Spiced Peaches - a Short Tale.

Axo sighed as she dragged a ripped-out portion of her bread over the spiced peaches' remains, mopping up the sweet, tart juice that had almost stained her plate (which was really just a metal tray, but life in juvie had taught her to think otherwise). She stuffed the juice-soaked chunk of bread into her mouth, and chewed slowly to savour the sweetness in the bread. It was rare for the counsellors to let them have a taste of their spiced-peach-secret-stash, and it was the first time Axo had ever been allowed to even set eyes on it. She smiled as she swallowed down the bread she had been chewing earlier, and popped the last morsel of bread in her mouth before turning to the counsellors' stash of spiced peaches, which sat temptingly in a jar. The counsellor who'd been supervising the girl flashed her a small and seemingly genuine smile, and Axo smiled back.

She reached out for the jar and allowed her calloused hands to establish a firm grip on the glass surface. Pulling it closer to her, she held it up to the light. The lovely, sweet peaches were sitting in a tart, addictively sweet syrup that shimmered in the artificial light she was holding it up to. Axo was satisfied with what she saw and lowered the jar to unscrew the lid. As she moved her hand to put the lid on the table however, she noticed some writing on the inside of it, and held it up to her face to see. Written in small letters and scratchy, rushed handwriting was:

spiced peaches: ingredients

peaches

cinnamon

cloves

a tad bit of rose water

dearest summer, katie, and reginald's blood

jackson's remains

lovely lauren's ashes

sug

Axo's eyes widened, and she dropped the lid in surprise, so she couldn't read the rest of the ingredients. In this situation, a normal person would've screamed or called the counsellors monsters. But Axo wasn't normal. She was a tyrannical, sadistic teen arsonist who'd burnt down the orphanage she lived in for fun.

So instead, she smiled.

The girl thought back to who Summer, Katie, Reginald, Jackson and Lauren were. She definitely knew Lauren, but she wasn't so sure about the others and assumed they were campers who died in the training room. Lauren was her best friend in the orphanage, and the one girl Axo had tried to save from the fire. But Lauren was stubborn. And with being stubborn, came trouble. If Lauren had just listened to Axo and left the orphanage as she was told to, she wouldn't have had to die. Axo wouldn't have had to lose her best friend. Everything would be fine.

But Lauren was stubborn.

She'd begged Axo to stop the fire, to stop doing everything. Axo had begged Lauren to leave the orphanage with everyone else while she combatted her inner demons. Lauren refused. She tried to reach Axo, only to end up getting killed by the flames that leapt out at her when she opened a nearby door. Killing Lauren was the one thing Axo regretted the most.

Axo shook the thought away and brought herself back to the present. It was Lauren's fault for not leaving anyway. The counsellor who'd been supervising her was now sitting at the table behind her, most probably taking a nap. The jar of spiced peaches was still in her hands, and she stooped down to pick up the lid she had dropped. Her eyes flicked over the words "lovely lauren's ashes" for the last time, then tilted the jar above her mouth to savour the sweetness. After downing the whole jar, syrup, peaches and all, Axo felt refreshed. She didn't have a single regret.

Why should she care if Lauren's ashes were inside the jar?

Lauren was stubborn.

Lauren was stupid.

Lauren was supposed to leave the orphanage.

Lauren was supposed to live.

It had never been Axo's fault.

Notes: I'll try to update my blog more often - if I have free time. To all the dear readers, stay safe, we can fight this together, and let's flatten the curve.

XOXO,

Aedlycia