Rouge

by Isabella Modra

Hunter’s eyes snapped open and she was awake, no longer drowning. But her situation hadn’t improved to that in her dream. She couldn’t move at all for her body was covered in ice. She was shivering, sitting upright in a chair, a dark, dimly lit room stretched before her.

  Her head was swimming, but she needed to get out. Joshua had clearly brought her there for a reason, or else he would have killed her there in the alley. The thought was so frightening that Hunter wanted to shake her head, get back to reality and figure a way out.

  But a way out of what? It felt as if her whole body was frozen, and minimal movement was possible. She bent her head slowly down, wincing with each crackle the ice covering her made. At first she thought she was wearing an ice suit and knew it would be easy to burn through it. But her eyes fell upon small blue tubes connected to her arms, twisting around each other and disappearing behind the chair. She felt no pain, yet they were either taking blood from her or injecting something into her system.

  Hunter began to breathe quicker. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak. Her throat was as dry as a desert and she was colder than she’d ever been. Somehow, Joshua had trapped the cold inside her body so she couldn’t move, much less summon even the slightest flame.

  Then she heard footsteps. Someone was approaching from the dark space that looked much smaller than what it probably was. Her heart thumped painfully in her chest and she wished it didn’t hurt to think about Eli. She needed courage, and she had no strength left to find it.

  “According to the laws of Physics,” came Joshua’s sharp tone and he stepped out of the shadows into the light shining from the swaying globe high above, wearing a neat white shirt and gray pants. There were scorch marks on his arms and face, which gave her the slightest ounce of satisfaction. “What we consider cold, in fact, is actually the absence of heat.” Joshua strolled confidently up to her chair and twisted one of the chords injected into her arms, pushing it further in. It should have hurt, but Hunter felt nothing except the uncomfortable feeling of more ice being forced inside her. “Anything is able to be studied as long as it transmits energy,” he continued. “Absolute zero is the total absence of heat, but cold does not exist. What we have done is create a term to describe how we feel if we don't have body heat or we are not hot.” Joshua came into her vision again, his face so close to hers it was all she could see. “Are you cold yet Hunter?” he asked softly, a smile so alien across his lips that a flashback from her childhood sent Hunter into a silent panic attack. Joshua wore the same psychotic smile as he did now. He stared down at her as she lay on a steel table in the lab. She was a young girl, naïve and trusting, as Joshua prodded her with scientific machines. He was the face of her nightmares. How had she not realized?

  Because Joshua was a friend to you. Despite everything he’d done to her, all the times he’d forced her to train and keep her secret hidden and isolate herself, Hunter still loved Joshua. He had always been there for her when her parents weren’t. He had provided for her and sheltered her from the cruel world outside her school.

  Which was why she couldn’t understand his complete lack of humanity. There was no plausible reason, and no way of forgiveness. Despite what their relationship used to be, Joshua was a different man to her now. He was an enemy, evil in its purest form.

  I’m sorry about Joshua. I had no control over him. He’s a different person, frantic, sometimes even psychotic. Her mother’s words were like the missing piece to the puzzle. He wasn’t Joshua at all anymore. She saw it in his eyes.

  He was Iceman.

  “Albert Einstein was iconic,” Joshua continued. “But what he failed to uncover about the absence of heat…. is how deadly the cold really is.” He bent down with both hands on either side of her chair and leaned in so all she could see was the bitter color of his pale eyes. “You would know, wouldn’t you Hunter?”

  “You killed him,” she muttered, wishing she could shout it. But her lips wouldn’t move more than a centimeter.

  “Yes,” he sighed sadly. “I’m truly sorry about that Hunter, but you know the reason why.”

  What reason could possibly justify what you’ve done?!

  Joshua squatted again, his fingers curling around her frozen hands. “I did it because I wanted to protect you.”

  She groaned angrily as he turned away, so livid that her frustration turned into strength and the ice began to crack. Joshua twisted and frowned. So his restraints are already beginning to fail? She found some pleasure in his surprise.

  “You’ve got some fight in you, Hunter,” he muttered, shaking his head and disappearing behind her. “Just like your mother. All these months of seeing your powers develop before my own eyes have given me the key to controlling the fire for you, of keeping it contained. I’ve been working on this machine for a month now.” The sound of metal clanking came from behind her. “The more you try to move, the more pain you will feel when the ice stops moving through your blood.”

  Hunter heard him twist some sort of gauge and then something was hissing, as though air was being released from a pressure container. She tensed as a new flow of ice was pushed through the tubes into her veins. She could feel it creeping through her, contaminating her, taking away her air.

  But the machine had a flaw. No matter how much ice Joshua forced into her body, it could never completely suffocate the flame. Hunter sensed, in the very depths of her core, that the embers still remained. She could keep the fire alight - maybe even burn through the ice - if only she could unleash the flame, release it from the icy cage squeezing further towards her core.

  “There,” he said and came back into her vision. “That should keep the damn flames inside you.”

  “Where are we?” she hissed through cracked lips.

  “A shipping warehouse near our apartment building,” he said. “All of my equipment comes through here, and the laboratory was not a suitable place for us to have this discussion. I didn’t want any Agents listening in on us.” He paused, studying her. “You know you look exactly like your mother in that dress. She always looked good in white. She had hair exactly like yours after the fire that killed Leo. But she tried getting rid of it. Dye wouldn’t work. Want to know why?”

  Hunter didn’t answer.

  “Because the fire inside her, inside you, was too strong. That’s why she died giving birth to you. You burned her insides on the way out.”

  Hunter screamed, but only a small, hoarse whimper escaped her mouth. Tears of pain and fury and frustration ran down her face, freezing even before they made it to her chin.

  “Oh Hunter, don’t cry.” False sympathy exuded from him. “You never knew her anyway. Yes, she loved you more than anything in the world. She gave you everything and left no room in her heart for me. But I’ll tell you something your mother missed out on,” he bent closer to her, his pale eyes sparkling. “After she died, you and I got to have a little bonding time down in the lab.”

  Another burst of heat sprang from within her. Angry, burning heat boiling in her core and growing larger with every word Joshua spoke. But this time, she kept it within her and forced herself not to react. He would insert more ice into her the second she tried to struggle. She had to keep it contained, as much as it hurt.

  “I found your little floppy disc last week.” His tone was sad, as though she’d disappointed him. “Your mother really was afraid of me towards the end. I had a feeling she suspected something was up with me. See I really was changing Hunter. And I don’t regret it. I’m a scientist, for Christ’s sake! I’d just made the biggest scientific discovery of the century in that mountain, I had to do something about it. I couldn’t let Lizzie or you have all the fun. I was so intrigued by the chemicals of our powers that I brought you to the lab and ran some of my own little tests on you. You don’t remember though, do you? You were young Hunter, and very vulnerable. I decided to erase our sessions from your memory because I didn’t want them to have any effect on you, traumatically of course. I needed you to stay strong and not b
reak down.”

  Hunter wanted to scream in rage. She wanted to shriek curses at him and wrap her hands around his throat, to watch him writhe in a ball of flames. But she could hardly say a thing.

  “You bastard,” she managed to mutter. The fire was building inside of her, and the minute it reached her exterior the ice would visibly melt. She had to keep him talking. “All that talk about keeping your powers secret… was all bullshit, wasn’t it? You’re a killer, and soon everyone… will know about it.”

  For the first time, Hunter saw real pain in Joshua’s eyes. She hadn’t seen any sign of the real Joshua in days. “You and I are more alike than you realize,” he said. She wanted to scoff, but couldn’t push enough air out. “I, too, have difficulty keeping my powers controlled. When I tried to recreate your powers… the solution was incorrect. Instead of injecting fire into my blood system, it had the opposite effect. And some other baggage. The cold has latched itself to me over the years. It… it took over.” Joshua looked at the floor and stopped talking. Hunter had been concentrating on building the heat, but his moment of weakness compelled her. She watched him, suddenly vulnerable, the image of a broken man.

  A small, insignificant amount of pity - even understanding - tried to tug at her heart’s emotions. If she’d ever hurt Eli because of losing control like she had in the alley with the homeless men, she would feel exactly as Joshua did. Maybe the guilt finally drove him loopy.

  But then Joshua’s cold blue eyes met hers and her pitying feelings vanished. There was no love there at all.

  “Your power is deadly Hunter.” His tone was just as chilling as the blue ice infecting her blood.

  “You’re no different,” she muttered and took a deep breath, channeling heat into her hands. The ice began to melt, dripping from the arm of the chair onto the floor. Her fingers were unfrozen, but still numb. Keep him distracted, she told herself, you have to get out of this. Keep him talking. “Where’s Jack?”

  Joshua spun on his heels, grinning from ear to ear. “Funny you should ask.”

  He strolled to his left, disappearing into the dark shadows. She heard him take several more steps and then a loud crash echoed distantly. Her heart leapt. There was a muffled scream and the sound of chains jingling.

  Then something appeared out of the darkness above her, a body, suspended by a chain looped over one of the rafters. It fell just short of the ground merely meters from her chair. Jack’s eyes met hers, wide with fear, begging her to help him. He was bleeding from the stomach, a large gash slashed across the skin, dirty as hell and gagged with a grimy cloth. Blood tricked from his hairline down to his left eye. The awkward position stretched his body from his dangling legs to his taught upper torso area. His hands were chained together tightly, the only thing holding him up. It had to be killing him. His shirt was soaked with blood.

  “Jack,” she muttered helplessly and it took all the self-control she had not to burst into flames and throw herself at Joshua. But she wasn’t sure if the ice had completely melted out of her system yet. The only proof she had was the pain that had started to throb in her arms, particularly her fingers. She looked at Joshua through burning eyes as he appeared out of the darkness again. “What the hell have you done?”

  He ignored her and walked over to Jack hanging from the hook. The chains jingled as he tried to free himself, but it was hopeless.

  “Poor Jackie couldn’t even put up a fight,” Joshua muttered, as if he were talking to a child. “He swore to me he would never tell anyone about you Hunter, but I couldn’t take that risk.”

  “So you kidnapped him? Why not just kill him like you killed Miss Smart and Eli?”

  Jack’s eyes went wide and met Hunter’s. She looked instantly away, pain shooting through her. He’s dead Jack. Eli is dead.

  There was something sparkling in Joshua’s eyes, reminding her of when he had taught her about her own powers. It was excitement and fascination.

  “Jack is special too Hunter,” he told her. “I don’t know how exactly, nor do I know the details. But I can feel it! You should have been there the other night when I found him Hunter, Jack nearly killed me and he didn’t lift a single finger! There’s a darkness about him, something he can’t control either, something different.” Joshua circled Jack slowly, inspecting him like a model of art. “I took Jack back to the lab and, like old times, ran some tests. His molecular DNA is very fascinating Hunter. You would appreciate it. I’m unsure of what his power is exactly, but let me tell you, Jack here… he’s one of a kind. One of our kind.”

  “You’re insane. He’s not-”

  Joshua pressed down on the gash in Jack’s chest and he screamed behind the gag.

  “Well, I guess it’s not regeneration,” said Joshua.

  “Stop!” she shrieked, wriggling her fingers. “Joshua I swear to God when I get out of this, I’ll-”

  “Kill me?” He wiped his bloody hand on a white handkerchief. Only Joshua still used handkerchiefs. “We’ve been through this earlier Hunter, you can’t kill me. Haven’t you figured that out already?”

  “I’m prepared to prove you wrong. Let him go, Joshua,” she snarled, “Jack has nothing to do with this.”

  Joshua turned to Jack, who looked down in absolute horror and wriggled on the meat hook. “Actually, he does. See, like Eli, Jackie here knows a little too much about you Hunter.”

  Jack yelled something that sounded like “please, don’t!” behind his gag, and Hunter’s heart began to race. Time was running out, and she was still bound by the ice flowing continuously through her system. The fire had almost consumed her, and it was taking so much of her strength to keep it from reaching her exterior and melting the ice. Fortunately, Joshua hadn’t noticed her breathing increase or her body shaking from the strain.

  “You can’t… protect me... forever.”

  “I’ve done a good job so far,” he replied.

  She puffed loudly, hoping it looked like she was shivering rather than burning from the inside. “So you’re just going to… kill everyone who… finds out about me?”

  “If it means keeping your secret hidden, yes.”

  “I woan pell!” Jack shouted loudly.

  Joshua frowned and turned to him curiously. “I thought the point of this gag was to keep you quiet-”

  “You killed Miss Smart,” she interrupted and Joshua turned. “You killed Eli, the only person I ever loved. I don’t think the real reason you did it… was because you wanted to keep my secret, or you would have hidden me away in your lab for the rest of my life. It’s… b-because you don’t want to be second anymore.”

  He sniffed. “What are you waffling about Hunter?”

  “My mother loved my father more than you. You were the guy next door, the best friend. You were never good enough for her.” Boiling satisfaction filled her as Joshua’s face began to fall. “It used to be just you and me, Joshua. Until I met Eli. You couldn’t stand to be replaced. You don’t want to be alone anymore.”

  “I don’t-”

  “Well guess what?” The boiling heat inside of her flowed faster beneath her skin, swallowing the cold ice quicker than she could comprehend. The power of every painful emotion she felt all mixed together as one burst through the cage of ice inside her to the very edge of her skin. The ice suit covering her melted onto the concrete floor below her, freeing her body and allowing her to breathe, to blink, to mimic his own manic smile. Hunter stood and water splashed to the floor. Her skin was glowing so brightly, it was white as snow. She was free at last. “You’ll be alone for the rest of your life-” She yanked the tubes out of her arms, the splitting pain fuelling the fire and muttered, “-In hell.”

  A torrent of flames burst from Hunter’s hands like fire from the mouth of a dragon. The power was so enriching, so warm, that Hunter felt as though she were on a high. And it didn’t end there.

  As Joshua dove out of the way – having been so surprised that she had any fire left in her and no time to summon his own power �
� the room lit up fantastically and she saw a small warehouse spread before them, crates lined up in columns and chains hanging from the corrugated iron roof where slabs of skylights shone small amounts of moonlight into the room. It looked like the hideout of a street crew or the Mafia.

  Hunter’s first thought was to get Jack away from the warehouse, but Joshua had recovered quickly and was back on his feet, brushing away the flames on his shirt. With a flick of his hand, they had disintegrated into ice.

  “You’re much stronger than I realized Hunter,” he snarled, no longer his confident self but rather more manic, if it were possible. “But weren’t you listening before? We can’t kill each other!” He threw out his hands and cackled. “We’re fire and ice, baby!”

  She screamed in fury and twisted her hands together, forming a ball of flames that she threw at him with all her might. The fire would have hit him, too, had he not lifted his hands and shot a jet of water from them, drowning the fire.

  “But Professor,” she smiled, watching his lip curl at the name. “I was listening. Cold does not exist. You said that cold is merely the absence of heat,” Hunter inhaled and breathed out hard. Her body burst into flames, and in the reflection of Joshua’s horrified eyes she saw not a human-shaped orange flame, but a ball of white-hot, dazzling fire, sparking venomously. She looked like an angel, enriched by a ball of fire brighter than the sun, her flaming hair and eyes red like the devil himself.

  “Well heat is back,” she snarled, “and they call her Rouge.”

  thirty- nine

  If anyone passing by the warehouse had stopped to listen for a moment, they would have come to the immediate conclusion that someone was either washing a car, or burning down the building. For inside, chaos reigned. As Hunter and Joshua battled it out, fire and ice, Jack swung back and forth on the hook, shouting for help and having his voice lost in the din as he dodged balls of flames that came soaring at him. Crates caught on fire as Hunter shot endless bursts of fire from her hands, but they were immediately extinguished when gallons of water fell upon them.