Fire Star (a Merome story)

{chapter eleven} stone rose

MITCH'S POV 

I am frozen in place, I urge my feet to move but they are ridiculously slow. I know what is going to happen and in. A split second later the sound which has damaged my ears to the point of oblivion stops just as an earth-shattering explosion. In the end he would always win, but I would not give him the satisfaction yet. 

With a quickness I had never known before I dodged the blast and quickly rolled over to the edge of the crater. He looked smug and impressed at the same time, I gasped for air in return. Then I knew something would go terribly wrong. Without thinking I tried to move my foot but realised it was frozen in place. A grey substance was spreading up my leg and onto my jacket. 

I realised what was happening and tried to pull the most confident face in human history as the stone spread onto my face.

Crap.

JEROME'S POV

Seto's last blaze rod had dissolved into the mixture and the potion was fizzling over the side of the pot.

"Jerome!!!!" Sky yelled from outside, his footsteps echoing against the tarmac outside the wizard's base.

I poked my head out the window.

"He's alive." 

My heart nearly stopped as I gawped in utter shock. I felt my chest break into tiny little pieces. Without Seto's potion? How. Maybe my words had worked.

"Quick! Bring the potion!"

In my haste I grabbed the potion and jumped out the bedroom window and landed in the garden. 

"How?"

"He won't be alive for much longer if we don't...." Sky trailed off and looked towards a tall shape in the distance. "It's Seto. You'll see when we get there."

"What happened." I growled. To the side of me Jason shook his head at Sky who shook his solemnly back.

Jason grabbed us both and launched into the air and my breath was taken away once again.

The last thing I see is Sky's face dragging against the grass.

SETO'S POV

He was skilled for a mortal. He dodged everything I seemed to throw at him, seemingly faster than anything I could throw at him. By the look on Mitch's face, he had no idea how fast he was going. 

I knew I could just kill him there and then but it was too entertaining. The purple in my brain was so happy. God damn, just get hit you incompetent Canadian! It looked almost impressive like one of those movies the Team had told me about where those badass people survive those huge catastrophes. 

"That all you got?" He challenged 

His hair flopped down over his eyes- it would have looked cool but then I realised he couldn't actually see- as he gasped for breath.

"I'm impressed... Almost. But that was easy mode."

My savage animal instincts kicked in and what I did next was uncontrollable. Before I knew what I was doing he froze in place as tiny particles of stone ran up his leg. He realised what I was doing to him and he looked me dead in the eyes before his face froze forever in time. I smiled at his puny resistance. Stupid freak, I thought to myself.

With my new-found power, I constructed a castle to put my beautiful statues in. I put Ty in the corner of my throne room along with a man in a Batman costume I had found hiding amongst the craters.

I didn't know what I was going to do with the two of them but my friend Mitch got pride and centre- right at the front of my castle for everyone to see.

Wait, 'my friend'? The other side of my conscience kicked in and suddenly I was overtaken by a blinding vision.

---

It was the first day of fourth grade and a stranger walked through the open doors of the school gates. All the girls turned to stare at his face and continued to gossip excitedly. We were sat next to each other in our class when he suddenly said,

"Hi." His accent was almost alien but I could make out his words. "I'm Mitch." 

"Hey I'm Jerome." At that moment I expected him to say something like 'ew you animal!' or 'Wow, you're so ugly' but instead he smiled, there and then I told him nearly everything about me.

Two years later. It was the night of the prom and as usual my friend was being mobbed by practically the whole school. I stood slumped against the wall, thinking that he would abandon me for some girl. A moment later I felt his smooth hand touch my shoulder, the crowd was gone. 

It was the moment. I was going to tell him I loved him and everything about him, his chocolate brown eyes and slightly tanned skin, how he would always come back to me, the loner in the corner.

"Ew! Mitch why are you with THIS animal?" A crowd of girls with no dates came wandering over to us. Mitch was pushed away from me, I could see the helpless look in his eyes as I slowly creeped back into the shadows.

No. No, no, no. Why were Jerome's memories in my head?

The potion. I had asked Jerome to give the strongest memories he had. I had drunk it. I had tested it.