(UNDER EDITING) The Devil's Death | Jack Wilder

Prologue

What is normal?

That girl next door, the head cheerleader at the top of her class and on the road to the Ivy League?

That boy who works out at the gym almost everyday along with being captain of the football team to which every girl in the tri-state area becomes obsessed with?

No.

At least, not in the eyes of Ashlyn Godwin.

In her eyes, she never fit into the 'normal'. It was always dreamy to just slide into the crowd.

But perhaps that's where she was going wrong.

And truth be told,

It was.

Ashlyn tried to stay in the shadows when really, all she needed was to be in the spotlight.

So at 16, she took her leap of faith and started to come out of the shadow she had built. The walls were coming down as she screamed victory from the shy persona to which she had been known for within her school.

With hard work and being utterly dedicated to her incredible mind, Ashlyn got enough credit to graduate high school a year prior to all her class mates. However her mind was not the direction she wanted her life to go in.

Days started to pass and the boredom over the summer before her final year causing her to indulge into a hobby, called Magic. So she started small, doing tricks for family and friends, using them as practice as she started to learn more and gradually improved.

Then performing at family get-togethers, mostly to wow her distant cousins who came to New York once every 6 months.

On her 17th birthday, her late grandfather gave her one last gift before he tragically passed. The lighter he had bought on the day of her birth and ultimately the reason she was named as such through the many burnt out cigarettes he would leave around.

Fire, became her magic of choice, learning how it worked safely and she started to almost perfect it and performed in local bars. The crowd gave her confidence with the cheers she would receive almost nightly.

Then she was booked for other gigs but it never fulfilled her as this upcoming magician. It was here, after a children's birthday party that she took herself to the streets.

Moving from New York and working her way down the east cost before she ended up in the warm state of Florida, in the beautiful city of Miami.

Then the money started to regularly come in from the public and she was able to afford some form of a place.

Then, fate threw a curve-ball in her path.

Pregnant at 18, and clueless of what to do.

The father shut her out when she broke the news.

Her mother came from New York to help and support her daughter during and after pregnancy however in Ashlyns mind that caused her mother and herself to be giving up their regular lives for that of a stupid mistake. Even though she had thought about the idea of having a family and smiled at the thought, knowing what she would name her children, it wasn't the life for her yet.

Not alone at least.

To which she broke the news that she would give birth to the child but not keep it.

Ashlyn Godwin was only 19 when she gave birth to her first born child.

A beautiful baby girl.

Everything was prepared for her daughter to leave the hospital however in the time she spent in the hospital Ashlyn re-evaluated what she had put in place. There was only one right place for her daughter and that was at home, with her.

However that never happened.

As she held her daughter it seemed to last a lifetime but it was only 3 hours.

And then she stopped crying.

Everyone panicked.

The nurses started to run mad, shouting and working urgently.

Unfortunately every little actions they did was too late.

They lost her.

Ashlyn Godwin was only 19 when she lost her first born child.

It broke her soul. Crying herself to sleep for months as she still heard the screaming stop in that hospital room.

Eventually, she never accepted her death however got back on with life.

Throwing herself into her life's work, she kept getting better at magic, and she enjoyed it.

Seeing kids faces light up on the streets during her performances.

It was what Ashlyn started to live for.

A little smile. In which she saw her daughter in every smile.

Which always played on her mind, but it pushed her into the life she was yet to live.