Chapter One: Smolder
Vibrant orange flames licked their way through everything; they were nothing but a sign of vast devastation and a crumbling destruction. Flames that glared and sparked ferociously as onlookers watched in abject horror.
But the arsonist smiled at this; he smiled at the horrific devastation, the burning destruction.
Jensen smiled. He smiled at the horrific devastation, the burning destruction; all of these pent-up emotions boiling inside of Tru.
She was burning here, the longer she stayed the longer the flames would tease her, taunt her…
Envelop her.
Gradually, eyes fluttering, she caught the slightest glimpse of the flame…
Him.
"Kira," she called out slowly, instinctively.
"That's a beautiful name, Tru. That's what you want to call her, isn't it?" Jensen whispered from beside her.
"Yes," she replied; her voice was light and fragile.
A pause.
Silence.
"Kira Elise," she said; her tone was serious now and it maintained a sense of finality.
Tru gazed down at her sleeping daughter as she held her close to her heart.
So this is life, she thought wonderingly.
But she feared for this life because this life could be taken from her in seconds. This innocent life could drown in a suffocating darkness at any moment. He would drown her in this abstract darkness, trapped forever amidst the burning orange flames.
And Tru knew.
She knew these flames held no sense of security for her daughter, no protection from the ring of smoldering fire.
Kira's eyes opened just then and she let out a loud wail of discomfort.
Tru hesitated for a moment.
A moment of weakness.
His moment.
"Just rock her, Tru," Jensen told her.
"Shhh," Tru soothed, as she began to rock her daughter gently in her arms. "It's okay, Kira. Mommy's here. You're safe. You're okay."
But a part of her knew Kira wasn't safe here.
Not at all.
Her daughter's name felt so right to her and she didn't really know why. She didn't know the potency behind it; she didn't know its significance had come from a place of darkness.
But she couldn't remember Jensen's influence.
It was as if the name had come to her in a dream.
In her mind and in her heart she knew, the name was just right.
It felt right.
"Tru, let me hold her," Jensen whispered again as Kira began to calm down.
Her body tightened, wanting to resist.
No, she wanted to say.
But she suddenly found herself unable to speak.
The flames burned stronger, burned brighter and she relinquished.
Jensen carefully took Kira from the security of Tru's tender, warm embrace as his eyes locked with hers and everything beneath them began to smolder, the crackling flames ablaze below.
"The usual again, Jack?" the bartender asked, placing a shiny glass on the bar's tabletop, filling it to the brim with beer and sliding it towards him.
Jack nodded wearily and clasped one hand firmly around the glass while tossing the bartender a crumpled twenty dollar bill.
"Keep the change."
He welcomed the burning sensations the toxic liquid fed him, craving each insatiable gulp with a thirst he never realized he had.
The toxic, pungent flames of liquid gradually began to overwhelm him with each and every sip.
But he needed this.
Again.
"Jack, my boy; so good of you to finally show up somewhere, especially considering you never return any of my phone calls."
"Do I have reason to, Richard?" Jack retorted haughtily, managing to eye the older man who now stood beside him suspiciously, despite being in a haze from the hazardous effects of the alcohol. "I don't work for you anymore."
Richard Davies settled on a barstool next to a practically drunken Jack.
"No, maybe not. But don't you have other responsibilities to attend to?"
"What happens between me and Tru is none of your damn business. Just leave her out of this."
"I know she was pregnant, Jack. I also know that she had the baby already and that you're not the baby's biological father. Anything else you care to fill me in on about my daughter?" Richard's voice was smooth and direct.
"It's not my place to tell," Jack slurred uneasily, his eyes flaming red around the rims, which was obviously intensified by copious amounts of alcohol and raging bouts of insomnia.
"So what are you doing here then?" Richard pressed further; his solid orbs of steel gray remained locked on Jack's orbs of a glassy crystalline blue.
"Tru's sleeping. The baby's sleeping. And I need a break."
"I don't see how you can be considered a responsible father when you're like this."
Richard was right, of course. This Jack knew.
But he didn't do this all the time.
All he wanted was an escape, someplace he could find salvation where Tru wouldn't see him reach his breaking point.
He had to be strong for her, protection against the smoldering flames lurking below.
And now, he had to be strong for a second life.
For Kira's life.
Especially when Tru could not be. What would happen then? Kira would have nothing.
But Jack was determined not to let that happen.
Before he could respond to Richard with some kind of clever, scathing remark, Jack felt his cell phone vibrate and managed to hear its shrill ringing over the bar's raucous din.
He fumbled with it for a moment before placing it to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Jack? Jack, I need… I need you," came the broken voice on the other end of the line.
"Tru? Are you alright?" he asked, his voice slurred with an uneasy edge. "Tru, just hang on for me, okay? I'll be right there."
Without any hesitation, Jack slammed his cell phone shut, placed it back into the breast pocket of his faded leather jacket and slid off of the barstool, almost surprised when his feet found security on the floor beneath.
"It was nice seeing you again, Richard," he regarded his former mentor coolly and, with that, he strode past Richard and out the door, never looking back.
"Always a pleasure, Jack," Richard said, folding his hands together and watching his former accomplice make his grand exit. "Always a pleasure."
"Tru, wake up."
Pulling herself out of a nightmare-filled oblivion, Tru felt someone gently shake her awake.
"Leave me alone," she mumbled drowsily, her dark eyes refusing to meet Jensen's.
The spark.
The eye of the flame.
And the flames intensified, glowing an eerie orange that burned brightly, penetrating the depths of her consciousness.
He put a hand on her shoulder. "Look at me."
Bright mistrustful eyes met his hypnotizing gaze reluctantly. Dark circles had begun to form underneath them; it was obvious she had not had a decent night's sleep since Kira had been born two weeks ago. There were times where she resisted her inevitable descent into unconsciousness, fearing she would never resurface. And yet, there were a few occasions where she did not want to be roused from her deep slumber, letting her tiny infant's cries pierce the thick darkness of night.
"Ignoring me won't make this any easier," Jensen told her.
"I know."
"That's why you have to do what I tell you," he hissed and thrust a cup of some kind of murky brown liquid into her unsuspecting hands.
"Drink this."
"What if I don't want to?" she countered, trying to be strong.
Resist.
Fight back.
Don't give up.
The eye of the flame.
Burning brightly.
It smolders.
Taste it.
Try it.
Let it linger on your tongue.
Fire, fire, burning bright.
The flames feed off of the fear.
It smolders.
Slowly, under Jensen's watchful gaze, she brought the cup up to her parched lips and began to drink.
"Her life depends on it. This is what her soul desires."
Parts of this sweet, savory liquid that Tru imbibed would be transmitted through her breast milk to Kira.
All of this was true if Jensen could manipulate Tru enough to raise Kira in his image.
He was a part of her and he refused to let that disappear for good.
Kira needed him.
During the course of Tru's pregnancy, Tru lost a significant amount of weight before gaining a decently healthy amount as her due date grew closer. She ate little and what she did eat usually consisted of red meat that was almost raw, white rice and special drink concoctions Jensen would make for her, convincing her it would do nothing but help her through the course of the last arduous nine months. The drinks were usually sweet, consisting of ingredients like milk, honey and yogurt, which usually masked the taste of the drugs he would blend in them.
And Jensen made sure Jack never found out, even if Tru was in tremendous amounts of pain shortly after drinking these concoctions. Her stomach would spasm, obvious resistance against the foreign and unknown and she would tell Jack that they were just normal pregnancy pains.
But even still, manipulating both Kira and Tru would not be easy, seeing as they were both stubborn as hell. Already he knew Kira would be stubborn, even unconsciously.
And then there was Jack and his influence, but Jensen would figure out another way to deal with him.
Eventually.
When Tru finally finished the drink, Jensen took the cup from her and watched her eyes glaze over, momentarily flashing a wicked black before returning to their normal dark brown.
In this momentary lapse of no more than a minute it took Tru to recover from this odd, amnesia-like blackout, Jensen appeared on the side of the bed in front of her with Kira in his arms.
"How did…" Tru began, but was abruptly cut off by Jensen.
"Shhh,"he whispered softly, placing Kira in Tru's arms. "Just hold her. Feed her."
And Tru did as she was told.
She held Kira close to her heart when she nursed her, in hopes of protecting her, wanting to make the pain for both of them vanish and dissolve into nothingness.
Too late.
Kira was then pulled from the sanctuary of her mother's arms.
Back into his.
The tiny girl's eyes flashed black for a matter of seconds and then returned to normal.
Eyes ablaze with smoldering fire, Jensen grinned.
Tru was breaking down, enveloped by the blanket of flames that spared her no mercy.
Feeling more out of touch with reality than ever before, Tru maneuvered past Jensen and Kira, climbed out of bed and groped for her phone.
Clutching it tightly with a shaky hand and sweaty palm, Tru methodically dialed the numbers and raised the phone to her ear.
"Jack? Jack, I need… I need you," she pleaded in fervent desperation.
She was breaking, slipping…
The phone clattered to the floor.
Breakdown.
Too much.
Jensen's eyes narrowed carefully as he watched Tru crumble, keeping his daughter safe in his arms.
She did not cry.
Good girl, he thought.
A little more…
The wick burned, but the flame did not extinguish.
It only augmented.
She was suffocating in this inescapable ring of fire.
Can't breathe.
Collapse.
Smolder.
Author's Note: I want to especially emphasize the visual effects of this chapter. As I think I mentioned at the very beginning of this story, a huge portion of this chapter was inspired by the fires that destroyed a good part of Southern California. I really wanted to take that symbolism and use it and in a way, I drank a lot of it in (metaphorically speaking, of course). I was going through a lot of ups and downs with anxiety and depression over college applications (it's sooo damn competitive!), school and exams and other such things, so I was feeling like those fires which is not a very good nor wholesome feeling. But I've had some extra time on my hands since I have off for the holidays and have just celebrated my 21st birthday, so here is a present from me to you!
Visually speaking, I hope y'all paid close attention to sentences or phrases on single lines and what was italicized and what was not. To me, this chapter felt like it was all about how the visual effects could compel the reader emotionally and have them think beyond what is on the printed page. I hope it had that effect on you all, as you always seem to know the right feedback to give, which only fuels my inspiration all the more. With that being said, reviews only keep my fire burning brightly, so I look forward to reading the reviews for this chapter. More good stuff, like some interaction between Jack and Jensen, as well as some conflict between Tru and Jack because of Jack's drinking habits, among other exciting things are in the works. I look forward to sharing a little more of my journey with you each time I update, so don't stray too far!!
And Happy New Year 2008!! ;)