by Bob Dattolo
Some of the kids outright laughed as they saw me coming. The laughter petered out as at least some of them picked up my mood. Too bad they don’t really know what I want to do, because they’d run screaming if they did.
Corey laughed hardest when I reached the fire. “Oh, looky here, we have our new girl! Hi, new girl! Did you come to join the bonfire? So nice of you to volunteer your things for it.”
Drake and Aaron, two guys that I only barely know, laughed hard at that.
My shaking got worse and worse as my magic grew hotter. The grass at my feet began to die away and my friends backed up as they felt the pressure coming from me in waves.
“What’s wrong, new girl, gonna cry?” Wanda’s voice jarred at my nerves.
My voice sounded dead, even to me. “Everything I own…you just destroyed everything that I own in this entire world except the clothes I’m wearing and my phone. All of it. The first new clothes I’ve ever owned. Gone. The first laptop. Gone. YOU BURNED IT ALL!”
They laughed again, getting louder, sounding crueler.
My voice brought them to a stop. “I see you like fire. You like to burn things. You find it funny. You find it funny to come after someone new to this world. Without provocation. Without cause. You find it funny to take and burn. Well then, I’m pretty sure you’ll find this hilarious. You like to watch my world burn? Let’s see how funny it is when it’s your world burning instead.”
As I talked, my magic coiled and roiled in my belly, getting hotter and hotter until it surpassed plasma stage, then I cast it out, hitting each of the perpetrators and lifting them into the air. Their clothes burned off slowly, but they were unharmed, much to their shock.
“Put us down, you fucking bitch!” Connor cast magic at me that felt like a gentle caress as his fire rolled across my skin. I soaked it up, laughing all the while. Drake and Wanda also hit me with spells that simply absorbed inside, adding to the wonderful feeling in my belly.
“No, I won’t put you down. It’s time for you to laugh! You enjoyed laughing as everything I own burned? It’s time to get downright hilarious!”
My magic moved out again, pouring back into the dorm building and unerringly finding everything belonging to each of them, then bringing it out of the building in a stream, where it added it to the fire as they screamed.
“You fucking bitch! When you get through here, I’m gonna fucking kill you!” Corey roared as his things burned.
That made me laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry, Corey. I’m not sure you understand. At all. You see, when I say you burned everything that I own? You burned it all. You destroyed everything I own. Now I’m seeing to it that the same happens to you.” My magic coiled around me again and then shot into each of them, making me laugh riotously. I swear I heard bells in my laughter, but that didn’t stop me.
Through my connection to them, I saw fires beyond counting sprout up across the country. The globe. Every new flare-up made me laugh and laugh until tears were coursing down my face. It was like the best joke ever told, and only my ears could hear it.
“I’m sorry, you all thought it was funny to laugh at me, but you’re not laughing? I thought you like flames?”
“Ms. Driscoll…what did you do?” The headmaster sounded afraid. Very afraid.
“Oh, you see, Headmaster Burnes, my new mother, Rasphael the Fey, let me know that Corey, Connor, Drake, Aaron, and Wanda broke into my room, stole everything that I own in this world beyond what I had on me, and then they burned it. I’m simply repaying that favor.” In my head, the last massive column of fire faded, and I giggled again. “I would recommend that each of them reach out to their parents right about now.” My magic pulled back, and they fell to the ground.
“What are you talking about? Call our parents? What, are you going to tattle on us for what we did? Our parents will back us on this!” Drake looked beyond pissed as he coiled magic around himself.
My happy voice died. “Call them. You burned my world. I burned yours. The simple fact of the matter is that you have far, far more to burn than I do. Everything I own fit inside that dorm room. Every bit of it. Each of you and your families? Not so much.”
Corey grabbed his phone and growled. “Fine, I’ll call. Then we’re coming for you!” He dialed, putting it on speaker phone.
The woman’s voice that answered was beyond panicked. “Oh my God, Corey! It’s gone! It’s all gone!”
His magic fizzled. “Ma? What are you talking about? What’s gone?”
“It’s gone! All of it! The house! Everything in it! It all burned. We were hosting a party and then everything burned! Your father has two broken legs from where he fell from the third floor. He’s trying to heal, but it’s gone! The house. The cars. The trees! Everything that I can see out to the edge of the property…all gone!”
I laughed harder and harder at that, especially when Aaron made his own call, getting the same response.
One by one, they each called their families before staring at me with mute horror on their faces. That made me all the happier.
“Each of you decided that you would burn everything I own, so I repaid the favor. Everything you own is now gone. Every house. Every car. Every piece of furniture. Every artifact. Every family heirloom. Every magical device. Every piece of property is burned, leaving behind scarred earth. If you owned a plane? Gone. Jewelry? Burned and destroyed. Boat? Same. Everything locked away in a bank vault? Gone. The only thing I couldn’t touch is bank accounts, which is a shame. But, then again, you didn’t touch mine either, so at least that’s balanced.”
“You bitch…you ruined us! Millions of dollars of magical items…gone! My home?” Drake dropped to his knees.
“Oh, I’m sorry, poor Drake is sad? You were happy enough when it was my stuff burning. Is it sadder that you had more things? Not to me. Every single thing I own is in that fire right there. Now you know what it feels like to have everything you own in your life destroyed. Fun, isn’t it? I can almost understand why you were all laughing so very hard. Almost.”
Mr. Reynolds stared at me from the side of the group. “Mr. Reynolds? I believe I can light the candle now.”
He looked at the broken and crying bullies and nodded. “Ms. Driscoll, I do believe you can.”
Back in my room, my phone was still floating above my bed. It fell into my hand as I reached for it. I didn’t mean for it to do that, but it’s good timing. It rang before I could even think about dialing.
“Ra…Mom?” My anger was giving way just a little bit to despair.
Her laugh filled the room. “Yes, it’s me. I’ve let Director Fitzsimmons know what just transpired. She thought your solution was both elegant and…decisive, if you will.”
“Thanks? I’m…yeah, I’m not in a good place right now.”
“I understand. I’ve moved some money into your account for you and taken the liberty of forwarding you the list of items you used to pick everything up. I would recommend going out now if you can and picking it up again. Then, just a thought, work on something to protect what’s yours and those you care about. While I have every belief you will be able to withstand what your enemies may decide to do, if anything, your friends cannot.”
My friends hissed at that news. I guess they hadn’t thought through that far. I had, which is why I was heading towards despair. “I’ll try. And thank you. For everything.”
“Just as you would do anything for me, I would do anything for you. I have waited 7,000 years for a daughter, the one I was told about when I was nearly your age, and now you’re finally here. I look forward to the next time we can speak in person.”
“I’m sure that will make sense at some point, but it doesn’t right now. Either way, thank you. I’ll see if I can get a taxi or something to the mall.”
“Good luck. You will come out the other side of this stronger than before. You can now light your candle. Remember, though, the world is not made of candle wicks. That approach helped you at this moment, but you need better control
of your powers and a broad variety of things that you can do.”
That makes sense. “I understand. Thank you. I…I miss you.”
“And I you.” She left me with a smattering of tiny bells, making me feel just a little bit better.
“Freaking hell, you’re calling her Mom?” Armand asked.
“Yeah. Apparently, it’s not against the king’s rules for her to step in when I reach my birthday. Just not before.”
“Jesus Christ…that’s both horrifying and awesome rolled into one.”
Steph snorted. “As if that’s the most important thing to happen today?”
Carl nodded. “That’s not even close. What just happened out there? Or in here, for that matter, with the whole floating phone thing? I’m not even sure where to go with that.”
Tom shrugged. “I get that something powerful happened, but seriously, we need to watch out for them. If they can’t go after Ceri, they’ll come after us, somehow. We need to figure out protections for us all. Can any of you do that?”
Armand answered. “Somewhat, but not really? We have a good mix of powers here, but we’re not that good with some things yet. We should all see what we can come up with, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try something within the next few days.”
Steph nudged me. “C’mon, I’ll drive you to the mall. The least we can do is get your stuff replaced.”
Three hours later, we were back. Steph helped me take everything out of the bags and hang or fold where appropriate. I was happier than when we left, but still upset. My new laptop hummed away, moving through the setup steps as I put the last pair of socks in the drawer. I even had a new sticker to match the one that burned.
“Why would they do this to me?”
Steph sat in her chair, idly playing with some of the tags she’d just removed from a pair of jeans. “To put you in your place.” Short and sweet, thy name is Steph.
“In my place? What do you mean?”
“Just that? They feel like you’re beneath them. You’re a mage that doesn’t care about position, and Corey’s the top of the heap here. Other than Lacie, the rest of them are way up there as well. They’re trying to put you in your place to show you that you’re nothing. In the supernatural world, the ones in charge say and the rest do. Until and unless you can fight back and hold your own, you’re forced to do that.” She spun back and forth in her chair, looking like a kid, for all that she’s more than a foot taller than I am. “Bears are a little luckier that way. We don’t go in huge groups. When we meet up, we know who’s stronger, and we deal with it. We’re just not together all that long normally for it to become a big issue. Here, though? This type of fighting is pretty normal. Granted, it doesn’t usually end with people’s stuff being burned and then entire family’s worth of things being wiped out, but the fighting can get pretty tough. Corey put more than a few people into the infirmary until they were healed. He’s been top of the heap since the first month of his sophomore year, so most of three years. His freshman year, he was just about middle of the road, but that’s because we had a lot of folks that were really tough hit 17 and came into the rest of their power. When they left, he bubbled up. When he hit 17, that just cemented it for him power-wise.”
“But why come after me? What does it gain them?”
She scoffed, “Gain them? Nothing. Or, it gains them the pleasure of putting you down. Of getting back at you for hurting him. Or Connor. It tells everyone else that they’re in charge. They’re firm in their control of the school. Look at it this way, if you were any other student here other than Rachel, we’d have had to take it. Everything would be destroyed, and we’d have to suck it up. And probably them. And we’d have done it. If he did that to me I can afford to replace everything easily enough, but I doubt he’d have let me do it before he was fucking me or fisting my ass or even doing both at once. Most of us would have been a plaything as he proved he was that much stronger than us. It’s just how our world is. Not that we would have gotten here. If you hadn’t been in the cafeteria, Rachel would have been fucked by him until he was done, and we’d have all gone on doing our thing. No one could have stopped him. Very, very few of us would have stopped him if we could have. Well, maybe if he was middle of the road someone would have stepped in, but it wouldn’t have been what you did.”
“So, what, that was their attempt to right the ship of state or something like that? My fights with them were just interruptions to the normal functioning of the student body, and this was their attempt to get it back on track and moving the way they’ve become accustomed to it moving?”
“Pretty much.”
“God damn them to hell. I told them I don’t care about positioning! Why don’t they believe me!”
She laughed softly, “Whether or not they believe you is immaterial. The issue is that you fighting back questioned the status quo. Look, everyone in our dozenal knows that you could be the alpha if you wanted it. Just like we know that Rachel could be if she wanted it. She doesn’t and you don’t, so Tom stays in charge and the rest of us are okay with that. Because he’s a nice guy and we have a great group with us. From Corey’s perspective, you questioned him and rocked his foundations of being in charge. He may not have known truthfully that you could take his position, but you can bet your ass that he does now. They all do. What you did there, out at the fire? I’ve never even heard of anything like it before.” She fell quiet. “Did you really destroy everything of theirs?”
I nodded. “Everything. I could see it. In my head? I watched it all burn, one by one. Thousands of things. Every house, vacation home, cabin, piece of property. Every building and business. Clothing. Jewelry. Literally everything. They weren’t even left with the clothing on their backs.”
“So, what, Corey’s house is burned and everything he owns?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s beyond that.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s everything his family owns. Or owned. Or the others. Brothers and sisters. Parents. Aunts and uncles. Grandparents. Cousins. It didn’t go out beyond their first cousins, so I guess there’s that. But it all burned. Every family heirloom, like I said. Every family picture. Everything and all of it. Literally the only thing they have left other than charred property, is their bank accounts. Everything physical that isn’t land is gone. One of them had a huge rock quarry, but that burned, too. The rock is melted now, from what I saw. I’m not even sure I thought that was possible.”
“Motherfucker, that’s crazy.”
I sat at my desk and stared at my computer for a minute. “I don’t get it. I never would have done something like that if they just left me alone. Never. Ever. I’d just have gone on. Why couldn’t they just let it go?”
She shrugged. “Because that’s how we are? Shifters, especially? The pecking order is integral to us, and you disrupted that. Had you taken over the first spot decisively, I doubt it would have ever happened. But you didn’t, and they didn’t know how to handle that, so they thought they could get one over on you. The funny thing is that they never would have done that to Armand. They know he’s crazy strong, and they wouldn’t want to mess with that because they know what he can come back against them with. They thought they got you and got you good. I doubt they knew that they destroyed everything of yours, but it made them feel good when they found that out. Until you fought back.”
“Now what?”
She looked around the room. “Well, now what is that you have everything back. Or a replacement that should work. You can do whatever you want.”
“But they’re gonna come back after me.”
“Yeah, probably? But it won’t be something normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if their families come here for you. I don’t know that it’d be allowed, but if they all came at the same time, I doubt the school would be able to stop them. Just because they stop us from killing each other doesn’t mean that they have the ability to stop actual challenges.”
“Oh, goody, so now I get c
hallenges coming my way?”
“Probably.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever understand this life.”
I spent until midnight reading my magics book for anything to do with warding spells. I read about potions, which I don’t have a clue about, evocation, which I was also lost on, and then charms. The charms seemed the coolest to me, but I don’t have a clue how to create one. I barely understand how I lit a fire earlier, I sure as heck don’t know how I did the rest of it. And by the rest of it, I mean starting with making my phone float. I can’t do it now, even though I can light the candle with barely a thought.
Huh, barely a thought.
I focused on that feeling. Truth be told, it’s almost nothing like what Mr. Reynolds told me about. Or even Armand talked about. While my magic felt hot earlier, even that wasn’t really related to it.
Just after midnight, I leaned back in my chair and touched my wall. Instantly, I was spasming in orgasm, but I tried to ignore that as I paid attention to the spell. What is it, exactly? How did I do it?
I didn’t lift and shift the focus. Heck, at the time, I was cumming and screaming like a banshee and part of me wanted to share it with others.
My chair rocked forward, pulling my hand from the wall.
I wanted to share it with others.
I…is that it?
Not the sharing part, but the rest of it?
Focusing on the candle, I lit it with a thought, finding it even easier each time I do it. Like I’m building muscle memory.
Fire. No fire. Fire. No fire. I can feel tiny blurps of power leaving me to light the candle, but I’m not asking it to move there. I’m not telling it. I’m not demanding. I’m not cajoling. Nothing like that.
I’m…I’m just wanting it to be there. To be lit. Then the magic is doing the rest.
With my floating phone, I wanted it to stay there and stay safe, so it stayed. Not quite what I think I intended, but it worked.
For the rest of it? With the burning of everything? I wanted them to feel what I felt…and it happened.