Twelve-Ash

a little... graphic, sorry.

Chapter 12

Ash

I stop
I stop falling
suspended
in hell

Excerpt from “Falling” by Sophie Lynch

By the end of the training session I've learned to take heat from the air to create fire, and I can control it on a whim, whipping it around and taking fire off of things. It's pretty damn cool. I had an idea at the end of training, we needed to get Airborne down, but she couldn't hear us, so I took off my shoes and like a rocket propelled myself up with fire. My feet vibrated, it was like there were engines in there. What would it look like if I got dissected?

“Hey Air! Time to come down.” I say. She looks at me, startled.

“How'd you get up here?” She asks. I shrug as nonchalantly as possible, even though inside I'm dying to scream happiness. We fly down together and a foot above the ground I “turn off” the fire and fall the rest of the way.

“I'll work on landing.” I say, getting up.

“So, on here everyone write down their cell phone numbers and email addresses, please, we may need to contact one another.” Bry holds out a piece of paper. We all write what we're supposed to and she goes to make copies. I lie in the grass, exhausted and watch a lady bug crawl up Airborne's arm, unnoticed. She then notices and lets it crawl onto her finger, then she places it gently on a dandelion where it perches happily.

“So are you going to Michaela's party tomorrow night?” I ask the group. Ray, who has stopped vomiting, nods, “Yeah, she's one of my friends, you?”

As I nod, Airborne says, “Oh! I forgot about that! I think I'll go, it was nice of her to invite almost everyone, I'm not exactly popular.”

“Party?” Nox asks.

“Yeah, a girl from school is throwing a party for the end of school, and she didn't cancel it when the school was attacked, or to them, destroyed, so we're all going.” I explain.

“What's a party?”

“Again, are you Amish?!” Jasper asks. He looks a lot better, slightly burned, but that's all.

“A party is where a bunch of teenagers play really loud music, bring dates, make out in the bathrooms, dance, get drunk, and all that fun stuff.” Bry scoffs.

“Sounds like my kinda place!” Nox grins. Ray looks at him weirdly. “Where is it?” He asks.

“I can just bring you, you're still sleeping here, right?” Bry asks.

“Yeah, that'd be great.” He nods.

“Well, I gotta go, dinner.” I say and stand up. “See you guys later.” I wish I had a car to get home, but my family can't afford one car, never mind one for me. So I hop on my skateboard (a hand-me-down from my older brother, Jack) and ride down the road. Despite my sarcasm and jokes, I'm pretty freaked out about this whole thing, and I'm hoping tomorrow will be a release from that. That for those few hours spent dancing and flirting, I'll forget that I could kill everyone there if I got too mad or something. Flames could, like, burst out of my ears or something. Oh my god, I wonder if smoke would?!

I coast down a hill, feeling the wind hit my face. I can't think of anything the same ever again. Next time there's a wind storm, I'll be thinking of Air and wondering if it's her or just a storm. When the trees turn colors, I'll be wondering if Bry had anything to do with it. And next time there's an earthquake someplace, I'll wonder if Jasper could feel it coming.

Can nothing be normal again?

Everyday since the storm, I've woken up and tried it out immediately, hoping somehow the past few days were all a very vivid, very scary dream. Since I was little I've wanted to be special, somehow, super-powers was definitely a way I thought of. But now... it's too surreal, too much like a movie to be reality. I didn't really believe anything still, or I was at least in denial, until I saw Airborne fly. Flying outdoors could not, in anyway, be a special affect, there could be now wires because it was just open sky.

It was kind of amazing, watching a human fly, it was like, after all these years of watching birds fly, and wishing we could ourselves, not in a big metal machine, we can. What makes us so special? Don't other people deserve the right to the sky?

But they'd probably destroy that too, more than they have.

I reach my house and prop the skateboard up on the porch, and I walk in.

“Hey mom.” I say.

“Hi honey.” She come's over from the stove and kisses my forehead, “Could you change Damien?” She holds out the baby on her hip.

“Yeah, sure.” I say and take my baby brother from her. I take him into his room and put him on the changing table and begin to change the diaper. This is my sixth little sibling, and there are eight of us, though Jack already has a wife and two kids, he's 26. Though Damien's only six months old, dear old step-dad has already knocked mom up again, even though the doctor said another baby could kill her and the child. We could barely support just Jack and I, when Dad left, and then mom met Rob. He seemed really nice at first, and he really loved her, and he also had loads of money. They got married within a year, and our lives seemed better. Then Rob got fired from his job for assaulting an employee. He's been a drunk and he's abused us ever since. We only keep him around for the little extra money when he gets his pay from the gas station. I don't know how mom takes it, Damien is mentally handicapped because of Rob. Rob dropped him the day he was born, because he was drunk and he has brain damage now. The doctor says he won't live past five. But he seems like such a happy baby now, smiling up at me from the table, grabbing at my fingers as I put the clean diaper on.

“Boy!” A gruff voice says behind me.

“Yeah-” I gulp, “-Dad?” I'm forced to call him that, or get beaten.

“Where have you been all day!” He slurs loudly.

“Out with friends.” I reply.

“Don' lie t' me!” He slaps me across the face, Damien begins to cry. “Shut the hell up!” Rob shouts at the infant, which only makes him cry more.

“I wasn't lying.” I say calmly, not letting him get to me.

“Daddy, don't yell at the baby.” A voice says in the door way, my five year old little sister says, she's the fourth youngest.

“Belle, go help your mother in the the kitchen, get me a beer while you're at it. Make yourself useful! Go!” Rob yells. Belle runs, terrified he might go after her, her long, tangled fiery red hair flowing behind her.

“Now, back to you, you little filthy mouthed liar.” He turns to me.

“I didn't lie.” I repeat.

“So if I call these friends, they'll all say you were there?”

“Of course.” But he won't call, the drunkenness is too recognizable, even over the phone.

“Huh.” He grunts, then slaps me again for good measure. I've learned to take it.

It's ten o'clock and everyone has finally gone to sleep, but me. I lie awake in bed, when I hear the hallway creaking and the door to Belle's room open and close. I sit up and climb down the ladder of the bunk bed. I creep down the hall and put my ear against the door. I hear Belle's voice.

“But, Daddy, I don't want to.”

“You've gotta listen to Daddy, or it'll hurt worse.”

“But I don't want to! It hurts anyway!” I hear her wail.

“Shh, don't wake anyone up, now come on, yes that's it, good girl.” I hear him softly moan, and Belle cries out. I burst in. I pull him off her and push him to the ground.

“Don't touch her.” I growl. Belle sits against her bed, hugging her knees together and crying.

“Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it boy?” He throws me off him, surprisingly strong, against a wall. I slump to the ground, my head spinning. I goes back over to Belle and forces her legs apart again.

“Ash!” She yells and then cries out in pain again. She cries out more and more as he gets more into it, I come to my senses.

“GET. OFF. MY. SISTER!” I scream. Flame shoots out of my hand and onto his back, a never ending stream of it flows onto him, he howls in pain and rolls away, leaving Belle bleeding slightly onto the floor. Flames continue to flow out of me, pounding him. By this time, Marley, the oldest but for me has woken up and called the ambulance and police.

Mom wakes up and sees the scene, Rob's not dead, but he doesn't look too good.

“Get out of here, run, go somewhere where they won't find you, stay at a friends, I know what you are, and I'm sorry I didn't warn you, go, go! I'll light the floor on fire, make it look like an accident. And I promise, he will never, ever come near anyone, ever again.” She says frantically. Sirens wail outside, “Go!” I jump out the window and launch myself into the sky with my feet engines. “I love you!” She calls. I sit in a tree nearby, watching the scene unfold. Rob is taken away in a stretcher, my mother, always the actress, tells of how he was abusing my sister and knocked over a lit candle, burning him and setting the carpet on fire.

Where to go... and why? Can't I just sit there and lie along with her? I suppose if he doesn't get arrested, he'll come after me though. Bry already has someone staying at her house, Ray and I were never friends, Nox is staying at Bry's house, Jasper and I don't know each other, that leaves Airborne. We did talk at the training session, I could ask her, it's be weird though. I text her.

You awake?

Yeah, why?

Well, um, I kinda just almost burned my step dad 2 death for raping my sister, and my mom knows he'll come after me, she told me to run. I need somewhere to stay. ik idrk you, but I need somewhere.

Oh, wow. Um, sure, I can ask, when you get here ring the doorbell, I'll answer.

Okay, where do you live? I send.

She gives me directions and I land at her doorstep. I take a deep breath and ring the bell.

“I'll get it!” I hear her call. The door opens. “Oh, hi Ash, what are you doing here?” She says, and closes the door behind her. “Okay, pretend to explain it tome and I'll go in and ask my dad.”

“Okay.” I explain the “enhanced” version and she opens the door and leads me in.

“Dad, this is Ash, he's a friend from school. His parents just kicked him out and he needs a place to stay for a while...” She says.

“Well... I don't know, it depends, why did he get kicked out?” Her dad asks.

“Um... well...” I start, we didn't think this through!

“He's gay! Yeah, that's it, he's gay, and his parents are homophobes.” Air bursts out. What?!

“Uh...” I say defensively.

“Sorry for outing you, but they needed to know.” She cuts me off.

“It's okay, I'm definitely rainbow team, all the way! Woo! Rainbows!” I put some enthusiasm into it. Airborne looks at me weird, “He's a little overwhelmed...”

“You can stay, you can sleep on the couch, I'll set it up.” He says. He goes into the hall and drags out some blankets and a pillow. She sets it up.

“Well, I'm going to bed.” He says afterward, see you in the morning.” He walks down the hall.

“Sorry.” Airborne winces.

“So... I'm gay now? Don't I have a say in this?” I say. “Oh no.” I say horrified, “Do I have to be interested in fashion?”

Author's Note

Reviews please!!!!!

Reviews

[SuicidePact.]

AMAZING!

[Abbie]

Good chapter. I feel bad for Ash and His family... His poor sister! Even If his step dad is a fictional character, I will personally kill him if he does not die in the book! I know just how to make it look like he fall into the saw blade too... JK JK! ...well, maybe. But anyways, Good chapter! when is the next one coming out?

[MandaBear]

very good :P

[Sylvana]

and no, the Amish joke will not be offensive. I've seen worse insults in books.

[Sylvana]

“A party is where a bunch of teenagers play really loud music, bring dates, make out in the bathrooms, dance, get drunk, and all that fun stuff.” Bry scoffs.
“Sounds like my kinda place!” Nox grins. Ray looks at him weirdly. *no comment* xD

I goes back over to Belle and forces her legs apart again. (oh pleease make that say he goes, not I go Dx)

“It's okay, I'm definitely rainbow team, all the way! Woo! Rainbows!” I put some enthusiasm into it. (and the last sentence was very hilarious. :D)

Anyways, Ash's life seems pretty sucky... and it is sad that stuff like that happens in real life.

[Sophie]

if this ever gets published (oh hopefully!) would the Amish comment be offensive? I mean it as a joke, but now I wonder...