Gripping The Fire
Chapter 5
Mika laughed as she continued to listen to the phone. Her and Kyle had been talking for about an hour. He called her to make sure she was going to get to bed early that night so she could sleep longer. The conversation then slowly moved onto the topic of how she was having nightmares. She told him only very little of what happened in them, but he could tell they disturbed her. Then Kyle changed the subject to something better. They began talking about the different pranks they've tried and want to try out soon.
"We need to go and do some of these pranks together this weekend," Kyle told her.
"Yes. Definitely," Mika agreed. Mika suddenly heard someone walking outside her room in the hall. She looked over at the door quickly. "Uh oh... Someone's up. I've gotta go before I get in trouble," she told him.
"Ok well I hope you get some sleep tonight and you don't have anymore nightmares," he replied.
"Thanks. I hope so too."
"And if you want to, you can call me anytime. Even if it's like 3 in the morning," he offered. "I'd be glad to talk to you or meet you somewhere if you need to get away for a bit."
Mika smiled. "Thanks Kyle. I'll keep that in mind." She glanced at the clock, which said 10:13. "Aight well I'll see you tomorrow," Mika whispered into the phone. "Goodnight." Mika quickly hung up the phone and hopped into bed. She then grabbed her stereo remote, turned on a mellow alternative song, set it on repeat, and turned on the sleep mode. She then reached over and switched off the sidetable lamp, making the room almost completely black.
A little while after she fell asleep, she began to dream. Something she hoped would not happen.
Her dream started out fine. Pleasant even. She dreamt her life was perfect, having everything she really wanted. Material things, as well as something she wanted more than anything. A family that loved her and cared for her. Her dream slowly took a different turn, turning into, yet, another nightmare. Each second became worse than before. Her biggest fears were happening. Her family began to hate her, along with her friends. Then a man began to try and kill her. Then one of her biggest fears happened. She could no longer control fire. The one thing she loved and thanked God for had disappeared. Her only sense of power was suddenly gone. She felt empty and hallow.
She suddenly began running through a forest and this time the fire consumed everything around her. But she couldn't control it. She couldn't stop it. She could only run. Run from the man with the shining knife. Everything she saw was a blurred reddish color, like a bright and vivid blood red. The trees she ran past crackled and snapped at her. The flames grabbed at her like vicious greedy hands. They were no longer her power, but her foe.
Hearing the sound of footsteps gaining on her she burst through the trees, and ran for her house. Just as she reached her front steps a sharp pain sliced through her back. She fell forward and gripped the last step to try to pull herself up, but it suddenly turned to flames and began burning her. She cried out in pain and rolled over. And there stood the man with the knife that dripped her blood. His bright and glowing red eyes glared down at her while his evil smile expressed his pleasure and satisfaction of causing her pain. Adrea then appeared above her, an evil smile spreading across her face also as she grinned at the man. Her mother came out of the house and pointed a finger at Mika.
"Why can't you be more like your sister Adrea, Mikael?!" her mother yelled. "You're such an embarrassment to us!" Adrea suddenly laughed. She laughed as the man held the knife up to finish Mika off.
"NO!" Mika wailed, kicking and screaming. The fire began to eat up everything around her and she began to smell smoke. Through the haze she could see them laughing. Laughing at her. The bloody red knife glinted as it came down towards her. "NO!" she yelled kicking at the figure. Then she heard a loud crash...
Mika stirred awake when she heard the loud crash. She shot straight up in her bed and her eyes flew open. She was sweating bullets and she was breathing with short deep breaths. It only took her a second to realize her room was filled from floor to ceiling with fire and had already entered into the hallway and reached the stairs. It was eating up everything it touched. Everything except her.
She then heard some terrified screams and running footsteps. She jumped out of bed and quickly extended her hands. 'Oh please god, let my power work,' she prayed remembering her dream. She sighed with great relief when it did work. She quickly cleared a path for herself through the fire and ran to find her family.
She wanted so badly to just make the fire stop, but she just couldn't. If she did, people would find out she was a mutant, which was something she knew would not be good because of the recent anti-mutant riots. Another reason was the fire was already too large for her to fully control. If she were to try to, it could go completely out of control and cause an explosion or it could jump over to another house, something she wasn't willing to risk.
Mika ran down the stairs and saw her parents trying to get out the front door. The doorknob was too hot however, so Mika quickly pushed her parents out of the way and opened the door with no problem, because she also endured and controlled heat. Mika held open the door as they all ran out to the front yard and then she followed them.
It was obvious someone had already called the fire department because they could hear the sirens farther off. Mika stood there and stared blankly at her burning house. She grabbed nothing when she ran to get out, though she could have. She didn't grab her teddy bear that she had had since she was a baby. She didn't grab her CD player or CDs. She didn't grab her guitar, nor did she grab her journal that was full of poems and songs written by her. It was all gone by now. There was no way to save her things.
Tears made their way to her eyes and slowly streamed down her cheek. As she silently cried, she thought about how the fire might have started. She then realized what happened. She began to shake with fright. Her dream had scared her so much that her body became hotter than usual. Her sweat and body heat became so hot that her sheets began to burn as if they were sitting on a light bulb. They, then, caught on fire.
Mika sat down on the cement sidewalk and pulled her knees up to her chest. She continued to stare at the burning house while her tears fell freely. Her family suddenly surrounded her and she looked up at them, expecting to see sad or crying faces, but saw, instead, their angry glares.
"Why did you do that?!" her mother yelled.
"I didn't do it on purpose! I promise! I didn't mean to!" Mika told them quickly.
"But you didn't put it out! Why didn't you put it out?!" her dad yelled.
"I told you we should've given her to someone else when we found out she was a mutant," Adrea suddenly said to their parents. "She's just a dumb mutie who doesn't know how to use her powers. You're so stupid Mika. You should've run away before this happened. Woulda made everyone happier if you did."
At this point, Mika was becoming angry. She stood up and glared furiously at Adrea. "Don't you dare call me a mutie Adrea," she said through clenched teeth.
"I can call you whatever I want, Mutie!" Adrea replied.
Mika's eyes suddenly flashed red. Adrea was entering very dangerous grounds. Being called a mutie was offensive and Mika was not ready to deal with it, especially since it was coming from Adrea, beause Adrea, too, was a mutant.
Mika tightened her fists and glared at Adrea. She began to feel her body literally heat up from rage. She tried to hold back from yelling at Adrea and she tried not to lose full control over herself.
"We knew you were gonna be trouble from the start. Ever since you were just a fetus," Adrea began. "Even I knew it and I was only two! I didn't want a brother or sister. I've never wanted one in my whole life.
"You were just a mistake. You weren't supposed to come. You embarrass us. You give the Shore's a bad name and reputation!"
Mika tried to hold back with all her might. As Adrea spoke these words to her in her bitter, hateful, and satanic tone, Mika clenched her jaw and fists tightly and without realizing it, fire sparked on the ground around Mika and slowly grew larger and the fire in the house became even more wild as Mika became angrier.
"You'll never measure up to be a Shore!" Adrea suddenly yelled. Mika snapped. The fire around her suddenly flamed up and blazed twenty feet high and the fire in the house exploded, causing pieces of wood and glass to fly through the air all around them. Adrea and her parents screamed as they dropped to the ground and covered their heads.
Looking up at Mika, they shrunk back with pure fear. They could see her anger and rage cleary and it scared them.
"Never live up to being a Shore huh?!" Mika yelled. "Why would I want to be a Shore?! You're all just rich little snobs who care about nothing but yourselves, your money, and your material things! You think you're better than everyone when you're not! And what the hell is wrong with mutants?! You're all just jealous because we can do things that you can't! I'm tired of dealing with you every single day! You're all just money hungry, haughty, stupid, and powerless pigs! And I am through with you!" Mika threw up her hands and the fire around her blazed higher. It then flew forward towards Adrea when Mika pointed her hands at her. Adrea flew back as the fire hit her and she screamed in complete terror. Adrea got up and held her hands out in front of her, preparing to create a shield.
'Be careful what you do Adrea, dear. We don't want Mommy and Daddy to know what you really are, do we?' Mika thought in her head with an unusually calm tone as she slowly walked towards Adrea. She knew Adrea could hear her and Adrea looked horrified at her and then turned and ran. 'Yes darling sister. Running would be a good idea. I'm sure you don't want to hang around with me for a while,' Mika thought calmly as she continued to follow Adrea.
Her tone was so calm, unnatural, and emotionless and she walked unusually graceful as she followed Adrea. No one had ever seen Mika this way before. She had never even thought this way before either. She had seriously snapped. She lost her sanity.
The fire followed closely behind Mika while it also stayed behind. Her mind was linked to the fire's mind, and it was going to do anything she did and anything she told it to do. It followed Mika's hands as she spread her arms out and then quickly threw them out in front of her. The fire quickly raced around in front of Adrea and blocked her from running any farther.
Adrea stopped quickly and turned to face Mika. She looked at Mika, begging for mercy with her eyes. Mika assumed her calm and emotionless expression.
'Whatcha gonna do big sister? Can't run anymore, now can ya?' Mika said.
"Mika! Let me go!" Adrea yelled. Mika suddenly showed a sign of emotion. She raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.
"Let you go? Now why would I want to do that?" Mika asked her with an innocent tone of voice. Her expression then changed to anger in a split second and she began to speak with a low and angry tone. "I've lived through hell for the past fifteen years and it's mostly thanks to you. Don't you think it's time I give you the pleasure of going through what I went through?"
Adrea backed up as far away from Mika as she could. "Mika... Don't hurt me," she said. Mika let out a low and evil laugh.
"Mikael Bradley Shore! You stop this right now!" her mother suddenly yelled. Mika's head turned quickly and looked at her for a second before she threw a wave of fire at her. The force of the fire made her mother fall back and she began to scream.
"You stay out of this!" Mika hissed. She turned back towards Adrea and glared.
'Don't make me hurt you Mika,' Adrea's voice echoed in her head.
'What are you talking about Adrea? You've hurt me for 15 years with your bitter words. No one can hurt me more than you have, physically and mentally.'
'Back down right now Mika, or I'll be forced to hurt you,' Adrea warned again.
"DON'T THREATEN ME!" Mika screamed as she threw a large fire wave at Adrea. Adrea quickly created a force field around herself before the fire could hit her, but it was too short notice and the shield quickly weakened and she flew back from the force of the fire.
"You asked for it!" Adrea yelled as she stood up. She reached her hands out in front of her and was about to take hold of Mika, but they suddenly heard the fire trucks coming down the street and they pulled up in front of the house. Mika turned and watched the firemen get ready to spray water on her fire. She looked at them with a hurtful expression and she tried to think of what to do. She looked over at Adrea and watched as she slowly moved away and ran over to their parents.
Several police cars then pulled up and the policemen jumped out of their cars and pointed their guns at Mika. Mika finally snapped out her insanity and realized what she had done was totally out of her character and that she shouldn't have done it. She stood there, scared to death, and watched the policemen point their fully loaded guns at her.
"Put your hands on your head and stay where you are!" one of the policemen yelled. Mika looked around. The firemen had gone around them and began spraying water on the burning house. She watched them for a second and then turned back to the police.
"Put your hands on your head!" the policemen repeated. Mika bit her lip and looked back and forth between her family, the police, and the burning house. She then looked at her family one last time. Surprisingly, she smiled at them and then suddenly turned around and began running into the burning house. The police, firemen, and her family watched her in complete shock and then two firemen suddenly ran in to find her.
As Mika ran, she created a path through the fire. She kept running through the house till she reached where the back door had been. Stopping at the back door, she turned around and reached her hands out, palms facing the ceiling. "Don't fail me now my friend," she said to the fire. She then suddenly threw her hands up quickly and the fire obeyed, blazing violently as if someone sprayed flammable liquid on it. There was somewhat of an explosion, and Mika took this as her que to leave. She ran out the back door and jumped over the fence. Then she began to run. She just kept running. She didn't stop. She couldn't stop. Tears fell down her face as she ran, and she never bothered to look behind her. She didn't want to look back, nor was she ever going back again.