Opposites: The Staff of Light [Book One]

3. Mix Us Together And You'll Get Water

Annabeth

This girl's been eavesdropping again...

I know it's not right to be an eavesdroper sometimes but you just can't get over it for some reason especially when you hear your name included in their conversations. You can't help it but listen to what their discussion was about whether it was bad news or not.

I felt like bursting, literally, bursting into flames. My mind was filled with anger. So, what if I don't go out our house? I kept uttering in my mind. They don't have the rights to stop me. If I want to stay inside, then I'll stay. As if they'd use water against me or something. Pathetic to ask, pathetic to see, pathetic to hear and pathetic to do. I am cursed afterall because of another pathetic reason!

I watched through my window as Alice's friends said goodbye and Alice bid goodbye back. As my hands touched the window's glass pane, the part I touched turned black. I was frightened seeing the toasted window. Looking at my hands, I uttered to myself, "You have to keep it under control, Annabeth. Keep it under control. Don't let them know". 

I scurried through my cabinets like a mouse and found one metal bracelet. "This might work", I wore the bracelet on and tried to touch the windows again. Hopefully, it didn't pop to little glass pieces. "Thank the Gods", I gratefully said, as I laid myself down on my bed, miserably. 

My body was exhausted of thinking. What would the world think of me? If only somebody would see what could I see, that would be very much helpful. The problem is, no one understood me, not even my sister. 

Everyone was against me and not even one was on my side, but me. 

Yes. I know I've been living a very sad life. Being who I am's what's left inside of me. 

For the first time, I never had the guts to read a book, not even my favorites. I got up from my bed and opened the door, looking around for my sister. When I saw Alice walking towards her room, I forcingly draped her against the boundary. "What the ice is wrong with you?" she exclaimed in pain and shock. She started to struggle. "Let go of me, Annabeth!"

"Oh, you want me to let go?" I snarled, clutching her on the neck. "I should be asking you the problem. What is your problem with me? Tell me!"

"I thought... you were... eaves-eaves-something!"

"Eavesdropping, Alice". 

"Yeah, but whatever! Get your hands off my neck!"

"Answer me first! What is your problem with me?" She stood silent there, staring at me. "Well? So you think you're better than me? Huh? Is that it?"

"No", she took a grip on my arms. "I hate you! That's it! It's because you always get in my way like right now". She took my hands off her neck and made a small and sharp-tipped iceburg in front of me. "You always go against what we love to do". 

I got into my fighting position, especially I always wore a pair of combat boots. I thought that if I melt the ice, I'd make her weak. But then...

"Go ahead", she continued. "Melt it. Let's see how smart you really are, Annabeth". 

I wanted to melt it, really but I couldn't meet the water. "I'm not an idiot, Alice", I remained calm, as the ice was closing in on me and my presence was already melting her iceburg. 

"Are you afraid?" she taunted me. 

I jumped over the iceburg and burned a dry circle around her. She started to heat up. "Stop taunting me. You do think you're better than me? I'm smarter so don't even make your nervous system think that you really are a better twin sister than me. Fire's a stronger element. You just don't believe it, do you?" 

Suddenly, Mom stepped into the hall. "Uh oh", Alice and I uttered in unison. 

"Who on earth is responsible for this mess?" Mom bellowed, pointing over to the fire circle surrounding Aice and the iceburg behind me. 

"It was her fault!"

"I don't believe any of you. Both of you, get into your room, you are not allowed to step out until your father gets back home and no lunch!"

"But..." I protested. 

"No but's! I've decided. Get into your rooms, young ladies". 

I moaned silently, shooting sad-looking Alice an evil glare. "It's because of you... It's all your fault..." I murmured to myself before Mom locked us up in our rooms. 

I fell on my bed for the second time that day, moaned miserably like I used to and covered my face with a pillow. From every moment and then, I glanced at my room. 

My room was dark, with the windows, some clear, some black, bright with the snow cold outside. My walls were made of cement, the floor was also cement. Electricity was banded in my room. I'd just make the bulbs go pop. But the most part of my room was my five-foot-wide and eight-foot-high bookshelf, not a space to be encountered in between each book. My bed was metal, my pillows were soft for me, but inside were sand and I do not own a blanket. You might be asking, Why the hell is your room like that? Well, to sum it up, because I have a very busy day ahead of me, and I'm tired at the same time, I am a living fire. I am fire. I'm not made up of fire but I am the fire source. 

It's sometimes hard to be a living rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion. You know, fire. You can't touch a lot. Everything you love just burns in one little touch. I tried to write on a piece of paper once but the pencil just vansihed in three seconds of combustion... including the paper, even I didn't bare to touch it. It just burned because of my presence around it. And not only paper and a pencil. Mom touched me once and got burned because of my power inside me. I was born to be afraid, alone, hated, chaotic and to hurt many of what I encounter.

No one really understands what it's like to be me.