Ember

An Owl City inspired story

Fire
I remember the days when I cuddled with my older sister by the dying embers of the cold fireplace.
The warm fire barely did anything to alleviate the cold, but my sister kept me warm.
She hugged me, pulled me closer, and when I looked up she smiles.
"I will love you like our parents never did." she'd tell me.
Then she'd kiss me on the forehead.
"I love you" she'd say. And soon, I was asleep.

When she told me she was bearing a child I could barely contain my excitement.
But as she said it, her eyes filled with regret.
"No father. No father." She muttered to herself.
"She'll grow up like me, No father, no father." She repeated.
She hung her head on the floor and cried till the last drop.
I raised her chin up towards me then I told her,
"I will love you like our parents never did."
She smiles.
"Hope." She'd say.

When she gave birth to her daughter, she made my choose the name.
"Hope." I told her.
"Hope." she agreed.
When the doctor came he bore bad news.
"Can we have the children outside please." He told a nurse.
Willingly I went out, carrying Hope on my arms.
Then came a wail of despair.

My sister's hair grew short, and her life grew shorter.
Her pale face still lit up with the same love I'd always known.
"Are you afraid?" She asked me.
"Yes." I told her through teary eyes.
"I'm not." She says.
She kissed her daughter.
"I have Hope. But now I give her to you."
She sighs
"I can't take care of her. But always hold on to her brother."
She smiles for the last time.
"Take good care of her now, she was my Hope, now she is yours."
And she drew her last breath.

By the pale light of the moon, as Hope cries out to me, I see a face on the embers.
The night was cold, and Hope was in my arms.
"I will love you, like your mother never had the chance to." I told her.
The embers glowed brighter, and it asked "Are you afraid."
I shook my head to it.
I kissed MY daughter on the forehead and to the embers I said,
"No, because my sister left me something to live for."
I hugged her tightly
"She left me Hope."