PYROMANIA:
ignite the flame.

an elodie verbeck story.

ON THE TWENTY-FIRST HOUR OF THE FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER, 1989, A YOUNG WOMAN GAVE BIRTH.

This was unusual only in the fact that the young woman was not pregnant before the day first began.

The strange birth was labelled a curse. A sign that the devil had come to their tiny town and decided to wreak its anger upon the inhabitants. The young woman, innocent but impressionable, feared for her life, and for the life of her family, who the church swore would be killed by the tiny satanic child. She was driven to a stay of mania and in a state of panicked delirium, amidst heavy blood loss and in fear of her loved ones' lives, she decided to give the child away. She passed it off to the first people she could, a young American couple who had been happy to take the child off her hands. And even when they accidentally let slip that they had somehow known about the birth, the unfortunate new mother did not care.

And a day later, Archibald and Ursula Morticelli were the new adopted parents of Elodie Vesta Morticelli.

TWENTY-SOME YEARS LATER, AND ELODIE VERBECK WAS DECIDEDLY NORMAL.

Or at least, she told the world she was. While her origins were strange, she always shrugged it off as a stroke of bad luck, getting snatched by two people who did not care for her much. One thing led to another and Elodie grew up to be a pretty average societal failure, with a dead mother and a father she wished would be too. Adding in a younger brother she treated as her own child, a mediocre job she desperately wished to be done, and no real ties to life except for raging guilt and shame, there was nothing much interesting about her at all. 

But despite claiming to live a completely average and despicably ordinary life, Elodie could not be less normal. She was a strange individual, an anomaly amongst the crowds of conformity. For, no other's eyes had ever literally danced with flames, or been able to light their limbs on fire and feel no pain. Rare others had similar strange origin stories that even they themselves could not answer for, and very, very few of them had lived to tell the tale.

Elodie Verbeck had been one of those cursed few.

But this story is not about the birth of an extraordinary; rather, it is about the very opposite For,

ON APRIL 1ST, 2019, ELODIE VERBECK WAS TOLD THAT IT WAS HER TIME TO DIE.

She had dealt with the idea of death her entire life. At one point, she had craved it, while other times it was the monster under her bed keeping her up at night. But when it came to take her away, Elodie had the startling realisation that for once in her life, she really, really wanted to see the rest of her life through. Even if she hadn't earned it, even if she deserved to be struck down, she held her head high and asked the heavens for a second chance.

And on April 1st, 2019, the rest of Elodie's chaotic story was decided. 

But another's, was not.

...

AND WHEN I WATCH THE WORLD BURN,
i will only think of you.

a sequel to netflix's series &
elodie's first story, chaos theory.
set through 1960-1963.

following the events of 
the umbrella academy: season one,
in the case of an apocalypse and a
last minute plan of five hargreeves's.

I WONDER WHEN YOU LOOK
at the flames, if you picture me too.

...

I do not own the rights to The Umbrella Academy show or comics, or to Diego Hargreeves and/or the Hargreeves family. All credit for characters, plot points, and mentions of things from the comics/shows go to the respective creators.

However, I do own this plot, all original characters, and all writings done in this book unless otherwise stated. I'd appreciate very, very much if you respected this and looked at this story as something to appreciate, NOT to steal and claim as your own. I'm a tired, bitter old(ish) lady who doesn't have much, and these little books mean a great deal to me. So if I can anyone stealing a word of this book, I'll be filing a complaint with my lawyer (aka, throwing hands & being incredibly passive-aggressive -- and I'd fear that, my skills with the written word in terms of malicious intent are not to be reckoned with).

This story might contain mature scenes and references, referring to crude humour, language violence, sexuality, and other things that might make children turn to their parents and ask 'Mommy, what does [insert word here] mean?'. Not suitable for children under the age of thirteen, even though if you are that old you shouldn't even be on this site [although I don't really care I'm not your mother].

Some characters might have opinions that you don't agree with and which may upset you. Please realise now that a, they have many reasons why they do what they do, and b, that does not mean I necessarily agree with them. This is purely (probably) fiction, it's not real. Your fave fictional character can still be your fave and this is not a book meant to attack anyone unless explicitly stated. So don't get pissed off at me if you don't like something a character does.

It's been a long damn time since I've done a sequel. It's also taken me a lot, lot longer than I planned to make this sequel in particular. But I guess, better late than never.

I don't think this book will be terribly popular, but I don't honestly mind or care - whoever wants to read this, I welcome you to it, but I'm excited to write it nonetheless. It's a funky time and it's something I've genuinely enjoyed doing, which is a rarity in my life sometimes. So, let's see how it goes I guess.

If you haven't read the first book, please do that before this - while I suppose you could pass through this okay enough, it's probably best to know a little about the characters before jumping into this book. You can find Chaos Theory on my profile.

STARTED: o3/10/20.
COMPLETED: N/A.
WORD COUNT: 36,143

WELCOME TO 
pyromania.