Rouge (16 page)

Sometimes the fire put up a
fight, acting out and slipping from her grasp like a cheeky puppy who enjoyed
being disobedient. After a few more hours of sitting cross legged on her bed
clenching her fists together and then watching the fire appear from nowhere,
Hunter began to wonder what it would be like to try and set other things on
fire.

Curiosity getting the better
of her, and finally on level ground with her powers, Hunter jumped off the bed
and yanked the roll of toilet paper from the hook in the bathroom.
Toilet
paper’s
gotta
be the easiest thing to burn, right?
She
set it down on the floor, ripped one sheet from the roll and placed it before
her.

Okay. How does this work?
Hunter tried summoning
the flame from her core, just as she’d been doing all morning, and let it fill
her. She felt the flames burst from her hands and looked down at the piece of
toilet paper. Nothing.

“Oh come on,” she moaned.
“I’ve done it before! How come I can set a goddamn stove on fire and not a
piece of paper?”

A few more attempts and she
found herself puffing, sweat pouring from her back and her forehead. Her head
throbbed from so much concentration. In an act of pure frustration, Hunter let
out an enraged scream and looked up at her reflection in the mirror.

“Oh shit!” she yelped and
jumped to her feet.

Her entire upper body was on
fire, her red hair flaming like angry snakes, twisting around her chest and her
stomach. She closed her eyes, but she could still feel it licking at her
cheeks.
Please don’t let my hair burn off!
She counted to ten, breathing
deeply, and opened her eyes.

The fire had disappeared.

“God,” she breathed. “I need
a break.”

Snatching her bag from the
bed, Hunter left the hotel room and locked her door, suddenly aware of how
hungry she was. As she went downstairs, she flipped her hood up over her head
and prayed that no one spoke to her.

The sun shone outside, a
rarity in the final month of a New York winter. Hunter moved quickly through
the streets - avoiding anyone who looked like they were homeless - to the
nearest supermarket she could find. There, she purchased some microwavable
dishes, snack foods and more coffee. She had no idea how long it would take her
to learn to control her powers, but she hoped no more than a few days. When she
took out the fifty from her pocket, her hands scraped the cigarette packet
she’d taken from the alley and she bit back another round of tears. No longer
feeling the need to smoke, Hunter threw them in the bin on her way out.

Returning to her room in the
hotel, Hunter checked the time. It was mid-afternoon. She made Carbonara and
more coffee and sat down on the bed again, watching the sunlight cast slices of
light onto the stained carpet. Dust particles danced in the light like tiny
stars.

Hunter knew she wasn’t even
close to learning how to control the fire, but at least she had started.

What made her day even
better was when she checked her phone and found thirty missed calls from Joshua
and one message from Eli.

‘Hey, it’s Eli. Sorry I
didn’t call last night. Where r u? R u sick? I hope
ur
okay. Anyway, call me later, I want to ask you something.’

Hunter found herself
grinning and re-read the message a few more times. She didn’t feel guilty at
all for not calling Joshua, but she so desperately wanted to call Eli that she
started dialing.

“Wait.” Hunter disconnected
the call and threw the phone down on the bed. It felt wrong to be calling him
after what she’d done. “Concentrate,” she said to the phone. “Fight the fire,
then think about Eli.”

How simple things had been
when the two of them met, and now suddenly her life was a mess. How could she
possibly recover from this and expect to go back to her normal life at school?

You
gotta
start somewhere,
she
thought with a sigh.

Hunter finished her coffee
and lunch and got to work again.

"You’ve reached Hunter, leave a
message
.”

Joshua snapped his phone
shut and felt the urge to throw it across the room. He’d lost count of how many
times he’d left Hunter messages. Where the hell was she? It had been three
days, and she hadn’t even bothered to call.

Joshua considered going to
the police - several times, in fact - but they might ask questions about why
Hunter ran away, and maybe even call social services. He couldn’t have the law involved.
It would get too messy, especially since he wasn’t at all blood-related to
Hunter. Not only that, but it might attract the attention of the Agents. He
just had to wait for her to gather herself up.

After eating breakfast, Joshua
dressed in his usual work clothes and collected his paperwork off the kitchen
table. He was just tying his shoelaces when the apartment door hissed open.

He looked up, and there she
stood. She carried her overnight bag, wore the same clothes she left in the
other night with an added jumper and couldn’t have looked more exhausted. He
almost didn’t recognize her.

A million words passed
between them. Joshua wanted to shout at her, to make her swear never to run off
and not call again, but he knew better. Hunter’s eyes filled with tears and she
dropped her bag on the floor beside the keys and coats rack.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call,”
she said. Her voice was hoarse, but stronger now, and guarded. He couldn’t
imagine how these last few days had been for her, to deal with this alone. She
was like him in more ways than he expected - he would have done exactly the
same thing.

Joshua didn’t move. “It’s
fine. You needed space, I understand.”

“I know you’ve been worried
about me though.”

“Yes I have. But it was a lot
to take in, and you handled it far better than I expected. No one was hurt.”

Hunter burst into tears. She
buried her face in her hands and leant against the door, sinking to the floor.
Pure instinct moved Joshua to squat in front of her and pull her against him. A
striking sense of déjà vu hit him in the chest as he thought of Liz, coming to
him on the night of the fire.

“Joshua,” she sobbed. “I’m
so sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry
Hunter, it’s me who needs to apologize. I should never have kept it from you. I
should have told you the truth when you were ready.”

She twisted her head up and
looked into his pale eyes, filled with guilt and anxiousness. Her words came
out in a voice that sounded unlike her own.

“I killed someone.”

“What?”

“It was an accident,” she
said hurriedly as he released her and sat beside her against the door. “I was
walking through the backstreets, trying to get to the mini-mart, when I was
attacked by two homeless men. They... they tried to rape me.”

Joshua’s fists clenched so
tightly together that the knuckles were whiter than snow, but he said nothing.
The air in the room was suddenly cold.

“I lost control… I was so
scared, and then suddenly this surge of electricity burst from my skin and the
two men were thrown against the wall of the alley. One ran away, but the
other... he was...” She bit back a sob and took a deep breath. “I left him in
the alley and ran to a hotel. I stayed there until it felt safe to come out,
until I learnt to control my powers.”

It happened.
Joshua’s heart felt as though it was
being squeezed agonizingly slow.
You let it happen to her, you fucking
idiot! She lost control and it cost someone their life! How could you betray
Liz like that?
The voice in his head was ripping him apart. He tried to
breathe but found his throat had been blocked.

“Joshua?”

“I’m sorry Hunter,” he
whispered. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. You didn’t give me a chance to
explain.”

Hunter sniffed. “Well I’m
here now, and I’m listening.”

“Can you… show me?”

“What?”

“Show me the fire.”

Hunter lifted her left hand,
held it before him and concentrated hard. A tiny ball of flames appeared,
licking at her fingers, so simple and calm that it almost didn’t scare him.
Again, Joshua couldn’t be rid of the memories; Liz with her hand over the flame
of the Bunsen burner that day at the shack. How he wished she could be there to
see how incredible her daughter was.

Hunter closed her fingers
and the flame was diminished. Joshua looked up into her eyes and could see the
pain these past few days had caused her. He only wished he could have been
there for her. She shouldn’t have gone through what she did alone.

“I promised your mother I
would take care of you Hunter,” he said. “I want you to have as normal a life
as possible, regardless of what special abilities you hold. You’re a bright,
strong girl, and you deserve every bit of happiness. I’m so proud of you.”

Then Joshua did something
he’d almost never done, not since she was a small child at least. He leaned
towards her, put his hand behind her head and gently laid a kiss on her
forehead. His lips tingled and a rush of something strange and warm passed
through him.

Hunter wiped a tear from her
cheek. “I
killed
someone, Joshua. Don’t you know what that means?
Everything is different now.”

He shook his head. “It
doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. You couldn’t help it, Hunter.” The tone of
his voice was more confident and fatherly than he’d ever heard it before. “I
want you to promise me that you won’t run off like that again, at least until
you know you can control yourself.”

“I can,” she said, and her
eyes blazed with sureness. “I wouldn’t have come back if I couldn’t.”

Joshua gave her a small
smile and nodded. “I believe you.”

–
P
ART
3
–

TO
BE A HERO

Hunter showered, put on fresh clothes
and went into the bathroom to dry her hair. The reflection in the mirror seemed
ten times older.
I don’t look like myself anymore.

She forced herself to smile
at her reflection. She no longer felt fear when she thought about the fire. Despite
the fact that it still burned inside her, Hunter had grasped it firmly now. She
was sure she could control it.

The fire rippled through her
in protest, as if challenging her to prove that theory. She grasped the flame
beneath her skin, pushed it to the very top of her head and watched steam rise
from it. She had taught herself to produce different types of flames while
holed up in the hotel room. She dried herself completely by setting her body on
fire. She learnt to set things alight with her mind by concentrating on the
fuel and oxygen particles around her. She had even practiced more entertaining
things, such as making shapes with the fire in her hands. She could now
successfully throw spherical balls at anything she aimed at.

But still, in the midst of
her amazement and awe at her powers, she felt like a different person. No
longer did things like going to college or passing her final year matter to
her. Her entire future was gone. Everything had changed.

Why is that important?
she asked herself.
Focus on what’s
changing now before you worry about your future. Focus on the things that are
still normal in your life.

The only normal thing she
had going for her - if it even still existed - was Eli. She hadn’t heard from
him since he had messaged her on Tuesday in the hotel. Was he worried or angry?
Should she call him now or wait until after school?

Speaking of school, what had
Joshua told them? What about work tonight? Should she go?

Hunter couldn’t face any
more questions, so she focused on fixing herself some lunch. Joshua had left
for work, insisting that she rest at home and that he’d return in the
afternoon. He was anxious to know more about her powers, being the scientist he
was. But Hunter just wanted a normal night, to pretend for the first time in
days that she wasn’t a freak of nature with a fire inside of her.

As if in answer to her
prayers, Hunter’s phone rang. Her heart somersaulted.

“Hello?”

“Hunter? It’s Eli. Are you
okay?”

Relief doused the fire
within her, and suddenly she was Hunter again.

“Hi, Eli. Yeah... sorry I
haven’t called or anything. I um... I’ve had really bad laryngitis for the past
couple of days. I feel better today, but I’ve had a fever all week.”

“Oh shit,” he said. “That
sucks.”

“Yeah. Are you in class?”

“Nah. Free period. Thank God
it’s Friday,” he laughed. “I’ve been looking forward to the weekend ever since
school started.”