Girl of Fire and Flame

By Jordann Lauver

Ember woke up in the woods, but she didn’t know why.
Ember had blood stained hands, but she didn’t know how.
Ember thought it was all a dream, but HE told her differently.

Her entire life she was told she was crazy, that
the voices in her head were just imagination. It was all a lie-everything she knew and loved, even the voice in her head. Destined by the Gods and given the gift of the flame, Ember was given the curse everyone in the world always feared would happen; the power to end the world.

Can she power through it or will she let the flame engulf and control her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387183111

Book preview

Girl of Fire and Flame

Girl of Fire and Flame

Jordann Lauver

Copyright © 2017 by Jordann Lauver

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2017

ISBN: 978-1-387-18311-1

Chapter 1

Her hands are freezing, just like the rest of her body, but she can’t move.

She sees what she did, but it doesn’t make any sense. Though, the truth lies right in front of her.

A dead human carcass lays limp on the cold ground of the woods behind Ember’s house, and the evidence is covering her. Her face, hands, clothes, are covered in the woman’s blood. The body is mutilated to the extent that it is unrecognizable.

She took her pills before she went to bed, she was sure of it. Ember hadn’t had an episode to this extent in years, if it was her. Yet, there is no doubting that it was, judging by the blackout her conscience awoke from, she could have done this much damage in her sleep. And she did.

Ember finally snaps out of the cosmic state, staring at the body, and cries out in anguish. Why would this happen to her again? Her family was sure she was getting better, even her therapist said so. She stopped hearing the voices, stopped having murderous nightmares, and most importantly, the violent outbursts toward strangers and others had stopped. Nothing would be getting her out of this one, not even the diagnosis from the psychiatric ward that was labeled across the documents after her last court visit.

Where are you going to hide the body this time? Twigs snap behind her and she whirls around to face a boy, about her age.

She can’t say a word, her first instinct is to flee the scene and go back home, but the cops would know exactly whose door to knock on if he reported it. Everyone knows of the crazy girl in Lugwig Township who runs in the woods at night. Maybe it was better to stay silent and keep within the scene.

I asked you a question. He seems amused by her silence; all she sees is a boy with an odd smirk on his face. Ember, where are we going to hide the body? I am offering my help.

Ember feels something between them, not attraction, more like she has met him before and shares similar characteristics. There is a fire burning between them, continuing to burn up the closer he approaches her. His movements are slow, but confident and unafraid. He feels the pull between them too, possibly before she even felt it, and that is why he found her at her weakest. Clay?

A lump forms in her throat after she sees who is in the clear view of the moonlight. She is going insane again, it is worse this time, but Ember cannot stop analyzing him.

Clay, being one of the biggest and most powerful voices haunting her conscience since she was a child, was standing in front of her. Once and a while, he would come out and let her see him because she thought he was the most beautiful thing created, and the boy standing there looks exactly the same, only matured.

He looks relieved, but still remains serious as he strokes his hand across her cheek. I have returned to help you. I was able to escape the Hell I am in to see to your need of assistance. His voice is soft, placing Ember into a hibernation-like state.

I don’t need assistance! I am going to go to jail for what I did! Tears prick in Ember’s eyes as she argues against Clay’s proposal. You are insane if you think I am disposing of another body. It is because of YOU that I did this the last time. No one believes the girl who hears voices, especially one who sees invisible people now too!

I am not invisible. If you want me to prove it, then I will turn you into the cops myself! Clay regrets the words as soon as they spill from his mouth. I didn’t mean-

She swings her hand and slaps him across the face, it stings, but she will not show pain to someone who had been the one controlling everything in her life that lead her up to this point. What are you even doing here? You think you can just waltz back into my life just as I am getting myself together?

We need to prepare you. Simple words were all he needed to get Ember’s attention back to him.

Prepare me for what?

Your prophecy. He thinks for a moment on whether or not to continue with what he has started with her. The situation wasn’t even supposed to reach this point. Clay was ordered to dispose of the body with her, and be done with it. He already messed up, which would cause turmoil within him and his leader.

I think you’re the one who is insane now. Ember laughs at her own joke, but notices the stone cold look on Clay’s face that has been there since he arrived. What is it?

He clears his throat, you are the one who is destined to end the world.

Chapter 2

Ember jerks awake from her dream, nearly falling off of the bed. She stares down at her hands to see no dry blood covering them.

It was just a dream, she thinks, breathing a sigh of relief. The nightmares have returned, but even so, it wasn’t real.

She sneaks out of her room, sweat soaked clothes and all, to count her medicine. The nightmares have made her paranoid that her illness is slowly creeping back to her; if so, her parents won’t even think twice about locking her up. The deal was, she stays clean, and they won’t get her anymore professional help than the court suggested.

One, two, three… Three pills left, but it couldn’t be possible. She had taken her pill before she went to bed, unless that had been a part of the nightmare too.

Ember has the urge to sit down and cry, something she had done when her insanity took her over three years ago. There was no real reason why, pills were nothing to cry over, it was something she read in her psych class that mentally unstable people enjoy doing. Funny, huh, crazy person in a psych class, though it was before she know she was crazy herself.

Ember, what are you doing up so early? Behind her, her sleep deprived brother stands in the hallway. I heard you out here talking to yourself.

It’s not what it looks like. I was counting my pills to make sure I took mine before I went to bed. She holds her hands up, palms toward her brother in defeat. Arrest me, or better yet go tell mom and dad to take me where I belong.

Stop it. I came out here because I heard a sound in the kitchen, and it caught my attention, to find that it was my crazy sister out here relapsing.

Ember stares him down. She has the urge to hit him, something that she would never do.