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#Post#: 383896--------------------------------------------------
Auburn Summers
By: Cally-Rose Date: January 31, 2015, 2:59 pm
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[I wasn't sure where else to put this so if it's in the wrong
place, just let me know and I'll shift it xD]
As a child, Auburn had always been fascinated by fire. Her
parents had an open fireplace in their living room and she would
spend hours sitting in front of it, gently stoking it and
enticing the flames to rise hire with more logs. Of course, her
parents had known this wasn't healthy for her, that surely there
was something wrong for her to be so in love with flame, but she
was happy and content so they let her be. Her older sister had
always looked out for her, taken care of her when she needed it
- taking her to school, making her lunch, buying her clothes.
Their parents weren't neglectful, she just much preferred the
company of her sibling. Over the years, the two grew
increasingly close until one fateful day, the darkest in
Auburn's history.
It had started as a regular day, her sister had taken her to
school and her lessons went by as usual. Lunch had been a cheese
sandwich (her favourite) and an apple with a carton of milk. The
afternoon passed by as slowly as it always did until lessons
ended and she met her sister at the school gate. They stopped by
the park on their way home, made it back in time for dinner and
enjoyed the evening together. But that was when everything
changed and Auburn's life took a cruel twist for the worse.
As she always did, Auburn spent her few hours before bed sitting
in front of the fireplace, stoking the fire and watching the
flames dance. There was always something so hypnotic about them,
the way they swayed and wriggled, casting flickering shadows on
the walls. Auburn poked at the coals, twitching a little as
something cracked and popped, sending embers out onto the rug.
She should have put them out, stepped on them to kill the fire -
but instead she watched, entranced by the by the fire began to
lick at the fabric beneath and then spreading, faster and
faster. By the time she had snapped out of her trance, the
entire living room was burning and smoke was filling her lungs.
There was very little Auburn could remember from then onwards -
flashes of memory came to her now and then, but only enough that
she could just about piece together what had happened. From the
moment she saw the living room burning around her, she had
blacked out until she was outside. Soot covered her cheeks, her
eyes wide as she stared up at the house which was now engulfed
in flames. Her next memory was one of flashing lights, fire
fighters trying desperately to tackle the blaze as it ravaged
the building while a medic shone a light in her eyes and checked
her over. Next came the sight of three bodies being removed from
the blackened house, smoke still rising but the fire now dead.
Each body was carried on a stretcher, covered by a white sheet.
After that, she faded out for several days, but there was one
sentence that echoed in her memory as clear as the day she heard
it. Spoken to another person, but very clearly aimed at her.
"Why is she smiling?"
#Post#: 383898--------------------------------------------------
Re: Auburn Summers
By: Cally-Rose Date: January 31, 2015, 3:19 pm
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The years passed by and Auburn grew to her teenage years. She'd
had a troublesome childhood - foster parents tried to look after
her but within three weeks would always bring her back claiming
that there was something seriously wrong with her. The Home had
brought in child psychiatrists, paediatricians, specialists of
all kinds, but all had come to the same conclusion. She was a
shy, withdrawn child that just needed love and eventually she
would open up. By the time she reached 13, she had been through
26 different families, all of whom had told the same story. Her
first few days would be spent quietly hiding in her room. Then,
she would tell the other children horrid stories of how her
family had died. The stories would go from explanations to
gruesome horror stories, filled with explicit detail of how she
had found her mother burnt to a crisp, her father with his skin
completely melted off and her sister left as nothing but charred
bones. Then her stories would turn to dramatic reconstructions,
herself playing each family member as she re-enacted their
deaths.
The children would grow scared of her, begin to have nightmares
and beg their foster parents to take her away. Thus, she always
came back. The Home had tried putting her with families who
didn't have other children, but then she would start on the
parents. The horror stories would come again and she would
quickly be sent back. However, while she was at the Home, she
was a polite and quiet young girl who wouldn't say boo to a
mouse. The carers couldn't explain it, so they simply decided it
would be within their best interests to keep her at the Home
until she came of an age to live on her own.
This was their gravest mistake, as only a week after this
decision was made, a fire broke out in one of the children's
dormitories. They lost 12 children that night and 4 members of
staff. Once again, Auburn was one of the survivors and once
again was found to be smiling at the scene. Horrified by the
realisation that she had been the one to start the fire, the
remaining carers came to the agreement that she would be sent
away to an institution where professionals would care for her.
It was here that she spent 3 years being treated. Most of her
spare time was spent in the library on the computers, where she
was kept under close watch in case she tried to start another
fire. They didn't care what she read about or what she did, only
that she didn't try to use the books as kindling, so Auburn took
this as an opportunity to find out anything she could about
fire. Her studies led her down dark routes, along the roads of
the supernatural. She'd always believed in demons and creatures
of the night, she'd always had dreams about creatures calling to
her from the flames, trying to entice her, convince her to start
another fire. She'd never truly believed they were just dreams,
they were too vivid and real. So when she stumbled across
something online that described a way for her to get in touch
further with these creatures, her belief turned into true fact.
That day, she decided that she would do her best to seem like
she was getting better, get out of this place as soon as
possible so that she could finally do what she did best. And
within three months, she was released from the institute into
the free world - now 16 and with nothing to her name, she could
do whatever she wanted, wherever she wanted. And she knew
exactly where she was going first.
#Post#: 383900--------------------------------------------------
Re: Auburn Summers
By: Cally-Rose Date: January 31, 2015, 4:37 pm
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After spending several months alone, Auburn had finally gathered
everything she needed. The ingredients, the incantations, the
sigils... All she needed now was a crossroad surrounded by
yarrow flowers. It took her a few days, but once she had found
the perfect spot she began planting the flowers. They'd need a
couple of days to grow and settle but she could wait. Her
patience had grown over the years, she always seemed to be
waiting for something and now her waiting was almost over.
Setting up camp not too far from the road, she prepared herself
for what was to come, practising her pronunciation and getting
her ingredients ready.
The night had come at last. It was time. Gathering her things,
Auburn finished the last of the preparations and then headed
back to the road where her flowers were now swaying in the
slight breeze. She dug a small hole in the dead centre of the
crossroads, buried a small tin with her ingredients in and then
stood over it, whispering the incantation she had learnt under
her breath. She knew this would work. It had to work. Everything
rested on this moment. Her heart was pounding, beads of sweat
trickled down her face, her hands were clenched and trembling
with nerves. If it didn't work, if for some reason nothing
happened... well, it was barely worth thinking about. She
finished the incantation and waited - her eyes shut tight as
though she didn't want to see whether or not it had been a
success.
"You called?" A soft, smooth voice came from behind and Auburn's
eyes snapped open. Spinning around, her red hair flailing around
her, she stared wide-eyed at the young man standing before her.
He was handsome, well-built and wearing a rather suave suit, but
there was one thing that told her this man was not a man. His
eyes were solid black. Not even the light of the moon reflected
on them. "And what can I do for you, my lovely young lady?" An
eyebrow raised and he stepped forwards, his hands casually
resting in his pockets. Auburn didn't even have to open her
mouth for her question to be answered, he already knew. "Of
course, I can do anything at all. That certainly isn't a
problem." He circled her slowly, his dark stare watching her
carefully. "The deal is this, I'll give you what you want and in
return, I get your soul. I'll wait until you die of course, but
once you're dead, you belong to me." He gave a low chuckle and
stopped in front of her, his smile quickly fading to be replaced
by a deadly serious expression. "Do we have a deal...?"
"Yes, we have a deal."
#Post#: 383901--------------------------------------------------
Re: Auburn Summers
By: Cally-Rose Date: January 31, 2015, 5:02 pm
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Auburn knew what she had signed up for. All of the lore had told
that crossroad demons require a soul to complete a deal. Some
had said she'd be given 10 years before they came to collect,
some said that she would lose her soul immediately and continue
to live a cruel, cursed life. Whichever had been true, she would
have taken the offer. It was only a bonus that she had the rest
of her life until her soul was taken. Her entire life had been
spent plagued by dreams of fires and creatures calling to her
from the flames, begging her to join them and fulfil her
destiny. That it was only right she had such a love of fire and
destruction.
So her deal had been this; She wanted the power to bring fire
wherever and whenever. To feel it as an extension of her body.
To be able to hold it, caress it, breathe it in without being
harmed. The crossroad demon, feeling his non-existent heart go
out to her for wanting to have such destructive and dark power,
had thrown in a 'freebee' and given her one of his hellhounds.
The beast was made of blue fire, fierce and full of anger but
controllable by Auburn herself. It could show itself to whomever
she pleased, shrink and grow between sizes and calm it's flame
so that it appeared merely as a black spectral dog. It would
obey her every command and follow her to the end of the Earth if
she asked it to, appearing or disappearing whenever she did or
didn't need it.
Auburn's first move was to find somewhere to test her new power.
Put what she had been given to the test. And the first place
that came to mind was the institution where she had previously
been poked and prodded and questioned and tied down and drugged
so heavily that she couldn't move her limbs. Climbing atop her
new companion, she rode back to the building where she had been
a prisoner, the sparks of flame already igniting at her
fingertips in anticipation.
That night, the institution burnt to the ground. Some survivors
claimed they had seen a burning beast in the halls, ravaging
anyone that tried to stop it, while others told police that a
previous patient had returned to start the blaze but that she
had stayed inside to be engulfed by the flames. Auburn stood at
the heart of the building, bathing in the comforting glow of
fire that swallowed her whole. It felt warm on her skin, like
feathers brushing along her flesh as it licked over her without
causing harm, even her clothes seemed untouched. As the fire
died down, her hellhound returned to her to carry her from the
collapsing building and they dashed away into the night, never
to be seen there again.
It was said that similar instances occurred in other buildings
across the country, a girl with hair as red as fire standing
amongst the flames she had created while a burning beast roamed
the hallways looking for prey. All witnesses were put down as
suffering some form of PTSD, that they'd simply imagined the
figures as it was impossible for someone to survive such a
thing.
But one day, she was caught. A survivor from her old institute
had moved across the country to escape the memory of that
traumatic night and spotted her entering a newspaper publishers.
This publisher was well known for covering the stories of the
fires that always seemed to include a burning girl and beast,
conspiracy stories and theories covered at least a page in every
issue. This had been Auburn's purpose for being there. Once she
was spotted by her old carer however, the police were called and
she was charged with arson. In order to keep her secret, she
went along with the case and allowed herself to be taken into
custody. Once there, she told them the truth and feigned
craziness so that she would be sent to an institute where she
could be 'rehabilitated'. It would get her back into the world
quicker and she could continue her life.
However, since her last stay in an institute, times had changed.
New drugs were brought out, new treatments, new therapies. By
the time several months had passed, they had her believing the
whole thing had been a hallucination. That there had never been
any supernatural powers or a hellhound (who she had commanded to
leave until she called for him to return). Her plan had gone
slightly askew and by the time her release date came around, she
honestly believed that she was now a cured woman who had once
been crazy. How long it would last, there was no telling.
But sooner or later, her powers would rise back to the surface.
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