Chapter Four: Revenge

After speaking, unconsciousness slowly but steadily took over my body. I fell asleep with the rhythmic stroke of Tom's thumb against the back of my hand. I could have prayed to gods that I don't believe in for a peaceful sleep, but I already knew that even if I was not available to the conscious world, there would be no luxury in my cursed life.

"Oh Cissa?"

Tom waved my teddy bear in front of my face, teasingly, his eyes glowing red, a sight very common to me. "Give it back!" I shouted. He only glanced at it maliciously as the tail started to smoke. I kicked him in the shin and he dropped the bear which I quickly hugged into my body.

"You're stupid girl!" He shouted, "You may have powers stronger then most but not me!" He sent me flying across the room without a single touch. The impact of the wood floor to my back was great, but I knew that if I let out more then a whimper the more hurt I would be. A soft groan escaped my lips, my breathing becoming labored because of extremely sharp pains on my left side; surely a rib had cracked. I tucked my knees into my chest, trying to protect what little bit of my security I had left.

Tom returned the kick, but twice as hard. A shriek escaped my mouth as my bear combusted into bright blue flames with another malicious laugh from Tom. It hovered in the air about six inches from me, slowly burning. Tears streamed my face as I watched the ashes slowly flake to the ground. He finally let me be when there was nothing but a pile of dust in front of me sure to be swept away by the wind that leaked through the windows in the orphanage.

A voice called to me though it sounded as if I were underwater, leagues away from the one who called out to me. "Ciara!" Something warm slithered across my cheek and then returned to my hand. Everything stopped for a moment and the world was still. "Cissa…?" The voice asked, slowly and unsure.

I bolted up wards and tried to run, Tom's voice from all of my nightmares floating back to me. I came face to face with his sapphire eyes, and if he hadn't taught me well enough through pain, I would have screamed. With every bit of muscle I had, I shoved away from him, breaking the grasp his hands had on mine and bolting away. I didn't get far because there was suddenly a great weight on top of me and I crashed down into the floor. My old injuries throbbed in remembrance. "You can't hurt me anymore!" I yelled blindly, somewhere finding the physical strength to throw him off of me.

Scrambling to my feet, I did the one thing that had proved well for me. I ran. The further I ran into the Room of Requirement, the safe I felt though I could hear heavy footfalls behind me. I ducked into a vanishing cabinet that was shabby and in great disrepair. My forehead found my knees and I curled into the secure little ball that I had grown used to finding in times of pain. My mother's voice floated to my ears, like it did when I was an infant and she would sing to me.

"Be there the eagle that soars through the sky, hiding from creatures like you and I. Beware of the serpent who treads in the dust, bearer not of knowledge but only of lust. Fear their combining all good to refrain, for all my sweet children might not breathe again."

I must have been singing aloud because the door creaked open, but I remained still, singing the song that has slowly become a part of me. The world was black around me and the one thing that came through all the blackness was the voice, his voice.

"Ciara… I'm so sorry… I wish," He paused and sighed, "Can I make it better in any way?"

I shook my head as a simple reply. "I… I-I-I-I… I…" Stuttering into my knees, I paused trying to hold myself together, the flip side of sanity looming in front of me. "I can't be close to people… Because… of…"

"Because of what, Ciara? Please tell me!" He begged.

"You…" I looked up at him, the world fading back to me for only a moment before the emptiness settled in my stomach. "You."

Before I could rationalize what I was doing I sent him flying across the room in the opposite direction. His third rib on the left hand side snapped, like mine had. I glared at his right wrist and shattered three bones in his hand and a few in the wrist as well. "You feel that, Tom?" I kicked his shin bone into two pieces. He groaned and gasped in pain. "How about this?" I picked him up by the shirt collar and threw him down onto the floor. I turned to leave and stopped after a step, not turning around. "Oh…" He started to scream. "How could I forget the burns?" A malicious laugh slipped between my teeth.

I fell to floor, the dark power satisfied in its horrid revenge.