The Flame (Avengers Fanfiction)

23- Emmeline and the Devil

I carefully pull the book out of the cardboard box, my hands shaking. The book was thick and heavy. I walked over to the couch, the lights turning on as I move. The leather book was alluring, calling to me. I sat down, opening it. The pages were yellowed and on the first page, right in the center was written in an elegant script Emmeline. All around that name, there was dozens of names, all in different handwriting. It took me a few moments to find my own birth mother's name. Elda. Her name is written under someone named Abigail. I turn the next page, trying to keep Elda far from my head.

I spent the next few hours reading through the book, reading it cover to cover. The information was overwhelming. Emmeline was my great-great-great-great-great-you get the point- grandmother. She was blessed with beauty and all the men of her small town lusted after her. That caused some issues given it was the 1300s, but whatever. Emmeline's beauty was so great that it caught some unwanted attention from the man downstairs. Lucifer himself, according to the book, took a liking to her-well more than a liking. Emmeline and Lucifer cares for each other. She'd do anything for him. And when Emmeline was caught by the locals of her village doing some mysterious things in the woods, they accused her of witchcraft. They were about to burn Emmeline at the stake when the Devil intervened. He gave her the ability to withstand and conjure fire. Weird, but I'm not going to judge Satan here. Along with fire, Emmeline could fly and her beauty was intensified. To get back at the town that had accused her, she seduced all the men in the village and convinced them they had to run into her fire in order to have her.

All the men in the town burned to death.

And the remaining women and children didn't last too long after that.

Lucifer told Emmeline that she could keep the power and her demonic ties as long as the power passed down among her children and their children and so on. She agreed whole heartedly, but there was a catch. One daughter would take all the power from their mother and that child would carry on the family linage. When she did that, the mother would die in childbirth. All the other children she had would have the ability to control of fire, but only the one chosen daughter would have all of the powers. And only that daughter would be able to have children.

Satan, apparently, didn't want his children everywhere.

Emmeline was fine with it so she had her children with some poor sap. Her heir, Rosalind, was her second child. Rosalind killed her father and her older brother. Rosalind gave birth to Sarah, Sarah to Ismay. It just kept going and going. They were the sirens of a new age. Instead of luring men to a watery death, the women in the Bennett family used them for sex and scrapped them away. Men were useless in the family, but I suppose every man is useless next to Lucifer himself.

It was endless cycle of fire, fucking, and death. No woman ever married for love. She married in order to have that child and hoped that she'd give the family a healthy and capable heir. Usually, she would kill her own husband or her heir would kill their father and their useless siblings. Also in the book, was an explanation of why she had to do the Burnings. The Burnings were an almost an offering to the being that gave the Bennetts their power. The Burnings were needed in order to have a stronger hold on the power that was given to us. During that time, Satan takes over. That's terrifying to think about, but I have to do it.

Also, Emmeline wasn't the only one of us to be accused of witchcraft and or adultery. Many women have noted in the book that they too were accused of being a witch, an adulteress, or just a plain home wrecker. The women in the family all used their gifts to get what they wanted. They were truly sirens. It was unsettling. I shut the book, setting it down the table in front of me.

It was a lot of information at once. Too much information. It hurt my brain to just think of it. That's where my powers came from. It wasn't a mutation-well I mean not a true mutation. Satan himself, the big bad from the Bible, gave me my powers. Well technically he gave Emmeline hers and she passed it down. I wrapped my arms around myself, looking out the big window wall. The sun was barely coming up over the horizon. I had no idea what time I left Matt's apartment.

My hand slipped to my stomach, slipping under my shirt. I wouldn't be able to have children. Well I am able, but I couldn't. I couldn't have kids knowing that I'm just continuing on this awful, horrifying cycle. Tears rimmed my eyes as my thoughts ran. While it wasn't my only dream in life, I've always wanted kids. I wanted that little normal life. Wanted someone to call mine and have a little me. I covered my mouth with my other hand, muffling a sob. I couldn't continue on the cycle. I just couldn't. The cycle would end with me. It will end with me. I am not going to continue this awful cycle. No morning sickness, no feeing my baby kick me, no giving birth.

The book said it was a female Bennett's duty to continue on the cycle, but I am not a Bennett.

I am a Stark.

-

I didn't mean for it to happen.

Something, someone, over took me.

It was just to be a normal mission with Natasha. Infiltrate a building, get information off a computer, leave. Nothing new. We had done it before.

I didn't mean to do it.

I had been trapped in a room with twelve men. All of them were aiming their guns at me. Natasha was on the other side of the building, getting the information. I needed to keep the men occupied while she worked. I was just going to melt their guns when a little voice whispered to me. You can control them. Tell them to kill themselves.

I should've ignored it, I know.

But I didn't ignore it.

I wasn't me. I wasn't in full control.

"You know what you should all do?" I turned off my comm link, smiling at all the men. They were entranced as I melted the cameras in the room. I didn't even realize what I was doing.

"I think you guys should all shoot yourselves in the head. I'd love that." I purred in a voice that wasn't mine. The men's eyes were all glazed over. I could sense that they were all under my control, I just didn't know how I did it. I watched as all of them took the safety off their guns, put the various barrels in their mouth.

And they all pulled their triggers.

The sound was almost deafening and sight was horrifying. Blood and brain matter was everywhere, and even on me. Blood had splattered onto my face.

I didn't feel a thing, not until Natasha came running it and I got control of my body again.

That's when, apparently, I started screaming.