A Promise of Iron

Sophie

The sun beat hot on my bare shoulders as we climbed through the clouds. Faster and faster the ground rushed by beneath us, turning rock, sand and stone into a dun-coloured blur. I could taste the dry air in my mouth, the wind whipped at my hair and my thighs were raw and aching but I didn't care, petty discomforts had no effect on me when we took wing. We rose higher over the peak of a cliff and an oasis opened up underneath us. Streams of sparkling water fell from the cliff sides into crystal pools. The harsh wind at this altitude was no more than a cool breeze down there, moving through the trees like so many animals, swift and careful. Animals... no, gazelles, all at once our minds were one and the animals that ran with that breeze were within our reach. They sensed us and quickened their pace along with the rate of their hearts, a few tripped and fell behind, they would be easy pray but they weren't worthy, our eyes locked to the fronted of the herd. The fastest of the beasts had broken away , well ahead of the others, straight into an open meadow. Reering up, we spread our wings and curved downwards. At almost impossible speeds we speared towards the ground, our flames ahead of us. I smelled meat cooking then burning, our teeth ripped one open to the still tender middle and the warm blood and flesh filled my mouth. We reached for another and...

I woke in a fevered sweat to the sound of Katherine's mother calling my name. 

"Yes?" I answered rubbing the sleep from my eyes with one hand as I threw away the blankets with my other.

"There's someone here for you!"

Already? Usually my parents waited until at least noon to pick me up from Kat's house. Kat grumbled a protest into her pillow as I flicked on the bedside lamp and padded out of the room. When I turned the corner towards the door I immediately became aware of my vunerability in my sleep shorts and loose tank top. At the door talking to Kat's mom wasn't my Mom or my Dad, it was a police officer. He seemed to be comforting her when he looked up and we locked eyes.

"Sophie Bell?" he asked tentively, almost as if he wanted to hear no.

"Yes?" my voice was shaky.

"I, um, I'm terribly sorry to be the bearer of bad news... Oh God. I'm so sorry, your family's car was found in a ditch not to far from here with your parents and siblings inside."

I felt the tears building but I tried to blink them away. "And?"

"There were no survivors."

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I lay in my parents bed, curled in the middle so as not to disturb the impressions they had left in the mattress. My mom had the memoir of some reality star on her side of the bed next to a glass of water that I knew would have been mostly ice the night before. On my dad's side though was what hurt, he was a book ahead of me in a fantasy series that we had both fallen in love with, him always teasing me about parts I hadn't reached yet. I grabbed the heavy novel and flipped open to the page he had last read, his coffee-stained bookmark falling among the sheets. Water droplets had wrinkled the page which I found funny since my father had always been so careful with his books then I realised the tears had come back. I hugged my sister's bear to my chest as the sobs shook my spine and the coffee bookmark became damp.

I went on like this for a week, turning away any visitors at the gate expect for the boy two houses down I called to care for the horses. I was a ghost in my own home, wearing my mom's t-shirts, reading my dad's books, listening to my brother's music and always, always, hugging my sister's bear. As the sound of Rush filled the house I had a moment of clarity that I hadn't experienced in days. I stripped and turned the shower on as hot as the tap would let me, when I stepped in the scorching water seemed to burn away my pain leaving me new and pink. Just because they're dead doesn't mean I am, tomorrow I will be alive again. My thoughts became a mantra that I repeated as I stepped out and dried myself, wrapped myself in a towel, dressed in my own clothes and climbed into my bed. I repeated it once more as I began to drift off,  tomorrow I will be alive again.

I'm glad to here it sweetling, for a moment I thought we lost you.