Burning Soul

Seventeen

Seventeen
⚡️Blaze⚡️

13 years ago

"I saw a girl." My best friend speaks up in excitement as he sits right next to me. His face is bright and cheerful and I frown at him, confused why he's so happy about what he's just said. What is so exciting about seeing a girl?

"Okay?" I shrug my shoulders, sharpening my second knife. They made Cairo and I spar this afternoon. I'm now supporting a black eye, and my best friend has a broken nose. I think Ricardo enjoys watching us turn against each other, but little does he know how much we enjoy it. That's why we're best friends.

Even if we try to break each other's bones.

He is the only person I trust in this facility.

"Blaze, are you deaf? Did I hit you too hard around the head?! I just told you I saw a girl!" He shakes my shoulders, his smile wide. I shove him away and shake my head at his crazy thinking. "Hey!"

"I hear you, brother. I just don't care." We're not allowed to interact with girls because they are a distraction. They will affect our skills and make us weak. There is no chance for me to form a relationship with anyone. I've learned that I'll be alone all my life and I'm okay with that. Cairo, not so much.

"She was so beautiful, man! Had my heart fucking racing. She did look a bit old for me, but shit, if I had the chance, I would have taken it." He looks mesmerised and stuck in his memory of the woman on who he managed to lay his eyes on.

"Cairo, you need to get over this!"

"What? Why?" He huffs like a stroppy teenager. "Are you just jealous because you never got to see how gorgeous she was?" He retorts, and I scoff and roll my eyes.

"Don't be fucking stupid, Cairo. You know you shouldn't be lusting over them. Do you not remember what happened to Davis a few years back?" Cairo grimaces at my reminder.

Three years ago, a guy called Davis, who was around ten years older than us, had lusted after a woman. Ricardo's wife, to be exact. Davis kept telling us about the things he wanted to do to her. Cairo and I had only just turned eighteen and were yet to truly acknowledge what he was trying to explain to us. We knew of sex, we just hadn't experienced any of it. Self-pleasure was all we knew, but not Davis, who eventually gave in to his overpowering lust over Ricardo's wife.

He had escaped his room late into the afternoon. Ricardo was in the lab, testing on me. His wife was not far, in a room down the dark, gloomy corridor sipping on a fresh cup of tea, not knowing that Davis was lurking around the corner, a hungry look in his eyes. From where I was sitting, I could see him. Ricardo could not. Davis had snuck into the room, and it only took around five seconds until there was an ear-piercing scream. I had been abandoned, watching as Ricardo and security rushed in the direction of his wife's cries for help.

Davis was forced out of the room, a crazy look in his eyes. He was laughing hysterically, with no remorse on his face from the quick assault on Ricardo's wife. The sick man looked proud of what he had done.

The following morning, we had all been called into the panic room. Davis was sprawled out on the floor, his nose running crimson red, and his eyes swollen shut. But that smile stayed painted on his beaten face. And it remained when his head was cut off right in front of us. All I remember is throwing up at the sight, and the smile that stayed on his decapitated head.

It was a lesson.

Girls were a distraction and practically a death sentence if we were ever to become infatuated with one.

Never going to happen.

I value my life. Even if I am stuck in this torturous facility for the majority.

"It's not like I'm going to try anything. I'm allowed to admire." Cairo says, his mood dampening because I haven't reciprocated the excitement he had a minute ago.

"And that's all you'll do. I won't watch my best friend get his head chopped off over some pussy."

"Oh, come on, Blaze. Have you never wondered what it would be like to have a girlfriend? Just someone to hold at night and other things." He wiggles his eyebrows when he utters the last of his sentence.

"Why wonder about something we can never have? You're just giving yourself false hope, Cairo. So stop it."

We don't speak to each other for the rest of the day. But if it saves his life, then I don't care.

We don't need girlfriends or lovers.

They are a huge distraction.

•••

If Everlee giggles one more time at some lame joke that falls past Reign's mouth, I'm going to flip this table over. I'm going to reach over, grab him by the neck and throw him into the fucking sea. She's been smiling constantly at the boy, her body sitting too close to him for my liking. She should sit next to me, smile up at me. But like the idiot I am, I pushed her away and now she can't even make eye contact with me. I've fucking pushed her into the arms of another man!

We're all currently sitting around the table, eating dinner. Well, more like I'm just stabbing the hell out of it. The sight of Everlee and Reign has made me lose my appetite.

"That's the funniest thing I've heard all day!" I'm going to lose it. Especially as I watch her arm make its way around Reign's shoulders. The boy is blushing hard at the close contact, and I'm about ready to knock him out. He's not funny. Everlee is just trying to piss me off, and it's working. I haven't ignored the sly glances she throws in my direction when she's throwing her head back in laughter at something Reign has said.

He then pours her a glass of red wine and she takes it, showcasing her beautiful smile. My fists clench painfully tight under the table.

She's trying to make me jealous.

I'm too busy planning Reign's death in my head that I don't hear Lottie's question the first time around.

"Sorry?" I turn my head to face her.

"I didn't know you and Cairo were born here. It must have been cool seeing these views every day?" I swallow hard and look at my best friend with knitted eyebrows. Is he lying to Lottie about our upbringing? I've probably seen these views as much as my Everlee has. We were rarely allowed out in the facility all those years ago, and since I left I've been living back in England.

"You're Brazilian?" Everlee blurts out with a look of shock on her angelic features. I give her a curt nod and go back to glaring down at my food.

"I'm German," Reign speaks out, almost as if it's a competition of which country is better. I roll my eyes at his attempts to impress a woman who is very much mine. My twenty-year-old self would slap the shit out of me for getting attached to a woman. But right now, I couldn't give a flying fuck. Everlee is my girl and I will not let the little shit in front of me steal her attention from me any longer. And as she laughs again, it triggers something inside of me.

Possessiveness.

I jump out of my seat and make my way to the other side of the table.

"Blaze?" Everlee says in a whisper, looking up at me through her lashes.

My hands make their way around her body, and I lift her out of her seat and over my shoulder. A squeal of protest leaves her lips as she bashes on my back.

"Hey! Put me down, Blaze!"

"Yeah, she doesn't want to be manhandled," Cairo says in malice, and I chuckle as my best friend goes against me. There's a glint of knowing in his eyes. He knows even I couldn't follow my orders about staying away from my girl. It was practically impossible.

"Shut up!" I growl out and storm away from the group with a restless Everlee still on my shoulder.
I duck under the doorway of the cabin and slam it shut, twisting the lock. Everlee jumps off of my shoulder and glares up at me.

"What are you doing?!"

"Making you mine, baby."

A/N
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