Gale was startled awake. The sun had yet to set yet something had woken him. He carefully scanned the area around the house and his sleeping chamber. Nothing unnatural stirred. There were no telltale blank spots, not even a hint of evil. But his mind said there was. Gale looked inside himself searching for where it was coming from when he stumble upon a small child. The little girl was shaking so hard her whole frame crumpled to the ground. He raised a shield around her whispered,

"It's alright, nothing can hurt you now. I won't let anything harm you." Images flashed behind his eyes when the girl looked up at him.

First was the back of another girl. She wore her long black hair in a thick braid and her pretty sari dress was a vivid pink embroidered with green vines and silver flowers. A gift from their mother he remembered through the girl. Older sister, Nina. She was protected her, but what from? He peeked around the girl and saw a beautiful man. Then he wasn't beautiful, his skin was pale sickly. His hair was almost all gone and what was still there was limp and colorless. His lips were rotting and his teeth were jagged blackened points. But his eyes, his eyes are what scared her the most. They were vivid red. He waved a finger at them.

"Come here." His voice was sweet and yet it grated at her nerves.

"Don't listen." Nina warned. Gale/the girl clung to the back of Nina's sari. The man snarled when both children were able to resist him. The vampire stalked closer to the two children and raked his dagger like claws across the air in front of them. Gale/the girl cringed but Nina stood her ground. Vines rose up around the vampire clinging to his ankle and moving its way up. The vampire shredded them only to have more vines work their way up his body.

"When I say go I want you to burn him." Gale felt a deep over whelming fear at this. The girl feared her fire more than she feared the monster. She clung tighter to her sister.

"But mom said not to." Nina shuck her head.

"Mom's not here little one."

"But last time I hurt people. I nearly hurt you." Nina nodded patiently. She was trying to keep her focus on the monster that was in the process of ripping her vines apart, but she needed her sister's help if she was going to stop this demon.

"You won't little one. I promise." Gale/ the girl shuck their heads. They were too afraid. They let go of their sister's dress and stepped back. Then another. Then they turned and bolted. Nina screamed in pain as the demon managed to rip through the last f her vines and lashed his claws down her body. Gale/ the girl turned back to see Nina fall. Blood stained her sari and her braid had been sliced clean off. The monster was bent over her body. Her heart stopped and they screamed,

"No!" A bright band of red flame leaped from their hands and raced towards the monster. The flames scorched the beast and sent him flying away from her sister. But he didn't burn up. They raced to Nina and tried to wake her. "Nina, please get up! We need to get away! Come on, let's go home." But Nina wouldn't wake up. Shaking the two of them ran. They ran all the way home and pounded on the door. Blood smeared the door, Nina's blood. Tears rose up choking them. It was all her fault. She should have stayed. Nina would be okay if she had just done what she had been told.

Her father came to the door and took one look at his daughter's tear streaked face, and bloody hands. There was the unmistakable fear in her father's eyes. The fear of a man who had already lost his wife.

"Show me." Gale/the girl lead her father back to where Nina and the monster had dueled out. But when they turned the corner there was only a bloody patch in the hard ground and an old shed the was engulfed in flames. Her father sank down to his knees and wept for his daughter.

Police officers and firemen came not long after. The officer took one look at the Gale/the girl and cautiously approached. He bent down to knee level and asked,

"What happened?" Gale looked down at his small hands that were covered in blood. The story tumbled out and the officer looked at them suspiciously. He then went to take father's statement and was even more suspicious when the father explained that he hadn't been there.

After that there had been numerous people asking her lots of questions. None of them believed the girl when she spoke so finally she just stopped. When someone asked her to tell them what happened to Nina she would just say,

"Nina is gone." Not long after wards her father would come home later and later. If he came home at all he would stink of stale beer and greasy food. When he looked at her he mutter,

"Your fault. They are gone because of you." Then the beatings would start. Gale tried to use his shield to protect them but it wouldn't come, this was just a memory. Gale screamed silently and raged at the unfairness of the world. He had been helpless to help his own family now this girl. The memories of the beatings began to blur together, but Gale endured them all with her until she came to the day she left her home. They strayed into the city where they stole food and hid from police and any criminals. They knew she was an easy target, but she did have flames.

Slowly they learned to use their flames. They gained an almost unheard control over the flames and they started to use them. Pick out those people who made their money through unsavory means was easy. It was even simpler to heat the air around them until they fainted. Then they just picked their pockets and left anything like drugs peeking out of pockets before calling 911 on the victims cell.