Chapter 1: Lost innocence.
He sat in the doctor's office alongside his mother, a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties with long, silky black hair, thin lips and green eyes decorated with a mole on the right. Her face was unusually pale, her eyes wet, her voice trembling.
"Doctor, are you sure about that?", she asked, hoping that something would change, that she'd get a different answer.
"All the tests we've run on him showed positive results. I'm sorry, Victoria, but that's the final verdict.", the doctor paused, wiping the sweat off of his head. "Your son has an abnormality, it will probably manifest in a couple of days."
Victoria looked down after receiving her answer, shaking a bit. The doctor looked at her and her son with sympathy. What is wrong? Why is mommy crying? She told me that this test will show if I have 'anormity', like these guys we've seen before. It looks like I will. Isn't that awesome? A boy thought, green eyes beaming with excitement. Then the doctor told his mom to take her time, to relax a bit, confusing the kid even more.
"Sugar, you can go home if you want." She said with a shaky voice, not looking him in the eyes. "Mommy needs to talk with Mister-Doctor a bit."
He nodded and got off the chair, heading for the door, saying their goodbyes to the mustached man.
Upon exiting the office he saw a woman with a child, a group of teenagers, an older woman, a man, and a few other patients. Why all of them are sweating? It doesn't feel that hot to me.
Wonder what kind of 'anormity' I'll get, he was thinking on his way home, I hope it's something really cool and powerful like eye lasers or super-strength or flying. If it will be good enough I might even be something like a superhero when I grow up. Fighting bad guys, saving people, that would be SO AWESOME! He was completely drown in his thoughts about his possible power and ways of its usage, happy and excited to be just like all these heroes from animated TV-series he so deeply adored. Maybe if I'll do hero-ing good enough, show my power to everybody, people will start treating guys with 'abnormities' better. Memories of a man with horns getting kicked out of the shop a couple of weeks ago, disgust in customers' eyes thrown at poor man flashing in his mind. That's right, I'll do my best to make it better for the rest.
Because of his train of thoughts, he didn't notice the sound of the hospital doors opening right after he left, nor did he hear the steps behind him getting faster and faster. When he saw someone's shadow reaching its arms towards him, it was too late. A hand covered his mouth and a skinny arm grabbed him, yanking him into the alleyway.
He tried to scream, but the palm was covering his mouth too tightly. Tears started streaming from his yellow eyes, he tried to punch and kick the man, but his efforts were useless.
"Well aren't you a fighter, kid" the man mocked him, clearly enjoying his pointless struggle. "Don't you think it's too hot to wear so many clothes? Let me help you out with that." An unpleasant, creepy voice reached his ears, scaring him even more.
The boy was panicking, trying his best to fight back, begging somebody to help him, hoping that rescue will come, that his mother will walk out of the corner and save him. But none of that happened. He was all alone with that man, unable to free himself, unable to call for help.
The man reached his hand to his lower half. NO! STOP! PLEASE! STOP IT! He was desperate, he wanted the man to let go, he tensed up, feeling something in his back, right between his shoulder blades.
And then he felt a painful stinging in there, the man screamed, tossing him away. He started crawling to the wall on the opposite side, feeling something dripping from his back. The man — the same person he saw in the hospital — was holding his chest, orange fire on his shirt fading away, making a hole in it, his skin bubbling, as he hissed loudly.
"YOU!" the man yelled at the top of his lungs, either out of pain or anger, "YOU LITTLE FUCKER, YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE, AREN'T YOU?!"
He was looking at the kid with fear and disgust, mumbling something about the disgrace of mankind, patting his pockets, searching for something.
He pulled out a knife, glint of madness appearing in his eyes. He was moving towards the child on shaky legs, lifting the knife above his head.
"Please, stop. Leave me alone!" the boy pleaded, hiding his head behind his crossed arms. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
As he shouted, a torrent of blue flames erupted from his forearms, absorbing the man within seconds.
And then, there was silence, the boy put his arms down, looking at the image that will haunt him for years to come: the man was lying on the ground, his skin was completely burned away, some places lacked any meat whatsoever, the stench was unbearable. A small fire was flickering on his skull, empty eye sockets were staring upwards, knife handle merged with his palm.
And there he sat, with his back leaned against the wall, staring at the remains of a once-living person, finally understanding what he had done, unable to scream, to cry, to move, panting heavily with the look of pure horror on his face.
Five minutes had passed since he was forcefully brought in that alley. It took two more before scream full of fear and regret finally tore its way out of his throat.
Crying won't do anything, Victoria thought while leaving the hospital. Dad has some connections, he'll figure something out, we'll find out how to hide it. It's nothing serious, his eyes are just able to change its color, that's it. I don't think it's necessary to write it down in his file, he still can have a normal life, like a normal child, her worry over her son was interrupted when she heard someone screaming, and then it grew larger once she realized whom that scream belonged to.
She immediately ran out of the hospital gates, looking around, begging for her son to be alright, searching the streets to find him, fear creeping its way to her heart. She heard him again, his heart-wrenching scream led to him being found in a dirty alleyway. She was still scared, but seeing her son brought her relief, that immediately faded away upon examining him. Two horrific burns formed on his forearms, his back was steaming and bleeding, a blank look in his tear-filled eyes was unnerving. Her son, her poor, little, innocent son was mumbling apologies while sitting on his knees with a burnt corpse by his side.
She ran to him, hugging him tightly, letting him cry on her shoulder while she was breaking down in tears herself.
"Shhh, it's okay, it's okay, don't cry. Everything will be fine now. I'm here, it's okay," she mumbled, unsure whether she was trying to convince him or herself.
It was supposed to be just another day of August. What should've been just an obligatory check-up ended up with a kid, who just had his fourth birthday, experiencing something, not every adult can bear.
It'll be very hard to recover from something so horrible at that young age. If it's even possible to recover from in the first place.
Welp, that's it for now. Thanks for reading my first fic. I'd love to hear your questions, advice, and criticism. See you soon.