Tears fell down her eyes as she choked on the smoke. Thud. A barely living corpse landed in front of her. “I’m sorry Alice, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t protect you. Just remember that no matter what, mommy loves you more than anyone else in the world.” Alice’s mother apologized with a hoarse voice, along with her last breath.
Why. Why did this have to happen. What did we do wrong? Why… Alice cried. There was nothing left. Flame and ash was the only proof anything had once stood here. Her parents had died. The culprit had been saying something for a while now but Alice couldn’t hear him over the crackling of the dying fire. Although the fire that had consumed the village was fading, the heat only grew more intense, to the point where her tears were evaporating before they could stream down her face. The heat spread through every part of her body before dissipating into the air as a red mist. Despite the curious phenomenon occurring around her, Alice was focused on one thing. Revenge. You will burn. Just like you burned my home. As if responding to her will, the red mist pooled together and bubbled as it formed a flowing flame that moved oddly liquid like. The small flame then attached itself to her, covering her fists and legs like a flaming pair of blood red boots and gloves. The tips of her hair floating in the liquid flame.
Alice rushed straight at the target of her vengeance. In less than a second she had closed half the distance between them. As she readied her attack her upper body jolted forward before being thrown back at her sudden stop. Black, shadowy hands snaked up her legs and kept them immobilized. Try as she might to keep the flames burning, they eventually went out, useless against her bindings. Alice choked back her tears as her anger built even further. But this time the target of her wrath was herself. After all… she had failed. As she sunk into the depths of despair, the only thing she could hold onto was her vengeance, but she had failed. She wanted to cry, to scream, to lament at how unfair it all was. But she refused to let her parents murderer see her as what she truly was, a scared child who had lost everything.
"Hmm, seems you have potential to be a greater sacrifice if given the time to grow. I shall let you live today little mouse go and when you return as a bear that can swallow tigers whole, you will be slain by horrors you could never imagine." An increasingly sadistic smile creeping up his face, "You shall return. I'm sure of it, and when you do, I'll be waiting." He said as he walked off before vanishing into a pool of darkness.
Alice broke down. She cried and screamed, all alone in the ash. She had failed and now she was being pitied? She simply couldn’t take it anymore. So, she did the only thing she could, she cried until she couldn’t anymore.
