Burn Zone - A Psion Case File

Chapter Five

Justice grabbed the man's right wrist and yanked down the sleeve. The tattooed flame was there, just like Caroline said.

"Why?" Justice asked. "Why kill all those people?"

When he didn't get any answer, he looked at Austin and gave him a nod.

Austin stepped up.

The second he did, the psycho bucked in fear. He started thrashing against Justice to try and get away, but it was useless.

Austin shot Justice an inquisitive glance. He was getting the sense that the perp knew about his ability. The man was clearly keeping his eyes away from Austin on purpose.

But how would the creep know about me? And not only that, but about my ability?

The only people that know are Kim and Justice.

He turned away from his own thoughts and re-focused on what was going on. Then he looked over at Justice and gave him a nod.

Justice immediately grabbed Lenny's head and held it still. When Lenny realized he couldn't escape, he shut his eyes. Justice growled in anger. He took Lenny's head and slammed it into the wall. He kept refusing to open his eyes, but Justice wouldn't relent.

"Open 'em!" he screamed. "Now!"

Lenny stubbornly shook his head but eventually the continued assault was too much and they popped open.

And then Austin scanned him.

Scanning people always felt the same. First, the person's pupils would expand hugely. Then it felt like he was sinking into a black hole, only the black hole was the person's soul. After that, it was a trippy mess of images, sounds, and all kinds of other weird shit until he came to again. That was the only way he knew how to describe the sensation.

He fell into the darkness and after what seemed like an eternity, objects and images coalesced around him. He saw a baby in a carriage guided by a loving mother's hand. The baby was a boy. There were blurred, half-real images of the baby growing up into toddlerhood. Then another baby was in the picture. This one was a girl. The boy grew older and as he did, he developed an unusual talent. That talent made him feel special. But it also twisted him. He started to feel superior to ordinary people. As he grew older, those feelings intensified and turned him into the monster he currently was.

There were images of different things he'd burned down. Of different things he'd killed with his fire. The fire he controlled. Like a god!

Then They found him and put him on the righteous path. The only path.

To kill them all! The normal ones. The ones who were inferior.

The first people he was ordered to kill was his own family. He was supposed to wipe out the weakness in his own blood. And he did it without hesitation. He wanted them dead. Especially his mother. She was the one he really wanted to kill. To be born from a normal. Him? A god! It was blasphemous. Unnatural. But she hadn't been inside when he torched her house to the ground. It made him furious that she escaped her fate. The fate HE laid out for her. But he got Lyla. He got his sister, yes he did! He roasted her and it felt so good watching her die under his flames. Eaten alive by them. Next, was Dale he decided. He knew his mother loved that sorry son of bitch. He'd wanted that old bastard to be next because he wanted her to suffer (and he just hated the boring, vanilla asshole anyway).

It was a good thing she wasn't in the first fire, he decided. Now he could force her to lose everything she loved and make her end as painful as possible.

He missed roasting Dale the first time. He burned his shop down but Dale wasn't there. Just some kid that worked there. But that was fine. The normals all had to die anyway. And it still felt good. It still felt good to watch them shrivel and turn black.