cute boy comes back

Stupid!

I know, a millisecond before my hand lands on the flames, that I’ve made a grave mistake. My heart lurches as my hand grabs onto the fire.

Nothing. There is no pain, no heat. Just a vague tingling. Like there’s a hundred little ants marching across my palms. I collapse into my seat. There’s a hammer in my chest. Pounding for release. Trembling, I look down on my hand.

It’s on fire. Bright, red flames lapping at my hands, like a little dog begging for attention. It’s on fire, but I don’t feel the heat.

The hammer in my chest has grown into a power drill. Calm down. I shove my hand under the table. I can’t let anyone see this. A halo surrounds the fire, jumping and falling back onto my palm, streaming jets of vermillion, scarlet, tinged with blue. It’s incredible. My fear diminishes; the drill disappears, replaced by pure wonder and marvel.

The next thing that hits me: how am I going to walk around with a fiery hand? I need to extinguish it.

The fire goes out. I jump and fall off my chair, landing hard on my butt. All around me heads turn; the class erupts into laughter. Resan peers at me over his crescent glasses.

“A problem, Haven?”

I laugh sheepishly and right my chair quickly, before plopping myself in.

“Not a single, Mr Resan.”

I keep to myself the entire day. I can’t get over the feeling of seeing the vivid flame on my hands, the dancing fire, the deep fear of what could have happened. And, deep inside, the thrill of getting it to happen again. I don’t even know how to reenact what happened. Fire? That was there. What else? Or was that it?

My mind wanders to Rain. He’d known this would happen. And he said others had it too. Were they all the same? All fire? I replay my conversation with Rain.

“You will have something...different in you. Something like that.”

Something like that. Implication? He doesn’t actually know what I have, which means that whatever that is, it varies from person to person.

Whatever this is.

“Haven!” I turn to see Liz bounding to me, her bag bouncing as it clung desperately to her muscled shoulders. “Sorry I’m late. You good?”

I nod quickly and the both of us leave the school quickly. I’m nervous, and Liz can see it in my electric blue eyes. She stops me, brushes my long bangs away to see my face clearer. Instinctively, I avoid her gaze. I have always been self-conscious about my face, especially so when someone tries to look closely at it. I’ve got a smattering of freckles sprinkled across the bridge of my nose, light brown hair that, for the life of it, can’t stay tame, and the palest skin in canoeing.

I’m not exactly pretty.

“You don’t look too good.” Liz murmurs as she turns and continues to walk. I follow quickly, biting my lip. Should I tell her?

“I’m fine.” I decide against it. Liz shrugs. Our houses aren’t far, and we are just a couple of streets away from Liz’s house.

“Haven. Who’s that?”

I am not looking at the road, too preoccupied with my thoughts. But there is an urgency in Liz’s voice that forces me to snap my head up and look around. “What?”

“That guy.” Liz points to the far distance, revealing a figure charging full speed at us. I squints, trying to make sense of what is happening.

Wait.

Is that….Rain? His arms waving frantically at us, mouth moving, but I can’t hear anything. A few seconds later, garbled noises waft around.

“Hav….No.... They…die...Run! Haven!” As he gets closer, I can hear him better. “Haven, go! They’re after us! Go or you die! Run!” But there is no one behind Rain.

I frown. Has he gone nuts?

He doesn’t slow down even as he reaches us. “Go, go, run.” He shoves us back to where we came from. When Rain sees the both of us just standing idly, he swears loudly and grabs my hand. Liz stops him.

“Chill there, dude. We don’t even know who you are. And it just so happens you are holding onto my best friend’s hand. Before you try to take her away, you’re going to have to get through me.” Liz spreads her arms between me and Rain.

“You. Stay and don’t move.” He snaps at Liz, before pulling me away with him. “Come on!” I am yanked away from her as Rain drags me off.

Behind me, Liz screams. I whip back to see a horde of...what the hell?

Dread sinks like a stone in my stomach.

God, we're fucked.