Butterflies | ON HOLD | ASOUE Duncan Quagmire x OC

1 - FIRE ✓

CHAPTER 1  -   FIRE

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 "Aileen? Could you please go to the park? Your father is going to have one of his bosses over for dinner and doesn't want to be interrupted."

"Of course mother." She replied, watching the woman leave her room, quickly getting off of her neatly made bed and started grabbing a couple of things.

Ica Aileen Sinclair was a bright girl for the age of 13, priding herself on knowing many languages. From a young age, her parents got her into reading. She enjoyed those books, but found herself more fascinated with books in a different language than her own.

The Sinclairs could never keep up with their daughters learning. They'd find her, sitting happily in her room, trying to recite poetry in her newest language or find her with piles of books from their library scattered all around her room. The one thing they constantly tried to do was to get her to willingly hang out with friends. To no avail, it never worked.

Although she wasn't a very social person, she had always wished for a sibling. Her parents, however, always said she was all they needed, and that was perfect. She didn't agree. She wanted to discuss different things and hear their opinions.

She tied her auburn hair into a bun and had put two books and a snack in her backpack. One book in English, and one in German, and she'd sit at one of the park benches and read for a couple of hours. She quickly said goodbye to her parents and skipped out of the house.

She'd soon find out that that was the last time she'd ever get to see her parents.

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Mr. Poe approached the girl who was hunched over a book on German sayings. She was sat at a chess table without the pieces. There were chess piece thieves in the park constantly.

"Are you Ica Sinclair?" Poe asked before wheezing a couple of times.

"I prefer to go by Aileen, but yes. How do you know my name?" She replied.

"Aileen? That's interesting. I'm Mr. Poe from the bank. I've come to inform you that your parents perished in a terrible fire."

"Excuse me? What?" she said, not wanting to believe it.

"Your parents died and you are now an orphan," Poe repeats.

"Where- where will I go?" she stuttered.

"Well," he paused. "Your parents didn't exactly say where to put you if they ever died. I've decided, as vice president of Orphan Affairs, to put you at Prufrock Preparatory School with a pair of twins I also enrolled there. I can't deal with another set of orphans, the Baudelaires are already trouble enough. Your fortune however, will be given to you once you come of age. Dang! I feel like I've said that a lot recently." he said.

"Can... I see my house?" she asked quietly.

"It's completely in ruins, but of course," he replied. Wheezing but guiding her to his car.

◈◈◈

Tears slowly streaming down her face, she walked around the ruins that she once called home. She was in shock at how everything was in ash. Her books, the furniture, everything. She couldn't even go up the grand staircase because it was so unstable.

All except one thing.

A peculiar telescope.

Or what her parent's called it; a spyglass.