Set Alight

Chapter 32

"How can you hope to defeat me?" he asks, capturing my knight.

In turn, I capture his rook, but don't answer. I will not be bated. Yes, chess is his game. But in the weeks that Sovaĝa Fajro has been in my mind, I've seen so much and my mind has expanded. My intelligence is far above Vlad's even if I lack the experience.

Moving my piece in response to his taking a pawn, I prepare my final move I'd been preparing. He smirks as he captures my queen.

"I've captured your most important piece," he gloats. "How are you going to capture my king?"

"It might have the most moves, but the others can capture just as well." I pick up my last pawn. "Sometimes it only takes a couple weaker pieces to topple the greatest piece." I place the pawn. "Checkmate."

His humor dissolves and his eyes rake the board, mentally mapping out my moves. In a rage, he upends the table. "NO!" He roars, fire dancing around him.

"What?! How's your fire here..."

He slams his fist into a nearby bookshelf, sending it into flames. I gasp, my memories going up in flames.

"You're not following the rules!" I roar, jumping in front of him before he can destroy anymore of my memories. "This is a neutral place! There aren't supposed to be fires allowed in here!"

He smirks, his fire dancing. "My dear Esme left a back door, if you will, open last time she was in here. And my fire, unlike yours, doesn't follow such rules."

"You can't destroy things in here!"

"Can't, or please don't?" He sends another bookshelf up in flames. I could never remember the memories destroyed. I have to stop him.

"Get out!"

"You can't expel me until someone wins."

"I won!!"

"Ah, but I changed the game."

"No!"

He burns yet another bookshelf.

"Dad, don't!"

"Now I'm your dad again?"

No, he's not my dad... But what was his name again? I can't let him destroy anything more! Then I remember, my mind...

Another bookshelf goes up, and my memory I had been recalling is gone.

"STOP!"

My scream startles him, but does no more. Then I actually do remember Danny Phantom's Ghostly Wail. I may not have brought my fire here, but I'm still half ghost.

I summon every well of power inside me and release it in another scream. Vlad goes flying into a nearby bookshelf.

"If I erase enough," Vlad theorizes, burning the bookshelf he'd flown into. "You'll forget any of this ever happened. You'll forget you're a ghost, what you found out about me, who Daniel is."

"You can't do that," I plead, trying to get in his way. "Sovaĝa Fajro hid those memories. She took them away when you were looking for them!"

"So I'll erase anything but!" he declares.

I have to clear the library. He burns. I place a hand on a shelf just like Sovaĝa Fajro did, but nothing happens.

I don't know what she did with them...

It's my mind, though. Shouldn't I be able to do whatever I want? Why did we go in my mind?!

I need to do something!