Fire's Catching

Chapter 7 - Dark days are coming

I look over at Joy. She's literally floating. What? She looks like she's straight out of a movie. Her legs are crossed, her wrists resting on her knees. She has her eyes closed, and out of her mouth comes a slight humming of the same tune she hummed at the clearing a few days ago. Her body is about three feet off the ground. I don't think she knows that.

The door opens violently. Grey appears in the doorframe. They look over at Joy and their jaw drops. I meet their eye and mouth the words I know. Their head swings back towards Joy, the silver hair elegantly following. If the light hits their hair at the perfect time, it almost looks as if it's shining. Not that I've been looking at their hair. I haven't.

Grey charges towards Joy but stops in their tracks when Joy suddenly stops humming and gently descend onto the couch. Just as she touched the fabric, her eyes open.

"D-did anything happen? I didn't feel anything," she whispers unsurely. Grey and I look at each other.

"You... you didn't notice anything? Anything at all?" Grey asks, extremely confused.

"No?" Joy looks down at her hands. "Was I supposed to?"

"Uh, yeah? You were floating, Joy!"

"Oh."

"Oh? That's all? You can fly!" Grey is waving their hands.

Joy looks extremely uncomfortable and ashamed.

"Hey, Joy," I sit down next to her and put my hand on her shoulder. "Do you know what this means?"

She shrugs, her eyes glazed over with slight tears.

"You can fly!" I repeat what Grey said.

Joy looks up at me with a sort of look I can't quite decipher.

"Oh." She says again, this time with more excitement.

"Yeah."

"Perhaps this means that we should continue practicing?" Grey puts pressure on the end of the sentence.

"That's probably a good idea," I answer. "It would be smart to look more at Joy's power, seeing that she can most likely do anything with some sort of music."

"I think your power is more important, Forrest."

"Really?" I ask hesitantly. I'm not sure if I agree, but I'll just go with it. We'll have time for Joy later. "Okay."

"Do you think you could conjure a vision without the entire ritual now that you know what it feels like?"

"Maybe, I'll have to try," I close my eyes. I try to feel the same thread in the back of my mind, but I really don't think it'll work. I stand like that for about a minute or two before opening my eyes again. "I didn't see any-" Almost immediately after talking, I'm dragged into somewhere else. This time, there's no thread, glowing ball of blue light, or cinema. I'm standing in ruins. And before me is what I assume to be Valentina, surrounded by fire. Next to me is a really beaten-up Grey and a shivering Joy. Valentina disappears into the smoke, and I open my eyes. This feels recent. Like it's just about to happen. And I think I know where.