Chapter 3

This is a confrontation that has been building in Ignotus for a very long time. What happens when years of resentment and abuse rise to the surface of our not-so-normal main character? Let's find out.

Chapter 3

“JADE,” I shouted. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH MY BROTHER, SETH?!?!”

Seth looked up from pummeling my brother, just in time to see me rip my brother from his grasp and shove him as hard as I could. Just like the time in fourth grade, he slid across the tile on his a*s for at least ten feet. The crowd exclaimed in surprise, and laughter could be heard as they surrounded him, taunting him. I started after him. Enough was enough. He needed to be taught a lesson. Strangely enough, the edges of my vision were red.

“Ignotus,” I heard a weak, slightly garbled voice say behind me.

“Jade,” I exclaimed, some of my fury draining away as I turned around and helped my brother get off the ground. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he sobbed through his swollen, blackening eye and split lips. “We were in class, and he seemed cool, so I was talking to him. Things were going great, and I asked him if he had siblings, he said no, then asked me the same thing. I told him about you, and he got this funny look on his face, and as soon as class was over he attacked me. No one helped me, Ignotus! I was so scared. Why didn’t they help?”

Of course they hadn’t helped, I thought as my fury mounted again. They’d rather watch a good fight than help the small guy who’s getting the s**t knocked out of him.

“I’m going to take you to the nurse now, Jade,” I said, hauling him to his feet. “You’re going to be fine.”

Jade didn’t answer, not that I blamed him.

We started on our way, Jade dragging more than walking, when I heard thundering footsteps behind us. I turned, glancing behind me. The enraged face of Seth loomed in my vision, before his fist struck me across the cheek, hard, knocking me and my brother to the ground.

My head rang as I hit my hands and knees, and I found myself staring at the white tile. In a daze, I put my fingers to my lip, and they came away bloody. A heat seemed to go through my body as my vision turned to match the blood on my fingers. With a guttural roar, I shot to my feet and punched Seth in the stomach with all my strength.

All coherent thought left my body as his body left the floor and soared a good ten feet before crashing down in a gasping, groaning heap. I heard voices gasping behind me.

“Oh my god!”

“How did he do that?”

“WHOO! GET HIM!”

I very small part of me that was still coherent agreed with the first two voices. How on Earth did I do that? I just punched a six foot three, two-hundred-pound football player across the room like he weighed nothing more than a pillow. The rest of me….. Well…….

HURT HIM MORE!

MAKE HIM PAY!

I stomped over to where Seth was trying to crawl to his feet. I was nowhere near finished repaying him for years of abuse.

“SO NOT ONLY DO YOU ABUSE ME, AND ATTACK ME, BUT THEN YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO ATTACK MY BROTHER TOO?!?!?! OH, F**K YOU!”

He put up his fists and swung, trying for the same right cross that he had hit me with a moment ago. As his blow approached, time seemed to slow down. His hand was moving so slowly, I could have dodged it three times over. I swing my hand up, grabbing his arm.

HURT HIM!

With a growl, I twist his wrist, and without the slightest resistance, it snaps. He screams, cursing at me. Without the slightest pause, I pull his injured arm to the right. Once again, his feet leave the ground as I throw him bodily into the opposite wall. He hits the lockers with a massive clang, and when he drops to the ground, I vaguely register the huge dent in the lockers where his spine struck them. Seth did not move.

I went over to his body, picking his body up by the collar. The crowd behind me were going crazy, although whether they were shouting for or against me, I wasn’t sure.

HURT HIM! NOT ENOUGH PAIN!

With a roar that seemed to shake the air, I punched Seth in the face, over and over, his teeth flying out and his bones giving underneath my sudden unnatural strength. The people behind me start to scream, when the small part of me that’s still rational speaks once again.

Why am I doing this?!? He’s down already! For that matter, how am I doing this? I’m not nearly this strong! HOW ON EARTH AM I DOING THIS?!?

Despite that, my fury wouldn’t let me listen, my whole body seeming to get hotter and hotter as I pounded Seth into a bloody pulp.

HURT HIM!

MAKE HIM PAY!!!

KILL HIM!!!!!!

Wait, what?

Suddenly, I was able to think again. What was I doing? Kill him?! No! He already looks like he got hit by a truck!

I backpedalled away from his limp form as fear and revulsion rippled through my body.

Oh God what have I done? Oh, please don’t be dead!

My fear surging I tried to run to him, to check his pulse, or his breath, something, anything to see if he was alive, but I was suddenly driven to my knees by a burning agony in my heart.

“AGGGGH,” I screamed.

Am I-- urgh-- having a heart attack?!? Agh, it hurts so much!

I was gasping for breath as the heat drove higher, my whole body burning now, unable to even scream.

What is happening to me? How do I get rid of this…! Water! I need water!

I staggered to my feet, shoving my way through the crowd that tried to stop me, shrugging off students, teachers, and principals alike.

“Mr. Hayes! Get back here at once and explain yourself,” the head principal, Mr. De Leon, yelled after me.

I ignored him running straight down the hall to the nearest bathroom, still seeing everything through a red haze. I collapsed against the sink, frantically turning on the faucet, breaking the knobs off in my hands. Immediately, water came out in a foamy white stream. I thrust my hands under the cool stream of water.

And immediately recoiled with a scream. The water was so cold, it burned. Like dry ice.

What do I do now?!? I’m out of options!

I was so afraid; I could feel the heat getting worse and worse.

I’m going to die, I thought, collapsing.

The heat rose even higher, erasing all rational thought. My vision faded out as the pain consumed me.

HELP! HELP ME! PLEASE, SOMEBODY! I’M DYING!!!!

Suddenly, there was a huge flash of red-orange light, a massive BOOM that rattled my teeth, a blast of heat, and the heat subsided to the background, a gentle warmth now.

I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my head, when my vision returned.

The whole bathroom was on fire.

I screamed, backpedaling into the sink with a painful smack.

No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!

I was terrified. I couldn’t breathe.

I looked around frantically, searching for an exit. The windows, the doorway, even the porcelain tiles on the walls were somehow burning.

What on earth is going on?!?!?!?

In the midst of my panic, I heard a strange noise behind me, like the sound of a rock dropping into a pond, followed by the crackling of electricity. Sooner than I could register this, I heard a soft but distinctly male voice voice ring through the air.

It seems I’ve found you. About time I suppose, and not a moment too soon.

I froze. I looked around. The voice was blank, free of any sense of urgency, and I couldn’t even detect an accent. But still, someone was here, someone who could help me!

“Hello?!? Is anyone there?!? PLEASE, HELP ME!”

Quite… vocal, aren’t we? Calm yourself. You are in no danger.

“Where are you,” I shouted, trying to peer into the smoke. “Can you get through the fire?!”

My breath started to come in gasps. What if he couldn’t get to me? What was I going to do? And what did he mean I’m not in danger?!? I AM TRAPPED IN A BURNING ROOM!

Oh dear. It seems you’re hyperventilating. This was not how I foresaw this meeting going...

Hyperventilating? OF COURSE I AM! I’M--

Enough.

As if on cue, my breathing slowed, and my heartbeat returned to normal. My head felt cold, almost like a brain freeze, but without the pain.

What the hell?

Turn around.

Without my approval or consent, my body obeyed, turning around smoothly to face the mirror.

Or what was the mirror. What was supposed to be a simple pane of glass was replaced by what looked like a square, rippling pool of liquid mercury, floating on the wall and occasionally crackling with blue power.

Raise your right arm.

The voice wasn’t even really speaking anymore, it was just a sensation in my head, moving my body around like this was perfectly normal, like it was still me in control. But I wasn’t.

Touch the mirror.

I tried with everything I had to disobey. I would not touch that thing. There was a surge of heat, like earlier, but gentler this time, like a warm blanket, and after a moment my arm dropped back to my side, the cold feeling around my head fading.

Yes!

I whipped around, ready to run from whatever hell this was, when the cold suddenly returned, painful this time, like icy spikes in my brain. It tore through the heat protecting me like rice paper.

We don’t have time for this. There are people on their way to put out the fire, and who do you think they will blame for starting it? Now for the last time, go over and TOUCH THE MIRROR.

With a jerk, my body obeyed, despite my panicked protests.

My palm pressed into the liquid surface, and the blue energy arced up my body, sinking into my skin. My whole body started to tingle. Then, with a blinding flash of blue light, my feet left the floor and the smell of smoke disappeared.

Author's Note

And this concludes the opening chapters of my book. After this, for lack of a better phrase, it gets real. what do you guys think? any editorial suggestions? please, after eight years i'm starved for feedback! Well, till next week, guys!