arlette foy, d5f! {9th hg}

arlette foy

The world was always destined to burn. This is something you learnt young. Keeping close to an ever-kindled fireplace was the only way you could stay warm, when the Dark Days turned to cold nights and your household name become synonymous with poverty, with pity. When your father perished in the crosshairs of battle, you clung to the edges of life with a spirit unheard of for a girl your age.

Like the stars, you refused to die out. You refuse to be dimmed, to be forgotten, even now. Especially so.

And fire, it lives in you. Comes in a myriad of forms. This is something you continue to learn. You’ve seen the evolution of man through the haze of dying ashes. You’ve been face to face with the cruelty of humanity even when your mum told you that the world was safe, was kind. But you’ve watched how your friends became enemies overnight, because what did loyalty mean to a teenaged girl living through a revolution? You’ve felt the sting of hateful words labelling you as an outcast, condemning you to a shadowed fate you had no control over.

You’ve been pushed so many times you don’t know if the bruises or the beratings hurt you more.

It doesn’t matter – the pain is all the same – and from the ashes rises a girl anew. There’s a blazing husk of a shell surrounding the space where your heart should be. You are smouldering, smoking, yet you are always cold. The blood in your veins runs like icewater, hands of winter blue. You glow in spite of it.

The world was always destined to burn. Luckily for you, you are a phoenix – fire cannot scorch you.