Phoenix

Chapter 1

In the darkest corner of the slum known as Baldío, a flame crackled. Too small to even be called a fire, the flame indeed cast a faint glimmer upon the darkness, scarcely illuminating a woman with a black arm. Her weary eyes flickered with the flame, scouring the darkness that enveloped her. To wake, to sleep. Such lines blur in a domain of shadow. Even in a dream, those of lost faith must fight to survive. The shadows around the woman seemed to stir and whisper, covering the land far into the distance. Yet the darkness felt so close.

Baldío, or Wasteland. A home, temporary at most, for the woman with the black arm. The slum, like so many others subsisting on the outskirts of a booming metropolis, rose from the shadows at the hands of the refused. When the city officers do their rounds, they cleanse the streets of the poor and broken. With nowhere left to go, the refused take refuge amongst one another – a refuge most reluctant. Companionship cannot exist in darkness. Trust and hope are stolen in the night, snatched away with loved ones and treasured possessions. Only the wicked and the cunning eke by in the slums.

The woman with the black arm, recluse and afeard, was no stranger to the dark night. Slipping from place to place, she took shelter where she could in her journey across the badlands. It had been more than half a year since she had basked in the light of a metropolis. The warm lanterns adorning the streets, neon billboards glowing overhead, luminescence spilling out of windows, and the huge artificial Sunlamps throughout the burrows that cycled daily to indicate the passage of time. Now, after so long in the infinite night, such an abundance of light was finally close.

Peeking around the wall of the old-world building where she took cover, the woman stared at a pillar of light in the distance. High-rise towers silhouetted against the surging fluorescent radiance, a symbol of prosperity and success. Sky-scrapers swathed in light, not unlike the one in which the woman with the black arm once held a man. The memory of their embrace burned hot in her mind, warmth trickling through her blood for an instant. She recalled the permanence of that moment, feeling as though it would never end. Now so far away, the memory fluttered away into the shadows.

“No,” she told herself. “The past matters not in the face of the future.”

And yet, despite her own thoughts, she couldn’t stop her trembling hands from clutching the locket around her neck. In the sparse glow of her flame, she gazed at the photo it bared.

“Oh Pasión…if only I could hold you once more.” The handsome man in the photo beamed back at her silently, his features flickering in the dim glow. A stir in her belly pulled the woman out of her reflection, and she gently placed a hand on her abdomen.

“There, there, mi amor,” she whispered fondly.

“Oy…do you see that?” A voice slithered through the shadows.

“Yes, yes. A light…I see a light.”

Footsteps crept through the dark toward the woman. This temporary shelter was no longer safe. The woman extended her black arm toward the flame and swiftly closed her fist. In an instant the light was snuffed out, and she was darting out of her corner. Moving with swift silence, the woman slipped between tents, vaulting over rubble. Desperate eyes watched from all sides, peering through the darkness at the woman as she dashed through the slum. Emaciated hands clawed at her weakly as she blew past, moans of the hopeless echoing after her flight.

Soon, she was alone. Breathing heavily, she tread out of the ruined city and into the wilderness. Then again, what was wilder? The barren, rocky hills? Or the slum dens, infested with the refused? Hardly any life clung to the desolate badlands. Scavengers had picked away the remains of even the most poisonous plants in search of sustenance. Other than in the metropolises, all plant life had long vanished since the death of the sun. At least out here, she was alone.

The woman hiked carefully through the black night. The light of the metropolis brimmed in the distance, a beacon calling out to her through the infinite darkness.

“Will there be even a chance?” She asked herself. “Even a chance to tell my tale? Or will I be rounded up and expelled immediately?” The questions reverberated in the dark, echoing near and far in the same instant.

Her journey was timeless. She walked in darkness for what felt like both a split second and an eternity. The light from the distant city pierced the sky directly above it but provided no illumination along her path.

“Have I made any progress? Is the light any closer than it was when I left the slum?”

The woman strained over the crest of a hill. It was there, gazing at the pillar of light beyond that she noticed her pursuers. Eclipsing the white glow in the distance, a beastly shadow crossed her vision. The woman froze, an icy chill creeping down her spine. Claws clicked against the rocky ground around her, the stagnant air disturbed by sniffing noses. Finally, pairs of glowing yellow eyes slid open.

“Wolves! How could I have been so careless?!” The hungry beasts slunk closer, their glowing eyes circling around her. The woman grit her teeth. “No choice…,” she thought as she slowly raised her blackened arm. The wolves growled and then leapt, their yellow eyes tearing through the blackness.

“ALÉJATE!!!” The woman screamed, and from her extended hand burst a stream of flames. The wolf in front of her collapsed to the ground with a ghastly whimper as its fur was engulfed in an inferno.

“Ah!” The woman winced as a familiar pain spread up her arm. Illuminated by the burning wolf, she watched as the blackness on her skin stretched by an inch from the pit of her elbow up to the base of her bicep, searing away her flesh.

“ALÉJATE! STAY BACK!” The woman repeated. But the wolves were not yet deterred. They circled again, licking their chops with dry tongues. The woman readied herself, twisting her hips toward the closest beast. As they drew closer, she felt a shriek well up in her throat.

“AAAAGGHHHH!!!” The woman howled as flames erupted from her palm, scorching the wolf in front of her. Swinging her arm across her body, the woman ignited the blackness. A semi-circle of fire roared as two more of the wolves were consumed by the blaze, dropping to the ground. The woman cried in anguish as her skin seared three inches further up her bicep. She collapsed to her knees as the remaining wolves fled into the night. In the blazing firelight, she examined the charred skin on her right arm.

As she wept into the night, her mind burned with the question of whether she would be consumed first by the darkness, or by her own flames.

Chapter 2

Perilous is the journey through the infinite black night for one who craves the touch of light. Humanity was never meant to be estranged from the glow of the sun. Thus, in the darkness, man descended. Bred through millennia of greed, conflict, and betrayal, man learned to survive. Persisting through even the unthinkable, not unlike the cockroach. However, even the cockroach knows when to take its leave.

The weary traveler collapsed under the humble shelter of a small cave. As she slumped against the cold rock, her stomach stirred. A small kick, then another.

“I’m sorry, mi amor. I have no food for you…but let me at least warm us.” The woman tenderly extended her charred arm. With a wince she emitted a ball of flame from her palm. She pulled her hand away, leaving the flaming sphere to hover a few feet away. The sphere gently illuminated the cave as a quarter-inch of skin on the woman’s bicep scorched away into blackness. Waves of exhaustion flooded through the woman’s veins, and as the light from her flames danced in the black night, she slipped into an uneasy sleep.

“Papa…light. There is a light.” The sound of speech jolted the woman from her rest.

“Yes, my child. I see it. Carefully…stay by my side.” The woman scrambled to an upright position as two silhouettes took shape in the darkness. One large, one small. The woman instinctively cradled her belly as she raised her charred arm at the incoming party.

“STAY BACK!” She cried. The response came gently, unrushed.

“We mean you no harm. Perhaps we can offer you something of need.” The man’s voice echoed, deep and gravely.

“My granddaughter and I--”

“I SAID, STAY BACK! I NEED NO HELP FROM YOU!” The woman’s blood blazed as she braced against the rock.

“I am sorry to startle you. Please, at least hear me out. We have food and water.”

An orange glow began to brim in the woman’s palm.

The larger figure slowly moved into the light of the flaming sphere. Into striking distance. She drew a deep breath as fire coursed through her fingertips.

"One more step, and…

Bread."

In the light from the flaming ball, a pale hand offered a half loaf of bread.

“Please, I only wish for an audience with you. I offer you this bread as down payment.”

"How long has it been since I last ate bread?"

The woman instinctively snatched the food from the man, baked dough crunching between her teeth.

“It’s good, isn’t it? I baked it myself…I’m going to sit now.” The man gingerly lowered himself to the ground, his bearded features becoming illuminated by the light.

"Kindness…there is kindness in his eyes," the woman thought. She continued eating as the smaller figure stepped into the light.

"A child, no older than ten."

“Who are you?” the woman asked sternly, between bites.

“My name is Jorn, and this is Havena.”

“What a vulnerable party. How are you surviving the Infinite Night?”

“Mostly luck,” the man mused. “We got by in an abandoned home on the outskirts of Boronopolis. The home still had a line of electricity connected to the city somehow. I was able to keep us sheltered and bake this bread in the kitchen oven. It’s a miracle, really.

“Sounds too good to be true. Try again.”

The man sighed and hugged the little girl close.

“I wish I had a better story. Not long ago the city finally noticed the anomaly in the grid and cut the power line. Before it even shut off, officers threw us out. I hardly had time to grab our food reserve.”

The woman felt a bit of strength return to her body as she finished the last of the loaf.

“What do you need from me? I assume you mean to reach Madrid.”

“Well…not quite. I know of a suitable abandoned home with an intact electrical system. We simply need to power the generator. We saw your light and thought…maybe we could help one another.”

The woman peered at the man. “I have no such power source.”

“Yes…understandable. Yet I think you can still be of help to us. Your…light…could help in our search.”

“I have my own obligations to fulfill,” the woman spat.

“Do those obligations take you toward Madrid?” The man’s question was followed by a brief yet unusually heavy silence.

“…Perhaps.”

“Well, it would be wise for us to at least travel together for a time. Strength in numbers,” the man said cheerfully.

“I won’t stop for any of your party’s needs. We’ll only be traveling together for as long as you can keep up.” The woman stood and sized up the expressionless child.

“That works just fine. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, uh…”

A burning red hue flashed over the surface of the woman’s amber eyes.

“Call me Chispa.”