Chapter 1 · Fire

The large wooden house was in a blaze within a matter of seconds. There was no one around to see the family dogs run into the nearby fields, or to hear the voices inside screaming as their surroundings turned to flames. Not until Phoenix drove up.

Phoenix Williams had been at a party with her swim team for the day. The girls went swimming in a local river before drying off and settling down for an evening of watching movies and chowing down on pizza, hot wings and fried pickles. Phoenix left the party around midnight with her good friend Lotti Whinston, who had come down with a splitting headache and was going to spend the night with her.

It was nearly 12:30 before Phoenix reached her street, and she could see from a far that her house was on fire. Phoenix heart took a dive for her stomach as she sped down the last stretch of road and pulled haphazardly into her driveway. She and Lotti jumped from the car, making panicked noises as Lotti fished her cell phone out of her purse and dialed 911. Phoenix stood frozen for a few precious moments as her brain buzzed with thoughts of her family – were they in the house? Had someone already seen the fire with her family living so far out of town? And, most importantly, what could she do, standing on the carport, helpless, crying?

"There's a fire on Jackson Avenue!" Phoenix barely registered her friend yelling desperately at the operator on the other end of the receiver. She ran to the front of the house and started screaming.

"Mom! Dad! Lewis! Roddy! Twila! Win!" Phoenix screamed into the bright, fiery tongues that wrapped themselves around the windows and trellises of her home. Heart pounding anxiously, she waited to hear a response, hoping without knowing that no response would come, that some facsimile of a possibility still remained that her family was not within the blazing inferno.

"PHOENIX!" A male voice replied from the second story. "Phoenix, Mom's passed out, we're stuck in the study!"

"RODDY!" Phoenix yelled, heart hammering in her throat. "We've called 911, stay down, stay safe, and please, oh, please, oh, PLEASE! Stay safe!" Phoenix ran back to her car where Lotti stood, tense, phone clutched to her ear. "Tell them my family is trapped!" Phoenix told her. Lotti gave Phoenix a curt nod before relaying the information, her blue eyes trained down the street, searching for any sign of a rescue.

Sirens could be heard wailing toward them, and Phoenix wrung her hands as she waited impatiently for the bright lights to turn down her street. Two barking dogs ran up to greet her as the fire engines finally appeared around a corner. "Redd! Willy! Sit!" Phoenix commanded them, grabbing their collars. Just as the sirens silenced in her driveway and men started running towards the house with Phoenix screaming at them that her brother and mother were on the second floor, a tall, dark figure came around the corner of her house, stumbling towards Phoenix amidst all the confusion. Covered from head to foot in unmarked black spandex, Phoenix and Lotti did not notice the man before he was upon Phoenix, hand grabbing her shoulder suddenly and causing her to scream. The dogs set at his ankles growling, hackles raised, but his eyes were locked with Phoenix's, and a pain unimaginable radiated out from his grasp as he shouted over the furor, "I'm sorry! I didn't want to do it, it's not my fault, don't tell them, but I didn't want to do it – I'm sorry, can't you see?" Phoenix screamed again, clawing at his gloved hand, but she couldn't take her eyes off his – deep black eyes, they were, blood-shot and wild looking, and she felt as if he were looking through her, through her skin and her skull and right into her soul.

"Let me go!" she wailed, but his grip only tightened, even as Lotti pulled on his arm, trying to wrench him away.

"You've got to understand!" he roared at her. "Forgive me before it's too late!"

"You're forgiven!" Phoenix shrieked, desperate to do anything that would stop the crazy burning sensation that was consuming her arm. As soon as she spoke the words, the man's hand went limp and fell away from her, even as another man dressed in red came up behind him and lifted him up by the slack in his suit – but the pain had already become too unbearable for Phoenix, and as the burning started to ebb away, so did Phoenix's consciousness, and she soon fell limply into the arms of another.

..::AN::..

This is a repost, everybody :O I'm gonna be redoing all the chapters here. Trying to get back into the habit of writing this for the summer. Need something to do :P Plus I love this story and it's the only story in The Incredibles section with an OC/Dash romance that isn't angsty/creepy O.o