Magic Children

Chapter 50 Almafi Coast, Italy - Angel

I stare at the clear, crystal blue water and watch as the waves predictably rise back to the shore. I'm alone now. Just a man dressed in black, standing on a beach. People barely glance at me. The atrocities in America are all over the news, certainly. They think it was a terrorist attack. They don't imagine it was one of the mutants. Because mutants can't control fire.

Which is why I'm not one.

I'm just a man. Walking down a beach. Completely free.

My business isn't finished yet, of course. But I have plenty of time to rest. While I plan my next move. My wife and child are still captives there. All in good time though. I have nothing in the world but time now don't I?

Yes enjoy your freedom while you have it Angel. I'd make some crude threats about sending you to hell but let's face it, I'd rather keep you alive in a new bunker in the artic somewhere so I can check up every so often and watch you slowly drive yourself insane with suffering.

"I don't know what makes you think you'll win," I say, picking up a rock and tossing it off into the sea. Just as I reaches the water I pull the heat from it with all my might. And it crumbles into ash. I smile.

Oh I probably won't. I might even die trying. But rest assured. Aurora won't live to see another sunrise. Nor will your daughter.

"What?" I stop, my blood running cold. He wouldn't. Would he?

He would. If only to hurt you. You've got the brawn Angel but I haven't got a soul. I would kill her just to see you suffer.

"So why haven't you?" I ask, my voice shaking. Why wouldn't she come with me? I told her to trust me then she hid with them? Vali, trapped her in his damn force field.

How do you know I haven't?

"Arthur---Arthur," I spin around, "I will never trouble you again---I will—"

Too late.

"No," he killed her? Like that he killed her? After all this time? Why didn't she trust me? Hot tears run down my cheeks. She should have trust me. I told her to wait for me. But I couldn't warp her out of Vali's damn force field. And now she's gone. Of course she is.

It's a memory I plan to save.

"No—" and the familiar feeling of cold washes over me and my vision clouds with the images of a burnt, ashen landscape. And Aurora is there, in that blue dress she was wearing. And she's screaming. She's screaming as grey and red matter runs out of her nose and ears, then she stops scream and her eyes bulge and bubble out.

"STOP IT," I fall down and feel the sand beneath me as a little girl, my little girl, meets the same fate. I can hear people crying out in the background as though trying to stop it. But the little girl is also twisting on the ground, helpless as her brain melts out her eyes and ears. It takes me a moment, and staring at the green jacket, to realize it's the little girl from the records center. That was Aurora's daughter. Newly freed and trying to go home. And neither of us wise enough to recognize the other. What was her name? Damn it---she didn't tell me. Neither of them said her name.

It doesn't matter as she's dead.

"I'll burn you for this," I say, as I crawl to my feet, my vision slowly clearing to the once again idyllic beach. Just shy of twilight with the purple haze of night settling comfortably over the town.

You were going to burn me anyway. Till later Angel.

"You bastard," I'll keep him alive just to burn him. All I asked for was my freedom and Aurora. My family. My family again. Now the one thing I wished for, destroyed forever. Now I can never have them back. And the child---sure Aurora chose me---but the child did not. It didn't even know me---she my daughter didn't even know me she wanted home and safety and freedom. And that was stolen from her

So be it then. If it's war Arthur wants it's war he'll have. And I will not hesitate to let the world  burn.

The End