Magic Children

Chapter 4 Wabash, Indiana - Vali

On the night of the great fire, the fire that consumed Lyons, a burning light was seen glowing in the sky. Residents reported that, as the town burned, a cold front blew in. Mysteriously overtaking the town, freezing the firemen's hoses as they sought to put out the blaze. Local clinics were treating both burns and severe frostbite.

And above the cursed town, hanging in the sky, was a glowing figure. Like the body of one of the dead was swept up in the indescribably night winds, to be caught there against the stars. Eternally burning.

Experts reported that it was nothing. Fantastically, these expert people were brought in to say nothing was there. No one was ever there. There was not the figure of some—tortured phoenix, hanging there, watching the destruction it had caused. He definitely didn't rise up in a pillar of his own flames to watch people scream and burn. No remorse. Just contempt for all things that were not his precious Aurora. Not special in and of herself. But for some reason, probably not even known to him, the only creature to ever gain a place in his hard heart.

I was sure he found her. Why not? He had—hours head start on any emergency response that came to contain him. And he clearly could not be contained.

They confessed some, the government. They admitted that one of their mutants caused the fire. But that he died. That Angel Tlaco died that night, nothing but ash, after causing so much destruction he quite literally burnt himself out.

But I know that's not true. They do too. The official story is far too neat. He didn't die. They lost him. They lost him. And it's up to me to get him back.