The People with Useless Power

Chapter Twenty-three

Emma shook her head furiously. "Just let us go," she begged, "just let us live..."

"I can't," Mara sighed, her tone changing and becoming sadder. "Emma, it's not that simple."

Emma collapsed onto her knees, a gasp of frustration and pain escaping her lips.

To Lav and Emily's surprise, Mara ran over and sat down, in her feather dress, and pulled Emma onto the feathers and onto her lap. Sharp, ugly sobs shook Emma's body, and she tucked her face into the crook of Mara's neck.

"Go inside my room and wait there," Mara ordered in a hollow tone, and Lavender shook Gray and Vincent awake as Emily picked up the door and hurried to go inside and put it back. When the four of them were finally inside, they looked around.

The room was significantly colder. "Can you turn up the heat, Emily?" Vincent asked, hugging himself.

She rolled her eyes. "I can change statistics, not air conditioning."

He sat down in one of the chairs by the door and hugged his knees. "Didn't say air conditioning."

Grayson sat down next to him, snatching a flask out of Vincent's pocket and taking a swig.

Emily turned to Lavender. "Wanna search for blankets?"

"I don't see why not," she smirked.

...

Emily gathered blankets in her arm as Lav curled up on Mara's bed, her eyes about to close. "So, Lav," Emily began, and her eyes snapped open, "why's your hair purple?"

"Why not? Lemme sleep."

"No, seriously. Is it like a tribute or something?"

She yawned and glared at Emily viciously. "It's a tag," Lav finally sighed. "Ever wonder why Emma's whole family has pink hair?"

"Um, not really."

"It's because her family is labeled a 'Fire Family'. Most of their powers are related to fire. Not all. Most old families have that." She paused. "Like Mara."

"Mara? But she just has black hair."

She laughed. "Use your imagination."

Emily folded her arms across her chest. "So, yours?"

"Well, purple is the mind, the psyche. Isn't that funny?" She swallowed and scowled. "I can make people go insane, and make myself go insane, and Vincent can irritate people until that go somewhere near insane."

"So, Grayson? What's his little blond-to-pink fading thing mean?"

"He just likes the style," she smirked.

"No one at my school has tags, though..."

"Yeah, well, they figured it was cruel to forcefully dye a person's hair and they wanted more variety of power so... it didn't seem to make sense anymore. Can I sleep now?"

"Sure." Emily curled up on the floor with her blankets, and Lav stared at her blankly. "What?"

"You're kidding, right?" Lavender asked. "Sleep on the bed."

"Oh. I just thought-"

"That must've hurt."

Emily stood up, rolling her eyes and climbing under the black silk of Mara's bedsheet. "That's such a dad joke."

"Hmph." All Emily could see was Lav's bare back, but she could tell she was smirking.

"Goodnight, Lav."