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Run, Phoenix, Run.
Run, Phoenix, Run Don't let 'em catch you The smell of burnt flesh and blistered skin stunk in her nostrils. Her mouth was caked with ash. Eyes burning, stinging from the smoke as she ran. Bolting through an unfamiliar forest. Heartbeat thrumming in her ears so loud she could hear little else. Her head swam with disorientation.
Run. Run. Run.
That was the only thing she could focus on. Not her stinging eyes, Not her bleeding bare feet being torn to shred on the rough forest floor. Not the burnt splotches of flesh on her arm, leg, and neck. Not the excruciating ache she felt in her very bones. No. if she thought of it all she would simply lay down and die. Waiting to be caught and dragged back home. Scratch that. That place was no longer home. The commune...the...cult, was no longer home. Those people were not her family. Her mother was no longer her mother, her father no longer her father. Those people stood by and chanted as she had been tied to a stake. Worshiped as the pyre was ignited and the flames began to lick up her body. Sang praise to the goddess as Phoenix's screams filled the night air.
Every illusion she had about the way of life she had been brought up in was shattered. The moment the ropes singed just enough around her raw wrists', she gave one final act. Mustering the last of her strength. Without even a second of hesitation, she took off like the wind. Bolting without so much as a glance around her. She knew she had to run. She knew she had to run until her legs gave out. It was either risk death in the unknown or die as a human sacrifice before dawn.
Everything was a blur of passing trees and snapping sticks beneath her stride. Singed red locks wiping behind her. The charred remains of her white nightgown snagged on brambles as she darted as fast as she could. Fueled by terror and adrenaline. She stumbled from the shrubs onto a road. A Paved road. Something she had never seen. The commune was completely self-sustaining and off-grid. Not a shred of technology or civilization. Her amber eyes squinted as the impossibly bright headlights grew closer. Blue and red lights colored the dark night. Her last coherent thought-->"Am I already dead? Is this a dream?" Hours passed and she had not been able to say more than a few words. Her throat raw from the soot and the screaming. She had gathered she was in a police station. There was a man bombarding her with questions. He knew of her home, it wasn't as much of a secret as they had been led to believe. The tears stopped flowing down her dirty cheeks, whether out of exhaustion or dehydration she wasn't sure. She could feel the abrasion on her body now as the adrenaline began to dwindle. Catching her reflection in the glass of the office she just staired. she looked feral. Deranged.
The weight of an arm around her brought her back from the depths of her mind. Turning, her eyes landed on a boy about her age, maybe a little older. He had dark hair and deep eyes. A scowl permanently etched on his features, but the crease between his brown softened as she caught his gaze. A crinkling sound caught her attention as the boy pulled an orange bag from his pocket. Offering it to her. Phoenix raised a copper brow in question."It's Cheetos. Do you want some? You look hungry." He said, gesturing the bag at her again. Confusion moved over her face as he pulled out a bright orange...thing and popped it in his mouth. She'd never eaten something she didn't grow or raise. Hesitantly she took one, her stomach ached with hungry. Placing it in her own mouth she chewed with a startle at the crunch. Brows rose more as she took another, and another. That was the first time she had seen the angry looking boy smile. Maybe this outside world wasn't as monstrous as they had said. She hoped anyway because she knew if they ever found her if she ever went back. They'd kill her.
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