Not Finished!

She was only six when she lost her entire family to a house fire. Her mother, father and baby brother had been the only world she knew. To have them suddenly stripped away was almost cause enough for what she became. But this was not all that caused her to change, she found that from this point, her life was to only get harder and slowly it changed her from a kind, loving child to a cold, uncaring killer, where hope was a fading myth.

Sassan had been found wandering the street in front of the few still burning embers that had once been her house. The crowd of people had diminished to passer-biers that stopped only minutes to look at the wreckage before continuing their journey. The two fire trucks were now down to one with the fire-men only there to make sure that the last few embers weren�t going to set the surrounding houses on fire. The sky had darkened with the fire out and the air still held traces of ash and smoke. The only light from street lamps; not one star had the graces to shine.

Sassan had not been seen coming out of the flames, she had done so before the fire had taken a great hold of the house and drawn attention. She had stood in front for about five minutes waiting for the rest of her family to emerge, but they never did. Two people came and stood beside her and watched, then slowly more and more people came and Sassan was pushed to the back of the crowd. She began to wonder where her family was, maybe they had gotten out the back way, she could find them if they had. More people began to rush past her to the red, orange and yellow flames that now engulfed the entire house, ignoring that she was there. And even as they left the beauty of it all, no one saw the tears stream down her delicate face as she cried for her mummy.

She had sat at the curb of the road for an hour crying into her knees that she held against her chest. Her thick long black hair fell like a curtain over her face, hiding away her fearful expression. It had been the last time Sassan cried.

She stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. If her parents and brother had escaped the fire, she would find them. Holding herself, her little feet began to carry her on the quiet roads of her tiny suburb. She knew she wouldn't get hit by a car, they very rarely came along here unless they were locals, and ever then it was avoided if possible.

The smoke had almost completely cleared but bits of ash still carried in the wind, catching in her silk like hair. Her skin was almost as white as snow; her parents had often referred to her as �Snow-White�, but her lips were almost as white as her skin, making her look sickly.

She didn�t know exactly where she was going, taking a left here and a right there. She hadn�t really been looking; her head had been down, looking at the white lines as she walked over them. But suddenly she looked up as she heard the screeching noise of tires skidding to a halt on the almost always-deserted streets. The bright lights of a green car shone in her eyes momentarily blinding her until she put her hand up to shield her eyes. A middle-aged man sat in the drivers� seat, his knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel so hard. He sat with a stunned expression and his eyes looked as dead as an old corpse that had been held in the morgue for so long the colour had drained away.

Sassan hadn�t realized that he had almost hit her, she was scared but only because of his expression. She had seen a similar expression not long before on her father�s face as he pushed her through the front door then ran back into the fire for her mother and baby-brother. And all before now she hadn�t realized that his expression was that of fear. Her father had been afraid to go back into the fire; the man in front of her was afraid he�d hit her while also being afraid for himself.

He stepped outside his car and quickly ran over her, placing his hand firmly on her arms and squeezed her shoulders. A tear began to roll down his cheek and glistened in the headlights. �Oh dear god, are you all right, I didn�t hurt you did I?� His voice came out raspy, but it was a deep voice, matching his strong, big but muscular build. She looked up into his grey eyes and said nothing. He came to his knees with a crash, placing almost all his weight onto Sassan as he held her in his arms, hugging her tightly.

She wondered why this man was hugging her, he hadn�t harmed her. He loosened his grip around her and while still keeping his right hand on her shoulders, he wiped away his tears with his left arm. He spoke again, this time his voice was more together and firm. �What�s your name?� Again she didn�t answer him, but just kept looking into his eyes.

He stood for a moment, looking down at her, until he turned back towards his car and ushered her into the passenger side seat. She didn�t try to struggle or get away from him, she still didn�t understand what he wanted. She had learnt at school that when an unfamiliar adult asked her to get in a car she should say no and tell a teacher. But she wasn�t at school and there were no teachers around. All she knew was that this man, with his receding grey hair and warm grey eyes reminded her so much of her father that she almost wanted to believe that it was him.

He had kept smiling at Sassan the entire time he drove. He�d take his eyes off the road for minutes at a time, but he had driven on these roads dozens of times and knew them like the back of his hand. Like almost all the streets in this area, it was almost always deserted. Sassan had stared back at him the whole time, his face silhouetted from lack of light. Her awe for him had worn off some, and all she wanted at this point was to be at home, curled up sleeping in her mother�s lap listening to her dad play sweet melodies on his piano.

But that would never happen again, his piano had been burnt down with the house and now she was away from her parents and unsure of whether she�s see them again or where she was going. She turned her head from the man and looked out the windscreen. Only every third street light or so worked in this area, all the rest had been broken by vandalism or just didn�t work, so the street was incredibly dark, yet somehow Sassan managed to see every bird land on the road then fly off as the car approached them.

She had always been able to see in the dark, and later on in her life, she would find that to be a great asset.

She hadn�t realized she�d fallen asleep, but when she woke up she was lying on a couch in a large office with a blanket draped over her and a pillow under her head. There was no one else in the office at the moment. She propped herself up on one arm so she could look around the room. In front of her was a large cherry wood desk, cluttered with stationary, piles of paper, a computer and pigeonholes. Behind the desk was a large window that looked out onto a park surrounded by tall buildings and churches. A black leather chair sat between the desk and the window, blocking part of her view.

The door was at the head of the couch. Sassan sat up, her blanket falling to her side and sliding off the couch, onto the floor. It was cold in the office and Sassan found the air conditioner above the couch turned on to almost full blast. She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and stood up. The blanket trailed along the floor as she walked out of the small, cramped office to a larger, cramped office. There were about a dozen desks with cubical walls separating one desk from another. To the right was office machinery that she had never seen before.

There weren�t many people there at that time; the only person Sassan could see was the man that she had gotten into the car with. He was standing at the end of the room, past all the desks at a table with a coffee machine and cakes. He looked up from his coffee and jumped a little when he saw Sassan. She just stood there, staring at him. He no longer reminded her of her dad, he was just an old, tired looking man who seemed as though he should be at home taking care of his cats.

He began walking over to her, forgetting about his coffee. Sassan stepped back but stopped herself. He didn�t scare her; in fact she had become kind of fond of him. He stopped in front of her and bent down.

�How are you felling this morning?� His voice was so much calmer this morning that she hardly recognized it. He had great bags under his eyes and his hair looked that much thinner in the light. She couldn�t help staring into his eyes; they seemed so warm and sad.

�I�m�I�m ok.� He was astonished; this was the first thing she had said to him since he picked her up in his car. He had almost thought she couldn�t speak. His eyes lit up all that much more as he heard he quiet, innocent voice. �Wha�What�s your name?�

His smile widened and he said, �Raiyan, what�s your name?�

�Sassan.� He stood up from her, not taking his eyes of her and still smiling. Sassan was still confused, maybe even more so than she had been last night. But she had forgotten about her family and that she wanted to find them, they had died. She had forgotten about the fire. And when she remembered, she almost didn�t care. Looking at this man who had made her feel safe since then, she didn�t want to leave. She turned to walk back into the smaller office.

�Sassan, where are your parents? How come you were wandering the streets last night?� She stopped and looked over her shoulder, it wasn�t particularly a question she wanted to answer, but she had been taught that when someone asked you a question you gave them an answer, and if she didn�t know the answer or it was a secret, she was taught to just say �I don�t know.�

�My house got burnt down last night,� Sassan said. Raiyan tried to remember if he�d seen a fire last night near where he�d found Sassan, and then he remembered seeing a lot of ash and smoke in the air. �I think they might have gone out the back way to get away from it.� Raiyan looked at Sassan skeptically, unsure that if there had been a fire, her parents may not have escaped.

The hours had rushed on and the larger office had gotten busier, all these men and women all dressed up in suits and wearing ties, talking about things Sassan had never heard of and definitely didn�t understand. She wondered why all these people were so dressed up; she liked the fact that Raiyan looked all scruffy.

She had gotten sick of the constant phone ringing and the shrieking voices of all the women when they saw her. �Oh look how beautiful she is, isn�t she adorable?� they would say coming up to her and patting her on the head or bending down and kissing her on the cheek. They had all thought that she was a relative of Raiyan�s and when they found out that she wasn�t, that she had just been orphaned, then it seemed as though they wanted nothing to do with her.

So she had ended up going into the small office again and was drawing on pieces of paper at the big wooden desk. People came in and out on occasions, looking at her then immediately leaving. She had stopped paying attention to them by now. She only ever looked up when Raiyan came through the door, usually to give her hot chocolate or something to eat.

�Daddy used to make me hot chocolate like this, and when I was sick, he�d come bring it into me in bed. He�d always sit on the end of my bed and pretend that I couldn�t have it because I was only pretending to be sick.� Raiyan stopped at the door and looked at Sassan, his eyes full of sorrow. His heart sank as he listened to Sassan, he felt so sad and sorry for her.

She didn�t know how long she would have to stay in that small office for. Hours came and went and she had gotten sick of drawing. People had stopped coming in and out of the office and looking out into the larger office, she saw less and less people wandering around and sitting at desks. Sassan hadn�t seen Raiyan since he brought her that cup of hot chocolate and she didn�t want to go out and find him.

For the most of the afternoon she sat looking out the window, watching people wandering the streets, looking as though they hadn�t a care in the world. But despite how happy they all looked and despite how bored she was, she had no desire to be down there as one of them. They all looked the same, with the same expression, the same clothes; even the way they walked was the same. Sassan wanted to be different. She never wanted to be one of the boring people down there; although being only six, she had no idea what she wanted to do when she grew up either.

Raiyan came into the office, this time he didn�t bring anything for Sassan to eat or drink, which made her kind of disappointed, especially considering it had been a couple of hours ago since she ate or drank anything.

Instead he came in with a great smile on his face and a clipboard in his arm. He stood against the door, his free hand stretched out grasping the doorknob. Sassan looked up at him from where she sat on the floor. Her pictures were scattered over the floor of the office and across the desk, pictures of rainbows, animals, her family, and some of things she had never seen before, and probably didn�t even exist. She was a very talented drawer for her age and very imaginative.

�Sassan, will you come out here please?� Raiyan asked, his smile still hadn�t faded. He was looking very pleased indeed. She stood up and a picture fell from her lap, and she walked out of the room. Raiyan walked out after her, closing the door behind him as he did so. Now there were only about two or three other people in suits walking about the larger office. At the end of the room stood a woman, short, shoulder length brown hair. Raiyan put his hand on Sassan�s back pushing her down to the other side of the room towards the woman.

The woman wasn�t all that tall, just over five feet. She had light brown hair, shoulder length, and plain brown eyes. Sassan didn�t find her pretty. She was wearing a business suit and had a brief case in her left hand.

As Sassan approached her, she bent down and placed her brief case on the floor, smiling at Sassan. She didn�t have a nice smile either; it was an expression of boredom and pretence. The woman�s skin was darker than her own, but she was still white. Sassan thought she looked like one of the people who had been wandering about the street below earlier on.

�Hello. What�s your name?� She asked. Her voice was coarse, no more beautiful than the rest of her. She sounded friendly enough however in her tone. Whether or not it was pretence, Sassan couldn�t tell.

�Sassan. Who are you?� Sassan however, sounded less friendly despite the kindness of the woman. The woman stood up and again smiled at Sassan, this time friendlier. She glanced at Raiyan and then back down at Sassan.

�My name is Cassair. I�m going to take you home to live with me. Would you like that Sassan?� She was unsure how to answer the woman, she didn�t want to go and live with Cassair and suddenly felt the longing for her own family that she had forgotten when with Raiyan. She remembered how she�d wanted to find them, make sure they�d gotten out of the fire.

�No. I want to go home with mummy and daddy.� Cassair looked confusedly at Raiyan, who in return looked apprehensively at Sassan. He knelt down next to her, his hands on her shoulders. She stared into his eyes.

�Sassan, some police went back to your house this morning to look through all the rubble. Your mum and dad and baby brother�s bodies were found. They died in the fire last night.� A tear ran down Raiyan�s face, followed by another. It was strange for Sassan to see. Her father had never cried, or at least not in front of her.

Sassan had said nothing for the last half-hour and as she had watched Raiyan cry, she had felt nothing except confusion because he was crying. She was still thinking, no matter where she went with this woman, her parents would find her and take her home, and she would again be able to play with Cikro.

She was again in a car, sitting next to a complete stranger and going to a place she�s never been before. It was dark and when she looked at the woman next to her, all Sassan could see was her silhouette. Unlike Raiyan, the woman hadn�t glanced at her once after they�d gotten in the car. Cassair had said nothing after Sassan had refused to go home with her and had there after glared at Sassan behind Raiyan�s back.

Still looking ahead at the road, Cassair said, �I think you�ll like living with me Sassan. I have two other daughters that I think you�ll get along with fine.� Cassair paused and when Sassan said nothing, she continued. �Their names are Rya and Aacacia. Rya�s eight years old and Aacacia�s four. My husband�s name is Lucas. I think you�ll like him.�

Sassan looked at Cassair, who was paying strict attention to the road, almost refusing to look at Sassan. When she finally did look at Sassan, it was a lot gentler than it had been previously. Cassair even smiled.

Sassan smiled back, but cautiously. She was missing Raiyan now, and had held his hand as long as she could before she was forced to get in the car. She hadn�t cried when leaving his side or at the news of her parents being dead. She just simply didn�t believe that they were gone.

Cassair looked back at the road and flicked the radio on, music boomed through the speakers, startling Sassan. Cassair hurriedly ran her fingers over all the buttons trying to turn it down. She found the button to turn the sound down and pushed it until the music was a slight murmur in the background, then turned it up a couple of notches.

Sassan fell asleep listening to music and the news about a drought in a place she�d never heard of. She hadn�t exactly been tired, but with nothing else mush to do, and not wanting to talk to Cassair, she closed her eyes and slowly all sound faded out and she began to dream.

When she woke, it was still dark. The car had stopped in the driveway of a large two-story house. All the lights were off and Sassan only got a small glimpse of the house before the car�s headlights turned off, plunging them into complete darkness. Cassair got out of the car but Sassan just sat there, clutching at her seatbelt. An outside light automatically flickered on as Cassair walked up to the front door and opened it. She then headed back towards the car.

Sassan unbuckled her seatbelt but made no attempt at getting out of the car. Cassair walked passed the passenger side door and stopped at the boot of the car, opening it, getting out a bag and then closing it again. Sassan had turned in her seat and watched Cassair move from the boot of the car and back inside the house, making no attempt to coax Sassan into going inside.

Sassan sat in the car for around five more minutes, then wondering where Cassair was she opened the car door and got out. The air was cold; and it didn�t help that an icy wind rustled through the trees and past Sassan as she closed the car door. She stood there shivering a moment and hugging herself while walking to the front door. Cassair had turned a light on inside and as Sassan looked in, she could see a large lounge room to the right and a study on the left of the door. A hallway stretched from the front door to a kitchen towards the back of the house.

She stepped inside; a light greyish brown carpet covered the floors up to the kitchen, which had newly polished wooden floors. The house smelt new, as if it hadn�t been lived in by anyone else before. The walls were painted a creamy white colour and gave the look of more space and the lights were all newer models that made the house seem that much more new and high-tech.

She slowly walked down the hall, looking briefly into the lounge room and study. When she got out to the kitchen, Cassair was there making herself something to eat. Sassan looked up at the clock, which said 8:28, long past Sassan�s dinnertime and rather close to her bedtime. She was hungry and looked at Cassair eating while her stomach growled from emptiness. Cassair noticed Sassan looking at her, and when she had finished piling the last of her sandwich into her mouth, she walked over to Sassan.

�I�ll show you to where you�re going to sleep now Sassan.� And she walked passed Sassan, who turned around and looked after her. The kitchen only took up part of the large room that Sassan was standing in. There was also a dining area and a sunroom and a games room. To the far side of the room there were also some stairs. Cassair began to walk up the stairs and disappeared into the darkness.

Sassan stood there and was again reluctant to follow Cassair, however she didn�t much like standing there alone either. She was uncomfortable in this house and wanted so much to be back with Raiyan. She was hungry and tired and unsure why her parents hadn�t come to find her yet, but she was sure that they would.

Cassair had put Sassan on the couch to sleep for the night. She had gotten a pillow and a blanket then taken Sassan downstairs, gave Sassan the pillow and blanket then made her way back upstairs, turning out the lights as she did so. The dark didn�t so much bother Sassan though, she could see perfectly well and made her way over to the couch without having to feel her way and without bumping into anything.

She put the pillow down and looked around the room, wondering, for the last time that night, where her parents were. She lay down and pulled the blanket over herself and went to sleep.

It was early when she woke up the next morning, around five o�clock in the morning. Sassan looked over her shoulder and saw a man she didn�t know looking down at her. He had a gruff appearance when she first saw him and didn�t look happy at her being there. Sassan rolled over onto her other side and looked up at him, trying to huddle as far back on the couch as possible.

He sneered at Sassan and then walked into the kitchen and began to make what looked like his breakfast. Sassan stayed huddled up as far back as she could until she saw Cassair come down the stairs in a white dressing robe. Cassair glanced at Sassan, then at the man. Stopping at the bottom of the stairs a moment, she ignored Sassan and walked over him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He was at first stiff in her embrace, as if angry with her, then he relaxed and bent down to kiss her.

He was tall, not overly however. He had short, brown, kind of crew cut hair and from what Sassan saw he had plain, unattractively brown eyes. He was broad in the shoulders and had a muscular figure. His facial features, however, where extremely coarse. A long shot jaw, high cheekbones and an almost always unkind look about him.

Sassan guessed he must be Lucas, Cassair�s husband she told Sassan about last night. Sassan wondered how Cassair could possibly think she could like this man, her scared her almost to the point where she wanted to run and hide underneath a table. She had never been scared of a person like she was now scared of him.

He glanced over at her, his smile receding into a glare, his eyes loosing any wash of kindness. Cassair saw him looking at Sassan and let go of his waist, clearing her throat and smoothing down her dressing gown. She slowly made her way over to Sassan; her feet making quite padding sounds as she stepped along the wooden surface. Lucas followed behind her, yet he walked, holding himself in a way that gave the impression that he thought of himself as above everyone else. It was strange that he should walk that way even at home. Perhaps he was just putting it on for Sassan.

The came to stand in front of Sassan, Lucas resting his hand on Cassair�s shoulders, she put her hand around his waist again. Sassan watched each move carefully, watching the way in which each of them moved, the curve of their arms, the way they stood together and every other insignificant little movement that made it all seem so interesting. She had always had an eye for detail, she loved watching people move, from the way they slept at night, to when they ran. She found movement to be fascinating.

�Sassan, this is my husband Lucas.� Cassair said, carefully, almost fearful, but not quite. He moved his hand off Cassair�s shoulders and held it out to Sassan, in a position to shake her hand. Sassan backed up again, and tucked her hands behind herself, to keep them out of his reach. She so much wanted to be able to run to a teacher, or to her parents at school and tell them that a scary man was trying to hurt her.

She heard footsteps coming down the stairs and looking over in that general direction, Sassan saw two girls emerge in dressing gowns and slippers, looking happily at their parents. Then they saw Sassan and their smiled faded into slight frowns, confused at who she way. Lucas� hand dropped to his side as he looked at his daughters, and he too slightly frowned when he looked back at Sassan. Again, she was feeling incredibly awkward and out of place with all these people who knew each other and not one of them did she herself know.

The girls came and stood by Cassair and Sassan could see that they looked like their mother.

�Sassan, this is Rya and this is Aacacia,� Cassair said introducing them. Rya was taller than Aacacia, they both had long, strait brown hair and plain brown eyes, just like their parents. Rya�s skin was fairly dark compared to Sassan�s, much like her father�s and Aacacia�s, while still dark, was lighter like her mother�s. They smiled at Sassan; they hadn�t inherited their mother�s pretentious smile. They looked so much alike however, they could easily be mistaken for twins.

�How about you girls show Sassan around the house, and I�ll make you all some breakfast,� Cassair said, Sassan still to scared to move because of Lucas. Cassair walked back into the kitchen and shortly after, Lucas followed, making Sassan feel more at ease. Aacacia and Rya stood there smiling at Sassan. Rya held out her hand to Sassan, but this time Sassan wasn�t afraid to take it. She put her hand in Rya�s and got up, he blanket falling to the floor. Aacacia went to the other side of Sassan and took her hand while they all walked up stairs.