The Thin Line Between Good And Evil

Chapter 7: Playing With Fire

After turning off the lights I stepped out of the room, pausing momentarily to reexamine the photo from earlier. Something nudged the back of my mind but I shook it off, leaving the room with a sudden sense of urgency.

I stalked down the hall, wondering how the hell I was going to find Kurt. I hurried down to the main floor, figuring he'd mostlikely be there. Instead, I found a bunch of teenagers close to my age hanging out in what I assumed was once a parlor.

"Asuna, stop it!" A blonde girl whined. "That is disgusting!" She put her hands over her eyes and groaned. "Oh god, that made it worse." She picked up a pillow and threw it at a small asian girl who was sitting next to her. The girl giggled when she caught the pillow and the blonde sighed in relief. "I'm scarred for life now, thanks a million." She said sarcastically as the rest of the group laughed. There were eight of them, sitting on one of the couches were a brunette boy and the two girls. The other held a ginger girl, the boy I'd seen earlier, and a shy looking girl with white and blue hair.

The love seat was taken by a slender hispanic boy whilst sprawled on the floor was a blonde boy with deep red eyes. I watched as they laughed and joked around, too shy to announce myself. Not that long ago I would have ached to be a part of something like that, to have a group of friends that understood what it was like to be different. They all quieted down and were talking amongst themseves when I decided to take my leave.

As soon as I moved though, one of them noticed me.

"Hey, you!" A masculine voice called out. I turned to see the blonde boy sitting up and staring at me. "How long have you been standing there?" He didn't speak accusingly but I wasn't about to stay and make friends.

"Not that long," I spoke cooly before turning and walking away. I wandered down the hall for a little while longer before deciding I'd had enough. I walked to the window at the end of the hall and opened it, trying not to make too much noise. The hinge groaned in protest and I looked around, sure someone would appear and scold me. No one did, so I stepped onto the ledge and debated how I wanted to get down.

I'd made my way up to the third floor, so I couldn't just jump. There was no water around and fire couldn't support me. That left earth and air. If I used the earth it would tear up the grass, but air was always iffy. If my concenration broke even for a single second I would fall. I chewed on my lip as I debated, unaware that I had an audience behind me.

Deciding that mussed up grass was better than a broken neck, I let go of the frame with one of my hands. I held it out in front of me and the dirt shot up into the air obediantly. With a small smile I stepped onto it and created a staircase, it falling back down as soon as I was on the next step. When I'd made it to the bottom I dusted off my clothes and began to walk away from the school, not wanting to accidentally catch anything important on fire.

When I'd made it about 200 meters away I pulled out my zippo lighter and held the flame to my palm. It spread quickly and I looked at it with delight. Out of all the elements, fire was the most beautiful, the most captivating. I let it dance on my palm for a few moments before getting to work. In my mind I shaped it into a butterfly and watched it fly from my hand. When it started to fly higher I let the wings grow and watched as feathers sprouted from it's body. When it had fully changed I admired the small bird. It flitted around happily, although unable to chirp.

Next it became a cat, hovering over the dead grass carefully. It grew into a tiger and I let my mind go blank, concentrating soley on keeping it from from spreading or dying out. As I watched it prowl around I wondered if the things I created could think, if they could feel. As if to respond, the tiger lifted it's head to gaze at me knowingly. Positive it was just my brain telling it to do that I brushed it off and watched it wander around, not straying very far from me. I admired the way the flames flicked back and forth, how when it yawned you could almost entirely make out the inside of it's maw.

When I sat down in the grass it came and laid beside me, making me ache to stroke it's fur but knowing that it would be a foolish action. Instead I stared back at the school, imagining how it would sound if it could purr. 

After a few hours I heard a loud boom come from the house. I looked away from the tiger curiously and decided to go check it out. I stood and brushed myself off before shrinking the tiger back down into a butterfly and catching it. I crushed it in the palm of my hand and stared at it for a moment.

How is it, I thought, that the hands of a killer could still be capable of such beauty. I frowned and shoved them into the pockets of my sweats, trudging back to the school.