2024 Short Story Contest: Second Place
Until the End
“Don’t you understand, Torin?” She turns on me, her eyes ablaze. “I have no choice, they’re after me! I’m the daughter of the one who started these fires that are destroying Oblitus!” She spits the word daughter as if she could think of no worse word to be identified by.
“They’ll kill me, Torin.” The last whispered sentence shakes. “They despise everything about me, even my name. You know the Capitis don’t allow any light besides Ardere. How would a girl named Ember, whose father started the illegal fire that destroyed our city, ever be safe here?”
Tears fill her soft brown eyes, and for the first time, I see the tough shell she’s built around herself begin to crack. For ten years, Ember always struck me as so strong, but now I see the brokenness she tries to hide under the facade of a knife she’s quick to draw.
“Ember,” I say, walking closer to her and extend a hand marred by many cuts. I’ll do anything to keep her from the path she’s already halfway down.
“Torin,” she whispers. It’s like Ember’s little apology for the heartbreak she knows she’s causing.
Once you know Ember as well as I do, you know that any time her voice isn’t as sharp as glass, then something’s wrong.
With that single word, she turns again back towards the burned forest and away from the smoking ruins of what used to be a prospering city.
I run after her. “Ember, you can’t go. You and I are the only ones who know how to stop this, who know the truth about what happened.”
She turns back to me for just a moment, her eyes full of pity.
“I know, Torin. But sometimes…surviving is more important than saving.”
My planned retort dies on my tongue as her words cut into me like weapons.
“I never would have expected this of you,” I say coldly.
She whirls around. “You never would have expected what, Torin?”
“Ember Reeve, a coward.”
Her eyes burn like a forest fire.
“Take that back. You know perfectly well there’s nothing we can do.” Her voice breaks as she gestures behind me at the smoking ruins of Oblitus. “My father is dead. I’m a Wanted. You’re the prince, Torin. You can’t be seen with me! They’ll kill you, too. I’m saving both of us.”
“What if I don’t care?” I say defiantly.
She hesitates. “Well, I do.” Her voice is fragile, as if it could break at any moment.
“And that’s why you have to stay, Ember!” I insist. “You care, deep down, I know you do. Stay, and we can fix this. Stay, Ember.” I hate that my voice comes out pleading.
Her eyes carry a weight I’ve seen many times in Oblitus citizens, but deeper, more dangerous somehow. Like they could burn you.
“There’s nothing I can do, Torin. Nothing. I’m a Wanted, my best hope is just to survive the rest of the day. And you’re the prince, Torin, the prince of Oblitus! As far as heroes go, we’re a match made in Hades. How are we supposed to save anyone else? Give up, Torin! Stop labouring under this delusion that everything can be fixed! You’re the prince of a ruined city, Torin. Look around. This is no fairy tale where we all live happily ever after.”
“You promised.”
My voice is quiet but strong. Calm.
“Promised what?” Ember spits.
“To fight.”
“No, Torin, don’t–” she starts, but I speak louder.
“To the end of the world, we fight. For the truth and for freedom. Never stop. Never surrender. Until the end.” I calmly recite the oath we made.
Tears stream down Ember’s face. Her voice is soft.
“This is the end, Torin. It all ends here.”
“No, it doesn’t!” I scream, my heart pounding as my voice reverberates in the hollow forest. “Nothing’s over until you decide it’s the end. There’s always a choice.”
“Not for me.”
She turns away again, her dirty red hair in tangles down her back.
“Ember, wait,” I say, not moving from where I stand. She hesitates for a second and turns to look over her shoulder, hazel eyes pained and blurred with tears.
This time it’s my eyes blazing. “Ember, we’re the only ones who know the truth about what happened. The only ones. We…” my voice cracks. “We’re the only ones who even have a chance of fixing this. For the truth and for freedom, remember? Ember, please.”
She turns fully to face me. Hazel eyes catch the light streaming through the ruined forest, reflecting in a hundred different colours. Cuts slash through her jacket. Her dark cargo pants are dirty and caked with mud and dust. Her combat boots are scuffed and muddy, and her long, loose reddish hair matted. She looks so much older than her seventeen years.
She sighs. “I know, Torin. But see this city behind you? We know the truth, but any evidence we might have is buried, so who’s going to believe us? We’re two teenagers in a ruined world, and what we’re saying could uproot everything we’ve ever learned. It could take down the Capitis.”
I give her a tentative smile. “I know, Ember. That’s the point.”
She laughs weakly, exhaling a world of pain and ruins. Drawing herself up determinedly, she turns around again, and for a second I think she’s finally walking away.
But she doesn’t.
She simply draws her hair away from her face and turns again to face me, walking closer, extending a hand.
“To the end of the world, we fight. For the truth and for freedom. Never stop. Never surrender. Until the end,” she says determinedly.
I know I’ve finally convinced her.
“Until the end,” I echo.
And together, we run back towards the ruined city, truth blazing like a fire before us.
. . . . .
About the Author:
. . . . .
If you'd like to see more posts like this then please subscribe, and if you'd like to receive my free novelette about a Jewish boy in Russia right before WW1 feel free join my email list. Just click here to do that. Comment down below if you liked this post and thank you for your support!
Great short story Grace L! I loved reading this one, it's one of those stories that makes you wish you could read more of it. Keep up the good writing!!!
ReplyDelete