Apotheosis (Song of Sophangence Book 3)

by E. I. McAllistair

  “But of course, what else would he be. We alerted you of his incredible resilience before taking him.”

  The woman then burst forth of her own accord. “Every place we take him they said his affinity could not be determined. They said there were rare cases where a child was so weak it would not show up for some time, but that is usually months at most, not years! Also, there is no way he is too weak given how tough his body is!”

  “This is true. He is extremely rough with the other children. We know boys will be boys, but we think his has no understanding of his own strength and toughness. Between the fires and the constant injuries of the other children, we can barely let him out of our sight!”

  “Tell me more about his interactions with the other children.”

  “On the surface he seems like a regular toddler, but we have seen things happen that make no sense. He has fallen down the stairs as if nothing happened, simply standing back up laughing! If you are wondering how this happened in the first place, he is able to brute force his way through the gate! He treats the other children with the same roughness!”

  “The insurance company refuses to cover the fires any longer. We can barely afford to get by as is. We cannot pay for more damage on our own, and it is only getting worse.”

  “Surely the fires are just a coincidence. As for those gates, we understand some children have shown the ability to figure out how to unlock them, but break through them? Even adults would have a difficult time of such a feat.”

  “Are you calling us liars?!”

  “No! I apologize. I did not mean to give you the impression I thought you were being untruthful, it just all seems so unlikely.”

  “We don’t care what it seems like, it is true. We can’t keep him any longer. We are sorry.”

  Yefferson awoke from his nightmare covered in sweat, his bed smelling faintly of smoke. He did not know exactly when that memory was from, but he knew that as he got older, more and more of it made sense to him. Whoever these people were, he had a family at some point who did not want him. He had gotten better at keeping the raging inferno locked inside, but just like this night, it threatened to break free. He did not know exactly what it meant, but from what his young mind could tell, he was not the same as the other children.

  Months passed by with Yefferson never gaining any ground with the other children around him. No matter what he did, they would always use him as a target and scapegoat for anything that happened. It was not until one day he had been out on a field trip that he was approached by a woman.

  The woman was very kind, something Yefferson knew little of. He knew that he was supposed to stay with the group and not speak to any strangers, but there was something familiar about the woman that intrigued him. Before he knew it, he was placed in the back of a vehicle and he was taken somewhere much different from what he had known.

  This change in environment initially felt much better than what he was accustomed to as he was all alone, with no other children to taunt him or place blame on him. The food was much better, and he was given many more toys that were his own, so he never needed to share. He did not feel anyone treated him very warmly, not like the woman he had first met whom he had never seen again, but at least he did not feel the cruelty he had come to expect from the other children.

  He was given many books, the only thing he liked about school. He was terrible with numbers, or any other subject, but he did like to read books. His favorite were stories of heroes with great powers. For some reason these stories resonated with him. Thus, without his awareness, his vocabulary and diction increased greatly, as his other areas continued to decline.

  He had been subject to many more tests than he was used to, they increasing in intensity as time passed. They were never truly unpleasant as he felt very little pain, and he never seemed to get hurt, even if that appeared to be the purpose of the test. Overall he felt his newfound life was better, if only marginally. That was until one day the normal gamut of testing took on a turn that would forever change his life.

  Before, he was beaten, stabbed, shocked, and shot, but never did it amount to more than a mild nuisance. The scientists working on him did their very best to extract blood from him, but no amount of injury, external nor internal seemed to cause any tears in his flesh. They had taken every other viable sample, stool, urine, saliva, and hair, but they still needed blood and marrow to get to the heart of what they were looking for. None of their collection bothered him very much, he had never been taught to be embarrassed or shy, so to him, doing as the adults told him came at no consequence.

  The day he was brought into the room with the strange man was something forever etched into his memory. The man made no effort to talk to him, he did not even attempt to study him. For a long time he simply sat there, waiting for some sort of signal. When he had received the signal, Yefferson experienced a new sensation, something he had never truly understood. He had felt pain.

  Yefferson had never understood that he had an extremely high threshold for pain, he had never needed it. Where most people needed pain to tell them when their body was in peril, he never had to worry about such things. This tended to make his reckless, but there was not much that could be done about it. This new sensation, this pain was so much that it caused him to faint almost immediately.

  “It appears the subject has finally responded to inductions of trauma. All other attempts at physical trauma has been met with at best indifference. Though the subject is not even seven years of age, it appears he has not only manifested, but possesses some enhanced form of Invulnerability. Typically, despite its name, Invulnerability increases over time. The subject already exceeds the upper limit of any known case of Invulnerability on record. As it stands, his only weak point is psychic assault.”

  The researcher finished up the recording of his notes, and under the advisement of the doctor, decided it best to not attempt the experiment again that day. When Yefferson awoke, he found himself still in the room, the strange man had gone, but he was left alone. Unsure of what had happened to him or how long had passed, he did find himself sitting in his own excrement. What he was certain of was whatever had occurred, he hated it more than anything he had ever experienced in his life.

  Weeks passed, each day the tests becoming worse and worse. How he had thought this place was better than being with all of the other children was a mystery to him. At least there he had the rare show of affection or concern. The way his life was now, it seemed he existed only to have pain inflicted upon him. He soon began to recognize that the man inflicting it upon him took immense amounts of pleasure in doing it. He did not know why, but for some reason this conflicted him. While he hated being used for the man’s exploits, something about it seemed fascinating and desirable.

  Over time he had become much more tolerant to the attacks, instead he wanted to know exactly what the man felt when doing such things to him. He wanted to feel the power, the ecstasy that was evident in the man’s eyes as he ripped his mind to shreds. He wanted to take what he felt, and do it to others. The very idea of it made him feel alive for the first time. As the man dug deeper into his mind, his fragile six year old psyche fragmenting, everything faded to white.

  Yefferson knew this feeling. It had become normal to him now. He had fallen asleep, the deep sleep that let him escape the pain. He knew it was only temporary, that when he awoke it would resume as it always did, but he had come to accept his life as he had always done. Never loved, always misunderstood, he knew little of death, but he was sure this would be his existence until he met his end.

  When his eyes finally opened, he found himself not in the chair or on the floor, covered in his own filth as usual, he found himself covered in a different type of filth. His skin was colored black, as if he had been dipped into some sort of coating. Instead of walls, all he saw was open sky. As he stood up, he realized he was completely naked and he could feel intense heat. The heat brought him comfort for some reason, even though upon further examinati
on the heat was due to the raging flames around him. There was very little left in his wake, but the very earth itself was set ablaze.

  In the distance he could hear something, a wailing of sorts. Though he had only a meager understanding, he knew that sound meant people who were supposed to rescue you. He could not see anywhere for him to go, so he simply sat by the edge of the flaming circle, his knees tucked under him, and his hair draping his body like a natural cloak. There he sat, waiting to be rescued, the sounds growing ever closer until finally many vehicles arrived.

  He sat there, watching large trucks spray water, extinguishing the warm, beautiful flame. Something about this felt wrong to him. The flame was beautiful, and it had done nothing wrong, it just wanted to live, like he did. For the first time in a long while, instead of locking his flame away, he let it burn. He let it burn brighter and brighter until the water did nothing to calm it. Once again he felt like things were finally the way they should be.

  After a while someone noticed him on the edge of the blast site. When they realized he was but a child, they immediately came to check on him, looking him all over for injuries. Other than the soot caked all over his naked body, they found nothing wrong with the boy, something that caused initial concern. The paramedics spoke in hushed tones to the side of the truck as they surreptitiously eyed the young boy covered in nothing but soot and a blanket.

  “Who is this kid? He hasn’t said a word, and there isn’t shit left of this place. You think he did this?”

  “No way, there isn’t any way a kid could do all this. Even if he were a Demolitionist, that would have left something. There is nothing but flames for almost a mile. I don’t even understand what is burning.”

  “Then how do you explain the mysterious mute kid, naked and covered in ashes just hanging out near a catastrophic bomb site?”

  “You haven’t heard the rumors about this place? They are supposed to be up to some seedy shit. They do all types of attunement research, off book, evil shit. When there wasn’t a scratch on the kid, I tried drawing some blood, fucking needle broke on him and he didn’t even flinch.”

  “No fucking way. Are you saying this kid survived whatever went down here because he has Invulnerability?!”

  “Fuck if I know, but one thing is for sure, that kid ain’t normal. He’s probably one of this fucked up place’s experiments.”

  “What do you want to do with him?”

  “What else? Take him to child services. Maybe they will know who he is. Sure as shit has to be better than being a lab rat.”

  Thus began Yefferson’s life in the system again. It was a few months before he began speaking again, but he found the new place that he inhabited much like the group home he knew before. Children were cruel to those who did not fall in line, doubly so to those who were new to the system. What they did not know was that Yefferson was anything but new and naïve. He had been through such an experience once before and he understood better now how to survive.

  The first thing he did was establish he was not afraid of the other children. He used various means to achieve this, but mostly his superior physical attributes made the difference between them staggering. When they tried to jump him, he shrugged off the damage and then proceeded to make them regret their insolence. Though he was not liked, he was definitely feared, allowing him to live his life in relative peace.

  As he grew older, he came to realize that though he was not predisposed to learning, his various experiences in life had given him an intelligence and wisdom that could not be taught. In concert with his mental development, he grew into his body, becoming extremely handsome. He eventually realized that beauty was a key that unlocked previously inaccessible areas. Typically someone his age would never be considered to be placed into a home for adoption, but he had figured out just how to smile and act to get people to consider him.

  In reality he never wanted to stay with any of the families who brought him home, he knew he was nothing more than a doll to them, something pretty to play with. Instead he used the opportunities to learn more about the world and explore his burgeoning abilities. He had long since figured out the destructive nature of his flames, and keeping them under control proved to no longer be an issue. The power that was his salvation many years prior however, was something that needed more time and patience to master.

  He used his time in various homes to find quiet places to practice, trying his best to focus on control rather than power. Because of his dominion over fire, he was able to extinguish the aftermath of the blasts he created, but there was not much he could do about the destruction. He had come to be known a pyromanic, something the system often chose to conveniently omit when he was being placed in a new home.

  He found he lived in two different worlds most of the time. On paper, he was an Earth Affinity. This was due to his extreme resilience which prevented many medical procedures. Whenever he went home with a new family and attended a new school where he was unknown, he was able to embrace his nature as a Fire Affinity. What he did learn, thankfully sooner than later, was that the two could never mix.

  Questions were his worst enemy. They were dangerous and led to people inserting themselves where they did not belong. The first time he made the mistake of allowing someone to know he had two affinities was a major turning point in his life. It was the first time he intentionally took a life.

  He was 11 years old and had begun to notice girls. Due to his looks, many girls noticed him as well, which made it very easy to get whatever and whomever he wanted. There was one girl in particular, very smart, unassumingly pretty, and not prone to the normal shallow thought most children their age subscribed to. This was the first time he ever had to actively chase someone he desired, a feeling which was not pleasant to him.

  He found he was growing hair in a number of places, most boys his age taking pride in that as them becoming men. He had the unfortunate trait of that hair not being able to be easily removed. Though it could not be cut, he found it could be plucked from his skin. This particular girl found the patches of hair sprouting around his face to be quite unsightly, so from that point he began waxing his face. Since he felt no pain from the wax, he was able to apply particularly potent wax at an intense heat, as regular wax was not strong enough to stay attached to the hairs so he could pull them out.

  When he found the girl at school the next day, she was shocked by his new clean face, but more so by the fact he did it in order to impress her. That day during lunch he managed to convince her to sneak away with him, something that terrified her, but his charm helped her overcome. He had begun having sex at an early age, something no doubt the result of constant supply and no stability to teach him the consequences of his actions. He figured this situation should be no different, taking her coming with him as obvious consent.

  When he made his intentions clear, she immediately became repulsed, her eyes darting around for her nearest point of escape. “I heard you were that type of guy, but I don’t do things like this. I just want to go back to class.”

  Not used to being rejected, he thought he could impress her with something that would make her change her mind. “Want to see something cool?”

  “If you pull down your pants-”

  “Nah, nah! It won’t be as cool as that, but I promise it will be awesome.”

  Being very inquisitive by nature, she could not help but be curious. “Okay, but if you pull out your… thing… I swear I will scream.”

  Giving her a gleaming smile of perfect teeth, something most children his age wished they could have, and had braces to get close to the result, he holds out both hands, one turning into fire, the other turning into stone. For a moment she was absolutely stupefied. She stepped closer, peering at them with appraising eyes. Once she confirmed it was not a trick, her face changed to horror.

  “What… are you?”

  “Really? What? I’m some thing now?!”

  “That is beyond creepy and impossible. I’m out of here, I have to tell
someone-”

  Before the girl could take four steps, he had pounced upon her, snapping her neck. He stood for long moments as the color faded from her body. He looked at the scene as he would television or a movie. It seemed perfectly normal and acceptable to him. He was about to leave her body there and return to class when he realized people might have seen her leave with him. Without any remorse, he set her body aflame, it burning so intensely it incinerated her completely in a matter of minutes, burning the concrete underneath her as well. When he was positive there was nothing left of her, he returned to class, finishing the day.

  As it turned out, some people did see the two leave together, so after she had been missing for two days, he was brought in for questioning since he was the last known person to see her. The need to constantly keep oneself concealed for fear of what might happen had made him an excellent actor, his story holding up to scrutiny as there was no body to be found and he knew that it would never be found. Though there was no evidence to prove he did anything wrong, the family he was staying with was so upset with the situation, he was returned to the system within the week.

  For the next few years he did his time flitting throughout the system. More and more he looked like a fully grown adult, which only further prevented him from getting into another home. After his last incident, the system could not omit his implication in the disappearance of the girl, which completely sealed his fate to be a ward of the state until he was of legal age. It was not until he happened upon something extremely curious when searching into his own past that he decided to make a major life change.

  He had begun to wonder just how the media reported the incident in which he destroyed an entire complex as a small child. He expected to find at least a small mention of it during his research, but there was nothing to be found. What he did find however was another incident at an elementary school in Vermont not long after the time his own incident occurred. Though it did not seem to carry the same scope, it was national news as many children and adults died in the fallout.