The school bell rang, signalling the end of the school year. As anyone could expect, the student burst from the doors with an increased excitement, darting towards the buses and cars to leave the school campus for 2 months of freedom. I made my way, as a sheep through a gate and through the front doors of the school. I didn't book it towards many of the different varieties of cars or the large neon yellow school buses. I found a place against the rust-red brick walls and leaned against it, one knee bent to allow the sole of my customary hiking boots to sit on the wall. I watched the student body of several hundred vacate the school until a young girl, age 16, snuck along the wall, just out of my sight and grasped my elbow. I looked over aloofly and grinned, getting to my feet again.
"Hello, Callie." I spoke, delighted. My summer had now finally begun.
"Hey. So, ready for summer yet?" Callie began to pull me towards the parking lot, sliding my hand from my jean pocket.
"I was ready about 9 months ago..." I sighed, giving a chuckle and half-mouthed smile.
"Well, it's here again. One more year for you before you're free of this school." She turned around, trying to tug me quicker.
"Yeah. Senior year is next yea- What is the big rush?" I spoke up, letting my resistance go a bit.
"I want summer to begin already. I waited long enough to have more than a few hours of free time with you, between clubs, homework and school... I barely had time to see you," She frowned. "But now, I have 2 months to spend with you and I am going to make it start right... NOW." She pulled me quick and hard as we approached my car, her back hitting the car, and I stumbled, pinning her against the car. My hands reached out instinctively to brace myself up, yet still getting rather close to her. Before I could notice what was happening, her lips touched my cheek in a peck.
"Well, want to take a trip to the river?" She asked, winking with a coy smile. I looked at her, raising and eyebrow.
"I suppose we could... The rock outcropping?" I asked for specification of the place.
"The old dam and reservoir." She looked up at my by a few inches with a wink and flirtateous grin.
"Very well then." I replied, backing off, feeling a slight swell in my chest, knowing we won't be heading home until god knows when tonight.
"Get in so we can get out of here. This place creeps me out when we're SUPPOSED to be here. Being here after 3pm on the day summer begins gives me an upset stomach." I stated, opening my door and climbing into my small, black Viper, adorned with some blood red stripes, running along the hood and roof. I was lucky a year ago to win it in a video game contest for my high score in Galaga. The local arcade held a fundraiser that was sponsored by the new car dealership that moved into the area. They set up the winner with a new Viper, complete with any design and color the winner wanted. I beat the competition with ease, mainly because my father was such a wiz at the game, and I didn't get out much when I was younger, so he taught me all he knew. That cinched my win in that competition. Luckily, I have the job to support the gas and insurance on it.
"Let's go then, Lance." Callie dashed into the passenger seat. I put the keys in the ignition and turned the engine over. The engine lit up with a roar and then died into a low, soft growl. I pressed on the gas, revving the engine into another violent roar. I shifted into drive and burned a bit of rubber when taking off. I saw Callie's smile widen. She loves going fast, but I was one for safety first and foremost... That and the fact I was terrified of her father. If I ever got into a slight accident with her in the car, I'd fear for my life.
"Let's get going," I pulled out of the school. "See ya in the fall, asylum walls!" I shouted, taking a left out of the school's entrance. Callie just shouted in agreement next to me, waving an arm out the window. We took off down the back roads of the small town. Callie, sat back and looked around as we went slightly over the speed limit down the winding roads, passing an apple orchard and large expanses of white pine outcroppings.
"So, what do you have planned this summer?" Callie asked after a moment of her resting her lungs from shouting out the window in excitement at summer arriving.
"Well, I have nothing planned really. Just work, and relaxing, really. My family might go away for a week during July but, nothing is confirmed yet. What about you?" I asked, revving the engine up a hill that crested the little valley that led to the river.
"I have nothing... except spending time with you." Callie whispered, reaching a hand over to place hers on mine over the shifter that sat between us.
Callie became interested in me a few months ago after her and I were placed in the same art class for the spring semester. We were paired together on a plaster project and we slowly became close friends, and I guess it became slowly spending all our spare time together. Our few friends say we're boyfriend and girlfriend, but I wasn't quite open to admitting that. While I did have a bit of a crush on her, and I know she has a major one on me, I wasn't exactly one to show those kinds of emotions. I don't know what it was. When the time came to show that I care, I do, but frivolous displays of affection was not something I did. I prefer the silent and conserved relationships. I liked spending time with Callie, so I didn't turn her away.
"Here we are, princess." I joked, pulling off the road to the right into a patch of grasses. We both got out and closed the doors. I pressed the remote lock hanging from my key chain, and clipped it to the front right belt loop on my jeans. The Viper clicked as it locked and beeped with the command from my thumb as Callie took my left arm. As I walked, the keys chimed together at my waist, along with the hollow, black plastic case of the remote.
"So, do you just want to wander around or what?" I brought up the debate.
"I have a special place I found when wandering here one day. I want to show you." She loosened her grasp to slide down my arm to my hand. Her thin, soft fingers grasped my hand and gently pulled me along. My right hand slid into my front pocket and toyed with the black metal lighter I always carried. I didn't smoke, and neither did anyone I hang out with, but it was my grandfather's and I kept it with me as an heirloom and a good luck charm of sorts.
The soil along the river's edge was soft and silty. I noticed patches of clay since it was significantly harder to sink into it when stepped on. I'll need to remember this when I start my ceramic business out of high school. I can come here to harvest the clay myself instead of buying it in bulk.
"Here we are." Callie chimed happily as we entered the ruins of the old dam wall. A few years ago, the reservoir here let go during a storm, flooding the entire valley below. Luckily, not many lived in the area. A few streams and swamps had begun to run together, but that was the worst of the damage. The old dam remained in a fractured and fragmented ruin. It was fairly graffiti'ed in several areas now, but not many cared to mark up old dam remains. Not something you want your gang name or some slurred saying plastered on for several years until the pain runs away. Callie led me deep into the ruins, which was more like a maze among all the large concrete slabs and chunks. Callie let go of my hand and dashed ahead, rounding a corner of a slab and disappeared from sight. I rounded the corner and Callie was gone. I just stood there, knowing Callie was one to attempt to scare me. I saw two slabs the lean against each other, making a sort of hunt-like structure. She had to be in there; in the shadows, attempting to make me jump.
"Callie, no making me jump, okay?" I spoke, placing a hand on the right slab of the entrance, before leaning my head inside. The floor sloped downward; the walls seemed to me made of the same metal sheeting that formed storm drains.
"Callie?" I called, hearing my voice echo down the tunnel. I decided to step inside, giving a quick look behind me first. When I felt the courage inside me rise enough to step inside, I did, sending a rock rolling a few feet down the slow, stirring up dust. This place hadn't seen moisture in some time now. I had fairly good night vision, but the light filtering in from the entrance got smaller and smaller. I stuck my hand in my pocket, because I was becoming nervous and jumpy. I fingered the lighter in the bottom of my pocket before it dawned on me. I slipped the lighter out of my pocket and flipped the lid off and clicked the flame to life. The area was illuminated enough for me to avoid tripping over the random little rocks that jutted out from the floor of the tunnel. Then, the tunnel just ended about 15 feet ahead of me. I stopped and held the lighter out ahead of me, trying to see what was at the end. I still didn't hear Callie.
"Callie?" I called, hearing my voice echo behind me. I walked forward, thinking she might be hiding at the very end. There was a large black object sitting on the floor of the tunnel, almost set into the wall. It was overturned, but not open. I flipped the box over and set it upright. It looked like a chest with a curved top. I felt along the the lid's top, feeling a large rectangular gap, thinking something fit into that but had been pushed into this during the flooding of the dam. I then tried to open the box. The lid did slide a bit, but felt stuck. I took my hand that held the lighter and began to bang on the lid, while my other hand tried to open the lid further.
"Come on... OPEN!" I shouted, the echo behind me not sounding, instead it felt as if it was ahead of me. The dirt wall remained before my eyes. I continued to bang on the lid, putting the thought to that I simply misheard. My hand slipping during the last bang I intended to make, the lighter from my hand was magnetized to the chest, and it was still alight, despite my finger not remaining on the trigger. The lighter flickered from a dull flame to a strong one.
After a moment, I heard a wheezing. The entire tunnel began to gain a slow and easy breeze. After a few seconds, allowing my skin begin to become pocked with goosebumps, the ground began to tremble, enough to knock me off balance. I placed my hand onto the ground to brace myself as I kneeled with one knee on the ground. I looked to the ground, then to the chest. My lighter was in that rectangular groove along the top of the chest. It fit like a glove. The wheezing grew louder until it became a growl. Upon the wall of the end of the tunnel, a pair of red, flaming eyes opened and looked down at me. Slowly, the first rose enough to show the ridges of a skull, magma running behind the eyes. The fire from my lighter grew slowly, as the eyes scanned me over. After about 30 seconds in which I swear I was going to soil myself, and have nightmares for several nights, a blast of air blew me onto my back as the skull roared down at me; the light from my lighter blazing to make my skin bead with sweat. I gathered myself once the roar had silenced, I got back onto one knee and just looked around, frozen in fear otherwise. The skull looked at me as it slowly shrank and rose higher up on the wall. Pulling out from the wall, the skull grew shoulders, and a rib cage. I looked up at the half-skeleton and stared in fear as a bony hand reached out and pointed to me.
"RISE!" The skull moved it's jaw to speak, sending forth a flurry of firelight from the mouth in addition to the eyes. I gave a hard swallow, and shakily rose to my feet, almost without my consent.
"WHO ARE YOU?" The skull asked in a growl.
"L-Lance... Lance Grimpyre" I replied, stuttering.
"LANCE GRIMPYRE... DO YOU WISH TO BE A GUARDIAN OF THE INFERNAL DEVIL'S HEARTH?"
"... U-Umm.. What?" I questioned stupidly; thinking this was a joke somehow.
"DO YOU? YES OR NO?"
"Um.. S-Sure.. Whatever, I - I just want out of here." I spat in panic.
"VERY WELL THEN! LANCE GRIMPYRE... YOU ARE ENDOWED WITH THE ABILITIES OF A HELLFIRE SCION!" The skull, finished it's growling dialogue as a bony hand reached out, grasped the collar of my shirt, lifted me off my feet. While another hand emerged, turning it's wrist to a palm side up, before folding fingers as if they were claws, and bending the wrist to a 90 degree angle with the lower arm. The palm now faced me, the finger spread before it like some sort of spiked weapon. In an instant, the hand jabbed into my gut, burning with an intensity that caused my vision to go blurry as an intense burning consumed my body. If felt as if I was lit on fire, and my skin was slowly charring and peeling from my bones, my blood dripping from me into a puddle upon the floor, being sucked into the dry soil, never to be recovered. Was I going to die here? Was I ever going to see Callie again? Next thing I knew, I fell to the floor. The skull was gone, the fire had died from the lighter, and it had fallen into the dust. Wheezing and gasping for breath for several long minutes, I finally composed myself enough to reach forward shakily and grasp the lighter, sticking it back into my pocket. I blinked several times, to notice a white mask now floated in the air above the now open chest. I grabbed hold of the mask lightly. As I did, the mask became patterned with a black series of lines, forming the image of a skull. Over each eye, there were blood red slashes, dripping blood down the cheeks. I ran my hand over the pattern. I shakily placed the mask over my face. Once it touched my skin, the mask stuck to it with a flaming hot intensity; my flesh fusing with it. The mask sucked onto my face as I let out an immense shout of pain from the burning. I was on my knees, stretching my head to the ceiling, yelling in complete agony. The pain slowly died as the mask disappeared.
"USE THE HELL'S FIRE FOR WHATEVER YOU WISH, LANCE GRIMPYRE. YOU WILL BE CALLED WHEN YOU ARE NEEDED. FAREWELL."
I fell forward, my hands holding my face off the dry, dusty ground. I was panting fairly hard for several minutes. How no one heard my crying pains, is anyone's guess. Surely Callie would be looking for me, or had heard me and called for help. I rose to my feet, stumbling to rest against one of the metal walls. I placed a hand to my face, the mask was gone. I didn't think about it. I turned and staggered outside. I stepped into the light, feeling my energy return fairly suddenly.
"NO ONE CAN KNOW OF YOUR POWERS, LANCE... OR ELSE." The voice roared in my head. I wasn't going to tell a soul, since I doubt I would live another moment if I did tell anyone.
"Callie?," I called out. "This isn't funny anymore! Come on!"
"What do you mean, Lance? You just didn't go far enough. I was around the corner her waiting for you." Callie spoke as she stepped around from a corner to the right of the little entrance.
"Sorry... I went in there, and didn't see you. I didn't know you went further. L-Let's head home. I'm not feeling too well all of a sudden..." I began to weakly walk back towards the car, Callie in toe asking me what hurt. I know Callie was confused, but no one was more confused than me. I drove Callie home, and ushered her off to enjoy her night and that I'd take a shower and rest for the night. I'd text her in the morning.
What did that skull mean by I can use the power for whatever I wish? What power do I have? I felt no different, just weak.
That night, things changed... Fire was going to become a very fond friend.