The Riser Book 1: Ashes

I made to run towards the building, but Aon held me back.

“It’s too dangerous”, he said softly.

“There’s people there!” I yelled.

“You can’t go there”, he added, “it’s too late”.

I struggled to free myself from his hands, but he was very strong.

“Let go!” I yelled, kicked, bit and punched every inch of him, but he wouldn’t let go. “I can’t just leave them there! You lied to me!” I have him a reproachful look.

“There’s nothing you can do”, said the old lady. “We have to go. Before the lightening hits us”.

She hurried towards the vehicle, followed by Mac, who gave me a friendly look, and Violet, who was pulling my dog. He wanted to help too.

Aon had to carry me back. I was so mad. There were people suffering, people who could explain to me what was going on, people who I might know.

“Let go, let go!” I was hoarse from screaming so much. I began to cry with frustration and kicked Aon hard on the stomach. Maybe that was the reason why he just dumped unceremoniously on the bed and left the room without a word.

Aon had locked my room. I kicked and scratched the door but it was no use. I could hear my dog crying outside and asked that he be let in. But a voice outside denied this.

I cried so much and so hard that it got the best of me, and finally I fell asleep on the floor.

I woke up to the sound of rain. My muscles ached from sleeping on the cold floor. I grabbed the blanket on the bed and cuddled in a corner, next to a small table. The door opened softly and my dog came barging in. He found me in my hiding spot and, after greeting me with a few licks, he settled next to me. Aon was standing on the threshold, holding what looked like women’s clothing. I didn’t even look at him, I was too mad. He had lied to me.

“Violent sends you these”, he tossed the clothes on the bed. He sighed, then collapsed on the floor next to me. I peered at him out of the corner of my eye.

“I’m so sorry”, he said. He was looking at his toes. “I didn’t want to lie to you, but it was the right thing to do”. I wasn’t answering, but I was listening. “Anam wanted you to believe you were the only one, that way you wouldn’t go out running looking for someone else. So much for that, huh?” He smiled weakly. I returned the smile. I also assumed Anam was the old lady, but why did she want me to think that?

“Why?” I asked hoarsely.

Aon shrugged. “There’s a lot of stuff she won’t tell us.”

“That’s not an explanation”, I said, and this time my voice was stronger. Aon looked at me; his green gaze made me believe I was lost in an emerald pond. He was kind, but didn’t want me to know it.

“I don’t know a lot myself”, he began, “all I know is that Anam was desperate to get you out of there alive. You mean something to her. But she won’t say what or why.”

We went quiet for a while.

“I have tried to remember something before The Ashes, but I couldn’t”, I said. “It was like I was lost into some deep sleep and, when I woke up, I found everything destroyed. “

“The Ashes were caused by lightening”, he said, smiling. “That I can explain”. He shifted to a more comfortable position before continuing, “Lightening is the Slayer of Humankind. It put an end to wars, hunger, poverty, destruction and over-exploit of natural resources. It’s all over now.”

I frowned, trying to make sense of what he just said.

“So you’re telling me that human race has been destroyed…” I said.

“Oh yes”, he answer, very matter-of-fact.

“Why?” I was outraged.

“Ana, isn’t it obvious? It’s was the Apocalypse.”

“Oh right. And I survived”, I mocked, sarcastically.

“Well, not so much as survived, but saved. Not the same thing”.

I couldn’t quite make sense of Aon’s words. I was supposed to be dead, but Anam wanted to save me for some reason, a reason which she hadn’t communicated to anyone. One thing was certain: there was no going back now, I was going to have to make it on my own.

“Why me? I’m not special”, I said. “Anam should have let me died, at least I would be with my family”. I sobbed quietly. Aon put his arm around my shoulders and hugged me tightly against his chest. He smelled like freshly cut grass.

“You’re not alone. You have us. We’ll take care you”. He lifted my head slowly by my chin. “I promise I’ll never let anyone hurt you”. I began sobbing madly and dug my face in his chest. He stroked my hair until I calmed down. Then he assured me that he would find out the truth, threaten Anam if necessary, but he would made sure I was fully informed of everything.

“Now get dressed”, he said, standing up and offering me a hand. “Your old clothes are wet and ruined. You can’t go around wearing a bath robe”.

I got up and looked at the clothes he had given me: a simple navy blue shirt and black trousers.

“I hope they’ll fit you. They were my sister’s”. Aon explained.

“You had a sister?”

“Yes. Naomi. She looked a lot like you”. He closed the door quietly.

Aon had a sister that looked like me. And now I’ve been given her clothes. At least we wore a similar size. I got dressed only to find out the trousers were a bit tight on me, but I squeezed them in all the same. I decided to wear the same old boots which I liked for some reason. They were comfortable and the leather was thick and heavy.

I left my room, heading towards the All in One Room. Everyone was there. Anam had parked our wooden vehicle because it was raining heavily. They were all glad to see me and Violet quickly beckoned me to her side.

I sat on a large plush orange cushion. Violet commented on how well the clothes fitted me and that my hair would look much prettier in a braid. She skillfully began to plait my hair in a long, dark braid.

“We’re very near the forest now”, said Mac. “We’ll be there tomorrow morning. And hopefully we’ll finally get some decent food!”

“In the mean time”, said Anam, “have some of the tinned food we got at the petrol station”. She passed me a can of baked beans. It wasn’t cold but it wasn’t warm either. Not quite the food I was used to, and, for some reason, I had a feeling that the woods weren’t going to provide a better meal.

Nonetheless I ate my baked beans with gusto. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until a put a spoonful of beans in my mouth. Violet offered me some sweet tea to flush the beans down and, in less than ten minutes, I had finished the whole can.

“So, we’re still looking for a source of food, right?” I said, looking around the room. Everyone nodded. I didn’t really care about the food, I was just trying to make conversation and, hopefully, weasel something out of Anam.

“We can’t travel for ever”, said Mac, with a sad look in his face. “The lightening will eventually catch up with us”.

“Not if I can help it”, said Anam. Upon a closer look she didn’t look so old, she just gave the impression of being old, but her dark eyes were alive with the spirit of a ten year-old and she moved around like a young woman.

“Besides, it’s not the lightening I’m worried about”, added Anam. “It’s the freaking rain! My wooden coach is not meant to be in the rain!”

We all laughed at this. But she was right, the wooden coach didn’t stand a chance against the heavy rain. We had to find a more permanent form of shelter.

“Well, that can’t be the only reason, right?” I said, lightly. “There has to be something else in the woods for us”.

People looked at Anam expectantly. She gave me the smallest look that showed something like anger. But why would she be angry?

“Well, of course!” she said loudly. “A pretty girl like you must be surrounded by flowers.” She winked at me. She had shooshed me away, like some annoying bug. That only assured me that she was hiding something from me. And by the looks of it, it was something important.

We spent the afternoon in the All in One Room, talking about each other. Everyone wanted to know about me. They were very curious about my life as a normal teenager: school, friends, parties and small part-time jobs. I told them about my friends Tessa and Sophie and the time we sneaked out of the house to visit Tessa’s boyfriend; I also talked about how Sophie had lost her little brother in a terrible car accident and how we all went, everyday, to put flowers on his grave. I explained them what I did in The Rabbit Hole, a small, underground pub I used to work in, where they played jazz every weekend. It wasn’t the best job, but I was determined to earn money to buy a new stereo and The Rabbit Hole was a nice place to work in: good tips and I got to eat as many chips as I wanted.

Everyone was eager to talk about themselves too. I learned that they had been travelling together for a very long time, pretty much since Violet was a baby. Mac had found her, all bundled up in a pink blanket, on the doorstep of the church. It was raining a lot and Mac was also looking for a place to rest and, as his said, “lick his wounds”; he had got into some kind of bar fight but the sight of the helpless baby drained the hostility out of him. He managed to break into an old abandoned flat and spent the night there, looking after baby Violet.

As for Aon, all he said was that he came from “a distant country”, but he wouldn’t say which, although by the things he said, I guessed it was near Greece. He mentioned living near the sea with his mother and three sisters until they were all murdered. Aon sought revenge but quickly realized that killing another human being wouldn’t calm his pain.

The only who didn’t speak about herself was Anam. She said nothing about her past, she only explained how she had came across Aon on some forest and practically brought him back to life; and how she had found Mac trying to break into a small shop, looking for milk for baby Violet. So Anam had it upon herself to rescue every lost soul, including me. We just didn’t know why she did it.

Eventually the topic of my dog came up.

“You should name him”, suggested Violet. I was thinking of calling him “dog”, but that didn’t seem like the appropriate name.

“Well, I really don’t have any ideas”. I looked at everyone as if hoping someone would come up with a name. But nobody did.

“It’ll come to you”, said Mac, smiling. “Once you get to know him better, the name will come”.

And with that, I decided to go to bed.

The rain had ceased during the night and I woke up to find another surprise: we had made it to the woods. But not in the way I had expected. I was alone, with the dog. Someone had left me lying on the forest floor.