Disenchanted

2- Hell Fire

I put three books and a lunch pale inside of Alice's backpack. She's been kind of sick so I've let her stay home these past few days.

"Alice, you're going to miss the bus!" My voice echoes for a moment until she steps out of her room "Ugh okay, I'm ready." She grumbles, rubbing her eyes.

"Don't forget your clarinet, Ali. You have band rehearsal after school." I remind her after giving her a quick pat on the back.

Alice jerks away. "You can stop trying to be mom now."

Alice's head hangs low, and both of us stay silent for the rest of the morning. This is how it always is and the tension building between us lately is unbearable. Then again, how exactly are two grief stricken children suppose to handle moments like this?

As Alice boards her bus, I lock up the house to go check on who exactly is going to be executed today, but on my way to the calender, I notice something weird through the window.

Right above the tree line, bright red and orange fade into grey smoke. I'm no stranger to fire, in fact I see it all the time.

There shouldn't be any kind of forest fire though. It's mid-January, and currently 20 degrees outside, so any kind of natural fire starting would be pretty fucking strange and there's no way in hell that we've had a drought. Especially with my newfound mental instability. To be honest, I've been so worked up lately it wouldn't shock me if they found out it was me causing it all. I guess it's gonna happen some day. I mean, my buddy Andrew was taken away for playing "cult" music. Imagine what they'd do to some kid who makes it storm when he cries or shoots water out of his hands like a French whore's punani.

I put on a coat, scarf and sunglasses to mask myself. If I was caught even near the fire I'd be hung, but I can't just let a fire this bad go. As much as I hate purposely using my ability I have to do what I have to do to prevent the whole damn town from burning down. I make my way to the forest. Nobody else seems to notice but it's a Wednesday so all of the kids are in school and all do the adults are in church. There's no real reason why any of them would be outside.

I get closer and closer to the fire. It burns my face even though I'm probably 100 feet away from it. When I take pictures of executions, I would normally stay pretty far away and just zoom my camera in. Fire probably hurts me way worse than it would any normal person. I can feel my skin crawling as I get closer and when I can't get any closer without hurting myself I stop.

I start to think about my parents. I think of all the awful things that could potentially happen, and what would happen if they took Alice away. All these painful, repressed, memories bring a large storm cloud. It sits directly above me, and the rest of the woods for that matter. I put my hands up and flood the forest. Water begins to rush around me as I fall to the ground. The rain clouds pour and the fire starts to die down.

As much as I hate to admit it, I secretly love fire and hate to kill such a beautiful thing. I've always been mesmerized by the way the flames dance and spark, but I can't get too close to it without feeling like my skin is being ripped off or just being reminded of my old friends reaching out to me as they burned alive.If I could get close to the fire I would. It just hurts too much. Mentally and physically.

The fire is almost completely gone now, so I take this as an opportunity to walk through the now black forest to make sure there was nobody hurt down here or to make sure that whoever thought it would be a good idea to start a fire was still down here. I walk for what seems like hours, getting lost in the way the trees fade from black to grey with small bits of green still clinging to life. Eventually I stumble in a small meadow, where the burnt tree branches protect the muddy ground from the sun. Its a shame that the fire destroyed the forest's beauty.

A small flame sits in the middle of the clearing. It looks almost like a bonfire, so controlled and neat. I wonder what it would be like to control fire rather than water and whether or not it'd hurt as much as the water does when it rushes through my body.

I sit down and watch the fire for a bit. It's nice to see from a distance. I'm deep enough in the woods that nobody will find me and the fire is small enough to easily control.

A scream-like wail comes from the bonfire. I run to get a little closer to it. Whatever animal that got trapped in there must be in agony right now.

Should I make it rain or let it die? If the water puts the fire out, there's no telling if the animal will live through it's injuries or just suffer until it finally does die. Then again, it could live and if it is in too much pain I could just hit it with a rock or something, so I conjure up some more repressed emotions. The animal screams again, but this time it sounds like a person.

It screams one more time. Out from the fire comes a woman's desperate scream for help.

AN: I hope you liked chapter two! Please let me know your critiques or compliments in the comments. Have a nice day! XOXO