Destiny of Fire: The Normality (WotP)

Chapter 10: Lynn Paraskeve

Akone Valley, Ezora
November 16, 993

-~•~-

A couple years later, when I was fourteen, I was outside, wearing my hat and a little sack on a leather strap against my waist. This was one of the rare times I had made my escape from that pathetic house, and I felt quite good.

I wore a smile on my face, and my long reddish brown hair flew behind me in the air, I didn't care to stuff it all into my hat before making an exit.

I was on an important mission, to retrieve apples and chicken meat from the shops, and I always liked to sneak myself a little copy they had handwritten of a small newspaper post. They normally only had around twenty copies, so I liked to get there early. I was always the first there, so the morning sun just peeked over the horizon, despite the town already being slightly busy.

I strutted on over to the Apple seller, and made my presence be known by clearing my throat.

"'Ello young lad, wha' may I do for ya this fine morn?" The vendor asked.

The Apple vendor was an old man with white hair and a white beard growing too. He had on a plaid shirt and overalls, it was the classic look of a farmer. He was slightly limping and hunched over, and he had a mysterious glint in his dark brown eyes, but I ignored it.

"Top of the mornin' to ya." I replied back, slightly bowing and raising a hand to tip my hat down quickly enough that it would be barely noticeable, but just enough so he would get the kind gesture of a warm welcome. "I would just like some of those blood red apples." I told him, calmly gesturing to the basket, acting all calm.

"Sure, hun." The old vendor replied, looking at me, a small crooked yet reassuring smile appearing on his lips before he bent down to pick up the apples and put it in my basket.

I thanked the old man, paid him, and started walking over to where the butcher is, but stopped at the newspaper place.
"Only sixteen copies left!" A young boy yelled from the little cart he was on, selling the papers.

"Boy!" I yelled at him, stopping in my tracks and turning to look at the young man. "I'll take one, how much is it today?"

"Only six silver." The boy replied, before smiling. "You're Lynn Paraskeve aren't ya? You come for the papers everyday, correct?"

I had met a lot of the boys that sell the papers, but I didn't remember where I possibly could've met this one, and I certainly never told him my name.

"Sorry?" I asked, handing him his six silver, him handing me the newspaper for today.

"Ah, so ya don't know, hm? You fit the description that it has in the news. Well, I'm sorry for your loss." Was all he said before going back to his yelling, "come read the daily news! Today's important headline; woman found dead near Akone Valley! Only fifteen copies left!"

I had a bad feeling about this sheet of paper I had just bought in my hand.

-~•~-

993, NOVEMBER 16
WOMAN FOUND DEAD NEAR AKONE VALLEY! CARLA PARASKEVE STABBED HERSELF WITH TREE BARK, FOUND IN THE HOLLOW OF A TREE, AS IF SHE WAS TRYING TO PRESERVE HER BODY, MOTHER OF A GIRL NAMED LYNN PARASKEVE AND HUSBAND TO JOHN WILLIAM PARASKEVE, FORMER CHALLENGER OF THE KING!

-~•~-

Then from there on, in the newspaper it went on describing how they found her, my mother, dead. My mother had committed suicide. The sad thing about it was that it was her rotting corpse they found, so the body wasn't fresh. Approximately, they found the body looking like it had been decomposing for around a month all the way to two years, no one would truly know.

I dropped the papers, the sunlight now growing hot on my back in the daytime, the morning crowd coming in, hitting my shoulders as I stood staring at the ground where I had dropped the papers.

It took me a while to register what was going on around me, as I saw a kind young woman, most likely around the age of twenty-three hover over me asking, "are you alright hun? Hun?"

I looked her dead in the eye, before tears started falling down my face and I started to run. I ran away from the marketplace and back to my house, I had no where else to go, and I would kill myself if I weren't so anxious and scared about where we go when we die, and if I didn't have that stupid darn dream of mine about flying.

As I opened and then slammed the door, I ran into my father.

"Ah! Just the person I wanted to see!" My father said, beaming.

Would I rather face an abusive father or a crowd that knows that me mam committed suicide? To be honest, I couldn't choose, so I stood with my back up to the door, hand on the doorknob, ready to open it if need be.

"I had an idea while you were off doing whatever rubbish you do! I thought, why don't we play a game! Do you want to play a game Little Lynn?" He asked, slowly moving towards me.

"Sure." I said, my voice cracking through my tears.

"You go hide, and I'll go find you!" My father giggled like an insane child. "Ready? I'll count to ten, starting now, and don't think to go outside!" He yelled.

I ran quickly up to my room, and made sure my feet made it sound like I was running to hide in my closet, but instead I ran to my bed, and hefted myself up against the wooden frames so he wouldn't see me unless he specifically tried looking under the bed for quite some time.

As my father got to zero, I heard him run up the stairs, and then slam open the doors of my closet. He started ruffling through all of my hanging clothes, and started making a mess of everything neatly placed together.

I whined a bit, and then covered my mouth immediately, regretting making a noise.

Luckily, my father hadn't heard me, and instead he rushed downstairs.

"Come out Little Lynn!" He called.

I still held onto that bed for my dear life, and let myself start sobbing as I heard him kicking open the pantry downstairs, and him yelling in frustration, cursing the world. He didn't know about mother yet, oh golly, it would be a horror to tell him.

-~•~-

Eventually, when it was around midday, and I no longer heard my father running around anymore, I assumed he was asleep somewhere in the household. I took this small amount of time to let myself down from the top of the bottom of my bed, and I sighed a great sigh of relief before falling asleep for a good bit of the day.

When it was dark outside, I awoke, and I calmly got out from underneath my bed and walked slowly towards my clothes messily strewn across my closet. A little barrel of water I used for dipping my clothes in when washing them was spilled over, and multiple pairs of my shoes were wet, including the clothes that were on the floor. Several of my trinkets were either smashed or broken.

I grabbed the bucket and put it back on the ground silently, and stuffed it into the bottom right of my closet, the place I normally didn't hide in, so I hadn't memorized that well.

I gathered all my clothes and put them into neat stacks upon the many wooden beams that ran from one end of my closet to the other.

I picked up each of the trinkets, pushing them aside to the corner of my room, where no one could step on them unless they really wanted to.

As I picked up a bit of sea-glass, I stared into my ugly reflection, before bringing it down upon my wrist, thinking if I wanted to cut it or not. In the end, I stood up to temptation, and put the sea-glass in the corner with the rest of the broken and smashed trinkets.

Then I sighed as I flopped my body back down into my bed and thought about my day.

The funny thing was that everything went so fast today. Too fast in fact that I had even forgotten to get the chicken meat.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey folks! I hope you liked this chapter. This is basically the second half to the Lynn Paraskeve chapter. So, Lynn is fighting like... LARGE depression. Someone needs to get the poor girl an air balloon and some help already LOL

Anyways, I hope that y'all have a brilliant day, and I'll see you in the next chapter, byeeeeee!

(1500 words)