LJ Idol Week 14: Firebreak

[flipflop_diva]

Gather ’round, children, for I want to tell you a special tale. About the greatest hero our world has ever seen.

Her birth name and her story have been mostly forgotten, but not by me. I know her story by heart.

You see, children, you, too, have heard her name many times before, but you have never heard of her. Why, you ask? Because, dear children, what she did for us was so amazing that over time people became convinced that she was just an illusion they had seen in their dreams, or a myth their parents had made up. But I assure you, children, she was very alive and very real.

They called her the Firebreaker, and even now, when fires spring up, they look for her to come and save them.

Now, the legend of Firebreaker starts long before she was ever born. Ever since time began, the Fires have been here, appearing out of nowhere and burning fast and hot and bright. People always say that the Intruders, when they come, will come from above, but they do not realize that the Intruders have been here all along, trying to overcome us from below.

The Intruders are responsible for the Fires, you see. Not the fire that cooks the food on your stove or burns in your campfire rings, but the ones you have heard about from your parents. The ones that cannot be explained. The ones that appear out of nowhere and destroy whatever is in their path and then go away.

These Fires have always been here, and the people of our land have always feared them. Individual dwellings. Individual people. All have been taken and destroyed by the Fires. And for so long, there was no way to fight them.

Water won’t put out these Fires, you see. You can’t stomp on them to make them go away. They appear where they want and leave only when they are finished.

But when the Firebreaker was born, everything changed.

Although, children, let me tell you a secret. A secret no one else knows. And that is that the Firebreaker changed everything before she was born.

You see, Firebreaker’s mother was caught in a Fire before she knew she was pregnant. It came up out of nowhere to consume her house. Her husband died. Her home was disintegrated. But from the middle of the flames, Firebreaker’s mother appeared, walking straight out of it like nothing was wrong.

The doctors could not figure out why Firebreaker’s mother did not have even a single burn on her body, but they did tell her she was pregnant, and Firebreaker’s mother knew, right then, that her daughter was very, very special.

The Intruders must have known, too, because the Fire that burnt Firebreaker’s mother’s house and killed Firebreaker’s father was the last Fire that would happen for years and years, until most of the townspeople forgot what the Fires were even like.

But then you see, children, when the Firebreaker was nine years old, the Intruders became daring and the Fires began again. This time, the Fires were worse than ever before, destroying neighborhoods and families and acres of land. Fires would break out everywhere — in the middle of a class full of students or during lunchtime at a little diner or mid-day at the hair salon.

The people of our land lived in fear. They all knew the Intruders had decided to claim the world as theirs, and there was no escape.

The Firebreaker, who was still just a child, just like you all are now, was fascinated by the Fires. She would escape time and time again from her mother and be found later examining the very few ashes that would be left behind after a Fire.

Then, children, six months after the Fires had come back, there was a horrible one. The town was all gathered at the elementary school to watch the children put on a musical. And there on stage, in the middle of the children singing, the Fire appeared out of nowhere. It was so big and so bright and so horrible.

The children were screaming and crying. The parents were panicking. People were trying to escape, but there was no escape, you see, because the Fire was surrounding the building. People began to wail and plead with someone to save them.

And then out of the crowd of children who were being guarded by their parents, the Firebreaker appeared, ducking under arms and around legs. She walked directly up to the Fire and put her hands out.

Firebreaker’s mother screamed out in horror, but then something amazing happened. The Fires started to disappear. One by one they vanished until all that was left were a few smoking embers and a little girl with ash on her hand.

You would think, children, that the town would have been happy, that they would have honored Firebreaker for what she could do. But you see, children, people are scared by what they do not understand, and they began to blame Firebreaker for the fires in their midst. Some even became convinced that the small child had caused them.

Poor Firebreaker was shunned. Her friends at school stopped talking to her. People crossed the street to the other side when they saw her coming. Even her teachers put her in the furthest corner of the classroom and never talked to her directly.

Life was very hard for Firebreaker. Kids were cruel to her. They threw their food on her. They threw rocks at her. And no one stopped the kids. Her mother tried, but she alone could not fight off all the towns’ people.

Firebreaker, though, despite everything, still helped the town. The Fires were appearing, faster than before, and each time one came, Firebreaker would show up and stop it. She saved so many people, but they hated her for it, convinced she was the cause.

This went on for years and years. Firebreaker stopped going to school, hiding in her room, except for when she was called to put out a Fire. Her mother ached for her child, but she did not know how to help the girl.

And then one day, when Firebreaker was sixteen years old, something even more terrible happened. You see, children, the Intruders realized they needed to do something more to win back their land. One Fire at a time was not enough. So on this one day, when Firebreaker was sixteen years old, hundreds of Fires sprung up around the town, all at the same time, including at Firebreaker’s house.

“We must get out of here!” Firebreaker’s mother was said to have cried as she held her two other children against her.

“I can stop this,” Firebreaker was said to have told her mother. She then looked at her mother, in a way her mother had never seen her look before.

“I love you, Mother,” Firebreaker said.

“Go!” cried out her mother in terror, not letting Firebreaker finish. “Please save us!”

You cannot blame Firebreaker’s mother for her fear. You see, the Fires were getting worse by the minute, more and more of them appearing. Almost every house in the land was burning, and those who had escaped their homes with their lives were all gathering in the town square.

You see, children, the old broken stone arch that you play around every day was once a beautiful doorway into our town. On this day that I am telling you about, it stood high on a rock pedestal, white and gleaming. It is said that as the Fires raged, there all of a sudden appeared the Firebreaker, right there under the stone arch.

The Firebreaker did not say a word once she appeared. She merely stretched out her arms and closed her eyes. Those who were there described a golden glow that seemed to emanate from the girl, surrounding her, like an angel with a halo and wings.

The townspeople stared at the girl as the glow around her became brighter and brighter. Only then did they notice that the Fires were disappearing. One by one they seemed to be sucked up into the air in a swirl of reds and oranges before being drawn into the glow around the girl.

And then, dear children, something remarkable happened. The entire world went dark, except for the glow of light surrounding the Firestarter. She stood there surrounded in red and orange and golden light, so bright everyone turned away.

When they turned back, she was gone. The stone arch was crushed and broken, as it remains today. The Fires were all out. All the houses and all the people stood untouched, like nothing had ever been burned at all.

All that was left of the Firebreaker was a locket found amidst the crushed rocks. A locket that contained a photo of the Firebreaker and the mother who never got to say goodbye. The mother who never got to tell her daughter she loved her, because she hadn’t understood the sacrifice that was coming.

The mother never forgot her daughter. She searched for her in all corners of the world, but she knew in her heart that her child was gone.

The people of the town, however, were a different story. They all got their lives back. The Fires never returned. And over time, they became convinced that none of it had ever happened at all.

That, dear children, is why you have never heard the story of the Firebreaker before. But I am here to tell you that she was real and she was alive and she was our savior.

I am also here to tell you her real name, that I alone know.

You see, children, she was born Katie Alysia Fyre. And she was my daughter.




fiction.
or is it?




Thank you for reading! This was written for Week 14 of the therealljidol. If you would like to read the other entries, you can find them here!

Comments

[babydramatic_1950]

A powerful story! Quite biblical in a way.

[rayaso]

This was wonderful! I loved the voice. I thought about writing a comic (hopefully) story about a wannabe superhero named Firebreaker, but went in a different direction. This was much better than anything I could have done!

[sonreir]

Haha, looks like we went in a similar direction (though ultimately ended up with very different stories). I love this! :)

[tatdatcm]

Loved the mythical feel of the story.

[halfshellvenus]

It is sadly all too believable that someone with the power to stop something no one else could would then get blamed for the thing having happened in the first place.

Including for decades before that person was ever born. We as a species can be awfully simplistic and stupid in our thinking sometimes, and muddle cause, effect, correlation, and coincidence all too often.

I liked the approach to telling the story, and you can understand why her poor mother would want her to be remembered.

[itsjust_c]

I enjoyed reading this. I really loved the futurist/fable feel of this story.

[la-loony.livejournal.com]

So beautifully written <3