Where did it all go wrong?

"Lucas remember not to take it too far" An elderly man said with an authoritative voice.

"Mmh, I know, I, I won't do it again…" A young man responded timidly.

"Good we wouldn't want anyone growing suspicious after all…" The man said out aloud more as if airing his own thoughts then talking to the youngster.

As the young man took the hand of the elderly, wrinkles all across of his exposed skin outside of his expensive clothes slowly started smoothening out and the almost completely dried out grey hair seemed to regain some lushness.

Shortly after noticing visible changes on the man Lucas removed his hand and the elderly man realized a breath of contentment.

"Ahh the feeling after each of your treatment. It is as if a great burden has been released from this old body." The elderly man got up and walked away without saying another word except for a single nod of approval.

The room the two were staying in was completely white and only held a luxurious and comfortable armchair for the patient to sit in while Lucas had to be content with a simple stool.

Within moments of the elder leaving the room a beautiful woman wearing a gaudy dress entered.

"Lucas can you believe it!? I've gotten another wrinkle, look! Just look at it!" The woman hysterically proclaimed angrily while pointing at her left eye. A tiny wrinkle could barely be made out at the corner of her eye.

"Now you better fix this quickly since my hubby and I have an appointment in another 2 hours, so chop chop, get to it!"

After taking care of four more people, a part of the wall on his left slowly raised itself opening up the way to a connecting room and signalling that no more people would be coming by to get treated.

Entering what could be called his living space Lucas ignored the plate of food lying on a table and simply went to lay down on his bed.

Why would he have to do this day in and day out, stuck in this prison for most likely the rest of his sorry existence. Well to a certain degree he knew he had himself to blame for this mess.

Thinking back when was it he noticed…

"Oh, what's this? Why did you draw a little flame inside of everything? You've even put it inside the trees" the teacher in charge of the four-year-old Lucas asked him.

"What do you mean? Everyone has one, don't they?" Lucas asked confused while looking around. All the other children including his teacher and even the plants by the window had a small blue whiteish flame burning of different sizes gently burning inside of them.

"Ah you mean a soul Lucas? Yes, yes of course everyone has one" She told him while nodding as if to agree, turning around and with a smaller voice she asked herself. "I never knew his family was that religious…teaching even a four-year-old…"

That he was different…

"Dad, dad! Look little Frisky's fire went out!" With a panicky voice he yelled for his dad afraid of seeing the first fire in something going out and having no idea of what it meant.

"Fire? What fire? This is…oh well you see little Frisky has gone to sleep, and well won't be waking up anytime soon but don't you worry. He'll, ehm, he'll be back next week." Lucas father answered a bit hesitantly while looking at the family's hamster. While gently rubbing Lucas head he mumbled. "He's only six…to young…we'll have…get a new…"

And could do things no one else could…

"Oh no…Bear's fire has almost gone out, I don't want him to leave like little Frisky. There has to be something I can do." Tightly hugging the Alaskan Klee Kai that looked just like a polar bear pup when they first got him, they aptly named him bear.

Lucas knew that it would be bad if the fire went out, but what could he do?

Somehow, he had to make it grow, it had to burn bigger and brighter…if only he could stoke the flame somehow…?

Strangely he could feel something leaving his body and with its loss, a tiredness he had never felt before came over him.

Bear on the other hand who had appeared lethargic before quickly became energetic and started wagging its tail while licking Lucas face as if possessed.

So, he made a plan…

"Uhh, school is so boring I'm already sixteen, my grades are only so-so and I will have to go to college next year. I am so sick of working in the post office with dad, just working there the last few summers were enough for me." Lucas sat by his computer contemplating on what to do with his future.

Looking around he could see the ant farm he and Kev was raising as their biology project, seeing hundreds of tiny flames crawling around in there it was sort of surreal, sometimes he preferred seeing people through a screen since then he didn't have to think about the flame at all…

"Wait a minute! How could I be so dumb, I've been keeping these powers of mine hidden for almost ten years now, shouldn't I try and do some good and maybe get a little something for the trouble?" As if a bolt from nowhere had hit him he remembered a news article he'd recently read.

The Business Tycoon Edward Hamilton has offered a great reward for anyone that could prolong his life, even if just for a short while!

That he thought was perfect…

"Great this will definitely work, I got my hoodie and wearing a face mask to cover my face while saying it's to protect Edward from becoming sick. I also got my gloves on me so I won't leave any fingerprints. This is going to be awesome! Me saving people and getting paid at the same time with zero effort…ah, I must be a genius."

That was the first time he ever healed a human being and revealed his specialness to another person.

-

"Now I hope he kept his promise, I asked him to drop the bag behind the big maple tree in the park, there's only one of em so shouldn't be too hard. Besides I only asked for fifty big one's should be no problem for such a rich guy."

-

"Hey what are you doing, this wasn't part of the deal!"

"Young man you're going to have to come with us, you're under suspicion of being involved in the unlawful usage of substances that may or may not result in great danger to the public"

-

"So, how did you do it? Hmm…playing hard to get I see, well we can always fix that."

-

Lucas was put into a cell of complete darkness. He had no idea how long he was in there, but he was given no food, only water and his only company was a constantly buzzing sound that almost drove him mad by the end. He thought he was in there for perhaps three days, but in the darkness, it was hard to tell, and what did it matter anyways when he caved in and told them everything anyways.

Then came the tests, and oh were there tests for him to go through.

They took his blood, tissue, bone marrow…and the number of machines he had to go through was uncountable. They wanted to know the effects both imminent and long lasting and was there any restriction to it?

Going through a multitude of trial and error it was found out that Lucas could in short boost the natural healing in both himself and others. He could heal deadly wounds within seconds or at the longest he would need a few minutes. He was unable to regrow limbs but reattaching them was easy, the normal damage to the nerves was not something that would occur when his powers were used.

Using him to cure cancer had proven fruitless however, while he could super boost a person's immune system to fight poisons, viruses, bacteria's etc. cancer wasn't seen as something bad by the body itself and using his power could in turn make the cancer progress at a quicker pace.

He had however during a testing been able to keep dying cancer patient alive for two whole days by constantly stoking the fire inside of the patient leading to the patient staying alive until Lucas himself fainted from exhaustion which had led to the patient dying within a short few minutes.

The greatest discovery however was that he could reverse aging amongst people, could you believe it! Eternal life! The scientists had gone mad at that point almost directly strapping him to a gurney and cutting him open to see how he worked on the spot.

Luckily some had argued that it wouldn't do to kill the golden goose, while some had simply stated that it was alright since he could always heal himself…

The final verdict had come from above however, and it was that he was to be studied slowly and carefully while confined and using his powers to take care of VIP's.

So here he was, stuck as a lab rat with no idea of how long he'd already been in the place. While the treatment wasn't all "bad", he had absolutely no freedom only allowed to reside within his "living quarter" unless he was giving treatment or going to participate in some "jolly cooperation" with the researchers.

"I really messed up life didn't I…I wonder how mom and dad are doing, I guess Bear is gone now that I am gone, then again he had a long life for a dog right?" Turning over on the bed and watching the white wall he wondered if maybe he should ask for some paintings to hang on the walls to liven up the place a bit, maybe…

Complete darkness suddenly swallowed the room.