Imbalanced

Chapter Five

I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes outwardly at Kenzie. What ‘we’ are about? I wasn’t even sure about that one. How was I supposed to get myself out of this mess?

Jarred didn’t try and hide his eye roll, which made me smile. He wasn’t worried. I wanted to think that was a good thing but really it could mean one of two things, a. He knew this place was a load of bull and Kenzie was crazy, or b. He was suicidal.

I swallowed hard, fidgeting with my fingers. “Could you elaborate on what exactly you mean by, ‘Teach him what ‘we’ are about’?” I put air quotes around the word ‘we’, even though I knew it made Kenzie mad.

“Our little friend here seems to not understand our rules here.” Kenzie looked like was really struggling with not strangling someone right then and there. “I need you to teach him a lesson.” She finished.

I grimaced, this couldn’t be good. I wasn’t certain of what she meant by any of what she had said, I never could be certain about her period, but I had an idea and it wasn’t a pretty one. I wondered what Jarred could have possibly done to get himself into this mess. He could have done anything from tripped or gotten into it with Kenzie, you could never be too sure when it involved Kenzie.  Anything could set her off at any moment. Kenzie was the definition of Bipolar.

I stood my ground, wanting to know exactly what Kenzie wanted from me before I did anything. “Uh,” I cleared my throat. “What exactly do you mean by lesson?”

Jarred narrowed his eyes at me, as if trying to figure me out. I wanted to give him a ‘what’ look but I didn’t want Kenzie to think I wasn’t paying attention to her. You’d think he’d be over joyed with my stalling…. you’d think.… Jarred was showing to be a little unpredictable it seemed.

Kenzie closed her eyes for a few seconds, opening them with hatred glaring at me. “I’m saying,” She started, leaning closer to my ear. “You will use your fire ability or…” She stopped, knocking on the door behind us once. An evil grin painted her lips.

In walked another person, a security guard. He was caring a kicking and screaming Kylie by her hair. A squeal of horror came from the back of throat at the sight of her. I knew what Kenzie was saying now. Or Kylie will get hurt.

A tear escaped down my cheek as Liam, the guard holding Kylie, threw her to the side, hard. It was like she was nothing more than a rag doll. “You know,” Kenzie was being especially slow with each word, each sentence, she said. “It would be a shame if Kylie would have to get hurt for something she didn’t do.” Without even blinking, Kenzie whipped out a knife, slashing it towards Kylie.

I screamed, not realizing that she had only cut a chunk of Kylie’s hair off. Next time it wouldn’t be her hair, I could tell that by just looking at Kenzie. I tried to run to Kylie’s whimpering form curled up on the floor, but was stopped by Liam pulling my hair back. I fell to my knees with the sudden jerk back.

Kenzie put the knife against Kylie’s throat. A warning. I knew what I had to do. Slowly I crawled over to Jarred, using his knees to help pull myself up.

“I’m sorry.” I said through silent sobs. Jarred’s face had grown ghostly pale. He shook his head as I kept repeating those two words, taking a few steps back to create some distance. My only hope here was that the farther I was, the less it would hurt.

I may not know Jarred that well and I might have even been angry with him earlier today but I didn’t want to hurt him. Not like this. Never like this. Not him. Not Kylie.

I knew what I had to do but I didn’t know how to do it. What was I supposed to do? Imagine fire on my hands? I looked from Jarred to Kylie and Kenzie, back and forth like that until my gaze finally landed on Jarred in front of me. He didn’t look so scared anymore, but his face was still an unnatural pale color.

He nodded, “It’s okay. Do it.” He said. I looked at him quizzically, now he wanted me to hurt him? Maybe he was suicidal.

I looked down at my shaking hands when I saw Kenzie get a little closer to Kylie with that stupid knife. I let everything bubble up. My anger for everyone and everything, especially Kenzie. My hate for Kenzie and this place. I waited a few minutes, when nothing happened I let out another sob, it echoed throughout the silent room.

“Imagine the fire stirring inside of you.” A voice whispered to me. I looked up to see who it was but everyone just stared at me expectantly, none of them looked guilty. Shaking my head, I did what the voice said. I imagined the fire starting at the pit of my stomach, bubbling like acid, and I felt it, a tiny prickle of heat. It was barely noticeable but it was there, like a tiny flame from a lighter.

“Good, now focus it onto your hands, expanding just like fire does.” The voice was like a whisper in the wind. It was familiar yet I couldn’t place the voice to a face. It didn’t matter, because I did it. As I stared at my hands, willing the fire to appear, it happened. Fire was heating up the palms of my hands, flames roaring to life. Kenzie gasped, “Now Shay!” She was getting impatient.

I looked up at Jarred and he looked at peace with it. With one more shudder, I threw one hand back, acting as if I were throwing a baseball, and tossed it towards Jarred. A small ball of flames flew at him, like a shooting star, but this wasn’t something you’d wish for.

I hated myself for doing it, I hated myself more and more with every second that ticked by. I hated Kenzie even more for making me do it.

Jarred let out a grunted scream, his hands fisting into tight balls as the flame hit his shoulder. Beads of sweat poured off his forehead. I felt sick. I was a monster.

Looking over to Kenzie, I found her pulling the knife back to strike Kylie. Time stopped at that moment. Someone was screaming to stop. It took me a second to realize it was me. As if someone had hit the fast forward button, time was at a fast play, everything happening at once.

I didn’t think; I just threw two balls of flames of Kenzie, one hitting each arm, causing her to drop Kylie and the Knife. Liam looked shocked and I took that as my opportunity, running to guard Kylie from Kenzie or anyone else that decided it would be a joy to hurt her.

I tried to stop the flames but I couldn’t. They were burning my hands, charring the skin. I could feel my skin melting, smell the stench of burning flesh, whether it was mine, Kenzie’s, or Jarred’s, I wasn’t too sure. I fell over onto my knees, screaming as the pain hit me, or maybe it was just anger, I wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

I shook my hands, trying desperately to put the flames out before I burned to death. I tried remembering how I did it when I was younger, but came up blank. “She can’t stop it!” Someone yelled. I think it was Jarred. Everything was blurring together, my ears were ringing making it even harder to decipher any of the noise echoing around me. It was like I was in a tunnel.

Suddenly a sizzling sound filled the room and I looked down to find my hands burned but vacant of flame. Someone was kneeling next to me, rubbing my arms, whispering things to me, but I couldn’t hear them. I could only feel, feel the pain from everything. I bent over my knees, holding my hands against myself, screaming over the pain and anger. I lost consciousness with that.

I woke once in strong arms, everything blurry and disoriented. “It’s going to be okay baby.” Strong arms said reassuringly. I smiled; everything would be alright as long as I was in his arms.