Okay listen this is not some puppy dog dying, pull out your heart goop, I’m not an orphan, and I do NOT want to be pitied. I’m just me, Rayne, the girl with the god-awful step mom, the girl who lives in Washington STATE, and I am the girl who is a total loner. Oh, I’ve also been arrested, twice, but it wasn’t my fault I promise… it wasn’t. My dads the one to blame not me because he gave up on my mom, I didn’t, but then again someone’s always to blame… right? The tree to my right drags my attention back to reality. The deadly green needles are shaking furiously trying to claw there way out from the deadly grasp the tree has on them, they want to kill me. The rain that that is buffeting down makes me jump, soothing me, telling me it’s all right. The rain has been my mother ever since she died, wiping my tears away with soft hands only years of pain can hold.
I turn just in time to see my step mom come bounding down the stairs screaming my name. “ RAYNE, IF YOU DON’T WANT A SLAP IN THE FACE I SUGGEST YOU GO PLAY I TRAFIC,” she spit out the last word right before she reached me.
“ Oh, of course why would I ever not listen to you?” I hiss holding a smile on my face adding to the sarcasm. She lunges for my face, but right before she makes contact I dance out of the way taking my bag and slapping it across her face and haul it into the yards . I yell at her over my shoulder before I disappear into the woods “ and that is how you fight a baby”. She whispers something to the empty space, but all I can make is the word KILL. I smile to the rain have fun with that I think, laughter shakes my body as I march into the unforgiving woods in front of me.

Fire… suffocating fire, it consumes me leaving no trace of cold- not even a memory of it- my bones wither away under its never ending pit, containing the dire glamour the misfortunate left behind. I realize now that with my greatest gift comes my greatest curse, the unrelenting gloom feeding off of my every thought, my every action. The once healing heart shattered once again. I just sit there holding my ears until a lighthearted soul comes to enlighten mine, but not this time, I’m forced to sit there and watch-feel-my mother burning to death. My father savoring ever scream that penetrates her mouth not knowing I can feel his every emotion, his visage holds a mask of horror but I know the truth, he did this. A scream escapes my mother’s lips and I am once again engulfed in her flames and all I can feel is her need to protect me. This is no place for a girl of rain, but as I look up I see a flurry of sparks all around, it’s raining fire, the dad of the elements scorch my feet as a plow forward.
I lurch upward from my bed of grass. Just a dream, it was just a dream. I cant think straight… was it a dream? My name is Rayne, I’m 15 years old, I have blonde hair blue eyes, my mom was killed, my dad killed her, and I can feel glamour, I ran away, its not raining, and I am alone. I slowly get up to my feet reciting everything I know for sure over and over. I painstakingly packed up my camp making sure no traces of where I’ve been are left.
I take a big breath of the damp morning air trying to calm myself. “ It was just a dream, Rayne, just a dream,” my voice shakes as it leaves my lips and I close my eyes to steady myself, so I miss the glamour that walks into my view.
“Oh you no dreams express your inner most fears,” my eyes fly open and I see a guy, maybe 17, standing in front of me. His black hair falls into his eyes, which echo his hair in color. He doesn’t look harmful, but this is the forest and what kind of freak walks through the woods at night… oh that’s right, me.
“ But dreams are more real then fake and fire only penetrates me through dreams,” I reply simply hoping he’ll leave me alone. But as he walks forward I can feel that he has other plans.
“ Fire is not meant for water,” he whispers, “ what oil feeds the fire?” he comes toward me and the emotions shift.
“ What makes you think water is me?” by now I know he is no longer interested in this conversation.
His black eyes stare at my face in bewilderment. “ You can read glamour.” I try to turn around and run but the fear in his eyes holds me “ do you work for him, the cop?”
His words make no sense yet I still answer, “ I ran away, who are you anyway?” I stumble and realize I’ve been moving forward.
His eyes clear and water once again fills my soul, “ I’m Ash,” Ash nice, “ and I’m sorry about the fire I know you like water better,”
He looks at me for my name and all I can do is tell him, “ I’m Rayne.” He beckons for me to follow and Ash disappeared into the night. I grab my bag and follow him silently, for the first time since my mom died I feel remotely happy.

I take in the scenery, the makeshift cabin holds 10 people, Bree- a brown hair girl who whereas a scowl all the time, Rue- a girl who could be my little sister with her long honey blonde hair and she’s also the youngest person at 12, Ash of course, Meridian- who gives me a sympathetic smile, but I cant get over her fire red hair, and Prim- who wont even look me in the eye for who knows why. The rest just stand in the back keeping names like Megan or Tanner. Bree is yelling at Ash for bringing me her, but I can tell she likes me. Apparently Ash thought I could help find there head person, Ever, because- he claims- I can find my way anywhere. I sink to the floor overwhelmed with the grief that fills the air. I want to help them but I don’t even know what this Ever girl looks like.
Suddenly I’m submerged in hope and I look up to find that Rue came over to sit next to me. “ I know you can do it.” She murmurs, “ you have hope Ash is right I can tell,” I look into those girl eyes that are so convinced I cant bear to tell her that I know I cant.
“ How do you know that,” I breathe. Then suddenly I’m a helpless child and she’s my elder, the eyes that make her are a thousand years old, bore into mine. Twelve year olds shouldn’t hold these eyes there too old, too… knowing.
A sly smile spreads across her face and I can feel her unnaturally stealthy behavior set in. “ you can’t know everything but your easy to read.” And that’s the end of the conversation, both Bree’s and ours.
She turns to face me and says, “ You, me, Ash, and Meridian are going OK?”
I stare at her blankly hoping she doesn’t realize I didn’t listed to any of her conversation, “ Um… can Rue come?” I didn’t want anyone to come but new that wasn’t an option and I would rather have Rue come. Bree sighs put doesn’t put a stop to it. I get up and questioned her, “ What did the fairy cop want?”
“Were you listening at all?” she exclaimed. But still answered my question. Apparently she is a siren- they can take bits of pieces of a song from you- and she took a song from a fairy who turned out to be a fairy cop and they are a group of refugees that the police are after. The problem is that he has Ever and they want her back. The rain is falling steadily by the time I say we should rest.
“ Its been a long day, we need to rest,” I caution. Bree agrees, but only after we agree to take shifts. I say I will take all of them and no one argues. Ash is the first one on duty with me and I can barely stop myself from ogling over him all night.
“ When I found you, you were talking about a dream,” he begins, “ is that why you don’t want to sleep?” I manage a nod and he gives me a sad smile “ what was it about, you mentioned fire but nothing more.”
I take a breath and start, “ It was my mother she was burning to death and I was there feeling her every emotion and so was my dad… he was the one who set her on fire and I could taste his vengeance,” I have to stop because my voice is taking on a shaky edge.
“ That sounds bad, I’m sorry” I look away from his earnest eyes when he utters this because I can see into his sorry and in his sorry I feel the very longing my mother felt to protect me that night.
“ You don’t know the halve of it, I was scorched with flames from every side, my mothers emotions were flames and the flames were burning me too. I still have scars,” I lift up my bangs that I glue down every morning with hairspray and gel, a small gasp escapes his lips understanding my father did this to me.
“ When you said dreams are more real then fake….” He finally put together two and two.
“ Yep, like you said no place for a girl of the rain,” I mimic his voice and a booming laugh comes out his mouth. “ There’s where you’re wrong, it was raining fire so I fit in there.” I look at my watch Bree gave me and realized his time was up, “ um you can wake the next person up you’re done.” He looked at me with an expression I couldn’t quit place and went to wake the next person up.

It was a long night, but the dream kept me awake. At about 6:30 AM I wake everyone up to get going again. We walk without conversation the whole time, while I keep my eyes on my feet knowing this is a waste of time. After about 2 hours of this I was about to claim we were lost when Meridian shouts out “ There she is, Ever, Ever its us!”
My head snaps up and I see a woman maybe 22 getting pushed of a cliff. I scan the horizon for any threats when I see my dad strapped to a board that could be his deathbed. His brown hair shakes in the wind as he calls my name. I stare at him uncomprehendingly then seeing the source of all this, a tall black haired man is walking up along the cliff side he holds a mettle stick to poke Ever with Ash curses from beside me knowing that they have a small chance of saving both. The man holding the stick laughs and shrieks out a command. I jump to the side right as a fire splits up the group of us leaving only Meridian and me on one side and the rest on the other. A yelp escaped my lips as I see Ash flickering figure behind the wall of fire. He yells out to me trying to soothe me, but all I can hear is my own heart racing in my ears. I take deep breathe and listen to him,
“ RAYNE, YOU HAVE A CLEAR SHOT TO THEM GET THERE!” He knows that I can’t get to both and yet he still wants me to try.
“ I can’t… its fire… I just cant….” My voice brakes off as I realize how hopeless this situation is.
“ Yes you can, Rayne, we need some rain for the fire!” Ash said with so much confidence that I really take in his words. I stare at my dad he’s my life, my home. I might hate him, but he gave me life. Then I look back at my new friends. The fire is pushing them off the cliff and I new if I wanted to I could safe them… but do I want to? I don’t really know them, I mean all I know about Ash is that he cares about me; he holds that over my father. I gaze out into the barren landscape. The sun is just starting to rise making the world glimmer. The smoke from the fire oozes over the frost creeping along the grass creating an ominous look toward the forest. My father killed my mom; those people brought this upon me. My breath quickens and I slowly started to fathom how much I need the comforting hand of rain. I look up and see the fire rain, it shimmers around me and holds the touch a father can only hold, this is the touch my father could never hold my new “friends” could never replicate. I stare at the raining fire for a second longer then lunged forward.