Ashes on the Water

As with most of my writing, I managed a page of something with a promise... It's kind of sad, but preying on the strong emotions such as love, anger and grief can bring about some quality work. I've got a rough idea of the storyline, and I might work on this more if I don't work on documenting my work books (seven months of writing from during school).

Michelle Lita Hansen- Startling blue eyes and raven black hair. Aged around twenty-two, pregnant by her (deceased) fianceé Joshua Maugave. She stands 5'3".
In the story, some of her background is presented but not to spoil that part, I won't add it. She was eighteen when she met Joshua and they dated on and off for some time before he proposed, six months prior to his murder by Pero for helping the cops to bust one of Pero's 'rat holes'. Michelle is a general outcast, but somewhat wealthy. I'd disclose more of her background but as of yet, I have to mesh the details. (Ha, like most of my work, nothing's ever truly finished...) On to the story.





Ashes on the Water.

Michelle knew well who it was when her phone began to buzz, the soft sound seeming unordinarily loud to the din of a summer rain storm. She pulled the phone out with trembling hands, hoping, with all her heart, that Pero hadn’t found Joshua. She flipped it open, putting it gingerly to her ear as she shifted on the top of the dumpster in a dark alley, sheltered from the rain under a balcony.
“Hello?” She asked the quiet of the line. She cringed and shifted again as she heard his smooth voice.
“Hey, Swan. We caught our… ‘rat’. We’re going to leave the body somewhere you’ll have a decent time finding, no worries.” His voice was pleased, even happy. Then a ruckus of laughter sounded out on the other end, before it cut out to nothingness. She shook, gasping like she’d been hit in the chest with a steel mallet
“You… you bastard!” She screamed, her hand darting out to throw the phone against the alley wall fifteen feet into the rainy darkness. Her sobs came hard as she knelt on the dumpster, pounding her bare fists against it in a grieving rage. Then everything went black.

She awoke the next morning, to the sounds of garbage trucks on Monday morning. Quickly, she shrugged off the slurping feeling off falling asleep after crying hard, her head wobbling as she scrambled over to pick up the cell. Without a second thought, she shoved it deep into her pocket, knowing the picture message that she’d received would be some sick puzzle Pero had planted for her. What would she do? Pero’s lackey’s had likely ransacked Joshua’s apartment and burned it down by now. She had nowhere to go, back home wasn’t even an option. Her parents had gone so far as a restraining order from her younger brother after they learned that she’d carjacked a truck and driven two hundred miles to escape a loan shark that had been after her. She frowned as she thought back, still guilty now after her younger brother’s near death.
Michelle hadn’t seen the boy in six years, since he was just a toddler and she was fifteen. She’d been the queen of Marindon Avenue, sneaking out at night and getting into the worst fights. But she’d changed, she changed… she pleaded still. She moved as she heard the truck behind her, pushing up her hood and hiding her hands deep in the single pocket on the front. Joshua’s sad smile donned on her thoughts, last night before he ran. He was trying to keep her safe, keep their unborn child away from Pero’s sick world. He’d run, trying to catch a flight to France in an effort to lure Pero out of the country.
Pero had been too smart. She knew that Pero himself had probably crawled out his damned rat hole to have the fun of shooting Joshua down in the Westfield Church that Joshua had been hiding in. Suddenly, the tears again, her sobs loud enough to draw the attention of several passer-by strangers. She saw a woman carrying a toddler, a beautiful little brown haired girl with the deepest green eyes. She smiled half-heartedly as the mother coddled the child and nuzzled her cheek. Soon, she’d have her own baby. But the kid wouldn’t have a father.
Michelle was too busy suffering to notice that a young girl had been running after her, the mother shouting from a street café some ways down the street.
“Miss!” The little girl shrieked, “Miss! Miss! Wait!”
Michelle turned finally, stopping to crouch for the short little girl to talk to her. She couldn’t even put on a fake smile, and the little sad face the girl had broke her heart in so many more ways than Joshua’s death had. She glanced back at the little girl’s mother and sighed.
“Miss, you dropped this.” She said, leaning back on her heels all proud as she held out the golden locket. Michelle slowly reached out to take the locket, sniffling and smiling as she pulled the little girl close.
“Thanks. Do you have a name so I can tell my baby girl about you when she’s as old and smart as you?” Michelle asked, hugging the girl and smiling when she nodded.
“Hanna.” The little girl giggled as her mother rushed up and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“I’m so sorry miss, Hanna’s sometimes too friendly.” She said, looking to Michelle’s barely showing belly and grinning in a kind way of knowing. Michelle shook her head and replaced the locket around her neck, tucking it into her hoodie and smiling.
“Oh no, she’s gorgeous. I hope my baby is just like her, when she’s grown up.” She told the woman, glancing at the girl as she turned to leave, waving at her.
“Bye Hanna.”

Hannah and her mother turned to walk back to the café, Michelle headed down the street again, to where, she didn’t know.