I never really fit in anywhere. I never had friends, people who saw me whispered to their friends next to them, pointing fingers and silently gasping. My family was even scared of me. At the dinner table my mother never made eye contact with me, my father looked down at his plate in silence. The only person I had in my life was Raggs, my sock monkey. He was always there for me, on my first day of kindergarten to the first day of first grade. He was there to comfort me when it started. But then I killed him. I killed the only friend I had. That was the worst day of my life. It all started in the second grade with really bad pains in my arms. The doctors didn’t know what it was, but when do doctors know anything? A few weeks later I was doing some homework when all of a sudden embers danced on my paper and soon rushed to the table. My mother thought I had knocked over a candle, but I knew I did it. I don’t know how, but I created flames from my skin. After that, I started fires on a regular basis. My mother took me to priest because she thought I had been possessed by the devil. The priest tried an exorcist, and I thought it worked. For months the fires stopped, the pain went away. But then it started again out of nowhere.
I was in the fourth grade, giving a report about an endangered species of bears when one of my classmates made an immature remark. For some reason it set me off, I yelled at him and I felt the flame inside me grow and yearn to escape. My eyes burned red with anger and I set him on fire just by looking at him. The classroom went into panic. The kids kicked the chairs and desks to get away from him as he looked around frantically asking for help. I stood there shocked at what I had just done. My teacher didn’t know what to do. She rushed to him and took off her perfume soaked sweater and smothered him until there was nothing left but burned flesh and loud painful cries. My teacher gave me a look that still haunts me to this day, a look of horror and strangely disappointment. I watched as the paramedics drove him away, and I was relieved to know he wasn’t going to die.
Since then, everyone avoided me. I got home and told everything to Raggs with hot steaming tears rolling down my cheeks. I hugged him tightly, repeating the event over and over in my head until the smoke burned my eyes. I pulled Raggs away from my body and saw that I caught him on fire too. I cried harder as I tried to put him out, but each attempt made it worse. I threw him in the toilet to extinguish the flames. I stared at his charred body float in the water, and heard the flames sizzle and die along with my only friend I had left in the world. The next day some men in black suits knocked on the door and asked my parents some questions. My parents told them everything, nervously sipping tea. I heard the whole conversation, the men talked about how I should be handled with caution. They offered to take me with them to a facility where I could be studied and cured. Hearing “cure” my mother excitedly accepted the idea. I had been abandoned by my mother just like that. But I wouldn’t allow myself to be taken away that easily. I quickly emptied my backpack of school supplies and shoved my clothes inside of it. I could barely zip it up, but after removing one shirt I successfully zipped it up. I could hear footsteps coming closer to my door and I frantically headed to my window. I opened the window and before climbing out, I took one last look at my room, and then I was gone.
Can you imagine how scared a 10 year old little girl would be, on her own without anywhere to go, with no plans, no survival strategy. All I knew was that people would be looking for me, so I had to hide out of sight. I would stay in alley ways and looked for food in dumpsters and garbage cans. I spent most of my time in my town’s old abandoned train station. I practiced my abilities in the safety of boxcars on old dried wood from the railroads and dried grass. I found out that I could put out fires the same way that I start them. I had fully mastered my powers by the age of 14, and I figured I had to visit someone before I could continue my life.
The front of my house looked the same as when I left. I slowly made my way to the door and knocked three times. I stood there anxiously waiting for some kind response. A few moments later the door opened. My mother opened the door with a big smile. I thought the smile was for me, but when she took a look at my face and realized that her daughter she left in the hands of the government was standing in front of her she slammed the door. I was enraged. I made the door explode and I stormed inside.
My mother was crying on my father who was standing by the fridge in the kitchen. My father had a surprised look on his face too. I smirked, and looked around the house. I dragged my fingers across the walls as I walked and left a black charred trail. The floor creaked and hissed after each footstep. I stopped at the dinner table and calmly sat down in a chair and just looked at my scared parents. “How have you been sweetie?” My father said with a tremble in his voice. “Life’s been great Pop,” I said, “I live in a great big mansion and I have a well paying job.” He just stood there with my mother still crying and clinging onto him. “Why did you decide to give me up like that?” I said with a change of tone in my voice. “Now honey, we thought it would be best for you.” My dad cautiously said raising his hands and approaching me like a cop would to a criminal. “You thought it would be best if I was going to be studied and examined like some kind of freak?!” I exploded. I set the boxes of cereal that rested on the fridge on fire. They jumped and my father stepped back. “How could you give me up like that?” I stared to tear up. “Your daughter, your own flesh and blood?”. My mother was mumbling something into his chest. “What was that mom?” I said walking over to them. I soon realized she was on the phone. I grabbed it and listened to the voice ask for my mother. The phone melted and bubbled in my hands. “Who did you call?” I boomed. “The people,” she sniffed “Who will put you away forever!” she pushed me away and they both ran towards the front door. Even more angered I made a wall of fire to block the hallway before they could get near the door. “Let us go!” My mother screamed. “Let us go you freak!”. I stood there, shocked. I silently let the house glow with little embers that quickly grew in size. Glass cracked and shattered, the wood from the cabinets split and creaked. The house was about to collapse on itself but then I made the fires die out. The closure I wanted wasn’t going to be gained, and killing my parents wouldn’t have made me feel any better. I quietly walked to my room and slowly opened the door. I was amazed to see everything was the same. Every last detail was the same, and even the shirt I removed from my old backpack was still on the floor. I silently cried to myself as I set the room ablaze. Everything was reduced to black dust, except the frame of my bed. , I took one last look at my room, and then I was gone.
