fire starter | l.s [1]

six

"Hey? What the hell?" Liam growls as I walk over to the group slowly.

Liam looks back at me for a second before turning back to the four teenage boys. There was a sharp pain throbbing in my head from using up so much of my energy, just like when I lit the tree on fire. I found myself playing with my hands again, my heart was pounding so loudly in my chest I'm sure the whole group could hear it echoing off the walls.

"Sorry, you could have been tracers," the redhead spoke, his voice quite the opposite of apologetic.

"You," the redhead said, nodding his chin at me, "What you did, not many yellows can do that."

"I just blew up the lights," I said quietly, barely raising my eyes to meet his.

"No, you lit them on fire," he replied, and I felt my heart stop.

That wasn't my intention. How did I not even notice I did that? I intertwined my hands together and squeezed them tight, fighting to urge to start playing with them again. Liam and Ruby had their eyes on me, but I didn't meet their gaze, I felt ashamed of myself. Letting my powers go out of control like that.

"I didn't know," my voice trailed off and I looked down at the floor.

"We're here for supplies, not trouble," Liam explained, looking back at me again and I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole.

The redhead, who I assumed was the leader, raised his eyebrow. The mall was silent for a moment as he stared at us. I looked over to see Chubs and Zu staring up at me from the seated position they were in. Zu cuddling into Chubs while he held her close to his chest. My eyes snapped back to the boys, feeling even more self-conscious of myself.

"We'll let you stay here one night," the three boys protested this but he simply held up his finger to shush him, "One night. We'll give you some food as well."

Liam thanked the boys and hurried over to Zu and Chubs who were on the floor. Ruby slowly turned around, her wild brown hair was frazzled and messy. She smiled at me softly before I looked away.

When she had left, I looked up at the lights, most of them charred and covered in black soot. I dropped my head to look at my hands and I examined them. They were shaking slightly so I shoved them into the pockets of my jean shorts and turned on my heel. Liam was leaning against a shelf and Ruby was kneeling down beside Zu and Chubs. They were discussing something. Liam caught my eye for a moment before dropping his gaze back to the others.

They hate me. I'm a threat now, I can't control my powers. My hands were becoming uncontrollably shaky in my pockets and I could feel my chest tightening. It was like the beginning to this mess all over again, the day I got taken to the camp. I had lost control of my powers and suffered the consequences. Slowly, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The shakiness stopped but the uneasy feeling of fear was stilling knotting my stomach together.

"Okay, lets set up some tents here. We'll talk afterward," the redhead said after a while.

Ruby and Liam looked at each other before walking over to the boys and disappearing into the darkness of the mall. After a moment I felt a pair of small arms wrapping around my waist and I looked down to see Zu hugging me tight. I smiled and hugged her back, my hand rubbing circles into her back. Chubs joined us a moment later and I sighed.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, looking at him but not quite meeting his eye.

"Sorry? For what?" He titled his head slightly sideways.

"For setting the lights on fire. I should know how to control it. I put all of you in danger," my voice faltered at the last sentence and tears pricked at my eyes.