Braxton continued his way through the ruined city, entranced by the extreme semblance between his Ember city and this Ember city. His hometown was an exact replica of this ruined town, but yet he never heard of this place before.

It was dead silent, there were no signs of any kind of life here, which put Braxton on guard. There should have at least been some kind of animal life here, right? There was nothing.

The further he walked into town the more he noticed that some of the buildings hadn’t naturally fallen to ruin, they had burned down. “If only part of this city got burned down, why didn’t they just rebuild instead of abandoning the place?” He asked aloud, part of him hoping the answer would just appear in front of him. His path started to become cluttered with bits of wood and bricks scattered about from buildings that had been burned down. He stepped over them and continued, looking around the area, until he found himself facing a house that looked identical to his.

The house in front of him was mostly intact, with only a few broken windows and plants that overgrew onto the house. ‘That’s strange,’ He thought. With curiosity getting the best of him, he approached the front door of the house and pulled it open. Looking inside there was no light, except for the light that came in from the sun. He took his first step through the door and he shivered.

The inside of the house was the same as his, the only difference was the placement of the now ruined furniture. Pictures hung on the wall, but the pictures had faded over the years, making it impossible to see the faces of the people in it.

Braxton walked down the hallway towards what would have been his room. There was no door, and the room looked like it belonged to a kid. Dolls were thrown all over the floor, the wallpaper was very faded, and some parts of it were beginning to chip off but from what Braxton could tell, the wallpaper had originally been pink.

He took a step into the room and placed a hand on the wall. ‘This is the first place I’ve seen since being here that isn’t completely ruined.’ Suddenly he was hit with sharp pain. His head was throbbing and his vision was beginning to blur, he felt himself sliding down against the wall, laughter filled the air around him.

A child’s laughter. A little girl sat in the middle of the floor, playing with a doll that she had in her hands. Braxton looked around the room. It was the same room he had just been to, except the room wasn’t falling apart. He squatted down to the girl's level. He reached out to touch her shoulder to get her attention but his hand went right through her. “What the hell?”

“Come on baby, it’s time for lunch.” Braxton fell back, startled by the sudden voice. In the doorway stood the figure of a man. When he tried looking at the man’s face, he saw nothing. There was a shadow that covered the man’s face, but his voice sounded gentle. The little girl dropped her doll and stood up. “Food! Food!” She cheered. Braxton followed them out of the room and into the living room.

In the living room, he watched as the man and child eating. “Hey daddy,” the little girl said through mouthfuls of food. “When will Mommy be home?” The man patted the girl’s head. “Mommy will be home as soon as she gets off of work sweetie, you know this.” The girl looked down with disappointment. ‘Mommy works all the time though. She doesn’t come home until I’m already asleep so I don’t get to see mommy!” The man wrapped his arms around the girl. “She does it to take care of us, honey, you know this.” She finished eating in silence, they had this conversation before.

Braxton watched as the little girl went about her day. He watched as her father tucked her in bed. Braxton sat by the girl's bed and stared up at the ceiling as time went on. After hours had passed he heard the front door open. He got up and left the room, assuming it was the girl’s mother returning home from work.

Just like the father, he was unable to make out any of her features. “This is where it all went downhill.” A girl’s voice spoke beside him. This startled him and he turned. There stood the little girl, except she looked older. “Who are you?” He asked.

The girl stared off, seeming to not want to answer his question. She looked uncomfortable. “Is that not your mother?” The girl shook her head. “That woman never would’ve been my mother.” She sounded bitter.

“Who is she then?” “Just watch.” The man met the woman at the front door, pulling her close to his body as he kissed her. “I thought you weren’t going to be able to make it.” The woman giggled. “I just wanted to see you that badly. I had to make the time.” “Well my daughter is in bed and my wife won’t be back for a few more hours, should we head to the bedroom?”

“Daddy?” The little girl stood at the end of the hallway, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The man quickly pushed the woman behind him and faced his daughter. “What’re you doing up sweetie?” “I thought I heard you talking to” She stopped mid-sentence as she stared at the woman who stood behind her father. “Who is she, daddy?” Her dad looked nervous. “She’s just a friend. You should get back to bed sweetie.”

She didn’t question her father, why should she? She listened to what he said and went back and got back into bed, but she was unable to fall back asleep.

Braxton watched as the man took the woman back to his room, then Braxton returned to the girl’s room. “I hope for her sake he stops what he’s doing before his wife finds out.” He sighed. He had been so lost in thought that he never noticed the footsteps that stopped at the front of the bedroom door.

“Why are you still up sweetie?” A woman spoke. The little girl looked over and a smile broke out on her face. “Mommy!” The woman walked into the room and sat on her daughter’s bed. “Mommy just got home from work early, I wanted to check on you before I got ready for bed.” The girl sat up and hugged her mother.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

‘I woke up because I heard daddy talking to his friend in the living room!” Her mother frowned. “His friend? Is his friend still here?” The girl nodded. “Daddy told me that she was his friend and told me I needed to try and go back to sleep.” Braxton couldn’t make out the expression on the woman’s face, but he could only imagine the hurt and anger she must have felt.

“I’ll be back sweetie.” The woman stood up and walked off. Within a few seconds, screams had erupted from the other end of the house. Braxton rushed out of the room, leaving the girl cowering in her bed. The girl’s mother and father were screaming in one another’s face, while the so-called “friend” ran out of the front door.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THIS!” The woman bellowed. The man’s fist was balled up, he looked ready to strike. “I WOULDN’T HAVE DONE IT IF YOU WOULD JUST SHOW ME MORE ATTENTION!” He screamed back. “You know that I’ve been trying! You know that it’s hard to spend time with you when I work so late then go right to bed just to get up the next day to work more long hours!” Her voice cracked, it seemed as if she was holding back from crying.

The man fell silent. The woman brushed past him towards their room. “Where are you going?” He questioned. “I’m leaving. I can’t be with you anymore. I won’t be able to look at you without remembering how you cheated on me.” She was grabbing her stuff and shoving it into a bag.

“You aren’t leaving.” He sounded demanding as he spoke, the woman laughed. “You can’t make me stay.” He grabbed her arm, his grip tightening on her. “Mommy? Daddy?” The girl now stood beside where Braxton was, tears welling in her eyes. “What are you two doing?” He let go of his wife.

Her mother got on her knees in front of the girl and put her hands on her shoulder. “Baby, I’m sorry you had to see this. Mommy is deciding she’s going to leave.” “Are you going to come back?” Her mother shook her head. “Mommy won’t be coming back, but mommy will still get to see you. I won’t just leave you here.” Her tears began rolling down her round cheeks as she hugged her mother. “I’ll be back tomorrow for you, okay? So let’s get back in bed.” The girl nodded.

Suddenly everything went black. In the blink of an eye, another scene was suddenly in front of Braxton.

It was the same girl, except she was older, just like the one he had seen earlier. “Pay attention to this one.” It was the same girl. She turned to face him and Braxton gasped. Half of her face was scarred, she had bandages over one eye, while the girl in front of them had no scar and you could see both eyes. She had striking blue eyes and short ginger hair that was styled in a pixie cut. Freckles covered her cheeks. ‘She looks kind of like Hayleigh.’

The girl in front of them was standing in front of a wooded area behind her house. “Dad always told me I wasn’t allowed to go into the woods. I always thought that was strange. I was always allowed to play in the woods when I was younger, at least until mom left. This day my dad and I got into an argument, so to disobey him I went into the woods.” She growled. “This is where things got bad.”

Braxton watched as the living version of the girl walked into the woods. The trees were thick but she walked straight ahead. He followed her for what seemed like half an hour. Eventually, they came across a small clearing, and smack in the middle was a small log cabin. “What is this?” Braxton asked. She looked at Braxton and frowned. “My dad had this built before I was born. I’m not exactly sure why though, I just know that he did and sometimes we would come and stay in it for a few days.”

They watched as she walked into the old cabin. The place looked like it was still well taken care of, the only thing that seemed out of place was a few drawers that were slightly opened on a desk that her father had bought years back as decoration.

The girl walked up to the drawers and pulled them open, grabbing for whatever was inside. Inside the drawer were some white envelopes. The envelopes looked new. “What are these doing here?” She asked out loud, opening up one of the envelopes.

She gasped and whatever was inside fell to the ground. Braxton walked over and noticed it was photos. The photos were all of the women that the man had been cheating with. Some were of her tied up, some of her looking beaten and drugged. The next photo made Braxton sick to his stomach. It was a photo of the man raping the woman while she lay on the floor, dazed as if she was unaware of what was happening to her.

“What the hell..? These… These can’t be real.” Her voice was shaking, her body trembled, the second envelope still in her hands. Braxton stood behind her, looking over her shoulder. She shakingly opened up the second envelope, and fell to the floor, vomit now covered the floor.

The pictures were of her mother, she was tied up just the same as the other woman, she was beaten and she looked a lot older compared to when the last time her daughter saw her. The picture Braxton saw next made him sick.

The woman was now lying in the ground, where a hole had been dug out just deep enough for her body to be placed into. Blood was dried to the side of her head, and her stomach had been cut open. On the back of the photo was the year 1985.

“I… I need to see if this is true. It looks like it’s outback.” She mumbled to herself. Braxton followed her out the back and stood off to the side as he watched her begin digging into what seemed like freshly dug dirt with her hands.

Minutes of digging she finally reached something. A black bag. Her digging got more frantic as she began to pull the bag out. “Shit! It’s so heavy!!”

Once the bag was out of the hole the smell hit her. The smell of something rotting. “Oh God, I’m going to be sick again…” She reached for the bag and opened it, covering her mouth at what was inside.

Body parts were in the bag and they were beginning to break down. “Oh, no, I need to go get help, I need…” Her breathing was turning rapid, panic setting inside of her.

Crunch. The sudden sound startled her as she swiftly turned around, now face to face with her father. “What are you doing here? Have I not told you that you shouldn’t be back here.” His tone made him seem cut off from the world. He took a step towards her and grabbed her arm violently, jerking her up off the ground.

“Dad, stop!! What are you doing?!” She screamed as he began to pull her towards the cabin. Her anger overcame her fear. “You killed that woman you cheated on mom with, and you killed mom!” She screamed. Suddenly a fire burst from her hands, causing her father to shove her back onto the ground in shock.

The fire continued to burn, catching the grass around her ablaze. Before she realized it, the fire was rapidly heading towards the trees, sparking fire everywhere. Her father ran back into the cabin and she screamed at him.

She got up and chased after him, hatred was now the only thing she felt as the fire quickly spread towards the cabin. Smoke was filling up the rooms as she chased after her father.

He was in the room where the pictures had been left on the floor, desperately grabbing for them. She grabbed him, burning his arm as she did. He screamed in pain, dropping the photos. The cabin was now on fire, bits of the house were beginning to collapse in. “Let me go, you demon!” Her father yelled at her, the fire now covering his arm.

“Demon? You’re the true demon.” She said through gritted teeth. The fire flared up and her father was covered in fire, she stood above him as she watched him burn. “This is what you deserve.” She looked around, finally, it hit her how much danger she was in.

She started to run towards the front door, but parts of the ceiling fell in front of her, blocking the path to the front door. “Shit!” She looked around frantically as the sounds of her father’s painful screams filled the air.

BAM. Before she could realize what happened, another section of the ceiling fell, landing right on top of her. Time was no longer on her side, the house was falling apart faster than she could try and escape. The whole house finally collapsed, and the fire outside would find its way to spread halfway through the town.

Braxton gasped as he opened his eyes. “What the hell was that?” He muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “My memories.” He looked up. There stood the same girl from before. “Why did you show me that?” He questioned. She looked off to the side. “You came here and something told me that it was something that you needed to see.”

Braxton shook his head. “I’m not sure. So are you telling me that you had the power of fire, but didn’t find out until that happened?” The girl shrugged. “I somewhat had an idea about it, but I never had it happen like that, sadly my first time experiencing it led to my death.” She scoffed at her own words.

“Well, I got to see your memories, so will you at least tell me your name?” Braxton questioned.

“Grace Henderson.”