Rebirth of the Red Phoenix

A moonless night was tainted with the ominous tint of red as the shrill voice of a young woman echoed and pierced through the stillness. As if the heavens itself were anticipating the end and the Gods bore witness to the injustice that had befallen this young maiden.


"heed my words, the heavens shall bear the debt of this injustice. I curse you all! Even if my flesh is turned to nothing but ash, it is not enough to vanquish even the embers of my burning rage. The debt of this life, the Gods shall owe it to me. I shall rise again just like the vengeful red phoenix and destroy you all. You damn B*stards!!."


Tears streaked down the cheeks of the young woman as her wails were loud enough to shake the hollow space of the abandoned warehouse. Her hands and feet were bound tightly with metal wires on the upright wooden stake on which the fire had been cast. What went wrong? What has she done to deserve a betrayal to this extent?


Gu Ming Yue did not have a blessed life from the start. Her memories as a child were hazy or blank. The first memory she could think of at the young age of 5 was being in the grasp of child traffickers. She still could not understand whether her misfortune had already started when she was kidnapped by them or at the age of 10 when she was sold to the Gu family.


Ming Yue smiled mockingly as she did not need an answer. The reason, the cause or the truth did not matter. This life was a complete joke. She stared at the dark sky through the opening in the ceiling. Her eyes were void of any emotion at this point. The fire had spread fast enough around the warehouse compared to the one that was on the wooden stake.

She thought wood would burn faster but it was slow; agonizingly and torturing slow. She scoffed, must be another part of her misfortunes that even on her deaths bed, she cannot escape from. Hats off to the one who has scripted this life of hers.


She knew this was the end, that she was going to die any moment now. It was said, that during the last moments before dying, one would see their entire life play before their eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut and recalled each and every minute of her failures.

'Was there anyone who had ever loved me?' she thought when a faint image of a woman came to her mind but that too was gone as soon as it came.
Still, with her eyes closed, she could only swallow the bitter feeling of being abandoned and forsaken.


"If an external force has caused this, I curse you. Be it heaven or hell I shall not forgive. You shall be kept in debt and held responsible for this lousy play."

"If there is a next time, if I get a second chance, I will never…"
Ming Yue laughed hysterically and gave out the last cry like a raged phoenix as the fire finally engulfed her whole being leaving behind an eerie silence as the flames soared higher and higher… as if trying to burn the whole sky down.

This night was particularly cold and eerie. The winds carried a particularl type of silence.

Yes, it was the silence before a storm. A storm that would surely swallow anyone who would cross its path.
.…
It is said that when a red phoenix cries, the tears take form into magma, burning all in sight.