When Snow and Flames Collide

Prologue: To the beginning of forever

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I woke with a shoe to the face and a shoelace whipping my ears, jolting me from a peaceful sleep. 

Fury pulsed through me like a burst dam, mingling with the searing pain on my cheek. The infamous cackle of my brother and best friend filled the air as I roared until my lungs felt like bursting. 

Ouch.

Bloody hell.

Ray sterling, my best friend he had come to convince my dad to come and live together at Uncle Stefan's place for a while and with immense convincing he agreed and now We'll be staying with them.  Uncle Stefan is my father's best friend.

They thought this could be a great reason for everyone to meet after 2 years. 

We could've lived in our house..

Our house...

But we can't. 

I remembered that incident as if it were yesterday, etched in my mind like a grotesque tattoo.

Ray and my brother, Dennis Martin, must be returning from their morning jog. I hadn't run today. In fact, it was the first time I'd skipped my run in two years. 

Absence of Ray's younger brother makes me happy. Max Sterling, who was considerably more annoying than Ray, a proven fact with enough painful evidence to fill a museum. Just thinking about him sent shivers down my spine, but Ray? He just enjoys annoying everyone with pointless questions  a talent he'd honed to an Olympic level.

I've been living in Silay City for two years now. We had to move here when I was 23. One incident changed everything I ever had – or could have had – if I'd stayed behind. I still miss my hometown, despite Silay being a good city with clean air and a safe atmosphere. It's not my homeland.

Even the rain felt excruciatingly painful here, each drop an icy shard piercing my heart. My veins pulsed with the agony, my brain desperately trying to block out the pain.

 It's been two years, Amber.

Two years. You promised you'd move on.

This brick and wood structure couldn't be called home. It was just a place where walls stood instead of a roof over our heads. But the thought of returning, even for six months, filled me with a strange thrill. I'd finally walk the same streets again, finally see my friends.

Ray's parents, the Sterlings, played a major role in convincing my family to return. I knew my family still reeled from the tragedy two years ago, but hey, we were doing everything we could to move on. Sure, I'd made friends here whom I'd miss, but my real friends, back home, were waiting for me to return. We'd leave in a week. In just one week, I'd be back in the place my father now called "Martin's doom."

Will my life remain the same? 

Will I be able to restore my company to its former glory ever? 

Will I make my father proud? 

I see nothing but my dream of restoring Martin Enterprise to its rightful place before everything fell apart.

But let's not dwell on the depressing stuff, shall we? 

I had two peasants to deal first. I stormed out of bed, shoe in one hand, and marched downstairs where Ray and Dennis sat perched on the dining table, boxes from our last packing spree splayed around them.