Flame Touched

Chapter Three - Rei

She burst through the door. The only thing on her mind being: I have to get out of here before they do something worse. Matt told her to hide. Well, she couldn't hide forever. There were only so many places she could go inside the cramped two bedroom space her family called home. None of those places were safe. After sitting in her bedroom for nearly forty minutes, hoping, praying, that the insult of the day would pass and her mom and dad would just leave her alone instead of demanding retribution for a crime she did not commit, she realized that just wasn't going to happen. They weren't going to conveniently forget about her. Not tonight.

But that was the way things worked in her family. Someone made her father angry at work. He took it out on her mother and her. Then her mom made things worse by blaming Rei and punished her further because she didn't know how to cope with the situation—and she was far too afraid to leave. Rei was always to blame because she was young, wasn't working, wasn't performing well enough in school for a good job, or simply breathing wrong. All they needed was an excuse to lay in on her.

"Reina Aislyn Marcos, get back inside now," her mother screamed at her.

Rei kept running, not once looking back. Down the street until she crossed deep into Inero City. Only then did she slow her pace. If neither her mother nor father had followed her that far, she wouldn't need to keep going like her life depended on it. One of the good things about both her parents not being in the best of shape—eventually they gave up. Living just at the edge of the city made it easier for her to get lost inside the many winding, narrow, roadways connecting all of the blocks together. All it took was a few turns, and she was safe.

She caught her breath as she passed by the small businesses and rundown shops that lined the border. The city itself was large, but well divided into sectors. Each area had everything it needed so no one had to travel beyond the unspoken class boundaries that were put in place. She'd only dared to do it once, and instantly regretted it. Going just one class above her own was like stepping into a whole new world.

Inero City, though smaller in size than some of the other metropolises of the world, was beautiful and dense. Businesses practically sat on top of each other as they crammed themselves into whatever space they could find. The richer the sector, the fancier the buildings of course. At the center of it all was Inero castle, always present and looking over the city like a watchful mother. Some saw the castle as oppressive; Rei thought of it as a beacon of hope. She'd heard so many stories of those down on their luck finding refuge inside the building's walls. Perhaps I can be one of them.

No structure was allowed to be taller than it, but she had a hard time imagining that to begin with since it was already seven stories high. She'd heard rumors and seen pictures of the massive skyscrapers in Oceina City or Terran City, but she wasn't sure if she believed they were real. How could something so massive exist and be made by man? It didn't feel right to her. No, it was all propaganda sent out by the other nations to try and flaunt their great technology. Inero might not have been quite as advanced, but what it lacked in machinery, the country made up for in patriotism and heart. Those things were more important to her than any tall building would ever be.

For the most part, she liked the tight quarters of the city. There were a lot of people, but it made the entire community feel as if it were a part of her life. Her neighbors cared for her in the place of her real family, and it was them she would rely on.

"Are you busy?" she sent a text to her best friend of just over a year, Matteo. Hopefully he was free. He had a way of making everything seem better just by smiling at her.

"I'll be at the spot soon." He didn't even have to ask if she needed him. She loved how he just knew. Just like how he knew to suggest she hide for as long as possible. Then again, this was a fairly frequent occurrence.