Ember’s origin

*This story is underneath my folder titled “At the Southwark house”. This is the origin of a character from my story “31 horrific Halloween tales”, which is under my folder “31 Halloween tales”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]. Enjoy!*

Introduction

Ember Southwark was gifted with two wonderful children, Celine and Johnathan Southwark.

Two children she spent her whole time on…

Chapter One

6:00 A.M.-MONDAY MORNING

Ember groggily opened her eyes, the sounds of the blaring alarm waking her up. She slammed the button, stopping the siren beeping.

Her husband, Hugh Southwark, had woken earlier than her and left for his job at the police station. While Ember was proud of his job, she sometimes wished he was home longer to help.

No matter. It was the first day of school, which meant that she had to wake the kids up!

Chapter Two

JOHNATHAN’S DOOR

“Johnathan? Johnathan, wake up!” Ember said gently, softly knocking on his door. He lay sleeping in bed.

The boy stirred, but did not wake.

“Johnathan?” She asked, knocking again. He was nine years old, her baby.

Ember heard her eleven year old daughter, Celine, running down the hall.

She had to stop Celine before-

“WAKE UP, JOHNNY-BOY!” Celine yelled, banging on the door.

It was too late. Ember’s eardrums were already ringing.

Ember turned to Celine.

“How many times do I have to tell you? Don’t do that. It hurts everybody’s ears.” Ember said. She could hear Johnathan just waking up.

“It worked.” Celine said, shrugging.

Chapter Three

AT THE TABLE

“Alright, today is the first day of school. Remember, listen to the teacher, do your work, catch up with friends, and most importantly, have fun!” Ember said. She wanted to make sure her kids heard this early on in the day.

“We will!” Celine and Johnathan said in unison.

They’re such good kids. Ember thought as she dunk her spoon in her bowl of cereal.

Chapter Four

AT HOME

Ember had just sent the kids to school. She was home, all alone, with nothing to do.

Unless…she could watch that new true crime show. The one with all the gore-infested murders and shady serial killers.

The one called “Monsters are real”. After all, her kids weren’t home to be frightened of it and Hugh wasn’t home to judge her.

Ember could watch it in peace.

Chapter Five

HOURS LATER

So many people had been caught for dismembering others, for leaving people and animals to rot, for leaving behind bloodshed.

It sent chills down Ember’s spine to think of all the sick people hiding in the shadows. Anyone could masquerade as an innocent.

What was that loud buzzing noise? Was someone in her house? Was-

Oh! It was just her phone, buzzing on the couch.

Chapter Six

There was a single text message, which read:

CELINE

School is over. I’m waiting out front.

Ember sighed. She couldn’t stay and watch TV forever, she had to pick her up.

Hopefully she didn’t do anything to get herself in trouble.

Chapter Seven

AT THE FRONT STEPS OF CELINE’S MIDDLE SCHOOL

Ember walked up the front steps, where Celine waited with Mr. Davies.

“Did she tell you what she did in class today?” Mr. Davies asked with a glare in his eyes.

“No. What?” Ember asked, bracing for the worst.

Chapter Eight

“She refused to work with her class on the science project and yelled at me when I told her what she had to do. Celine made a girl cry.”

“She wouldn’t stop bothering me!” Celine protested.

“She was trying to keep you on task.” Mr. Davies said firmly.

Celine muttered something under her breath. Ember didn’t want to spend another moment at school, so she grabbed Celine’s arm before Mr. Davies could comment on her mumble.

Chapter Nine

“Were you on your phone again?” Ember asked. She was walking Celine to Johnathan’s elementary school, to pick him up.

“I was texting my friends!” Celine said.

“Why can’t you do that after class?”

“They really wanted to talk to me, I can’t ignore them. Besides, Lycia has nothing better to do than boss people around.”

“Maybe she wouldn’t have to if you weren’t against everybody.”

Celine didn’t respond. Of course she didn’t. She’d never respond when her feelings were hurt.

Even if it was the truth.

Chapter Ten

AT JOHNATHAN’S ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-FRONT STEPS

Ember searched the crowds of parents for his face. There were too many people out, all bodies of flesh clinging to each other.

Why was she thinking like that? That kind of thinking was saved for “Monsters are real”, not for real life.

She spotted Johnathan running towards her, tears streaming down his face.

Whatever happened to make him cry again?

Chapter Eleven

“What’s wrong?” Ember asked. Johnathan still sobbed. It would take some time before he spoke up.

They were walking back home. Celine was still silent and brooding.

After a while, Johnathan calmed down enough to say in between tears:

“There…there was a project we had to do about the…the best person…I did you…everyone else did…did…they did…famous people…I used glitter and stickers…all the nice things…they…said…it…was…”

“The same kids?”

Johnathan nodded.

“They said…it was…stupid!”

That caused him to cry yet again. Celine rolled her eyes and sighed, but Ember thought of the project she and him worked so hard on. They used glitter and stickers, he drew pictures. He made a whole poem about her. He loved her.

The requirement was to write a paper about an important person, but Johnathan wanted to go the extra mile by dedicating a project board to her.

“Did the teacher like it?”

“She did, but…they all made fun of me! They said that it was stupid, that it looked like a baby made it.”

“Did they?”

“Yes.”

He calmed down enough to stop crying.

“You’re a good kid, Johnathan. Don’t let words push you down. They don’t know you like I do.”

“Okay.” He said.

But she knew that he didn’t believe her.

Chapter Twelve

THE DINNER TABLE

“So, how was school?” Hugh asked. They were all sitting at the dinner table.

“Horrible. The teacher got mad over a phone.” Celine said, poking her pasta with a fork.

“Well, maybe you should have-“

“Should have done what? I was just texting my friends! I wasn’t hurting anybody.”

“You need to respect your-“

“I don’t need to respect them. Just because Mr. Davies is my teacher doesn’t mean that I have to respect him. He needs to respect me first!”

Hugh was silent, glaring. Then, he said:

“Go to your room, Celine.”

“But I-“

“Go!”

Celine looked at Ember, as if she were going to save her. On any other circumstance, she would have told Hugh to calm down, to leave her alone.

But Ember had enough of her disrespect, of her jadedness.

So, she smiled at Celine, really big, and said brightly:

“You heard what your Dad said. Go to your room and think about what you just said.”

“I-“

“Go.”

Celine pushed back her chair and stormed upstairs, to her room. She thought that it was the end of the world, that she was in such trouble.

Boy, if she lived a day in Ember’s shoes!

“Now, Johnathan, how was your day?” Hugh asked softly, all anger gone from his voice.

Chapter Thirteen

“It-it was fine.” Johnathan said. He seemed shaken up by earlier events.

But he didn’t need to be. He was a good kid, he’d never get yelled at like Celine did.

“His fellow classmates made fun of the project me and him worked so hard on. I’m going to take it up with the principal.” Ember said.

“That’s a good idea. No one should bully anyone. Ever.” Hugh said.

No one understood a sweet, sensitive kid like she and Hugh did. Everyone else was bitter and sour, rotten and decaying.

The world was a cesspool of horrid people, just like the show said.

Chapter Fourteen

LATE AT NIGHT-THE LIVING ROOM

Everyone but Ember was asleep. Ember was in the living room, turning on the TV. She was going to watch the true crime show, because at night, her heart raced with worries over who was lurking in the shadows, what their evil plans were, and what they would do to tear down a family like hers.

Ember had to watch it because if she didn’t, she’d never know just what the monster wanted.

Chapter Fifteen

SEPTEMBER 30TH-1:00 PM

Day in and day out, it was the same thing. Celine getting in trouble, Johnathan crying, Hugh having to send them to their rooms, and Ember watching her crime show at night.

And after September 30th would come the hectic month of Halloween.

Oh, the joy!

Chapter Sixteen

OCTOBER 1ST-6:00 A.M.

The dreaded October had come. The month of costumes, scary movies, and candy.

It had cast its shadow upon the Southwark family.

Well, no use lying around. Ember had to wake the kids.

Chapter Seventeen

AT HOME-AFTER DROPPING THE KIDS OFF

The kids were at school, Hugh was at work.

On the TV was bleeding bodies, a mystery to solve.

Sitting on the couch was Ember, trapped in a macabre adventure.

Chapter Eighteen

AFTER SCHOOL-IN THE LIVING ROOM

Celine and Johnathan were back from school, speaking of Halloween costumes, movies that deeply frightened them, and places to go during Fall. Cartoons were on, but they weren’t watching.

Anyone could be a monster. Anyone could be a villain. Anyone could hurt anyone, that’s what her crime show always said.

So why couldn’t Ember be a monster?

Chapter Nineteen

“Kids, come with me to the kitchen. We’re going to do some Halloween baking.” Ember said.

The kids excited agreed. If there was one thing they had in common besides driving her off the wall, it was baking with her.

Ember got up from the couch, the plan sounding better every second.

Chapter Twenty

IN THE KITCHEN

“It’s dark in here.” Johnathan said, a note of fear in his voice. Ember rolled her eyes, he was always terrified.

She had seen it a million times in her show, a million times she watched that type of crime unfold. Being in the kitchen for years, she knew her way around the dark. She knew where the knives were, her eyes were adjusted to darkness after being awake in it for so long.

Ember picked the sharpest knife of the batch.

Cannibalism wasn’t illegal.

Epilogue

YEARS LATER

Ember may have spent her days in prison, for the neighbors had heard strange noises from her house, but it was worth it to finally have what she wanted, to feed off their flesh, off their pain.

Hugh may have spoken up a little, but a little wasn’t enough, so he wasn’t immune to the bloodshed.

Ember’s ghost lingered in the prison, a terror of the night, all because she wanted a different life.