CHAPTER TEN ― JANUARY, 2014 WHEN YOU'RE LOST IN THE DARKNESS
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷BOSTON QZ, flashback sequence
WHEN YOU'RE LOST IN THE DARKNESS, LOOK FOR THE LIGHT — BELIEVE IN THE FIREFLIES.This very mantra —the promise that there is yet light left in this decimated world — had decimated hopes, shattered humanity. Its false promise to share the scarcest resource, hope, had drawn in many, like moths to a flame, and had set these fools alight by the untamed inferno that is their cause. Cassie, at the meagre age of fifteen, had fallen into their snares. The final, frayed threads of her family were disintegrating before her eyes as Joel, Tommy, and herself were led astray from one another; each blindly trapezing down their own, agonising path.
Cassie could feel the corruptive, agonising touch of darkness hastily ebbing at her veins, seeking to consume the last shred of herself still left within the shell of a girl. She'd grown used to it, yet still, she couldn't help the swelling maelstrom of desperation that unsettled her stomach — aching for anything to ease the disease that is the shadow within her. And, when she'd been most vulnerable, the fireflies had swooped in, offering her a way out.
But, truth be told, Cassie's faith has never whole-heartedly laid within the fireflies — not even now, as she teeters upon the cusp of sacrificing all that she's ever known for their dire cause. Their promise of a better future, for all, had allowed their hook to sink into her flesh, marking her as their next victim. But the ashes of her vicious heart hadn't been ready to leave behind her life — no, her faith had, until recently, remained within the man known as Joel Miller.
Though parasitic growths of resentment had long infiltrated her young, fragile mind, sprouting hatred for the inhuman things they'd done in the name of survival, she'd never for a moment resented Joel. In the only way he knew how, he'd kept her alive — protected her, since the day she'd stumbled into his volatile life. Truth be told, her will to fight for a better future has blossomed with him in mind, for, after all he'd done for her, she wanted to repay him.
She needed better — so, together, they could live in a world where he didn't need to trade his humanity for the bare necessities of survival. Cassie O'Meara only ever wanted to see him happy — for the kind, father-like figure she'd once upon a time caught glimpses of to thrive within a new, better world.
But Joel Miller didn't dare wish for better.
He could no longer desire happiness — within the depths of his shadowy mind, Joel had convinced himself he didn't deserve it. Even now, as the cold-hearted man stands within the constrictions of his homestead, shrouded by the darkness of its shadowy interior, he casts away even the dimmest sparks of lights that dared meander his way. The last shreds of his composure had been set alight by a slow, agonising, blaze aching to destroy him, and all those unfortunate enough to lay within his path of destruction.
