HILARY

I saw Ebony with a bruised mouth and a dark look on her face. "Ebony?" She waved the back of her hand at me and shook her head. "Don't ask."

Irene and her friends smirked when they saw Ebony's face. She glared at them and went in to the bathroom. Ebony was in a right mood and spoke to no one that night. In the morning she was already dressed and heading down for breakfast when we woke up. She was gone by the time we came down to breakfast. Irene took half an hour to get out of her bathroom so we lined up by the others instead.

Ebony was riding Shadow around the fields, which was probably why she got ready so quick. She eventually came back when it was time to work. First we had to feed our horses and water them. We gathered hay bales from the storage barn down the road.

But when it came to mucking out the stables Irene was having none of it. She got caught sitting on the roof and the head caught her. "Why are you not working?" Irene looked bored. "I refuse to shovel crap, it will make my clothes smell and I think I broke a nail." Ebony and the local kids looked disgusted with Irene's conduct. "Well, if you won't do that then we'll have to find something else for you to do." I saw Ebony smirk and I knew that something was up.

The head gave Irene a terrible job. All the horses hay had to be soaked in a tank and piled up. Irene had to do this on her own all they way until lunch. She was soaked and covered with hay; it was sticking out of her hair and to her skin. She looked really miserable. Why she was here in the first place was anybody's guess. But I had a feeling it had something to so with Kai coming here with Ebony. Man was she sad, when would she get a clue?

KAI

I noticed Ebony and the local kids looking daggers at each other. Their violent relationship wasn't going to get any better and Ebony was becoming even more distant. Eventually she stopped talking all together and something was brimming inside of her. She became even angrier as each day passed. When Irene made a remark about Ebony being a slut did she finally snap. The head had to literally drag Ebony off her. Irene was sobbing covered in red marks and had a few nasty marks on her face. I saw the little slut might end up with a nice shiner later. What little clothing she wore was torn.

Her friends and the local girls took Irene away to get patched up. Everyone was staring at Ebony who shook with anger and a great amount of pain was present in her eyes. I was wondering what was running through her mind at that moment. But I was more likely to spark her off again.

We surrounded ebony in a big circle. Her head was pointed to the ground and the head came back looking just as pissed as she did. She put a hand on Ebony's shoulder and she whacked it away. Ebony ran away from her and the circle of kids made a path for her. She whistled by a fence and jumped on Shadow's back as he came galloping by.

"EBONY! GET BACK HERE!" But Ebony just kept going and I didn't see her for the rest of the day. Worry filled my mind and Kenny came up to me. "I think I know where she's gone."

He opened his laptop and showed me a local past news page. It showed her parents standing in front of a house. A little girl no more than six stood in front of them with no smile on her face to be seen. "She was never happy huh?" I glared at him and he turned his eyes back to his laptop. I read the address and Kenny gasped. "What?"

"You know that house we saw being knocked down on the way here?" A sudden realisation entered my mind. "No wonder she smirked at it being knocked down." I said mounting my horse. "Go get the blade breakers and Hilary, I may not be able to handle her on my own." I rode to the house to see the demolition had stopped and I heard a horse gallop away from it. I turned to see Ebony riding towards the graveyard.

I was hot on her trail but lost her in the woods. When I eventually did find the graveyard I noticed it was huge. It must have been the size of two football pitches, maybe even more. There were trees, bushes and a maze of small paths leading this way and that. I concentrated on the slightest sound as I went from one path to the next.

Then I heard a horse fast approaching from behind me. "Ebony?" The horse slowed and came to a stop beside me. "Sorry Kai, It's just me I'm afraid." Hilary looked worried. "Your stealth needs some work."

"Hey! She's apart of my family so I have the right to be a bit reckless." Hilary looked a bit sad and hung her head. "Sorry." I think she was a bit surprised at me apologising. But before she said anything else we heard someone smashing something. "Ebony." Hilary whispered and took flight towards the sound.

When we got there we found the rest of the team sitting on their horses a few yards away from Ebony. "She's gone crazy!" I heard Tyson exclaim, staring at her with a perplexed look on his face. Ebony had a row of different types of spirit bottle standing in a row behind her. She was drinking down something that looked like Vodka. But the other bottles weren't so lucky. She took one by the neck and smashed it out her parent's grave. It was made of granite with an angel at the top looking down at us. Ebony glared and stuck her fingers up at it.

I dismounted my horse and slowly came towards her. "Ebony?" She turned and looked at me with hateful eyes. The dark aura was dancing in them again. Tyson was right, she looked crazed and wasn't with us. "What are you doing?" She took a big gulp of the bottle in her hand and an evil smile came in to view on her face. "Isn't it obvious? I'm sharing a drink with my angelic parents."

"But they were bad people." Hilary whimpered, I think it hurt her to see Ebony like this. "Don't you think I know that? The stupid people who made the gravestone thought they were a shining fucking example. But thy were too stupid to know why they were shot! Oh well."

"But it's really disrespectful to talk about the dead like that. They were your parents after all." I nearly throttled Tyson for his stupidity. Ebony's shadow took the form of the beast inside of her. It crept along the trees making her shadow look even more frightening. "You want to see disrespect? I'll show you disrespect!" She took the last of the bottles and smashed them over the gravestone. Then she took a mouthful of the bottle in her hand and took a zipper lighter out of her pocket. She struck it on her leg and she held it in front of her mouth. She pointed her head towards the grave and blew a jet of flame on it. The grave exploded on to a plume of fire where the alcohol had landed. The horses reared up but stayed put. They had been trained well when they saw fire.

Ebony turned and walked towards us. "Is that disrespectful enough for you Tyson? Huh? Next time keep your mouth shut, you don't know shit about me so don't you dare give me a fucking lecture!" He looked away in anger and Ebony turned back to watch the fire.

"Statue's burning, statues burning, there's no engine, there's no engine, I don't care, I don't care. Leaving it burning, fuck the bastards, statues burning." I didn't think much of Ebony's version of London's burning. But she didn't seem to care and looked happy that the statue was burning. "Oh well, I won't have to see their hateful faces anymore."

"How can you be so…so…" Words failed Hilary but Ebony got the idea. "It's their fault Hilary." She said in a care free way. "I would say ask them, but, you know. The dead don't talk which is a blessing in my book."

Ebony hummed the London's burning song over and over again. It was like she lived to see this moment. When she would finally get one over on her parents. But why now? Why tonight? "Hilary? Is there anything special about tonight?"

"I have no idea." Ebony turned round and grinned. She stuck her hand in the air and bounced on the balls of her feet. "Oo, oo, pick me! Pick me, I know!" Ebony was really starting to worry me now but I asked her. "Tonight's the night my uncle died. And do you know what my parents said when I came home, huh? They said 'only a fool like that would go up in flames.' So I wanted to show them they were wrong. Because here lies two fools, who, even though their dead…are going up in flames. Pity the grave wasn't made out of wood, it would make a nice bomb fire wouldn't you say?"

We watched the fire until it burnt down. Now the angel was stained black as was the engravings, but you could still make them out. Ebony finished the last of her bottle and became herself again. "Ebony?" She stretched and went back to Shadow. She had drunken a fair amount but got on his back without any difficulty. "You will not divulge what you have seen tonight." Then she rode back to the ranch and we trailed behind her.

"Well at least we've got the old Ebony back." Max suggested and everyone agreed that was a good thing. Seeing Ebony tonight made me realise just how screwed up her life was, no wonder she lost the love for people. But would she see past that and be able to love me? I wondered if she loved what family she had left at all.

Ebony didn't receive a punishment after a certain relative told the head why Ebony acted the way she did. Ebony was suspicious but we didn't let on and the head agreed to keep it a secret. Irene was after blood, she had a black eye and a split lip that wouldn't heal for a few days. Only when we all told her to back off did she leave Ebony alone. But Ebony was back to what you could call normal for Ebony.

Some of us had to clean out the attic above the heads house. Tyson, Hilary, Ebony, Rei and me were all up there. I was alone behind this huge closet getting rid of some old newspapers. A cloud of dust rose each time and I eventually got it in the face making me sneeze.

"Here." Ebony was there, holding a handkerchief in front of my face. The dancing dust made me sneeze again so Ebony tied it round my face. "They're all doing it." She worked beside me for the rest of the day. I didn't sneeze again and felt quite relieved she was there to help me. "Are you alright?" I asked when we finally went outside after our task for some fresh air. She looked at me and sighed. "Talk to me." I removed the handkerchief from my face, which was a big mistake. She flapped her hat in my face that was covered in dust. She ran away as I sneezed, and when I opened my eyes, she was gone.