I'm not terribly good at describing people, though I do give it a try. I kind of picture Amber to look like the girl on the front cover of this book I own. If you go to and click on images, type in "A Great and Terrible Beauty" and you'll find hundreds of pictures of the front cover of the book.
I think the song "I Grieve" by Peter Gabriel works well towards the end of this chapter.
--------------------------------------
Chapter 4: It Ends Tonight
That entire week Nikki and Amber continuously bumped into Dean and his brother, Sam, every place they went. The first two days were not planned, at least Amber and Nikki never planned the meetings, but after having ran into them so many times, Amber and Dean made plans to meet every night at a bar to have a few drinks. On the fourth night, two days before Amber and Nikki were to leave, Dean and Amber walked the beach. Amber was laughing despite the nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. She had another one of her headaches the previous day and saw more of the vision. Her mother on fire on the ceiling, blood gushing out of a wound on her stomach.
They sat down on the sand, facing the ocean, still laughing at something Dean had said. They were intoxicated and awfully close to one another. Dean suddenly grasped her shoulder and turned her towards him. Amber jumped slightly at his touch, but then relaxed after a moment. Amber noted that he was leaning in towards her until his lips were only a half-an-inch away from hers. She could feel his warm breath on her skin, sending shivers up and down her spine. She could smell the beer in his breath. She could not deny that she was attracted to Dean, but she could not allow herself to fall in love. She could not subject herself to the pain of another relationship.
"Dean…we can't…I can't do this," Dean leaned in closer, "Dean..I ca….owwwww," suddenly she felt the sharp pain in her head again.
Dean quickly leaned back as Amber keeled over, grasping her head in pain.
"Shit! Amber!" Dean touched her back and leaned in close to her face, "What is it!"
Fire. Amber's mother on the ceiling. Blood.
It all seemed too real now. As quickly as the pain had come, it had gone. Amber sat up for a minute, looked around her realizing where she was. She looked over at a concerned Dean.
"What the Hell was that?"
"I've just been…getting these….headaches, it's nothing," she played it off.
"Nothing my ass, what's wrong?"
"I think it's just the heat."
"Amber…"
"Seriously, I'm fine now, stop worrying," she smiled, "but I think I should go," she stood up and walked away without saying goodbye to a confused Dean, who had finally decided to stand up.
Amber ran up the stairs of the hotel, all the way to the third floor. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Amber ran full speed down the hall towards her room. She got to the door and did not hear anything, but that is when she felt it. Heat. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Quickly she threw open the door, allowing it to slam up against the wall. Fire had engulfed the room, but Amber still ran into the room. She stood in front of the two queen size beds and looked around. Something hit her in the head, something wet. Amber brought her fingers up to her head and when she brought them back down to her face so she could observe, she saw that it was blood that had landed on her.
Amber looked up, something she wished she never did. Amber screamed and stumbled backwards, tripping over something hard, her sister and her father's lifeless feet, and landing on her butt.
"Mom!" Amber cried, looking up at her mother's lifeless body on the ceiling, tears streaming down her warm cheeks.
She held her hand out in front of her trying to will away the flames licking at the walls of the room. Something in that room was keeping her from using her powers, which she had hidden from everyone in her family. They were not fully developed and at first she did not know what was wrong with her, but soon she found herself submerged in books on witches and white and black magic. Amber did not move after that, all she could do was stare at her mother's lifeless body on the ceiling, despite the fire raging in the room. The weird thing was that it never once came near her, like someone had been controlling it. She did not know how long she had sat staring up at them. Suddenly she heard her name being called and not long after that, she felt someone wrap strong arms around her and pull her to her feet and towards the door,
"Nooo!" she cried and screamed, reaching, with both hands, towards the room and her family, "No, let me go!"
Her savior did not respond, only pulled her harder as she tried pulling out of his grasp,
"No, mom!" she continued to scream until they made it to the stairs at the end of the long corridor.
At that time firemen had begun to poor into the burning building, carrying their hoses. As soon as Dean's foot touched the first step, Amber had stopped screaming. She went limp and allowed him to take her towards the exit of the building. Amber could hear nothing that went on around her. Everything seemed to be moving so slowly from that point on. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Once they made it outside, Dean placed her on the sidewalk beside the Chevy Impala parked along the street, his brother standing on the passenger side.
As soon as Dean sat Amber down, she saw that as an opportunity to run towards the building to try and save her family, which she knew in the back of her mind, was dead. Just as she made it to the entrance, Dean not far behind, firemen exited the building carrying three stretchers, one for each member of her family she had failed to save, covered in white sheets. Just as they came out, Dean had grabbed her shoulder roughly and turned her towards him,
"Don't look, don't look," Dean whispered softly into her ear as she grasped his leather jacket, burying her face into his right shoulder and wrapping her arms around his neck, "don't look…" he trailed off, watching as the firemen carried the burnt bodies out of the hotel.
Amber sobbed into his shoulder,
"Shhh," he rubbed her back gently.
Dean remembered the night he had lost his mother. He remembered the fire, the heat, carrying his baby brother out of the room. He felt a pang of sorrow. He knew she was not safe, at least not yet and from that moment on he vowed to protect Amber any way he could, even if it meant his death.
