Internal Battle

For the rest of the day at work, Amanda often spaced-out, just looking past the tables and thinking about her life's predicament and the sudden arrival of one Christopher Towns.

For someone who could attend to all customers within the restaurant, Amanda preferred to work in the kitchen for the last hour of her shift, merely drowning her hands in water, washing dishes.

At some point, she just stared at her soaked hands and allowed a tear to fall down her cheek.

'My gift... my power... and my curse,' she repeated silently as her own warmth dried the wetness on her face in seconds. It was as if she never shed a tear.

"Amanda! What are you doing? Flooding the kitchen?" Andrew Kent called her attention, seeing the water overflow from the sink.

Amanda opened her mouth, just dumbfounded by her actions. She quickly shut off the water and said, "I - I'm sorry, Andrew. I'll clean it up."

"I would not have it any other way, Amanda."

While everyone else was getting ready to leave, she was cleaning up her own mess, mopping the kitchen floors. Another half an hour passed and finally, it was time for her to get home. Amanda skirred out of the cafe, not minding the small raindrops that gradually fell from the sky.

Heading out to the coast, the rain poured heavily, saturating all her clothes. Her tears fell down with the rain, making her breath deeply. The minute she arrived at her house, she dropped her two-wheeled vehicle, running to the angry shores.

"Why? Why! Why did it have to be me?!" She asked the skies for the reason for her curse. "Why did it have to be this way?"

In the utter darkness of the waterfront, where rain showered violently, she revealed the power in her palm and lighted her surroundings in seconds. "Until when? When will I be cursed this way?!"

After seconds of questioning her gift, she curled her hands into a fist, and gone was the source of her strength. It was back again to where it lived inside of her.

Amanda closed her eyes and mulled over her past.

The last person she touched was a little girl whom she looked after at the orphanage. Amanda treated her like her sister and often visited her in secret. Amanda recalled her innocent yet loving embrace and how it felt like she was just like that girl; normal.

It was because she was an orphan herself that Amanda loved children and swore to protect them with her strength.

However, one eventful day, three years back, she saved the same youth from falling off the third-floor balcony in the middle of the night. Upon carrying her back inside, the girl suddenly cried in pain.

She let go of the youth and saw burn marks on her back and legs, right where she held her. Then, in a fraction of a second, Amanda went up in flames. If she delayed holding the girl in her arms, Amanda would have been responsible for the life of one precious youth.

The other masters had to look after the girl as she fled to tame her flames, disappearing into thin air. Since then, she never returned to see her friend again. Since then, she isolated herself from the world, jumping from one secluded town to another.

For three years, that has been her life. She lived alone. She lived in secret. She warred against herself, against her own strength. It was an internal battle she could barely win... not without the blue crystal master... or so the heart master told.

It was not too long ago since she found this secret place; a small town of Trinity Bay, an island, far from civilization and rarely visited by others. This was where she had made a shelter for almost a year.

Recalling the mystery man who held her hand. She pondered on how he could feel not the heat of her skin. She earnestly hoped he would be the one - the answer to her prayers. The person to control her growing powers; the blue crystal master.

She opened her eyes again, in the pain of the truth, yet something within her also shed light on her ability.

Her vision turned dark again as she shut back her eyes. She thought back to the smiles she had brought... to the lives she had saved.

To the fishermen who survived a wreck in the polar regions, they endured because of her warmth. While the seas in the arctics could easily kill a man in minutes, the fishermen survived for over an hour as she hid deeper into the seas, warming the waters for the men to get through.

Not too long ago, horrors crept into the night in an insignificant town in Europe. She eliminated them with her bare flames, preventing bloodshed and the discovery of another world, one they had kept secret from the human world. The discovery of the unknown was far too threatening to the average human race.

"Amanda, how many young and homeless children have you given warmth in the past? How many have lived through winter without any shoes?" Tears fell down her cheeks again, but they were barely visible against the rain.

Since she was young, having no one to call her parents, she had experienced true endeavors in life. She had long wanted to make a difference, but she never expected the magnitude of this strength... the crystal inside of her.

Amanda lowered her head to study her feet - her soaked self. Only then did she look around. While her words were mute compared to the roaring rain, she reminded herself, "Don't be selfish, Amanda. Your power is your gift... A gift to humankind... It is - it is not a curse."

She turned around to find her shack. She bathed and warmed herself before resting that night.

Just before she closed her eyes, she said, "Soon, Amanda. Soon. You will find the blue crystal master and you'll never be... alone again."