Buddy

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I wake up hours later, my body embedded in a cradling of ice and flooring. Frozen shards zip through the air as I break free of a crisp grip. A tension headache pulses and stings across my forehead like a crown of thorns. Blinking through the pain I see the stone my dad and his god emerged from is closed. I immediately rush to it and place my hand upon it to see him one more time, but it doesn't open.

     "It's locked down," my mom tells me as she sits up from a nearby cot. "When you imbued the stone with your flame, it perceived you as a threat. It won't open again," she reveals with a comforting hand.

     "Why would it see me as a threat?" I demand, a tight brown fist banging against its form as I do. "I am a flameling like dad, right?"

     "That hunk of metal was once your father's escape pod. When he left behind everything and everyone he knew, he was cryogenically frozen inside until he reached the warmth of a new sun. That consciousness you saw, the god Kah-neel, was like the brain of the pod. It was meant to protect Isaiah in his pod in all the time it took him to get here." Mom sighs as she runs a hand a cross the surface herself. "Isaiah worked out a temporary bypass with his own consciousness the night he knew he needed to leave. That's the only reason you were allowed to open it and speak to him. And its also why his flame is the only thing that can activate it."

     "Wait! This is the database?" I require, stunned by an unassuming simplicity that holds such power. "This is what the SIA is after?"

     "Yes," she calmly reveals. "Kah-neel's spirit kept an auditory and visual log of every gifted being we've ever come across through a technique similar to the one your father used to embed his consciousness."

     "And why are you so eager to tell me about the database now?"

     "Drew Bastion already knows what the database is," Mom explains as she rides a mahogany hand against the smooth crimson. "He's just never known the location and never had a key. You had temporary access to open it. Now that it's gone, I feel confident telling you this."

     "So a portion of this town is full of gifted beings." I rundown. "The SIA knows that because of me, because of that video. And they want the information inside the database to hunt us down and God knows what else. What do we do now?"

     "There is no we," mom bites with a demanding glare. Her voice suddenly bargains with me. "Now you let me handle it in the light and in the shadow. No more fire Shiloh. And no more fighting. Please. No matter what."

     "And what am I supposed to do? Just go to school? And look all the kids who probably still believe I tried to kill them in the face?"

     "Yes! Go to school and stand in your truth. You don't fit the description of the arsonist, and you didn't hurt Celeste. The only thing you're guilty of is loving Keon. And if that's a crime, we should all be locked away."

"Keon!" I kick myself with raised eyebrows and sudden palm sweats. The mention of his name has my hands reaching for my phone. Mom chuckles at my panic as I pat about for my phone. I find it nestled closely in my jacket pocket beside the weird, men-in-black ear piece.

     "I thought that would do the trick," mom jests as she walks over to me with an open arm. "Go to school and just be a kid. I promise I'll take care of this."

     "Fine. I'll go," I give in as mom ushers me from the secret bunker and back above ground. I break daylight going back and forth between, hygiene, scouring the cracked screen of my iPhone for his notifications, and what to wear to school.

     I settle on a plush navy hoodie under my leather jacket, random dark boohoo jeans, and simple black huaraches for extra comfort. I know the school day will be rough with rumors of me spreading like a flame across my body. And driving to school I imagine even 3rd graders must have an opinion of me by now.

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