Page 1 of From the Darkness

Prologue

Amelia

Have you ever sat in front of a fire and tried to figure out the ins and outs of a flame? The how’s, the why’s, and the what ifs. Trying to figure out what happens if the fire burns just a little bit hotter, or the flames reach just a little bit higher. Or how the color captivates the human eye with the orange, yellow, white, and even blue flickers in front of you.

From the time I was a five-year-old girl hanging on my dad’s every word, I’ve been fascinated by fire and fighting fire. With being the savior to a group of people who are facing their toughest time, even if it’s just for the moment.

You see, some girls dream of being fairy princesses, but me, I dreamed of being this superhero firefighter. The one that has everyone noticing her and wanting to be her.

When girls were playing with dolls, I was climbing trees pretending to rescue cats from the tallest limbs.

While the princess mean girls were primping and prettying themselves, I was running long distance and lifting weights.

During semi-formal in grade twelve, I was content with staying home and watching Backdraft and eating fire roasted peanuts. I got asked by the captain of the wrestling team to go.

My mom fussed over all the preparation, often tearing up and saying, “You got asked to prom, my baby is growing up.”

That night ended with my expensive dress being singed as I tried to help put out a marijuana fire in the teachers’ bathroom. My date that night ended up getting caught under the bleachers with the new French teacher, and it was an Australian kiss he was giving her. You know the kind that goes down under.

My mom and dad always encouraged me to follow my dreams. They taught my sister, Rosey, and I that if we believed we could do something, then achieving it was the end of success, of course, there would be mistakes along the way, but it was how you handle yourself in those times that helped you to grow as a person.

I watched as Rosey met and fell in love with her eventual husband, putting her career on hold to start a family. I watched my dad’s best friend become fire chief and me? Well, I shocked my entire class by finishing within the top percentile of my fire course, beating out most of the males.

I became a firefighter, something I had dreamed of and something that made my life complete, or so I thought. You see, I hadn’t cared about the whole white picket fence and two point five kids because men would always be intimidated by what I do. They always seemed to view me as one of the guys, by making lewd comments or outright making fun of me.

What happens though when the job that you love so much beats you so low that the only person that can fight is you!

Chapter One

Drills

“

Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, it’s off to the mine we go, with a chip, chip here and a huge blast there,” Lucas sings beside me.

I roll my eyes. He sings this song after every safety meeting. “Dude, you sing that damn song every fucking day we work.”

He smiles at me and shrugs his shoulders. I know it’s his way of getting his adrenaline going. The nerves of every miner are at an all-time high as just last week we lost another miner to a cave in. It gets harder as we get older. I am glad that this is mine, or I should say, our last shift. This mine is closing, and the company is moving to South Africa. I am so glad we were able to line up part-time jobs. Although we will be making significantly less, we won’t have the worry of finishing a shift alive.

Lucas and I stop at the mouth of the mine and look up to the sky before we both say, “We work in the dark so you can live in the light. If it’s a good day below ground, we are blessed to see above ground.”

Giving each other the bro slap and pat hug, we start our last shift.

Eagle

What a long as fuck shift. When we weren’t cleaning the equipment off and getting it dismantled, we were listening to the other guys whine about losing their jobs. How they didn’t know how they were going to support their families, how they were going to survive. The same way as everyone else, you find another job and move forward. Life is too short to worry about the what ifs.

“Let’s get cleaned and get the fuck out of here,” Drills says as he strips out of his coveralls and walks stark ass naked into the communal showers.

“Fuck it!” I say as my coveralls hit the floor and my dick flaps in the wind, okay not so much as flaps, but shrivels up and tries to crawl up my ass. Damn, this locker room is fucking cold. I think they may have already turned off the heat.

“We need to check on Grandma May before we hit the club party. Tomorrow morning, we have Temple to discuss shit,” Drills says, then looks at the guy next to him and growls, “Hey, pencil dick, are you staring at my cock?”

I start laughing and try to say, “Drills, he wants to look at a real man.” But it comes out “he … real…man” because I am laughing so hard at the skinny fuck’s face and then his back as he slips and slides out of the showers to the locker area.

“Fuck, I think he pissed in the damn shower,” Drills chuckles and shuts off the water.

I nod and finish rinsing myself before heading to get my clothes on, dressing quickly because the coldness from the locker room and the water on my skin makes me feel that much colder.

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