Page 31 of In Between Darkness

“Look, there’s River,” she says, tucking her black hair behind her ear.

River is sitting on a viewing bench with Ty and Jaxon from last night. They are laughing and joking about something between them. They definitely look better than I feel.

“I’m going to go have a word with him,” I say, my eyes not moving from the window.

“No worries. I’m gonna catch up to Charlie. Meet me at second meals?”

I turn to face her and nod in agreement. She runs off ahead, and I turn the opposite way to take the spiral stairs through the library and down to the courtyard.

“Going somewhere?” A voice vibrates off the metallic stairs from behind me. I grip my hands tighter on the iron bannister. I know exactly who it is. This can’t be good.

“What do you want, Alex? Another broken bone?” I throw him a deadly look.

“Haha, you think you’re funny.” His face is serious as he takes a step down towards me. “You know what I find funny?” he sneers.

“Not really,” I scoff, not really wanting to hear his response.

“Me getting my Gifts before you.” He edges towards me, taking another step down the staircase. He lights up an orb in his right hand and plays with it on his fingertips.

“Good for you,” I reply bluntly, turning away to continue down the stairs.

“Yeah, it is good for me. Good to get my own back on people who’ve pissed me off.”

This doesn’t sound good. I’m guessing he means me.

“Get a life, Alex,” I add, rolling my eyes. I go to walk down another step when I suddenly feel a sharp pain searing through my palm. I wince and yank it away from the bannister. Alex’s laugh infects my eardrums.

“My bad. Is that a little hot?” Alex has his hand around the bannister, channelling his Gift through the metal. The blackened iron glowing red from the heat.

“Asshole,” I retort at him.

“You might want to get going, freak, in case it heats up again,” he says through gritted teeth.

I stare into his eyes, and his face turns cold. He was menacing before, but now he seems different, frightened almost. I feel a tingling in my palm.

“W-w-what, what are you doing?” Alex is trembling now. I look down to where his eyes are drawn. My hand is glowing a dark red, like the iron rail.

“I don’t-” I stare at the glowing digits in confusion as my hand begins to throb and shake. What the fuck is going on? I grab hold with my other hand to try to control the shaking, but I am thrown back by an unknown force.

I hit the bottom of the stairs with a thud, and the deafening sound of high-pitched ringing suffocates any other noises around me. I must’ve hit my head in the fall. My vision swaying and blurred, I rub my eyes to still the picture. It’s hard to focus,but I can see a bright light in front of me. I shake my head and gain clarity. It’s Alex…. He’s on fire?!

He tumbles down the stairs, wailing like a baby, his arms flailing around in the air so fast I can barely see them in the light. The ringing is still haunting my eardrums, but I know he must be screaming loudly because people are starting to gather. I watch as they clamber around him, trying to put him out. Mr Evelyn dashes out the door and returns with a fire extinguisher. The foam from the extinguisher swaddles Alex until the raging fire is put out. His clothes are burnt to a crisp, and his skin is now black and ashy. I watch as teachers run to his aid and hoist him up off the ground. His arms are cradled over the necks of Miss Aloe and Mr Evelyn as they struggle to help him up and towards the healing quarter.

“It was you… You did this to me!” Alex declares, whilst pointing a charred finger at me.

I feel the eyes of the audience burn through me like the fire show they had just watched.

Jemima ushers beside me and lends me her hand to help me up off the floor.

“Don’t worry about him; the smoke can make you hallucinate. He really needs to learn to control his powers.” She smiles at me with kind eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I think so…” I wince as my fingers soothe the back of my head. “I don’t really know what happened,” I remark, truly confused.

Jemima takes my hand.

“Looks like he might have caught you in the fire,” she says, directing her attention to the burn mark on my hand. “You should go to the healing quarters and get some grium jelly on that.”

I take my hand back from her grip and nod my head.