studio and breathed in the air.

It was already 7 o clock and I was running late for Amber's party.

Amber has been my best friend since college.

I bumped into her in the hallway.

And to our disdain we both fell down, along with our papers that were now strewn on the floor.

We both scrambled to get our things off the floor and screaming at the people that stepped on our things.

The bell rung shrilly.

I was still crouched down grabbing my papers.

Amber had already finished picking hers up.

Finally, I had picked everything up.

I stood up and dusted myself off, and checked my clock.

I was 10 minutes late and my professor closed the door 5 minutes into the class.

I sighed and decided to go back to my dorm.

In the pit of my stomach I felt like I was missing something.

I looked behind me and searched the floor but found nothing.

I walked away with my stomach churning.

As I started walking out of the building, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

My flashdrive!

That flashdrive had all of my projects stored and saved in there.

And worse, it was were I kept my videos at.

I ran back inside and found Amber in the hall.

"There you are!",shouted Amber.

Her face was filled with relief, and in her hand she held... my flashdrive!

"I think this is yours,"said Amber and she handed me my flashdrive.

Relief spread over my whole body and I grabbed my flashdrive.

I engulfed Amber in a bear hug and smiled.

"Thank you so much! I would have been up to my eyes in work." I whispered.

She patted my back nervously and gently pulled me away from her.

She had a quizzical look on her face.

" Well, I have to head off to my class. I'm glad to have helped." She said and started walking away.

"Wait!"I yelled after her. "Yes?" she answered and turned around to face me.

" I was wondering, if you wanted to hang out or something." I asked.

She raised an eyebrow at me and nodded at me.

She started walking towards me and we headed off to the dorm rooms.

From then on, we were inseperable.

--

I smiled to myself as I remembered how Amber and I had first met.

The sun was already setting so I decided to go throught the park.

The leaves were slowly crunching below my combat boots and I tugged my coat closer to my body.

A small shiver ran down my spine as a cold wind blew by.

The wind had a weird tangy smell to it.

I stopped and looked around.

Everything seemed like it had stopped.

The loud sounds of traffic started to fade and melt away.

Slowly my head started to hurt.

My vision started to blur and I panicked.

My legs felt like jello and I felt completely numb.

Slowly I felt myself start to fall, and my eyes caught the sight of a park bench dangerously close.

I felt my head connect with something and then everything turned pitch black.