Smoke

24: Opaque

I laid in my bed, stomach turning. The air was bright and cold against my warm skin. I could feel the heat in my body, feel it radiating from under my skin. I took a breath, exhaled. My chest fell with the release of my breath. My body relaxed, my eyes closed in a slow blink.

I tensed again when I saw the smoke rising out of me. I couldn't feel it anymore, the cloudy heat from it blended with the rest of my body.
My head buzzed as I took another breath, another release of smoke. I could feel my heartbeat in my stiff limbs.

Now was as good a time as any to work on my powers, I thought.

I continued breathing, watching the smoke leave my body through warm breaths. It thickened and curled up as I continued breathing. But my calm, deep breaths quickened as I continued breathing, seeing the smoke darken and twist and dissipate, replaced with even darker smoke.

The fire was starting to come up, I realized. My tension held and deepened in my chest as I watched the smoke, watched the fire. Now I could feel the thickness in the air I was breathing. The air that I now couldn't breathe.

I gagged, seeing the fire sizzle and spit with my lack of breath. My throat suddenly felt dry, felt hot. I could feel a sting as the fire burned, as I coughed up air, gagged on thick dark smoke.

I turned over, sat up, tried to breathe, tried to stop the fire.

I choked on the smoke, the air, until I could finally breathe. I pulled the air into my lungs, a large inhale. I could feel my body fill with it, could feel the fire fall down back inside my body.

I felt my body tingle, buzz with the heat. My mind was dizzy with the lack of air, with the thickness of the smoke.

I lurched up, feeling the air draw in and out of my scratchy, dry throat as I breathed. No way could I control my power. It was impossible.

I walked to my door, reaching my unsteady hand for the doorknob. Twisting it, I opened my door feeling the rest of the house's air pull into my room, push past my body. As I stumbled out, I looked back at my room.

The smoke created a thickness in the air, an opaqueness where the light from my window and the rest of the house entered the dark room in hazy beams. I could see just how much smoke I had exhaled, how much smoke was curling inside of me and now inside of my room.

I left the door open, walking weakly to the kitchen to get water. I could smell the smoke on me, following me as I walked through the house. It was an ashy and thick scent, a burnt smell that wafted through the house out of my room and out of me.

I heard mother's door click and open.
"Hey sugar, what happened?" Mom looked outside her doorway, looking around the house and meeting my eyes. "Is something..." She trailed off, her eyes stuck on me. "Was that you?" She asked me, looking away towards my room. She could probably see the thick smoke mixing with the air in the rest of the house from her doorway.

I nodded, sipping water, feeling the cold go down my throat, meeting the heat inside my body. She frowned.