Risen From The Ashes

I) Little Flames

It always starts with a fire.

A small fire is all it takes. Yet they always turn into something catastrophic, like some kind of mask for what's really going on.

Something that seems so ordinary, but terrifying, turns into something so alien and beyond human belief. It's probably why they remain undiscovered to this day. It's probably why they keep coming back for more.

-

Katherine couldn't sleep.

It wasn't the fact that she was restless, but more the fact that she resented her foster parents for sending her to her room at this hour and her way of fighting back was to let Jaimie and Pete know that she wasn't to go to sleep without a fight. Katherine could take care of herself. She didn't need anyone else. Anyone she'd ever cared about was gone, so why should she get attached to someone again, only to have them leave her alone just like the others?  She wouldn't. She couldn't.

As she thumbed through a magazine, cursing her foster parents, she decided to go downstairs and make herself a hot chocolate.

Katherine crept out of the tiny room where she had slept for around a month now. She didn't expect to be around for long anyway. She tiptoed down the stairs, and froze as they creaked beneath her bare feet. There was no sign of Jaimie or Pete coming to usher her off to bed even though there was a faint glow under the living room door. Putting it down to a sign of good fortune, she continued to the kitchen and proceeded to open the door.

As soon as the door was opened, she was flung backwards into the mirror, an intense heat surging out of the kitchen and a ceramic vase smashing on the table. The kitchen was alight, flames leaping unnaturally high and clinging onto everything. The back door was out of access, the tongues of fire licking it, the paint already flaked off.

After minutes of being inert, Katherine scrambled to her feet, placing one hand on the door frame to support herself before snatching it back with a yelp. The pain seemed to jolt her back to reality and she backed away from the kitchen, the flames chasing her, consuming everything in their path.

The front door was her destination. It was the only way out and she had to get there. She just had to. She didn't want to die.

All of a sudden the fiery tendrils seemed to take that choice away from her, consuming any chance of escape. So, she thundered back up the stairs, desperately thinking of a way to escape the burning building.

The air upstairs was cooler and fresher but wisps of dark smoke were weaving their way upwards. She suddenly started coughing even though the smoke hadn't even reached her yet. A torrent of memories suddenly hit her and she found herself shaking and otherwise motionless.

-

Katherine remembered it all too well.

That faint glow in the distance that illuminated the nearby houses with deathly shadows that danced before her eyes. She remembered how fascinated she was by it all, how naive she was about it all, and how that tightening in her gut just wouldn't go away.

It was the middle of the night, late October, and quite summery for the time of year. The moon was eerily bright that night, though it hid behind thinning cascades of mischievous clouds which were often broken by streams of starlight, but not very often.

There was a lot of commotion in the streets. People piled out from their houses, gasping and clinging on to each other, hoping, praying. Katherine didn't understand why. She just stood all by herself, clutching her sooty teddy, and stared into the vibrant flames. They swirled in brilliant colours before her, swaying in the breeze,forever rising and destroying. The one place she'd ever called home, wasn't home anymore.

Engines whirred and people shouted, but Katherine remained still. She couldn't remember much from what had happened inside, but all she could remember was that her parents were inside the burning house, and she wasn't. Why wasn't Katherine with her parents?

Then, all to clear, she remembered seeing something no child of nine should probably ever witness. A rather sooty looking man walked heroically from the flames. He looked panicked and his cheeks were flushed red. He looked scared, which was the complete opposite of what a superhero should look like.

That made Katherine nervous.

In his arms, was a woman. She had ringlets of beautiful coffee brown hair that hung over the man's arm like a frozen waterfall. Her skin was singed black and often flaking to the floor in little brown crisps, leaving a trail of dead human skin leading towards the flames. Where her eyes should have been sparkling with the essence of life, they were dead and lifeless. They stared constantly up at the stars, never flinching, like the stars were her salvation. Like the stars were the safest place in the entire world.

It didn't take long for Katherine to realise three things. One, the woman in the man arms was her mother. Two, she was dead. Three, the man carrying her mother was not her father, which meant he was still in there.

Katherine would've screamed for her father, but she'd gained a sort of premature maturity whilst experiencing this tragic event. Screaming and shouting wouldn't solve anything. It wasn't going to bring back her mother was it? So it probably wasn't going to save her father either.

Without warning, a creak emerged over the violent crackles of the flames, sending tearful shock waves through Katherine's heart.

She didn't need to be told what was going to happen next.

Starting from the tip of the roof, the roof of Katherine's house began to collapse in on itself, taking with it chunks of the neighbouring houses also, but Katherine didn't care about that. At that moment, she realised that both her parents were dead, and she was all alone.

Little Katherine Smiley was all alone.

Forever and ever alone.

-

The memories of that night shook Katherine's core.

It constantly replayed itself over and over and over in her head, never letting her forget for a second. Katherine had always felt guilty about that night. She had always felt like she should've died with her parents that night. She didn't understand, five years later, why she was the one still standing. It continued to baffle her in more ways than she was proud of.

Her chest felt like sandpaper, and the fact that she couldn't stop coughing wasn't helping her at all. Her eyeclogging up the toxis s stung and watered whilst her nose was clogging up with the toxins that swirled mysteriously within the dark faces of smoke.

Katherine was terrified.

Even though she was guilty about that night, she was somehow grateful that she'd lived, though she wished her parents had too. And she intended to live a long and happy life. So she wasn't going to let the fire control her and let it take her away from the world she loved, just like it had her parents. This time was going to be different.

It really was going to be different.

Out of the fire and the flames, a hand appeared. It was an ordinary human hand, though it seemed to glow a little with the flames. Katherine didn't concentrate on that however, she was more surprised that there was a hand in the flames, offering a second chance.

''Take my hand, Katherine Smiley.'' A gentle female voice said, softly caressing the flames. ''Take my hand.''

Katherine, who thought she was hallucinating, grabbed the hand in the flames.

Katherine Smiley was never seen in the realm of the humans again.

A/N: Hey guys it's Georgia here.

Well what do you think?

This is our first proper chapter, so we hope you enjoyed it and got a real sense as what the story is going to be like!! It's going to get interesting soon, and so you are not disappointed for long, the second chapter is already in the works so keep you're eye on this!!

Please, comment, vote, fan!!!

Thanks a lot guys xD