Phoenix (Short Story)

Phoenix walked alone through a darkened hallway. As the dimmed light passed, her tall black figure left a shadow across the wall. She treaded through her home alone while carrying a steaming cup of chamomile. Phoenix settles down on a cushion in close proximity to the window. She looks outside and observes the bright city lights that were reflecting off the lake.

Dark circles were painted on the rim of her eyes and she had her red-violet hair combed back behind her ears.

Phoenix's eyes carried a deepened sorrow for the city and its residents.

She knew of people's grief and understood the pain of others very well. Pheonix's eyes leveled with the porcelain cup that she held in her hands. Her eyes skimmed the surface of the toasty straw colored tea. She places the cup onto the wooden floor and decides to call it a night. Pheonix stumbles up from the window and into her bedroom. She climbs into the sheets of her bed and tries to pull her mind away from the city of melancholy. After a while, Her mind slowly begins to ease into rest mode.

Around five am she jolts awake, to a head-splitting crash downstairs.

Her eyes were widened by fear. Pheonix yanks the blankets off with her trembling hands and steps out of bed. She quietly creeps toward the baseball bat on the farther side of the room. Her shuddering hands grip the bat with utter force as she starts towards the stairs. On the last few steps, Pheonix decides to peer around the corner to search for any intruders.

Quickly realizing that no sneaky burglar was in sight; Pheonix decides to go further into the area where she had her midnight tea. Suddenly, she spots a shadow swiftly passing her line of vision. She grips the bat even tighter now and goes in the prowler's direction. Pheonix's eyes notice the poor porcelain cup in pieces on the wooden floor, with a pool of tea beside it.

She inches further and further into the room and catches him. A tall and slender shadow creeping into the kitchen. She hears him messing with some sort of crinkling food wrapper. "Ill fucking bash your head in!" Pheonix states while surprised by her sturdy tone. The trespasser flinches and turns around with her fudge rounds in his mouth. "What the bloody fuck?! I literally just bought those yesterday." she mutters enraged by this deranged menace.

Phoenix studies her intruder's face and realizes that he is quite the looker. His skin was the color of cinnamon, or was it coffee? Her eyes meet his and she begins to study his rich deep chocolate irises. "Now who are you?" she interrogates him. He stares at her with confusion written on his face, then continues to finish her well-deserved snacks.

"Look those chocolate goodies aren't yours." "and if you haven't noticed already, this is my house." she pronounces angrily. He lets off a deep sigh, which confuses Pheonix, and decides to grab the refrigerator door handle. Pheonix shoves him away from the fridge and picks up a dull kitchen knife, that was conveniently on the counter. She thrusts her arm in the direction of his face, but he dodged her just in the brink of time. Pheonix was astonished by this man's quick reflexes. "You have ten seconds to get your hungry ass as far away from here as possible." "If you fail to do so, I'm calling the cops." Pheonix declares wittingly. He raises both his hands in a defeating gesture, then looks over at the open bag of sun chips on the counter. "You got to be kidding me." She announces. What is with this guy? I mean who breaks into someone else's house to confiscate food? She broods. Pheonix studies the trespasser once more. "Look if your're hungry, just go to the convenience store or something." She says. "It's where I got half that stuff in the first place."

Pheonix calms herself and places the knife back inside of the knife holder. She then grabs a mahogany chair at the crumb-covered kitchen table. After snatching the whole bag of sun chips, her peckish intruder decides to sit across from her.

Pheonix's eyes begin to study his posture and facial expression.

"Are you ever gonna answer my questions?" She asks. He gazed at her blankly, then dug his hands deep into the adjacent bag of cheddar chips.

When he removed his hand, she noticed the yellow-orange cheddar dust that was glued to the tips of his fingers.

Phoenix stands up and walks over to the pantry, to grab a paper towel roll. She tears a sheet off and hands it over to the snack bandit. "Here, wipe your hands." She orders. He glares at her, then chooses to pop his fingers in his mouth, to remove the debris. "Were you born shameless?" She questions him while wondering if this intruder even knows English. However, she continued to receive no responses. "Useless." Pheonix states while fed up with his infinite silence. She yawns and gets increasingly dizzy.

"I'm going to bed." She says to him. "Feel free to take the couch...homeless."

Pheonix lugs herself up the creaky wooden stairs and plummets into the fluffy sheets and soft covers

The next morning, Pheonix is surprised by the intruder who is holding a tray of pancakes and eggs. He has on a quircky smile, and begins to serve them to her, while in bed. She eagerly arises and beams gratefully at her intruders kind hospitality. Pheonix definitely becomes more open-minded about the thief. She really appreciated him, or was it the fact that he was a chef, that kindly served her breakfast in bed. Phoenix takes in the sweet aroma of the hot pancakes and detects a familiar scent. It was a distinct warm vanilla smell. She was so sure that her caterer threw a bit of vanilla extract in the pancake batter. That alone made Pheonix's nose shudder. After taking a long deep inhale, she shoves a fork full of pancakes into her mouth. "These are pretty good!" she says with a mouth full of gratitude.

-The End of part 1