AN: Twilight isn't mine... if it was would I be writing here or making soooo much money?
BPOV
Everyday I yearn to go to the Flame. I know he is mine. He is waiting, and yet no matter who goes up there not one returns. I cannot expect myself to be the exception, but some one has to be. It isn't possible that the Flame would literally be stuck forever.
I may be young and naive, but the Flame cannot go on forever alone. He will go mad, if he hasn't already. I am afraid though. I wish to live a long prosperous life, and going into the Flame is almost sure death, unless the impossible happens.
"Bella, what's up?"
"Hey Jake. I was just thinking." I couldn't betray Jake by going to the Flame, I just couldn't.
"Thinking of what? What's on your mind?" He was so good, and I wish I could love him the way he loves me.
"Live, love, and happiness." He smiled so huge.
"I think they all go together very well." He had totally mistaken whatever it was I had said. I had no idea how to respond, but luckily with Jake you normally don't have to respond.
"Bella, I was wondering, what do you think you are doing this weekend?" He was going to ask me out, again. Whoopee.
"Nothing really." Actually I was going to stare at the Flame until I got the courage up to go to the seer.
"So would you want to come to my house for dinner, maybe go for a walk?" He was definitely asking me on a date, and the way he said walk made it seem like we would be doing more than walking.
"I don't know Jake. I have had a pretty hectic week (total lie) and I wanted some rest this weekend." His fallen face nearly crippled me with guilt. I couldn't help the fact that I was not attracted to him in the slightest.
"Oh, well it would be pretty low key, but if you don't want that then fine. We can do it some other time." I couldn't help but feeling like a bitch.
"You know what Jake I can maybe just stop by at some point on Saturday, but not for long. We could just hang out, play a card game or something."
"That would be awesome!" Jake was like a little kid sometimes.
"Yeah see you then. I really should head home Charlie will be worrying by now." Again total lie.
I walked home slowly, and when I got home Charlie was no where to be seen. I started making dinner. I went with one of Charlie's favorites, Fettuccine Alfredo. I had about twenty minutes to go when Charlie got home.
He went to change after a hard day of work. My father kept crime out of our village as best he could. He found people who hurt or stole from others. He was very good at it. His father and his father's father had all done the same. The village needed protecting and my father was the sheriff.
My father cam downstairs just as I was finishing. He set the table and I ladled our pasta into a couple of bowls and set them down at the table.
Our table fit four people. My father and I sat across from each other. It was a little awkward looking sometimes, but my mother had always sat in between us and we held the same positions probably because my father always held the hope that she would be back.
Renee. That was my mother's name. She had loved my father very much, but they had no money and no name so they were stuck in the same position, but Phil Dwyer, he had a name and money, and my mother was too attracted to the shiny glory of it all. She left us all alone, and nearly broke my father's heart. I was just young enough to not remember everything, but old enough to remember my mother's face and my father's despair.
I often thought about what life would be like if Renee had taken me with her. Charlie would have committed suicide long ago, and I wouldn't have been able to live with that, but Dwyer was a name everyone knew. My mother was living the high life that for sure.
"So Bella anything interesting happen today?" Charlie trying to make small talk.
"Well I was hanging out with Jacob, I am going to hang out with him on Saturday. I think he has impure intentions, but I don't think of him that way." I always went with full truth with Charlie.
"If you don't like him tell him, don't lead him on it will only hurt him more." Charlie knew from experience.
"I have told him, but he doesn't seem to get it."
"Yes, well then you have nothing to be ashamed of." He was thinking about Renee now, and he was going to be depressed for a while.
"This is delicious Bella." He said after a long silence, not awkward just peaceful.
"Thanks Dad." I always called him Dad after I had been thinking of Renee.
"I am going to go up to my room. I hope you can handle the dishes." He never touched anything in the kitchen per my request.
"Yeah Dad got it. Have a good night!" I tried to put as much enthusiasm into it as possible. My father had attempted suicide a few years ago, but he was doing much better now, he just got sad sometimes.
After cleaning the kitchen I went to my room.
The windows in my room face three directions. Out of two of them you can see the Flame. I loved to look up at him. I had imagined him many different ways before, and each person was more beautiful then the next. There is no reason an ugly man would be confined to a fiery pit.
In the darkness of the night I touched myself. I pictured the Flame over me and taking me forcefully with the fiery will he must have, and I came so hard I might have screamed, but Charlie was too lost in his thoughts of Renee to think anything of it.
That night I slept soundly underneath the light of my Flame.
The next day was Friday. I was bored, and hoping for a miracle. I was supposed to go with the women to some ceremony, but it seemed mind numbingly dull. We were to learn the art of dance. I was terribly clumsy and had no desire whatsoever to learn to dance.
It was called fortnightly for some reason known only to God. I had to find my gloves, and I changed in view of the Flame. I prayed for the strength to go to him. I wanted nothing more than to go to him, but it was too frightening hopefully God would help me.
The walk to fortnightly was torturous. I dreaded each step even more so than usual. I walked into the dance studio, and I shook with a violent shiver. I was warm though. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.
I wasn't too horrible today, except at one point when I was partnered with this man named James, and I just couldn't shake the feeling that he was too cold, and too stiff, while at the same time he was too poised. I became even clumsier, and the look he gave me was what one would give a nice juicy piece of steak.
I sat out for a few dances after that, and when the end came I bolted out of there like a bat out of hell.
As I was walking home I closed my eyes, and suddenly my feet weren't taking me home anymore. I wasn't walking towards home. I was walking towards the bell tower. I was going to the seer, and I wasn't going to stop myself. This time I was going to do it.
AN: So let me know what you think. Leave a review, and tell me what you think the post-apocalypse world that wiped out all cities would and wouldn't have.