Annie: The Fire Within

Warmth

Slowly, yet surely, the sun sets, a giant bright circle descending, casting orange and pink streaks across the sky. It still shines on, yet dimly, nightfall taking over the splendid array of colours. Never has Annie felt so close to the cycle of nature.

"Wow, a day's over so fast," Jonathan remarks. "Oh yeah, Annie, have you made up your mind? Are you gonna put up at my house or something? I'm pretty sure we can let you sleep in the guest room."

Annie looks up at him blankly. "I'm scared."

"Why're you scared? There's nothing to be scared of-" Jonathan's voice trails off as he realises Annie's eyes brimming with tears.

"What happened?" he asks gently, a hand on her shoulder.

He's so nice. Do I tell him?

In between sobs, Annie recounts her story - bullied by a stepmother. Mistreated, cast away into insignificance. And Daisy. How she misses Daisy... tears ease themselves out of her eyes and roll down her cheeks, leaving faint trails of water that glisten in the falling sun's light.

Everything just blurs out through the veil of tears. Everything suddenly seems so foreign, so blur, like the memories with Daisy and her father fading away, all blurry, all gone. "Daisy... Dad..." she whispers.

Gently, Jonathan comforts her. "It's okay, Annie... everything will be fine. Your family's up there, up high in the sky, they're watching you right now. They surely don't want you to be crying! Come on, make a smile... you're so cute when you smile."

He reaches out a hand, wiping away Annie's tears from her face.

And she sees it: the gentle smile. That gentle smile, ever so good-looking, ever so nice...

That smile. It fuels her with warmth, telling her... as long as this boy is here, everything will be okay. Everything will be happy. Everything will be warm and good.

All of a sudden, she finds herself hugging him, burying her face in his warm chest. Her face presses against his chest, feeling a gentle heartbeat, feeling the warmth.

An instant reflex he'd had was to try and break free from this person he'd barely met for a day, but he did not. For he knew that Annie needed him. His expression softens as he pats her head, ruffling her hair gently.

Night falls like a blanket upon the two. The moonlight shines on in the river, the stars twinkling, shining on... fireflies dance around as the butterflies retire, shimmering and sparkling. The water calms down to almost a standstill. From within the dark night, they know that there is still light, there is still warmth.

--

author's note: I'm really sorry for not actually updating this story for quite long. Basically I had writer's block, thinking How could I break the surreal ending from the previous chapter to something even nicer, and how am I gonna give Annie a shelter when she's afraid of adults (as stated in her lore)? The previous chapter ended on a note of reflection and reminiscence, and I couldn't really just start a new chapter with a dialogue. That would, imo, break the feeling built up from the previous chapter. And thus even generating a starting sentence was hard for me, deleting like 2 drafts. Also, the chapter titles are themed around fire, and this boosted bonobo here couldn't think of what would come after "Fuel" so I just ended up putting "Warmth" and centering the whole chapter's content around the concept of warmth - Annie finding emotional warmth in Jonathan's encouragement, physical warmth in his arms, etc. In the end I decided to start off with a settings description. That's the easiest to not screw up. By the way, if you're wondering why this chapter is so short, I decided to keep it short because warmth = cozy = compact. This is a heartwarming chapter and I wanted to keep it short and sweet :)

I'm not usually one to leave author's notes but I did this time (don't expect to see this much in upcoming chapters) and thanks for reading my story!! I really appreciate it. Every new read encourages me to continue writing and thinking of what to write next. Let's venture into Annie's journey together! <3

~ ahriginal