The Fire Chronicles: Book 1: The Gift Of the Fire

Chapter 1: Such a Horrific Thing

Sophie

Sophie Ash was barely four years old when she saw Gabriella's lifeless body. A child that age can hardly fathom death but when you see such a horrific thing, well, even a four-year-old will know something's wrong.

Fern stood beside her, a hand clasped to her mouth and face contorted in silent horror. Her body was shaking and trembling. "Mum..." she breathed her voice a hoarse desperate whisper. "Mum, please..."

Striding forward to his children and Sophie, Frank leaned close to them. "Speak a bloody word to anyone and I'll skin the bitch," he turned from his sons and daughter and pointed her large blood-coated hand at Sophie's small, startled face. "I'll skin her and make you lot watch then I'll kill the rest of you, do you understand me."

The four of them, including Sophie, were silent. Max's eyes were presses shut, Gabe looking ill, Fern still in her silent sob and Sophie frightened and confused.

Frank wasn't in the mood for games and shouted, "Do you understand me!" it was not a question but a demand.

They nodded, Fern even giving a strangled hiss of "yes."

"Now get your asses to your room before I decide to kill you right now!"

Fern scrambled toward the stairs, yanking Sophie's arm as she did so. The Max and Gabe following closely behind. When they had entered Sophie and Fern's room, Fern snapped the door shut as quietly and quickly as possible, her fingers stumbling over the lock. She slid her back against the door, wrapping her arms around her legs in a ball and sobbing. Sophie watched with wide questioning emerald green eyes. Max pulled her onto his lap and stroked her long light blonde hair with a gentle hand.

"That bastard," Gabe was growling, pacing back and forth and then stopping to rest his hands on his knees and swallow back sick. "What are we gonna do?" he finally asked. "he killed Mum... he killed our bloody mum!"

"Shut up," Max snapped. "don't say that..." he swore under his breath and then said, "this has to be a nightmare..."

A memory surfaced in Sophie mind, Gabriella was sitting on the couch and had said, "you are beautiful, the whole lot of you. I love you so much." there had been black and purple marks on her face and arms. Sophie had known something was wrong then. She had seen Frank hit her in the kitchen but could do nothing. "I'll get us out of here, this nightmare will be over..." she had said.

Tears slipped down Max's face and Sophie wrapped her small arms around his neck. Pain pulsed deep in all of them.

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Four years later, Sophie was eight now and starting third grade at her new primary school. "Do I have to go, Ferny?" she asked, swinging her legs through the bars of her bunk bed.

"Yeah, it's fun," Fern was running a brush through her own short auburn hair and was running on low patience at the moment.

"I don't like it though," she argued.

Fern set the brush down on the dresser and turned to Sophie, fists on her hips, "would you rather stay here?"

Sophie rip gave a sharp sear of pain from the bruise that stained her skin and she decided, "no..."

"Good. I'm sure you'll like it better here. There's a bunch of new kids. I'm sure you'll make friends."

Sophie just looked down at her hands and felt a wrench in her heart. Fern and the twins had been her only friends ever. She had not been good at making friends even in her first and second years. She pulled her legs from the bars of the bunkbed and climbed down the ladder, landing with a soft thump on the wooden floor. She dressed quickly and disappeared into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Pulling the stool out from under the sink she looked at her tired reflection, the purples shadows beneath her vibrant emerald green eyes, her tangled blonde hair, darkly freckled nose and cheeks and her pale hollowed skin. She might've been pretty, she figured, if it weren't for the signs of malnutrition in the lines of her young face and the sadness that was hard to conceal. She quickly finished brushing her teeth and went back into the bathroom to get her bag ready for school.

Max, Gabe, Fern and Sophie descended the steps and entered the kitchen. Fern grabbed a rotting apple from the old, dusty bowl in the middle of the kitchen table. She examined it, and, deciding it was too buried for her liking, discarded it in the bin. They searched the pantry but there was little food other than some stale bread and expired cheese to be found. Frank had been living off cheap scotch and fast food, not providing for his children in the slightest.

"I'll nick something from the cafeteria today," Gabe promised, ignoring the biting hunger that shook his stomach.

"Yeah, me too," Fern offered. "God, I'm hungry."

"I'll find something too!" Sophie offered eagerly. Max pattered her lightly on the head and said, "it's alright, Soapy, we got it."

"but-"

"Let's go, before the bastard wakes up and decided we're too loud or something," Gabe said and pulled open the sliding door in the kitchen. They had decided it was easier to exit out eh back than risk walking past Frank while he was sleeping and accidentally wake him. It had happened once and they didn't need another fist to remind them of what would happen the next time.

Together they walked down the cracked and faded sidewalk, Sophie's backpack slapping between her shoulder blades. Sophie saw the sparkle of a pocket knife from Gabe's hand as he twisted it in his palm. It was a necessary thing to have when walking down their road. There had been far too many reports of kids going missing or being mugged. Sophie climbed on the curb of the sidewalk and balanced on the stones, her worn out shoes slipping on the loose stones. they reached the school in a few minutes and just in time for the first bell to ring.

"We're gonna head over to our school now. See you later." The twins continued their walk for a few blocks to the secondary school. 

"Alright, I'll see you, Soap. Do you know where your first class is?"

Sophie nodded and watched Fern disappear in a group of giggling and gossiping girls. Sophie was alone. She headed toward the building, following a few kids that looked her age. Was outside her first class, the silver nameplate reading, "Miss Brown".

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