The People with Useless Power

Chapter Twenty

Emily's hands were raw from trying to light a fire with sticks and rocks as Lav watched the sunlight slowly die in the distance. Her feet were dangling off the cliff that ended the forest, and she was singing a song quietly.

Lav looked over at her, raising her eyebrows. "Can't you use your power for that? Like, the chance of fire?"

"My powers have some limitations," Emily laughed. "I can't produce random resources, but I can help them grow."

Lav shrugged. "So, tell me about yourself."

"I don't know what to say," she sighed, giving up on the fire.

"Just... tell me about your life?"

Emily smiled. "Well, I went to Public School 656. My family's pretty kind."

Lav turned all the way around as the sky darkened, and her glowing purple eyes were the only light. "Any tragedies?"

She looked up at the stars and let out a long, sad sigh. "Only a couple," Emily shrugged. "I had this neighbor- we used to play together all the time without my parents knowing because my neighbor's older brother hated my brother. I forget her name now, though."

"What happened?" Lav asked gently.

"She went... missing when she was ten, and I was nine," Emily muttered. "I- I dunno. She just... her house got broken into, or she ran away- the stories vary. Anyway, about two years after she left, her brother went looking for her. He never came back." Emily closed her eyes. "There was another tragedy, of course: the school fire- Lav, what's wrong?"

Lavender's eyes had grown huge, her purple irises lighting up her shocked face. She shook her head, a smile forming on her lips. "Nothing. It's ridiculous. Do you remember anything about your friend?"

Emily pursed her lips. "No. Why, do you think you know her?"

Her face fell. "No."

A little weirded out, Emily felt along the ground for her supplies and used Lav's eyes to finally light a fire. Warmth felt so good on her dirty, uncomfortable skin, and Emily twirled her hand to check her statistics.

'Chance of both surviving' went down to 78%. Emily brought it up again and closed them. "So, Lav, your turn. How was your life?"

Lavender bit her lip, the shadows cast on her face by the flames giving her an evil look. "I don't remember much about my previous life. I came here when I was ten or eleven." Emily could tell she was lying about her memories but kept quiet. "I met Emma- she had only been there for a few weeks but acted like she was born and raised there. She sheltered me from Unkno- Mara and took the blame whenever I broke the rules."

"Didn't your brother come with you?" Emily asked, making her voice casual and soft.

"N-no. Mara just took me. I don't know how Vincent found me, but he came to the building with a gunshot wound. Grayson, our new nurse, calmed him down enough so he could tell the story and fixed him up."

"What happened?" Emily asked quickly, fascinated.

"Well, Grayson wouldn't tell anyone. Not even me. Mara got angry and locked him in a room with no food, but he was surprisingly stubborn. God, I hate Mara."

"She wasn't that bad," Emily said sheepishly, and Lav stared at her in disbelief.

"She was cruel and heartless, and you know what her own father did when he showed us her soul? He laughed and played with it, Emily. What does that say about Mara's personality?"

Emily winced. "The question is, what does that say about Luci's personality? That's horrible."

"I never said he wasn't horrible," Lav shrugged. "It probably runs in their blood anyway."

Emily walked over to her and laid her head in Lav's lap. She could hear Lav rolling her eyes, but she ignored it. "So, what's your power?"

"You know my power," she sighed. "I can lower sanities."

"Wow, that's bad. When did you get that?"

"I got it when I was four. My parents wanted us to grow up with power."

"My parents wanted tradition," Emily muttered. She felt Lav start to play with her hair.

"We've barely covered any ground today," Lavender whispered as the flames started to die out.

"It's surprising you even know where to go," Emily laughed, "it seems like we switched locations."

There was silence.

"Call it intuition," Lav said, and Emily could hear the smirk in her voice. "Go to sleep."

...

Emily woke up covered in water.

Lav was standing over her, a look of pure terror plastered across her face. Emily looked down at her hands, and she was holding a half-broken, very dirty, trashy-looking bucket.

"What happened?" Emily asked, trying to ignore the shivers that ran up and down her spine.

"I was going to ask that. You weren't waking up," Lav gasped, "and you were talking in your sleep. Were you possessed?"

Emily shook her head quickly and stood, her clothes soaking wet and her entire back covered in mud.

"Why'd you use water, of all things?"

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" she snapped. "Now, let's cover the ground.

Lavender helped her up. She turned and ran, and Emily chased after her, the cold air beginning to get painful. Her heart raced, and her lungs begged for air, but Lav never stopped, so she knew it wasn't an option.

They ran until sunset, not talking, and only 6 breaks. Emily was consumed in her thoughts as Lavender leaned against a tree and rested.

"Are we almost there?" Emily asked.

"I would say so," Lav shrugged, and she pulled back tree branches to reveal Emily's house.

Or, what remained of it.

[A/N: I've been told by a close friend of mine to shorten the chapters. This is about 400 words less. Is it a good length?

Well, anyway, thanks for reading! Don't forget to comment and vote! Even message me with your ideas- I love feedback.

I'd like to shout out my friend PhoenixFire5678 for her help with the plot of this story and messaging me with new ideas instead of doing her homework. Thanks, my child.

Thanks for reading!

~Personally, Personality~]