Within Her Amber Eyes

Introduction

"All eyes on the one, the only, Beaux Burningham!" The speakers boomed as the crowd roared with excitement. Although the crowd was only a small portion of the town, every seat was full including smaller children sitting on their parents laps with strangers squished against them. Pushing to fight for whoever gets the armrest.

Even being thirty-something feet above the tallest row of seats, I could see everything so clearly. Nothing I haven't seen before though, people become predictable after performing for so long. Every person's eyes on me, their thoughts circling around me and my abilities. It's a liberating feeling, truly. These low-life peoples paying to see what they could only dream of, having power such as my own. The envy illuminates off of some, others it's only visible when they speak with me after the show. Their eyes tell me everything.

I make my way to the edge of the platform, a waiting the beat to drop for my background music, music is the key to a good performance, however the performance may only be perfectly entertaining if there is a matching choreography. I allowed my powers to take over, my hair combusting into flames. The crowd finally seeing my presence, the light is quite attractive, you could say these people are the moths drawn to my flames. I throw my hands out to the sides in a cheering motion, my palms lighting up as well, I walked over to the tight-rope. This was a new stunt, however I had no worries of being injured, every stunt has many cautionaries in this industry. A grin forced it's way onto my face, it felt great to be the centre of attention, everyone admiring ME.

My stage name and real name aren't different whatsoever. This is who I am, a performer. I receive letters from fans and even people who resent me for my flames. Their grudges which have nothing to do with me, yet everything to do with their internalized self-loathing. Some never forget their past, some never forgive. Regardless of what these words on paper read, all I care about is that people think about me. I love the power it gives me, I want to be known by the world.

The ringmaster cued into my earpiece to check on how I'm doing as I'm about to perform my third aerial stunt ever. "Beaux, are you sure you would like to go through with this?" His sound of concern sounded fatherly, I despise parental figures, I'm seventeen and my own person. I have been for a long time.

"Yes, Sir. Geoffrey." I replied we cared him Sir as he would tell jokes about being knighted by the Queen of England. He was kicked out for sitting on the fence of the palace once, very knight-like if I do say so myself. (Kidding.) Sir Geoffery was a quirkless man, he never really understood us but helped us train like any other,
And my performance began, I danced among the tight-rope while using my flames to produce colorful bursts and as balancers. Of course, there was a net below but how dare I ruin the show with a tardy sense of my central gravity. The children's scream-laughing was masked by the music yet still reaching my tympanic membrane. I may be a circus freak, however, I spent years studying as any other child would. In fact, I may be smarter than those in schools.

I used my flames to consume my body, extending out into a shape of a dragon, swirling around itself. Circling around the arena, the little boy's eyes as if their dreams of the mythical creatures had just come true. Then I raised the temperature to make the flames burn even brighter, the stadium growing hotter as I flew myself around. I moved my body back up to the tight rope and dropped myself off above it, dispersing my dragon made of fire. I focused my attention to below me, and created a dragon head larger than the one before, below the net, the jaws wide open. I threw my arms to the side once more, the crowd attempting to anticipate my next move. I grinned and let out a laugh into my personal microphone, "That's all for now folks." I shot colorful fireworks from my hands and leaned backward off of the tightrope. Falling into the net, eyes closed, I let out a breath before I realized the smell of something burning. I turned my head to the side to see that the net was on fire, the dragon head was too close. Without any time to react, I fell into the net. The crowd began to scream and panic to get out of the stadium before everything came down.

"B-Bea-Beaux?!" I heard the earpiece break through, everything is burning. I looked around to see people grabbing onto their children to escort them out before them, others being trampled, I was tangled in the burning net, scorching my suit. I can control my own flames but once something else is set on fire, it becomes unstoppable.

I managed to toss the earpiece before I lost my eardrums. I looked around once more and checked to see if everyone was out, then I saw one of the beams for the tightropes falling above a child who was trying to run towards me. Fuck, what do I do? No one else is here and the sprinkler system is off because of my performance. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. There was only one thing to do, grab the kid and incinerate this place before the smoke kills both of us. I combusted myself into flames, burning the rope tangled around me. And I used my flames as rockets to get to the child, I shielded him from above, planting my feet in the sand, creating a small but heat-safe barrier below me, then imploding everything above. Fire-based quirks are very hard on the users, their bodies overheat awfully, and even my performance was pushing my limits. But this had to be done. Everything was incinerated by blue flames, being produced everywhere around me. Blue was not my favorite color to use, because it's very hot and toxic for people, but this was necessary to get out. I saw an opening in the ceiling, grabbed the kid, and used my fire to fly out.

"BEAUX." I heard people scream from a distance, everything was slowing down. My heart was racing yet everything seemed so slow, the rest of the building coming down in blue, me getting out of there with the child, it appeared as if it was in slow motion. I saw the muster point, the crowd was gathering and cheering for me as I carried this child. Everything began to go black as I approached the crowd, I attempted to pull this child towards me before I lost full control, and let myself take the fall. But I'll never let my flames consume me.