I looked at the barrel of the gun pushed in my face by the person before me. He was tall, bearded, a scar across the left side of his cheek. Probably by one of us. Probably by the one who took his family in the same breath. Like lives meant nothing. Probably justifying everything by putting them all on the list of necessary victims in this giant war.. His hands trembled, his eyes nearly showed recognition of people who were no more while looking at us kneeling on the bed in front of him. Maybe he had been in the same position in the past, maybe on the bed. Or maybe just outside the door watching his kids being torn to pieces. Would he be able to even shoot straight? My eyes turned left for a split second to the wardrobe not too far away. Behind the door I could see the terrified eyes of a little boy, his face pale and his lips pressed together to keep the noises in. Silent tears flowing down his cheek.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus. I couldn't lead them right to him. I couldn't let anything happen to any of them. That's what I owed to my parents in the other room, probably dead by now. I clenched my hand to a fist. The small body of my little sister trembled in my back as my eyes glowed. I reached out my hand faster than he could react and I broke the piece of metal before me.

Did they think we kids would be easy to kill? Did they think we weren't worth their time? Was that why they left only one to fulfill the deed after they had finished whatever business you could have carrying a gun into the bedroom of our mother and father?

I swung my legs and got on both of my feet, the barrel of the gun now pointing upwards towards the ceiling. I felt angry. No, not just angry, I felt in rage. My eyes started glowing even brighter with every heavy breath that escaped my mouth. The man's face had turned pale, he had stumbled a step back. In his eyes lay pure horror. Did he think I was going to kill him? Did he think of me as nothing more than a monster? Did he think the same of my 5 year-old sister and my little brother in the wardrobe?

The room seemed to have turned absolutely quiet. All I could hear was the violent heartbeat of the human before me. One step foreward. He took one back. I could feel the heat of energy rising around my body.
From a strategical viewpoint, what they had done wasn't dumb. We all were still young. My powers were just developing, and no one had shown me how to fully deal with them or control them. My father could have shown me, but that was taken care of by killing him. My brother's abilities hadn't manifested yet, if they ever would, and the little girl behind me, well, no one would be able to teach her how to control her powers anyways. There were no Phoenixes left in this world. Monroe and her people made sure of that. The Same as us now.
Really smart, I would have nearly laughed bitterly. Were we that much hated? Even though we never had even layed a hand on a human, even though my father had fought his whole life to protect humans of our village from the evil, like he should, like his destiny had been?

I would have liked to ask the hunter a lot of things. But I knew I wouldn't get a rational answer from him. To him, all supernatural beings must be the same. Maybe we all shared one and the same face to him. Ugly to his eyes.

The heat was now all around me. Yellow energy enveloped my body, my arms, my chest. My skin felt like it was just about to burst into flames. But the feeling wasn't unpleasant to me.

Focus!
The threads of vapour around my hands flowed together slowly forming claws. I looked at the human before me and slowly tilted my head.

„Did you amateurs think my father had not already taught me a little about being a dragon? These claws are sharp, would you like to find out yourself?"

Another step forward, another back.

I didn't want to fight. Why were they making us do this?

The gun fell to the ground as the man turned around and ran out the door, stumbled down the stairs while yelling for his comerads.

My brother jumped out of the wardrobe as soon as he had left and ran over to me, burying his face in my Pyjama. I wrapped one arm around him, the energy disappearing into the air around me. I felt nearly cold.

From downstairs I could hear screaming, heard rough voices. They came nearer.

Damn!
I took the boy's hand, grabbed my little sister around the waist. She was staring into space, fully in shock. I kissed her forehead.
„I am so sorry."
One last time I looked over my shoulder to the doorframe behind me as heavy footsteps approached it and metal shone in the light of the moon outside.

I pressed the little girl against my chest, my other sibling against my stomache, running towards the window.

„SHOOOOOT!", I could hear a female voice shouting.

„Jump now, Ben!"

I looked my brother in the eyes and we both pushed our feet off the ground as hard as we could. Bullets shot through the sky all around us, glass shattered, cut my arms open. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder.

Then we fell, and the impact with the ground took my breath away for a split second, leaving me lying on my back gasping for air. But we had no time to let ourselves be overwhelmed by pain.
I could feel the bullet moving in my shoulder with every movement of my body, could feel the blood run down my skin.

I got up, staggering. I pulled Ben to his feet. I avoided his fearful look.

I started running, pushing my legs to their limits. Tears ran down my cheeks, our surroundings were lit in a yellow light as our house went up in flames. Clever.. they would be able to spot us easilier now, having such a bright light source. I cracked a smile. I knew it would waste my breath. I started laughing.
Was I finally going insane? After all the bullying, all the words, all the beatings. Was I?

Suddenly there was no ground beneath my feet anymore and with a scream I tripped, pulled my brother with me and rolled down a descent, landed with my face in the dirt. I could hear them behind me. They had heard me. They were coming after us now. We were being hunted, like animals.

My sister began struggeling in my arms. She whimpered, tried to break free. I couldn't move, could feel my fear consuming me. Dizziness welled up inside me, my breathing became irregular.
We would die out here, wouldn't we?

My eyes were wide open, looking over my shoulder. The light of flashlights shone down to us. Soon they would have found us.

„Friis.."

Ben pulled on my arm, his voice timid and terrrified. I could feel his hand around my wrist, I could feel sweat on his palm. But I couldn't move. My legs were shaking, I felt cold.

„Out of my way kid!"
A female voice reached my ears. She sounded charismatic and self-confident as she spoke.
I felt a firm grip around my arm, I was pulled upwards, off the ground, away from the dirt and dragged into the bushes with unimaginable strength.. almost.

Confused I looked up to the person pulling me with her. I could see a brown leather jacket and hair that ended shortly below delicate seeming shoulders. She was turning her back to me, but I could hear a slightly frustrated growl.

„You know, if you weren't gonna help me rescue your sorry asses by walking on your own legs, I might as well have knocked you out. That way I could have at least made sure you wouldn't make my life harder by, I don't know, screaming?"

I frowned.

„My parents are dead."
„Yeah, fascinating. And so will you, soon, if you don't start walking on your own. You have legs for a reason, don't you?"

The young woman turned her face to me and two blue glowing eyes looked at me.
„Scott wanted me to save you no matter what. We were hoping, we could get to your parents, too, but looks like we were late. Honestly, I… Don't worry, we're not going to let you die!"

As I looked into her eyes I could feel the impact of her words. She meant every single one of them.

I took a deep breath and then put my foot down on the ground before I started running after my saviour, faster and faster.

She was right. If we couldn't get away fast enough, we would die. And I didn't want to die. I promised not to.

„That's more like it!"

Did I just see an approving smile? I blinked and then looked over to Ben behind me. He seemed tired and he was still pale. The colour of his lips had turned to an unhealthy violet. Probably from the winter cold. The little girl had grabbed my Pyjama and buried her face in my clothes whimpering silently.

„Emily..."

I squeezed her little body and rubbed her back.

„It will all be okay.."

Did I believe that myself? Our home was destroyed, our parents dead. The blood had turned my shirt and pants deep red, and I could feel exhaustion creeping up on me.

As if she had read my mind, the woman in front of us shook her head.

„We'll be there in a second, so don't you dare give up, not after all you put me through!"

-Put you through?-

I didn't say anything, but I quickend my steps.

And then we ran onto a wide road as I could hear the motor of a car roaring being turned on. I could feel us being pulled onto car seats and, I could see an unbeleavable uneven jaw line. I passed out right then and there while everything that had happened started crashing down on me.