Phoenyx Rising

Prologue

Father is angry with me again. I don't know what I did this time. He doesn't seem to need a reason these days. The very idea that I am alive and a constant burden to his existence is the beginning and end of every tantrum he throws. His beatings are getting worse; one day he will kill me.

"Your very existence could kill us all, you stupid girl. I should have killed you myself the second your pyro kinesis began. There is no place in this house or in our lives for someone like you."

"I promise I won't ever show anyone. Please, Father, let me go outside," pleading with him, but knowing it's useless. I'm tempting the tiger by even speaking to him. He hates me; that much has been drilled into my head over the last sixteen years.

Sure enough, his backhand slamming into my cheek is my only answer. It's a mild beating compared to what he has given me in the past and what he gives my older brother, Marcus, on almost a daily basis.

We are Demigods, or at least that's what we are called. We have special powers, all of us. Father lives a lie; he is a Demigod but hides his abilities. He can compel anyone into doing whatever he commands. I know this first hand. A shudder runs through me; at the things, he has made me do. I want to go to my room and hide away until the pain in my cheek subsides, but my bedroom is in the basement, and I am not allowed to go down there when Father is working with Marcus. He calls it working, but what he is really doing is torturing—killing him slowly every day.

Marcus has the same powers as my father, but he refuses to use them. He told me he never wants to be the monster our father has become; if he could live his life without ever using them, he would die happy. If only he could win this battle, but in my experience, Father wins, always. No one speaks to him in this house unless he asks a direct question, even Mother. She is so broken after a lifetime under Father's reign. I love my mother, what's left of her. In her mind, I imagine she is still alive, but on the outside, she has been dead for years. Pretending she is stuck in a fantasy world where she is happy and free is the only way I can rationalize how she can be lost in her own mind.

Father was screaming at her earlier, telling her she was better off to kill herself because she is useless. Living in this house for one day without her presence breaks my heart. Wandering through the house, I look for her. She is usually in her bedroom staring out the window, but when I open her door, she isn't there. A faint whimper can be heard through the bathroom door. Carefully opening it, I peek in and find her lying in the tub, sobbing quietly. My heart breaks for her; she isn't as strong as I am. She doesn't ever try to stand up to father; maybe she did once, but the fight in her is gone. I wonder if I will become her one day, a hollow shell living in a nightmare.

"Hi, Mom," approaching her, but stop dead in my tracks. The water isn't right. The room is dim, but I can see the water tainted with her blood. I fall to my knees at her side and gently touch her peaceful face. "Mom?"

Her eyes roll open like she just woke up. She lifts a bloody hand and presses it to my cheek. "My sweet Phee, I'm sorry. It's better this way, easier for you to leave," is all she says before her head rolls to the side.

I sit there and stare into her lifeless eyes for a few seconds until my body starts to shake. Clutching at her hand, I press it into my cheek, willing her back to life.

"No. Please don't leave me...Mom."

I shake her and pull at her arms, trying desperately to get her out of the bloody water, but she won't budge. There are ugly cuts digging into both of her forearms. Frantically pressing the wounds, I try to stop the life from draining out of her, but it is futile. There is no blood left to stop; she is gone.

Falling away from her corpse, I curl into a ball, crying and rocking, "What do I do now?" I cry out. She left me here, she left me with him. He will kill me too now; I just know it. Without her here, what will happen to me?

Anger sears its way through my small body. I'm so tired of being hated, of being hidden away like I should be ashamed of myself. I stand and scream at her, for leaving me here, for giving up, I scream until my voice cracks. Looking around the room at all the beautiful things my father's money has bought; none of it was enough for him, none of it saved my mother, or me.

Catching the reflection of her body in the mirror I grit my teeth, this can't be real, I need to wake up. Picking up a glass shell ornament off the counter, I throw it into the mirror. Glass shards fly everywhere but it's not enough, I refuse to stop until everything perfect is destroyed, until this house mirrors how I feel inside; broken and empty.

With my anger always comes the fire; inside me there is a limitless inferno of power that I let loose; burning everything in my wake. If my mother dies today, so does this house of lies. I will banish every hurtful word said to me within these walls as I tear through this hate-filled house, on my way to the basement door.

By the time I'm standing before it, the air has grown thick with smoke, an alarm rings somewhere in the distance. Try to calm my breathing, and make the ever-present flames dissipate. Hearing Marcus' screams through the door sets my heartbeat galloping again. No one will hurt Marcus or me again. Bursting through the door I run down the stairs and what I see will haunt me for the rest of my life.

My sweet brother is on his knees bent over our father's lifeless body. He finally did it; he used his powers and killed him. A strangled gasp escapes my lips. His eyes meet mine, and I see the power my father had in his eyes. Marcus is just like Father now. I fall to my knees, "What have you done?" my desperate scream rips from me as my whole world crumbles into dust.