scorch | c.h

prologue

The Anderson's were always a tight family; having a father as a doctor, a mother as a head teacher and two academically gifted daughters was ideally perfect, almost.

Janice Anderson, the younger of the two daughters was just 8 years old, still learning small secrets in the infinite crevice of life. Her hazel eyes matched her curly caramel hair, and her child-like innocence still remained pure.

Evangeline Anderson, however, was older than her sibling. She had recently turned 12 years old, although she'd barely realised how much she was ageing, as her head was constantly stuck into books. Whether they were fiction or non-fiction, she was always finding herself lost in the words spread onto the pages. Like Janice, she'd inherited her mother's elongated, chocolate curls. Although, her eyes were a striking green; vibrant enough to blend with the jade grass in the spring and the olive leaves in the trees. They made you feel a sense of serenity.

Although, the Anderson's didn't know something about their perfect, little family. Evangeline Anderson was born with unearthly powers: she could bend fire from her very fingertips.

There had not yet been any signs of her ability, but that would soon be changed.

-

As both little Janice and Evangeline arrived home from school, their dinner was already served by their loving mother. Their father was seated at the head of the table, newspaper in hand.

"Hey mommy," Janice greeted, flapping her creative and colourful drawings in the air as she skipped to greet her mother. "Look what I drew today in class!" She then began to explain that it was, in fact, a dinosaur riding an airplane.

"How wonderful," she complimented happily, pressing a kiss to her youngest daughters' cheek. She then instructed for Janice to be seated, then greeting Evangeline.

"Eva, how was your day?" She asked kindly, helping her daughter shrug off her raincoat.

"It sucked. It rained during PE, so we had to play football in the rain," she sighed, motioning to her dampened curls with a sad frown in her emerald irises.

"Well let's eat then," her mother concluded to take her mind off of her bad day. "Girls, the reason we're eating so early today is because your father and I need to tell you something."

"What is it, mommy?" Janice queried, twirling spaghetti around her fork and piling it into her mouth.

The news must've been big, Eva decided. The table was adorned with many candles and beautiful, glistening wine glasses and flutes. Even the best cutlery was placed on the table.

"Well... we have decided to move to London! There's nothing for us all here, so we have thought it best to leave this place and start fresh in the capital!" their mother spoke with happiness laced in her tone. She raised her Chardonnay-filled glass as she spoke. "We have even found you a new school. It'll be great!"

Janice jeered happily, but Evangeline remained quiet, aside from the clattering of her fork hitting the plate.

"We're what?" She couldn't believe they were just dropping everything to move to another city - a big city, at that. What would her friends say? Eva wasn't the most popular in her class, but she had close friends that she wouldn't dream of ever leaving behind. What about her school life? She was happy, content. The whole idea of living in Surrey seemed great to her. It was where they had their fondest memories and to just drop everything and get rid of the place was just barmy.

"I got a promotion, sweetie. No more Surrey for us!"

Eva was enraged.

Despite children being the most pure and innocent beings on the planet, they were also honest and bad at hiding feelings. Evangeline couldn't mask her sudden anger and sadness to leave the place she'd grown up in.

So when the candles suddenly burst into rather dangerous-looking flames, the family knew it hadn't gone down too well.

The three screamed in the face of the naked flames, boggled at how it was possible for them to suddenly flare up in that manner. But Eva barely noticed through the red she was seeing anyways.

"I don't wanna move!" she squealed, the candles igniting even more so. Eventually, there was so much power being channeled around the room, they had collapsed and then the flames had spread to the dinner table. Just as the orange flickers of light danced, the three Anderson's cowered back. "It's not fair! It's so not fair!"

However, Janice wasn't afraid of her sister. She knew she wouldn't get hurt. So she approached Evangeline slowly, reaching out to touch her hand softly.

But with this gesture, Eva grunted and pulled back, fingers curling around her wrists and pushing her with all of the force she could muster. Burning fingers met cold, innocent wrists and both yelped out in pain, causing even more mayhem.

Their mother and father were huddled in a corner, gripping each other for dear life.

"Y-you.. burned me?!" Janice cried helplessly, running back to her mother and father with tears streaming down her face.

That was when Eva's father stood and placed the table cloth over the growing flames, putting them at bay. Over Janice's screams of pain and her mother's soothing cooing, he spoke with anger and authority.

"You, you.. you've completely ruined this family! I want you out of this house, right now!" he boomed. "You're never to return here and you are never to use your powers again, do you hear me?! You're a liability to this earth and you're not welcome to this family at all, leave!" he boomed, so loudly he was sure the rest of the street heard. But he didn't care, he wanted this dangerous, little fire bender out of his home.

Eva went to speak, but closed her mouth again. She packed her things and with a heavy heart, she looked back at her family as she walked away.

She didn't know where to go, but she knew that being around other people wasn't safe. Not when she had the power to control and create fire. She vowed to herself that day, that she would never hurt anybody else like she did to Janice.