Fire

Marie’s excitement was quickly extinguished. Over the next week and a half she barely even saw Corlin. Soon she was back to her negative state; always doubting herself and avoiding his gaze.

The Wednesday following the meeting in the library Marie stomped over the threshold and into her home. She had had a very bad day, consisting of nagging teachers, hurtful friends, and empty smiles. Marie usually thought of herself as a generally happy person, but when she had days like this she just wanted to lock herself away from the world and ingest copious amounts of dark chocolate, like any other female. But what Marie didn’t know was that her step-mother had come home from work early.

“Marie! Stop all that noise! Why on earth do you need to stomp around like a little kid all the time? Honestly I don’t know what to do with you!” Marie was hit hard by her step-mother’s voice as it came careening out of the living room where she sat eyes glued to the television set.

“Sorry.” Marie said quietly as she shuffled up the stairs towards her room. Her and her step-mother had never really seen eye to eye. While Marie contented herself with a book her step-mother would spend hours watching bad D-list celebrity shows. Marie never understood what her father saw in her, but she wanted him to be happy so she said nothing. She missed her mother, who broke up with her father when she was very young, but Marie knew she wouldn’t be able to support herself if Marie moved in with her, so she stayed.
Marie spent the night quietly reading, wishing for something to happen. And of course…
Something did.
The next day Marie walked into Mrs. Miller’s class for lunch, she was planning to get some reading in before third period. And who was sitting in front of her desk? Corlin. Marie almost dropped her books, but she kept cool.

“Hey Corlin” she managed to push out in the most nonchalant way possible.

“Hey Marie.” He remembers my name! Thought Marie “Mrs. Miller and I were just talking about who’s the best guitarist ever. Now I say it’s Ray Toro or Ian D’sa but she-“

“But this old woman,” cut in Mrs. Miller, her hazel eyes sparkling with mischief “Will stand by the old standard that Kurt Cobain shall forever be on the top.” Marie looked at the two of them, then she pulled up a chair and sat down, music was one of her things.

“While Ian D’sa and Ray Toro are kick ass I have to agree with Mrs. That Kurt Cobain is in fact classic.” She said, she was so comfortable, she relaxed and leaned back in the chair. She continued “But as to whom the best guitarist of all time is I think you’re both wrong.” Corlin arched his one of his eyebrows as if in disbelief. “It is common knowledge that Tom Morello is the best person to have ever touched a guitar.”

“Tom who?” Corlin looked at Marie perplexed. Marie had to control herself, never heard of Tom Morello? What is this?

“Tom Morello is the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine!” And so the lunch period went, Marie educated Corlin on music and she felt as comfortable with him as she felt with Mrs. Miller or Keira. She really began to think something could happen.

“Okay so I’ll call you tomorrow and we can go over the final copy of the project, okay Keira?”

“Okay Marie, talk to you Saturday!” Keira closed the door and Marie began walking down the street in the cool twilight air. Marie got to the park she usually cut across and saw a figure walking in the distance, it had short flaming red hair and she instantly knew who it was, Corlin! She ran to catch up with him; finally she slowed down and matched her pace to his.

“Hey!” she said breathlessly, she looked up at him.

“Oh hey, what are you doing out at night?”

Marie rolled her eyes “It’s hardly even night, the sun just went down.”

Corlin looked at her, concerned. “Still, it isn’t safe.”

“Oh.” Said Marie, they walked in silence for a while, Marie keeping her eyes trained on the ground. She looked back up again after a few minutes; they had reached the edge of the park. There was a small forest in between her and her house, through it was a small path that Marie had been using for years, she started down it.

“You shouldn’t go in there alone.” Said Corlin, his eyes darting about. “It could be dangerous.”

Marie looked at him, she felt very confused. “Corlin, it’s okay. I’ve been taking this path of years. I’ll be f-“

Suddenly an arm shot out of the darkness and wrapped around Marie’s neck and mouth. She struggled and she was dragged into the darkness cast by the tree that blocked out the moonlight. She heard a cry of surprise rip form Corlin’s throat as he lunged after her and her assailant. Then jest as abruptly as she had been grabbed Marie was dropped onto the ground. Panicking she stood up and looked around, she saw Corlin running up to her, she was in a clearing in the forest. Her head whipped around as she looked for her attacker but she couldn’t see anything, there was only her and Corlin.

“Marie get out of here now!” he said to her as he got close, he grabbed her arm and started pushing her out of the clearing.

“Oh Corlin, got yourself a toy don’t cha’?” The Irish accent cut through the quiet night and made both Marie and Corlin turn around. Marie gasped and tried to back away, but she couldn’t move, he was walking up toward her. He, too, had red hair, though it hung limply in front of his face in dirty strings. He wore a dark trench coat over black clothing. His boots were black leather and the many buckles on them jingled with every step he took. But Marie’s eyes were riveted on his face, his eyes were orange, like Corlin’s, but they glowed and were so unnatural looking, his nose looked like it had broken more than a few times and his mouth, oh his mouth, thin lips framed pointed teeth. “Come here girly.” He said, he motioned for her to step forward. When she didn’t he suddenly appeared beside her and yanked her away from Corlin, whose face betrayed a little of the anger that she could sense boiling up inside of him.

“Sliver, let go of her. She knows nothing, and she is not a toy.” He said through clenched teeth. Marie struggled against Slivers grasp, throwing her weight this way and that, kicking out at Sliver and flailing around.

“A bit feisty isn’t she?” Asked Sliver, holding Marie far away from himself. “I like it,” then without warning he brought Marie right up against him and pinned her arms to her sides. “What do you find so... attractive about that goody goody over there?” he gestured towards Corlin. If Marie hadn’t of been so terrified she might’ve noticed the heat that was coming off of Corlin.

“Let go of me!” She snapped, she didn’t know what was going on; she was scared, tired, and more than a little pissed off that Corlin wasn’t doing anything to help her out of this mess. “You smelly, gross, ugly pointy toothed bastard, I’d never go anywhere with you! Nano-dick! Fat-Chick-reject! Wannabe Tranny!” Marie called him every name that she ever knew, Sliver looked at her and his orange eyes flashed, Marie felt searing pain on her right arm where he was holding her, she smelt burnt fabric, and burning flesh, and she let out an
inhuman howl of pain.

Corlin jumped, he tackled Sliver which brought all three of the crashing to the ground Marie managed to scramble away, holding her burnt arm. She looked on in disbelief as Corlin and Sliver wrestled on the ground, igniting leaves and twigs briefly before rolling over them in the fight. But Sliver was much larger than Corlin and soon had him pinned down, he started punching him in the face repeatedly. Marie couldn’t stand doing nothing, she picked up and large heavy branch that had fallen off a tree, perhaps in an ice storm or blizzard, and brought it down on Sliver’s head. After three or four swings she was sure he was unconscious, or dead. Her nose and eyes were streaming but she wiped the tears away as she helped Corlin back up to his feet.

“Thanks for that.” He said wiping blood away from his nose.

Not knowing what else to say Marie replied; “Of course I helped, who do you think I am? Bella Swan?”