Set Alight

Chapter 23

Oh Stars, guys, I'm sorry! I missed the last three weeks! Marching band has really been demanding lately, what with all the stupid performances and practices and previews. (If anyone from my band is reading this, *cough cough* "I never said that, what are you talking about?" *cough cough*) I'm trying and I'm not abandoning this!!! If you are put off by my brief hiatus, you can yell at me, and I'll write in some of your ideas. Kay, so I'll work on some more for next week!

I blink the blurred colors away as I sit up. At some point I've switched human again, and Esme and Dad are talking quietly. When I pull myself up with a groan, they turn to me, Dad with a huge smile on his face.

Wait... DAD?!

I must be more scrambled than I thought if I thought of him as my Dad. The very thought seems muffled as soon as I think it, as if someone's speaking over it. As I theorize this, my fire ruffles as if to confirm this.

Sovaĝa Fajro (So-vi-ya Fire-o). Wildfire. My fire. In response, my fire spreads a warm tingle through my body. I smile, and Vlad smiles wider. He must think I'm smiling at him... Ick.

I stand, looking expectantly at my "Dad". 

"You passed, not that I expected you to fail," beams my father.

I smile at my father, though I feel sick, and my gaze lands on Esme. Her eyebrows are slightly drawn, and she's looking at my forehead.

Oh. Oh.

Sovaĝa Fajro is saving me. She's controlling my thoughts! I'm suddenly filled with an overwhelming gratitude towards her, and I send her a mental thanks that I hope she receives. She rejects it. Strange.

"My loyalty is fully yours," I say before I even think of the words. Must be Sovaĝa Fajro...

He beams. "Now, shall we rage justice upon those awful half ghosts that abandoned you?" Justice. He must be justice. If he's completely insane, he could believe what he's doing is actually fair. So I must be either Warmth or Desire.

"How?"

"You'll see, darling."

He switches to his ghost form through a black ring, not a bright light like mine, or any of the Phantom's. I briefly wonder if the light is some reflection of the soul or something like that, but my fire gives me an uncomfortable flare to remind me to stay focused.

He snatches my wrist harshly, his fingers squeezing the sensitive flesh, and he fazes me through the floor.

Instead of a basement, there's some kind of underground lab. The whole place gives off an inhuman feel that sends shivers up my spine. I can hear crackles of electricity and groans of pain, and I never wanted to kill someone quite so much.

My mouth fills with fire as I realize what this is. 

It's a lab.

The experiments? Everyone I care about.

He leads me inside.

There are pods hanging on the walls, monitors situated beside them with bright colored readings of what I assume are vitals. Tables are scattered about the room with various objects, some medical, some scientific.  

There are only four pods in this room, where Sam, Tucker and Ashton's parents are, all hissing in pain as the electricity sparks at controlled intervals. 

"What...?" I ask, my voice dying out.

"These are the low risk brainwashed humans," explains my father.

"I'll show you 'low risk', YOU FRUITLOOP!" yells Sam, and the electricity amplifies. She cries out and grows silent, but still seething.

"Where are the others?" I ask, fighting to stay neutral, but my voice is up an octave and sounds close to panicking.

My dad eyes me suspiciously and glances towards Esme. I can't keep my emotions under control and my thoughts are much too traitorous to be read...

 Sovaĝa Fajro! I cry out, and she responds. A warmth spreads through my body and freezes up my limbs. For a second I'm paralyzed as my natural response to fight takes hold, but I force myself into trust of my fire and I loosen. 

The sensation is... strange. I can see and hear just fine, but that's the only familiar sensation. I'm trapped in the two sensations, hearing and seeing. But my body feels... Dead. I can dully sense the heat of the room, the crackle of electricity in the air and the pressure of the air, but there is nothing else. My body is controlling itself and I have no say. It's like a dream, some subconscious story that's playing through itself and I'm only there to watch.

Now that Sovaĝa Fajro is inside my consciousness, I can hear her again. 

Emma Wildfire, she begins. I have no right to be inside your mind. 

And yet you came anyway, I note. Is it possible I'm growing on you?

Let us focus on the matter at hand, she chides, but I can somehow hear the smile in those words. 

"Do you have some attachment to them?"

She speaks for me. "None."

"And your reaction?"

I stare stonily at him. "Nonexistent." He looks surprised and a bit impressed. I (or maybe my fire) notices a slight movement he makes with his hand, signalling to Esme.

She searches our mind.

She finds nothing.

Dad, satisfied once more, leads me to the next room. There are many more pods in here, almost twenty, and they're all blacked out.

"I thought that seeing them might upset you," he explains.

But I can hear them. They're screamimg. They're all screaming in the same pain. Through the overwhelming noise, which is muffled I'll admit, I can pick out Lindsey and Ashton.

I'm suddenly as grateful for Sovaĝa Fajro as I am angry at my dad. Because she's the one who keeps me from tearing his throat out.

Emma Wildfire, she warns. Justice will prevail. Calm yourself.

Justice? I ask.

Can you picture me as Warmth? She scoffs.

This piece of information shuts my anger down for just a moment, but it's enough to stop my fighting against my fire's control.

My dad is explaining something, but I could care less. I'm planning his destruction despite Sovaĝa Fajro's warnings to wait.

My dad leads me into the next room after another psych eval from Esme. Needs to make sure I'm handling this the way he wants me to.

He leads me into the next room and even my fire cringes.

If I were in possession of my one body I would've thrown up and then killed my dad.

Ellie, Jack and Danny are not in pods. They're strapped to tables. Jack's and Danny's shirts are gone. Ellie and Jack lay unharmed if terrified, but Danny...

I can't see him with all the AI's and ghosts and scientists surrounding him, but I hear his agonized sounds. He's trying not to scream.

Ectoplasm pools around the scientists' feet. Ghost blood. They're making my dad-my real dad- bleed.

My vision cuts out for a minute. I'm shocked and met with Sovaĝa Fajro again in my altered form.

"What...?"

"Justice is blind," she explains.

"Wait... so you're ready to judge Vlad?"

Her gaze hardens. "It's not hard. He must die."