Moonverse Oneshots

3 (?)

A small girl, age roughly six or seven, sat at a table in the corner of a crowded room, surrounded by coloring books, crayons, pens, and any other art supplies one could think of. She was coloring a picture of a cat... though she had added demon horns and some cool-looking lazer beams. She wasn't exactly staying in the lines. They were telling her what to do. Why listen, when she could make it much better?

That was how this girl treated most things in life. If the rules worked, they worked. But sometimes those rules just didn't work. It was a marvel she hadn't gotten thrown out of the clubhouse.

The Clubhouse. The place where all unafflicted children stay until they become afflicted. When any child was old enough to walk, talk, or the like, they were shipped off to a housing facility to spend the rest of their unafflicted days. After that... they were on their own.

The girl didn't remember her birth parents. No-one did. After all, if you were caught with an unafflicted child living in your household... let's just say you won't be having a good time. There were many facilities, with only about a two-hour drive between them. But even so, the facilities filled up quickly, and were often pretty crowded. Therefore, the people working there were supposed to not spend time with any particular child.

So the ungodly amount of time spent getting the young girl out of trouble was probably not very good.

It's not like she was a bad child. She really wasn't a bad person. She just didn't quite color in the lines, metaphorically and literally. She tried really hard in all of her classes and was doing really well, all things considered. She even had a few friends!

But there was one kid that was mean. He called her Loonie-Moonie. How dare he make fun of her name! When the little girl arrived at the housing, barely two, she had introduced herself as 'I am the Moon!' Moon herself could not remember why, but something about it reminded her of her parents.

But that one mean kid was just.... so mean! He made fun of her refusal to abide by the rules-- well, the ones that were stupid-- and said that she was insane, and that she should be called Loonie-Moonie. So... so mean! How could he! He really hurt her feelings. She was in the process of trying to figure out a mean nickname to call him back. The mean kid's name was Alder. She was thinking... Dog. Because.... Alder is a tree, right? And trees have bark. And dogs, well, they bark. Calling this mean kid Dog was justified, in her opinion.

Now, she finished coloring in her demon cat. Adding the finishing touches to the lazers, she began to put her stuff away. That is... when she heard a crack. The lights went out.

...huh?

It was storming. That was probably a lightning bolt. Did the power go out? Why wasn't this place lit up by magic or something? Adults were so stupid sometimes. Somewhere across the room, she heard one of the caretakers call out, "Stay calm everyone! Everything is okay." And then she saw a bright light, a fire, coming into the room. Ah, some fire-afflicted was being helpful.

Wait.

That's when she remembered: None of the caretakers in her housing were fire-afflicted.

Chaos ensued.

Kids, everywhere, ages three to seven to ten to fourteen, all panicking and running to any exit they could find. The smallest children were being desperately scooped up by caretakers and older kids. No-one could be left behind. Moon sat in the corner at the table in the corner of the room, surrounded by piles and stacks of art supplies. She pushed back her chair and hit a wall. She climbed on top of the chair, on the table, knocking down art supplies to try and get out. Nearly everyone was gone.

Where was everyone? Why didn't anyone stop to help her?

The small demon child fell off the stack of colored pencils, nearly twice as tall as she was. She stood up... or not. Before she could react, a chunk of roof flooded her vision, landing right in front of her. Why... Why wasn't anyone controlling the fire? Please... No-one was helping her. Why did she deserve this?

Okay, she'll go the other way. But before she could stand up, a big rock fell from the sky and just barely didn't land on her, instead snagging the end of her sky-blue dress. She couldn't get up. She couldn't move. She couldn't call out, her lungs were filling with smoke. No-one could hear the feeble cries of a suffocating child.

Everyone was gone. Well... that's what Moon thought, anyway. She couldn't see anyone. The smoke was too thick and rubble was collapsing around her. The small girl coughed and coughed again. What was she told in case of an emergency? Stay down low and stay in place. A fire afflicted will come to your aid.

And so Moon just lay there. She covered her nose and mouth with her hoodie, trying not to inhale the smoke, squeezing her eyes shut. Even if she wanted to run, she couldn't.

The fire was getting closer.

Any second now, a fire-afflicted would burst in and help her out.

All she could see behind her eyelids was gray and orange.

She just had to wait, they'd come.

It was so hot. So. So hot.

She was prepared for this. They were almost here, she was sure of it.

The girl looked up, opening her eyes gently. Paper, pencils, plastic, burning. Smoke stung her eyes. All of a sudden, the tiny hope inside her fizzled out. No-one was coming for her. She was going to die here, unafflicted. She'd never see any of her friends, or anyone ever again. She'd never be able to call that stupid, mean kid, Dog.

The fire encroached the girl and she slumped, defeated, waiting for the worst. For the burning to begin. But when the fire touched her... she didn't feel pain. No... it was warm, it was hot, but it wasn't burning. It felt... nice. A warm, almost bubbly, sparkly feeling suddenly spread through Moon's body. It was... invigorating. She felt like she could do anything.

All of a sudden, she no longer felt like she was suffocating. The fire... it helped her. It didn't harm her. Moon's eyes were as wide as saucers as she hesitantly reached out and touched the fire, brushing it gently with her fingertips. It felt almost fluffy, like a kitten. It bent perfectly around her fingers, dancing as she moved her hand. It followed her like a stray dog, obeying her every command.

That's when it hit her. Moon had just received her affliction. She was now a fire-afflicted.

She... she wasn't going to die.

Of course, she still couldn't move, given that she was stuck. But, hmm. What if she could use this fire to her advantage? Slowly, carefully, the young girl led the flames over to her dress. As she willed it to happen, the dress singed, then burned completely. It only burned where she wanted it to. Before long, Moon was freed, albeit with a chunk missing of her clothes. But that didn't matter; what mattered now was two things.

For one, Moon didn't believe she had sufficiently thought about her new affliction. This meant so many things. She could control fire. She. Could. Control. Fire. But also, she was no longer able to live in the clubhouse. .... Eh, she'd worry about that later. For now, she could control fire and that was freaking amazing.

And two, she had to get out of here now. Moon quickly weaved between fallen bits of rubble and burnt up stuff to get to the doorway. Luckily, this was only the second floor up, and the stairs were miraculously intact. The girl rushed down them.

She was safe.

She was alive.

And she was a fire-afflicted.