Ashes

My parents turned and started speed-walking out the door and towards our house. Anna and I followed them, Anna shooting them question after question without giving them time to answer, and me trailing a ways behing feeling numb.

Josh had been one of my only friends. Since my parents were so worrying and overprotective all the time, I didn’t meet many people other than just in passing, and I met even fewer I wanted to be friends with. Josh and I met through my parents, since he was new praetor after my mom, and we got to talking and he was pretty cool. And he was the only person besides Anna who understood why I got tired of fame.

So we became pretty close and I taught him tips on archery while he taught me how to avoid people and blow people off without offending them. A skill I wished I had been taught long before/

These were the thoughts I was left with as I walked behind Anna and my parents. By now, they were so far ahead of me I couldn’t tell who was who, but I could still hear Anna asking them questions, as she had resorted to yelling by now.

“Why was the fire green? Why are we going to grandma’s? Is someone going to attack camp? Why aren’t we staying to help protect them? Are we just gonna let them fend for themselves? Why did they kill Josh instead of Julia? Who do you think did it? Why di-“

My dad cut her off with his hand. “Listen, Anna. Either we don’t know the answers or we can’t tell you. Just don’t worry about it. No one’s going to attack camp, but in case whoever did it comes after Reyna and the rest of us next, we’re going to your grandma’s house. Okay? Okay.”

When he took his hand off her mouth, she looked like she was about to go up in flames herself. “Can you never just give me an answer? Not a cryptic, weird, twisted riddle, but an actual answer? Gods, why do you have to keep secrets from us all the time? That’s it. I’m going back and I’m joining the legion. I’m not going anywhere with you. I’ll go back and help avenge Josh, but I’m not going with you.”

As her and my dad started yelling at each other and my mom tried to calm them both down, I thought about what Anna had said, and I got an idea. Why not go back and avenge Josh? All I have to do is talk to the right people and they’ll give me all the information I need to figure out who killed Josh and then I can trach them down and kill them.

I ran the long way to my house, because I couldn’t let them see me and I knew they’d be a while because Anna had started kicking. So I ran to the house and packed up any important stuff I needed. I wrote a note, saying I had gone to avenge Josh and not to worry about me. I put the note on the table where I knew they would see it and then snuck out the back door and into the woods.

Notes