Flamed

Nobody Controls Me

The dim light of the laptop reflected on the diner's window. We had stopped to eat at Bridget's. A local diner that apparently had great reviews on Trip Advisor. Not to mention they had Wi-Fi, which was a plus since I hadn't seen a single social media site since we left. It was 12am and the once overcrowded diner grew vacant over the lapse of an hour. The diner had booths all along sides where the windows faced the empty city night. And there we sat, the four of us practically eating each of our electronics. Lizbeth, was on Instagram getting up to speed, Brian on Kik texting whomever was willing to answer, Anthony on Netflix watching some kind of anime show, and I was googling (as in google search) how much these Sapiens actually knew about our existence. Which resulted in that they either were conspiracy freaks or just plain blind as to our existence.

"I'm sorry, but my boss says that if you're not ordering anything you have to leave" a girl in her twenties spoke to us holding a small notepad in her hands. "Are you ordering?" she frowned.

"Uh yeah sure, I'll have an order of French fries. And a cup of coffee, dark. Any of you guys want anything?" I asked

"Coffee, light" Lizbeth said with her eyes still glued to the phone.

"Ok, anything else?" said the waitress.

"Yeah I'll have a grilled cheese and a coke" Anthony said.

"And I'll have a hamburger, no pickles"

"Okay, I'll be right back with your orders" said the waitress, who I should call Andrea since that's what it said on her name tag.

Everyone continued to do whatever they were doing until Lizbeth caught our attention. "I got it!" she squealed.

"What...?" asked Brian.

"I got it. I have this friend, who has a friend, who knows a guy that hacks, like really good" she said gesturing her phone.

"So?" I asked.

"So, he can try and hack on to the council's main server! And we can read all of those dirty little secrets of theirs" a mischievous smirk crept along her face.

"So, your plan is hack their servers, and use all the information against them?" asked Anthony.

"Yeah, pretty much" she said slumping back into the seat.

"And do you seriously think they don't have some major fire walls or even spells blocking those kinds of things?" Brian asked in disagreement.

Lizbeth put phone down on the table and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I never said what kind of hacker he was" the waitress came and put all our orders on the table. As soon as she left Lizbeth continued. "He's a genius hacker and has powers. How about that Mr. Know-it-all"

And very slightly my eyes started to lose focus. A searing pain spread across my head, feeling like my brain was being ripped off. I couldn't make out anything, my vision had blurred completely. And at the corner of my eyes everything started to become darker and darker. I could hear Lizbeth shouting at me, asking me what was wrong. But I heard her as if she was at the end of a very long echo-ish tunnel. I could barely see someone grabbed me and laid me down on the floor, by the colors of his outfit I think its Anthony.

"Paige...Paige...look at me...Paige" he said, his voice echoing through my imaginary tunnel.

Then suddenly everything went dark.

***

I was lying on the floor, darkness surrounded me and an odd chill pulsed through my body.

"Where am I...?" I croaked, standing up and examining my surroundings.

It was all dark I couldn't even see my hands in the absorbing darkness. I walked a few feet forward and then stopped abruptly as a booming voice came from all around.

"It's good to see you again Paige" the voice boomed loudly, but there was something in the way he said my name that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge.

This voice was the same one that haunted me for the first months of my journey. Before I even left my world, before I even killed. I had forgotten completely of this voice, with all the drama and ayah's kidnapping, it had slipped my mind completely. That is until now.

"Who are you? Where am I?" tears began streak my face in fear. What is this place? How did I get here? If this 'voice' is powerful enough to take me somewhere like this, I don't want to know what else is out there.

"You know what I am. Isn't that enough?" the voice chuckled and continued. "You are in a kind of twilight zone my child. And no, there is no way out unless I let you out"

"What are you going to do with me?"

"Certainly not eat you, if that's what you're implying" I let myself fall to the floor not knowing where to look.

"What do you want?"

"Very well, I see you are in no mood for humor. I want you to stop this hacking non-sense your friend has going on. I mean, is it really the best of options? Think about it."

"If it was non-sense why wouldn't you want us to hack the servers? There's nothing there to find out, at least that's what you implied..." if this guy wants to play reverse psychology, bring it.

"Uhh well, you can-I mean you can't-well you can but you won't find anything, so why do it?" his calm fluid voice was gone, replaced by nervous babbling.

Finally, I felt some of my energy, of my sense come back. I felt stronger, like I could get out of here on my own terms.

"You know what 'voice' I'm out of here whether you like it or not. No 'voice' is controlling me, not now, not ever. Find another elemental to do mind control on" the darkness in the space began to lift, my body started to feel lighter, like I was floating.

"Wait! You do not come here and leave without my consent! What are you doing stop! I demand you to stop this instant! I control you! Stop!"

I began to float away leaving the unwanted voice behind.

In the distance I could see myself lying on the floor, it felt weird looking at myself. I knew it was me, obviously, but it felt like I was looking at another person, another body. This is how I looked like to everyone else huh?

I felt myself entering my body. I slowly tried to open my eyes squinting into the sudden light. But staring at me, with his face a few inches too close to mine, stood a pair of rich brown eyes eyeing my worriedly.

"Paige...?"