fire that burns :: kai parker

O N E

— O N E —
1988

They first met on July 21st at Portland's summer fair. It was one of those summers where you could easily get your arms burned; one of those summers where it was hard to breath in the middle of the pay because it felt as if you would only exhale the heat, the drought and the dust arising from the already harvested, and (because of the sun) burnt down corn fields.

The heat, however, did not stop the kids from running all around the place in attempt to catch each other, having their parents shout after them to not disturb others and avoiding the risk of their kid throwing food or drinks to the ground.

Kai had just reached the age of 16, and though he hated summer festivals like this one, there was no way of him to have him not attend it — the whole school, even the whole town was present, including his whole family.

With everyone being insanely busy, and the people of all kinds of ethnicities, family backgrounds and classes running around, it was easy for him to distant himself from his siblings and parents in order to find himself a silent, and undisturbed place. A place where he could be on his own, blend in, be unnoticed. And he was good at not being seen.

He did not realize the dirty blonde girl was leaning towards him, trying to catch a sight of what he was sketching in his notepad, deep in thought, his head pressed so closely towards the paper that he was shielding whatever it was that he drew from outstanders. Maybe it was unintentionally — maybe he crouched like that next to the table because he enjoyed to hear the sound of sharpened pencil on the rough surface of paper, leaving behind in deliberate lines and shapes.

Suddenly the scratching of his pencil stopped, hesitaing before looking up and finding the girl tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. He would not have cared and would've continued sketching, but the next moment the girl began smiling and looked back down to the boy sitting on the floor.

"You probably don't have a lot of friends.", she started, not sounding the slightest bit as if what she had just said could've been in any way offensive. "You probably scared them all away after drawing their organs."

Kai chuckled, shaking his head. It was unusual people his age, or people in general, were starting a conversation with him. Especially as it didn't seem like a big deal to her that Kai's motives were anything but common.

"Should I worry about my organs getting exposed by you as well?", she said, steadying herself with her elbow on her thigh, her face resting in her hand while she was looking at Kai's face, who was still confused and partly amused by her bluntness.

But before he managed to answer proberly, the girl already began pointing her finger at the notepad that was now easily to look at as Kai did no longer draw, and therefore, wasn't intentionally — or unintentionally covering up what he had been working on.

"Oh shit, that definitely is my brain."

Kai laughed, raising his eyebrows. "What makes you think so?"

She just shrugged. "I don't know, looks like mine, doesn't it?", the way she talked was taunting, she was amused, a grin forming on her lips.

She didn't seem as if she cared about being seen with Kai Parker, eventhough most people avoided him just because what she had said was true: he had no friends and put little effort in finding some. He was a creep, and Josette was the sun — so people showed rather interest in his flawless sister, leaving him behind. Now this girl didn't know anything about a sister, but it was true that instead of drawing flowers like her sister, what he drew was dark, mischievous, repulsive.

"You probably get this a lot, but you're very talented. Very odd, but very talented."

And she liked odd.

She had a passion for mystery and anything unusual, at least as soon as she laid her eye on Kai that night. Determined and curious as she was — there were no doubts in her voice when she spoke to him, there was no shame. She didn't just seem interested in his art, she was.

She made sure she was listening closely when she sat down next to Kai on the ground, peering at his sketches and having Kai show her what else he had drawn in his notepad (it was the first time Kai had shown anybody his sketches voluntarily, he hated the feeling and thought of it as exposing his soul). Kai explained to her that he drew what he drew because he wanted to make the invisible visible, to explore the demons of the human mind, the human nature.  He said that he sometimes felt like he was swapping back and forth between this world, of people disguising what they really thought and wanted desperately; and a world filled with nothing darkness.

She liked his way of thinking, his way of looking at things differently than everybody else. Kai liked the feeling of having someone understand him — or at least having someone who listened and tried to understand.

   That was when Kai Parker first met his Evelyn Morgan.

***
Alright!

I started this fanfic about three months ago and never actually really (like really) started with chapters but yeah I was wondering if anybody would still like to read it?

It basically centers on Kai's past and why he is who he is (a sociopath, sigh).

Tell me what you think!

L