Author's Note

Hello, it's Fireflower as always ready to give you another chapter on the way: of course, like the second one, this will contain another certain subject matter and thusly is the reason why this story has been rated M for Mature; the only thing I can say is that I hope you are not under eighteen, easily offended, and/or quickly nauseated.

Aside from disclaimers long ago, I would like to take this time to inform you that this chapter is also only a flashback just like the second, but it can and will bring shock, awe, and outrage out of you in ways too horrible to imagine so it's with a generous heart and mind that yours truly has uploaded another chapter after this as well on the same day no less: for those of you amongst themselves wishing to skip ahead, please do so; I promise, this one will help calm your nerves a bit for the most part.

Lastly, let me also say that I hope you can withstand this chapter now and stay tuned for future chapters later on then again, you have but a few options: stop right there and wait, go back to the beginning, or skip ahead to the next chapter; whatever decision you make, I won't blame you but consider yourselves warned.

Shiner

In some form and fashion whatsoever, it was as if a waltz with death was taking place here and there, seeming to be orchestrated by a fallen angel devoid of either friends or family. The skies were blood red and occupied by the likes of smoky clouds becoming highly immense and pouring in as there were undergoing a twisted state of osmosis. Below them were fires and flames blackening the once brilliant green as they were consumed along with the wood and anything else that proved to be unlucky to get caught into its path, both big and small no less. Filling the role of the gentle breeze were the screams of people scurrying about throughout the vicinity, assimilating the identities of all genders and ages to say the least. Aside from debris, the dirt road was littered with corpses of all shapes and sizes as they guided their way to the town that was subjected to the destruction at once. In place of any birds were various forms of aircraft, screeching about overhead with reckless abandon as the golden sun started to sit upon the mountainside at this very moment.

In the wake of the chaos and disarray, one identity in particular was clinging onward to dear life as a wheezy gasp lacerated the atmosphere already: a tanned blonde female awoke to the noises around her. The jade orbs were tainted with the textured bruising across the visage as she started to look at the very surroundings: in them, she found many trees of various heights chopped down or laid aside, including the one she found herself resting upon. Aside from the fallen foliage and fruits across the lonely wood, the tanned blonde had come to find not even a tiniest shred of fabric in any material form whatsoever on her body. Along with her dishabille, the left arm was now covered in a mixture of mud and blood all around as the dirt seeped into the curvilinear scar that was forming across the way. Below the waist was a pool of various liquids forming between the legs, its contents being all too familiar for the tanned blonde to recall while looking on in a daze, eyes drenched in pain notwithstanding. She felt the solid earth below her being assaulted by a series of tremors and explosions from afar traveling upon the skin and the tree behind as well to say the very least.

Seeing the skies and the smoke drenching them at once, the disheveled blonde began to crawl from the bark and began to take a stand; however, she felt a sharp pain upon doing so: it was in her right leg no less. After a yelp of pain, she gritted her teeth already and started limping about from the tree, taking a few slow steps at once with precision and care while sobbing quietly to herself between intervals. The tanned blonde found pieces of clothing in tatters littered in front of her path where tears fell upon the very dirt below; suddenly, she felt something broke off into the mouth and spat it out: it was a tooth landing into scattered pieces of fabric that had once formed a red blouse. Still lumbering about she found to have wheezed and panted frantically as the oxygen around her got mixed in with the smoke and dust within every breath taken while departing from the resting place of long ago. With little warning, the tanned blonde’s ears perked up to the sounds of whistling approaching from behind her; turning about, she found a large projectile falling towards the tree that was left alone. Hopping away, the large object now quickly collided with the lone wood and caused a large explosion at once as it had created a shockwave that sent her flying over the dirt path in an instant.

Now, the tanned blonde found herself forced back onto the ground once again, this time facedown into the mud as both ears stood on endwise, currently assaulted with the sounds of ringing permeating against the scenery. Nestled against the solid earth, she felt her visage become moistened and dirtied about as a shield of dirt rested upon her very back and thighs, her arms lain in front of her elongated locks. Despite experiencing such escalating pain and agony, the tanned blonde took her time to stand back up again albeit slowly so as to avoid putting and further stress upon these very limbs onto the body. Wiping the barren soil away from the weary eyes, she began to turn around and find that the tree behind her was no more just like the others around it; in place of it, a smoking crater had appeared instead. Returning her gaze toward the path in front, the blonde continued to limp onward from the destruction that was now taking place, hoping to avoid being killed in the blast radius generating throughout the environs. With all this ringing going about throughout her ears, it seemed that fate had been already sealed: another explosion such the one from right before would only be enough to put her out of misery.

Of course, this also gave the tanned blonde an opportunity to take sight of what was up in front of her very clearly: the large homestead that remained in the very distance by the sidelines overall had matched the destruction of the very trees all around. The amber waves of grain that shined onward underneath the sunshine with glorious sparkles now gained patches of craters in every shape and size with smoke and ashes disrupting the pattern throughout. The encamping white fences around the premises, once withstand the tests of time itself while acting as borders to the otherwise open field, became broken down and smoldering about over the drawn dirt lines and the plants as well. The little orange shed that stood upright and running was now losing its color and structure to the flames fluttering about in the turbulent winds as it became blackened every second of the way to say the least. The lush archway that guided denizens to a lilac fountainhead in front had now been stripped of the diminutive flora that was once adorned throughout the grapevine and split in two right down in the middle. The big red house not on the lone prairie that stood out in the midst of such things there was now stripped of its roof in its entirety, surrounded by scuttled hay and bits of debris for all to be seen.

Limping towards the homestead, she found her tears gaining nothing but warmth as she squinted from the pain on her body, inside and out altogether; to make matters worse, she even caught a glimpse of what was in front of her: a cadaver was lain about onto the small stairway. The clean pristine gray hair upon the body in question was now dirtied with many patches of brown and red from the forehead seeping out into there. The wrinkly dark olive complexion had now been ruined by the soil beneath and the blood upon the face, painting the visage with a dark lavender tint of shock and surprise from one side to the other for the observer to take note of. The current ensemble worn about had suffered even worse than what the wearer had undergone: the orange shawl, the green dress, the red mitts, and the pink sandals were all covered in patches of dirt thrown about in reckless abandonment.

“Is that… GRANNY SMITH…?!” the blonde screamed as she took all this information into her jade eyes as they became overwrought with tears, driving her towards the fallen corpse whom was identified. Despite the tingling sensation throughout her body, she had increased her speed and momentum within the limping toward Granny Smith up in front amongst the destroyed background. The tearstained blonde took little time to reach the figure as she made her way across the dirt road behind, ignoring the destruction all around them taking place. A tedious and dangerous approach upon her very body was slightly ignored as she gained some distance here and there in reaching Granny Smith. Within moments, the ringing throughout the blonde’s ears had subsided and sure enough she heard the screeching and whooshing of aircraft from above her once more with feelings of clarity. A sense in which she had regained proved to be not even enough with the details provided by others flowing about needlessly and with little regard whatsoever given the very situation at hand; after all, another figure would prove to be far from comfortable.

The tanned blonde came to what had appeared as Granny Smith’s fallen form and wept to no end in sight for the former, now already aware that the latter was surely and truly dead, not a little but all too completely. A flood of tears fell onto the stained fabric as the unclothed individual knelt and stared into the eyes, the orange pair once capable of producing life and love were now dull and listless compared to the viewer in front and from far back. Staring through the waters that clouded the jade irises, the tanned blonde took up her right hand and slipped the cadaver’s eyelids over shut as she sniffled. Soon, the young female stayed still yet remained far from silent as the sounds of sobbing splashed over Granny Smith in spite of the sharp sounds above into the scarlet skies above. The tanned blonde had still wiped these tears away only to find more in place as they moistened her bruised and dirtied hands upon them as she sniffled about within seconds so seamlessly. In what seemed to be of some sort of an amazing grace, the young one was found to be all alone in a world gone mad and ablaze at this very moment in time no less, alive but unwell.

Suddenly, the tanned blonde stood up and started to climb the steps nearby her as the remains of the nearby house in front trembled back in shock and walked in without a care in the whole wide world she lived in. Within the wreckage of the confines she had found much furniture already torn asunder with reckless abandonment, out of place and out of order as those weary eyes look around her to and fro. The many pictures of various people in each of them fell aside as they had left behind small shards of glass surrounding themselves all at once either facedown or up in the sky all alone. The walls around the structure were either torn down or scorched up by the surrounding destruction that threatened the tanned blonde every waking second no less despite the tenant’s lacking in overall consideration. Only the setting sun in the distance had provided her light upon the forsaken homestead so as to guide the female for that most of the ceiling has gone away from here as many pieces fell to the ground. Even the stairway nearby still stood upright against the destruction despite the failing structure surrounding it; the tanned blonde took little time to mourn for the remaining endurance of such woodwork that was once a sweet home where the heart once was.

Amidst the destruction, she caught a glimpse of something large and white within the short change distance: it was a bathtub and its very presence gave her an indication of the key location. Limping onward, the tanned blonde stumbled about the ligneous flooring and debris below her and gotten near it in due time, the shaking of the solid earth around not even destroying the path. Upon reaching the destination, she found the fixture to be devoid of liquid compared to the weary jade eyes that had seen it all no less; of course, this very fact barely even stopped her. Noticing the handles and the faucet at one end of the bathtub, the tanned blonde turned then both towards the same direction and found water pouring out onto the porcelain surface in due time. As she heard the very fluid splash down nearby, she took the time to survey the damage that had been inflicted upon the unclothed body: the elongated tresses dirtied, eyes tinted with bruises, blood fresh out and onto the tanned skin, even the discomfort still resided within the right leg; all of these injuries however were nothing compared to the one inside of her. Rallying about, the tanned blonde sat on the other side of the fixture and look across her very surroundings, weeping about as she still remained wary of what had happened now and then.

A loud explosion from far away became cause enough for her to flinch, forcing her to shut away both of the eyes as the ground shook about and the clutter fell onto the floorboards nearby so silently. Opening the eyelids back up, the tanned blonde had turned to find another smoking crater within the distance as she found more trees knocked away by the impact while smoldering about. She sobbed while feeling forced to watch all the destruction that was unfolding before her very eyes as these hands started to wipe the streams off the bloodied and bruised but otherwise tanned face. The tanned blonde closed her eyes and felt the teardrops become pulled down by the gravity of the situation at hand, being ignored by the wavy battle orchestra of whooshing and screeching taking place above. Averting the weary and teary gaze, she turned to find that the water was now reaching a taller height than its originally empty state from before, prompting a swirl from her left hand. A large ripple appeared as the blonde did so, the once achromatic compound was now tinted with a diffusing crimson when her arm became dampened as the scar coagulated with the mud before turning off the faucet.

With a heavyhearted sigh, she started to enter the bathtub, feeling her tanned skin become moist upon being submerged by the stagnant water as she descended. For a moment, it had just seemed that the blonde could find refuge from the ongoing mad world in such recreation so to help get a glimpse of it all. She looked into there and watched how all the soil and blood were being washed away up in front by the massive amounts upon the weary body already, new colors now mixing with little time whatsoever. Despite the darkening appearance of such clumpy and clogging components, the tanned blonde had concentrated her eyes and found her reflection in the now dirtied water. Watching the high concentrations of foreign substances had made her tears increase itself in volumetric flow, burying her scarred face with only two hands. Not even the tanned blonde sobbing about was enough to stop the overwhelming pain that was being felt right now coursing throughout the body as she sank into the water.

Now she felt the tanned face and golden hair become exposed to the solution of her own making as she sank inward with the nose above the colored pool. The blonde closed her green eyes and felt more tears slide across the weary skin and dissolved into the reddish brown water all around as feet rose up out of it. Opening the eyelids back up, she had found only a portion of the sky above the wreckage to have exploded in a fiery burst of shame and jet fuel before the jade orbs. Sitting back upward again, the tanned blonde took her time to wash away the blood and mud off her left arm with the opposing limb. While she had managed to succeed in getting the foreign cluster of particles off of the affected area, it didn’t change the fact that the scar was still drawn out upon the upper limb. Watching all of this had made the tanned blonde’s eyebrows align themselves in an angle towards each other as she gritted her teeth.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to rest her arm into the water anyway, blatantly ignoring the outright disarray behind and front as she wept inside of the bathtub. Splashing some of the newly established solution onto the blonde’s face, even the jade eyes were not spared from the sudden impact of first contact. Wiping the dirty water off out of the tearstained visage, its owner did nothing more than just stare into it and wept as she watched them return into the point of origin. Soon, the tanned blonde’s ears reverberated when another round of trembling about from the ground shook the house that she was in, no doubt the work of another explosion from within the distance.

In addition, a new sound also overtaken her sadness as a plane overhead her whooshed above, descending to new lows as it was sat on fire, “fooooooooooom…!”

“So, this is finally it; it all ends there...” the tanned blonde choked out while watching the aircraft crash into the trees up in front of the weary eyes, “the end of days has come and Ah have failed to protect them all; Ah don’t even deserve to live long enough in seeing this. Ah am sorry ma and pa… it looks like that Ah won’t be joining ya’ll; please find the strength to forgive me.”

With all of her strength and force, she took up her right hand and ran these fingers across the scar upon her left arm, causing more blood to seep from the open wound and drip into the water where she was in within each strike and slash. During the whole time, the tanned blonde had watched with tears appearing within her eyes and teeth bared at the sight of it all as the thin elongated scab become wider, wetter, and wilder underneath her plain yet tainted fingernails. Soon, the bathtub now became even more tainted in red when she submerged the arm inside already, watching as the whole world in front of her fizzled out slowly before submerging.