Burning Ember

Chapter 1

"Jake!! Come on or we'll be late!" I shout up the stairs, Jake is my 14 year old son, and today is the first day of the rest of ours lives.

You see, in just over 4 hours we'll be boarding a plane from Gatwick airport in London to a cute little town somewhere in America. I pulled a map out and made Jake close his eyes and point. Everything is all set that end, the house is bought and the movers finished everything about 3 days ago which left us enough time to sort school for Jake over there and all the other little bits.

You're probably wondering the reason for our departure? Or wondering about me?

Well, I'm 27 and my names Ember, though my Mum and Dad always used to call me Phoenix because apparently I rise from the ashes. Anyway, at 13 one of my Dads 'friends' decided he liked me a lot more than he should have, which resulted in Jake, not that he knows that. He just thinks his sperm doner fucked off before he was born.

I digress! My Dad found out, obviously, there's only so long you can hide a baby bump for, he was my ultimate hero, we did everything together but the guilt of what happened to me ate away at him and he killed himself not long after Jake was born, my Mum passed away about 6 months ago from breast cancer which is why we decided to leave. She left us enough money to last a couple of life times. Fresh start and all that shit!

I don't entirely know what I was thinking, moving half way across the world considering we don't know anyone there, but then, we don't have anyone here either.

After everything happened with Pete when I was little, I was so ashamed, ashamed that he had done that to me, ashamed that I had gotten pregnant at 13 and ashamed that my Dad thought it was somehow his fault. I haven't been touched by a man since and if all goes well, it should stay that way!

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The plane ride was long and boring, especially since Jake spent almost the entire time on his Nintendo switch with headphones shoved in his ears. Cheers mate, thanks for the company and riveting conversation!!

I bought a car from an online dealer a couple of days ago and since the tiny airport isn't too far from the house we bought, I had the car dropped at the new house and the keys shoved through the letter box. We collect all our belongings and head outside after I've called a taxi.

The ride was longer to the house than I'd originally thought, around 30 minutes. Which is probably a good thing considering the noise planes make!

I take everything in as we drive along and noticed a diner, coffee shop, a tattoo parlour and car garage among other things. We pull up to the house and it is so much better than i imagined.

It's a two storey three bed house, complete with a double garage, large front garden with a wrap around porch, I'm so excited!! We jump out of the car and collect our bags, paying the taxi driver before he speeds off.

"Come on baby boy, let's go inside" he just grins at me in return, I know he's just as excited as I am.

We walk through the front door after unlocking it and the house is bare, that's when I realise I told the movers to leave everything inside the garage, great!

"Right, let's gets the beds set up, sofas and tv in and then we can chill out and worry about the rest tomorrow. Cool?"

"Yeah, sounds good"

We step out the front door and I notice a large warehouse type building set back across the road, massive open gates and rows upon rows of motorbikes, I hope Jake hasn't noticed them. He's like a moth to a flame when it comes to that shit!

We head into the garage and start searching for our stuff, the first thing we lug inside is the sofas, adjusting them to how I want them while Jake makes his way back outside to fish out the parts of his bed.

I stand back and give a satisfied nod, happy with the way it looks. Now where's that boy gone. I head back out to the garage but I can't see him, odd

"Jake!" I shout, nothing. So I try again and still nothing. I'm now shitting myself, what if he's gotten lost? He doesn't know where he is or how to get back if he gets lost, oh fucking hell!

"JAKE!!" I shout at the top of my lungs, all of a sudden I hear a high pitched whistle come from across the road, the fuck?