Rebirth

by Valerie Willis

  “Hmm, I don’t know.” She glanced back at her girlfriends who giggled and blushed when Hotan looked over them. “I need to study…”

  “Oh come on.” Kyle winked at her. “We can take my car. It’ll be an adventure!”

  “All right! But I’ll call you. I need to go home and clean up before Mom gets home. Chores first, then I should be free to run the town with you guys. Is that ok?”

  “That’s fine. Guess I’ll let you catch a ride with Jen then.” Hotan motioned to a girl who was waiting back on the sidewalk for her. “Looks like she needs you.”

  “See you Hotan.” She kissed his cheek and left.

  “To the church?” He looked at Kyle.

  “Yeah, definitely”

  They walked across the grass as the yellow busses pulled off, one after the other. Walking down the sidewalk, they remained in complete silence, lost in thought. A car drove by with some friends and mechanically they waved in response. It was still strange to walk into the building, shining and clean. Hotan stared at the towering crucifix once again. Walking to the front of the pews, he stood in front of the statue that seemed to smile down at him. It was like something magnificent had happened and a sense of pride was being shown.

  So strange for such an inanimate object to express so many feelings.

  He turned his attention to Kyle who finally took off his backpack. Hotan’s blood iced as he witnessed the scorched shirt. Kyle’s marking had literally burnt through his shirt, leaving charred holes exposing the Phoenix-like image that stretched its wings across his back.

  Chapter Eleven

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” Hotan stood in disbelief, gawking at the charred shirt.

  “No joke, man. I was sitting in Chemistry class when it happened. I was leaning back in my chair sleeping like always, when I smelled something burning. Thought for a minute or two that it was like a Bunsen burner or something like that. Then I realized everyone was doing bookwork.” Kyle sat down, slouching over his knees. “It didn’t just burn through my shirt, dude. It melted the freaking plastic chair! It left an imprint of the marking, until I smudged it. Mr. Mayer chewed me out. He thought I took a lighter to the chair again. So, now I have in-school suspension for the next three days.”

  “Maybe it’s because of your element, fire.” Hotan rubbed the back of his neck as he mulled it over. “There must be a connection to what you were doing.”

  “I was dreaming about driving this high-powered car when it happened. You should have seen it! It was dark green with nitro and the works!” Kyle perked up as he described the car of his dreams. “I was like the fuel going through the pistons.”

  “Firing of pistons, eh?” Hotan grinned as he looked over at the angelic statue that Geliah had sliced in half. “Power of fire. A moment of envious want, an emotional spike for you. I wonder…”

  “What?” Kyle looked at the statue. “What did you mumble? Did you figure something out?”

  “Envy! That’s how you can trigger it. Just think about your precious high-powered engine and how badly you want it! You can use those powers Talib was talking about. In the Book of Ancients, the element of Earth was because she wanted something, she envied that she couldn’t grow anything.” Hotan was excited, for the first time this chaos was making sense. “You envy the power in an engine more than anything else. Kyle if the dream is what set it off, why not think and focus on that! See if you can’t get your power to work? It makes perfect sense.”

  Kyle looked at him puzzled. “You mean that’s it? It’s that simple?”

  “Yea, for you it’s simple. Give it a try.”

  “What should I try doing?” Kyle jumped up. “I can’t light a pew on fire.”

  “Try something simple, like,” He looked about and noticed the candles on the floor around the crucifix. “Try lighting those candles.”

  Kyle knelt by one, pausing for a moment. “How am I supposed to do this?”

  “Recall the engine and kind of lock that image in your head. Remember how you felt and what you may have been thinking about how badly you wanted an engine like that. Don’t break from that emotional spike at all. Focus the energy from it to the candles. It sort of works like an electrical system. That moment is the power source and you’re the lightning rod.”

  “Ok, engine in mind.” Kyle held his palm out and sat there for a few minutes. “Hotan, it’s not working. Nothing is coming out, my hands are cold. Any suggestions?”

  “Hold a finger on a wick. Play through the dream in your head.”

  “How’s that going to work? Won’t it put it out?” Kyle stared at the little white wick on the candle. “Won’t I get burned?”

  “Just do it. Trust me on this ok? I think you’re fireproof after setting your own shirt and chair on fire.” Sighing, he watched Kyle put a finger on the wick and nothing happened. “You’re not focusing enough. You need to think only about the pivotal moment when you smelt burning plastic. Come on, try a little harder.”

  Kyle relaxed, recalling the climax of his dream. He opened one eye to check to see if anything had resulted in this ultimate focus. “Oh snap!”

  “Told you!” A flame was dancing on the candle, where Kyle’s finger still laid. Clearly, the heat of fire wouldn’t burn him, but accept him as the same. “That’s the kind of focus you’re going to need for this.”

  “Dude! Let me do that again!” Kyle repeated the process until he had lit all twenty candles. “Check it! I lit them all with my fingers! Forget playing with a lighter. I am the fire! This rocks!”

  “Yea,” Hotan stared at the line of flames that all shifted and flickered in unison. “At least I was able to help you. Just wish I could help myself.”

  “But, how did you know?” Kyle stood up from his low crouch, facing him with a skeptical look on his face.

  “Know about what?” Hotan broke his daze from the candles’ flames.

  “How I can use my power and trigger it. What I needed to do in order for the thing to turn on.” Kyle glanced at him suspiciously. “What else are you hiding? What are you not telling me?”

  “It seemed logical. After everything Talib’s told me, the book, and that weird dream a while ago, it seems I should have it down by now.” He took a slow steady breath. “I just can’t seem to figure out what my focus should be. I don’t even feel the power in me, and I can’t stop feeling that I should be feeling something there. I’m sure you started feeling something? Am I right? There’s this void in your soul that’s now filled? That’s how I imagine it would be like…”

  I’ve been thinking about it for so long…

  “Well, not at first. Today I could feel it when I woke up. Why haven’t you been using your powers and doing crazy stuff? You definitely were the one that fixed this church with your powers, right?” Kyle sat down on the steps in front of the pews. His full attention aimed for Hotan. “It’s just hard to believe you can’t use your powers when you can teach someone else. I know I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, but come on.”

  “Because I haven’t figured out what it is that I truly envy. In order for the powers to work, I need to focus on what I desire or resent the most, but I don’t know what that is. That’s where it comes from, the emotional spike. For you, it’s your envy for that powerful engine with the flames roaring through it. That envy can be anything, but only one thing will work and it varies from person to person. I don’t quite understand why power would come from desire like that, but maybe sometime later it might fall in place for me. Hopefully.” He looked back up at the statue that seemed to have lost its smile. “I just wish I knew myself better. I don’t know who I am anymore. Everyone wants me to be this other Hotan, but that’s impossible. Nor do I want to be that person, and looking back before all this started, I didn’t exactly aim to be a person. It was more along the lines of what I am supposed to do.”

  “Yea, I guess it does make things harder when there’s pressure to become someone you’re not.” Kyle started to observe the art
carved in the lumber supports above them. Epic battle scenes were etched into them, a visual of the struggle between angels and demons. “Life is a struggle against the good and bad we experience. A never-ending battle.”

  “Anyway, are you going to the radio station with Shellie and me? If so we’ll take your car.” Hotan was tired of thinking about things.

  All this confirms is that my thoughts on the mechanics of how it could work are correct. I just need to find my focus. I wonder when Kyle got so philosophical?

  “Yea, I’m going.” Rubbing the back of his neck, Kyle took a moment to blow out the candles. “Better not leave these unattended, I suppose.”

  “Good. We could grab something to eat on our way back, I guess.” The cell phone in his right pocket started vibrating.

  “Is that Shellie?” Kyle watched as Hotan pushed ignore.

  “No. It’s actually Annie. I’ll call you when I’m ready. You need to change shirts anyhow.” He smirked for a moment. “And take a shower, you smell like burnt plastic.”

  “Yea.” Kyle mustered a smile and chuckle. “Hey, Hotan, who owns this place anyhow? Someone owns it right?”

  “No clue. But I hope they like the free restoration.” They were outside now, and Hotan sat on his motorcycle snapping on his helmet. “If they even know it’s been fixed. Then again, something tells me Talib might own this place.”

  “Well, I’m starting to see why you like to come here so much. It makes me feel safe.” Hotan gave him a shrug and driving away without another word.

  Kyle watched the bike take its usual route home, disappearing around the block. Looking at his black and blue sports watch, he rubbed the back of his neck. Shuddering didn’t help cut the coldness he felt after using his power for the first time. “This is going to be hard to regain my power again. So much has changed…”

  Hotan pulled up to the small apartment building. Kicking the kickstand down, he pulled off his helmet, sweat dripping down his cheek. It was hot outside with no breeze, just clear blue skies. The ride was soothing, but miserable when driving on the main highway. Heat rose off the asphalt in torturous swells. It seemed to scorch his legs and arms as it flowed up and stung against his face. His helmet was agonizing with its thick padding. He dreaded every moment he had to stop at a red light or stop sign.

  Sighing, he looked forward to hitting the air conditioning inside the apartment building. As he entered the building, he paused under a main air vent that was washing cool air over him. Annie was yawning as she sat on a ladder, waiting to gain his full attention. She was wearing black and grey hints of a color board shorts and a cute white tank top. Her hair messily hung off the back of her head in a bun held with two black chopsticks. Smiling when she noticed him look her way, Annie stood to greet him with a hug.

  “Hey! Glad you could come so quickly.” Scratching her head, she looked up at the light on the ceiling. “That lighting tube went out and I need you to replace it. I’ve had a few complaints about it all ready. You know how some of the tenants are around here.” She deepened her voice and added, “I take pride in where I live and hate to see it turn into a dump!”

  Hotan smiled as he knew which resident she had imitated, “We still have lights in the basement? It’s been a while since I last replaced one of these things.”

  “There should be a couple left. Basement’s a mess, I had to shove some old boxes down there a while back.” She smiled, patting him on the back as they walked down the hallway. “By the way, Jake and I want you to join us for dinner tonight. He has a free night and wants to do something with you. I told him dinner at my place was always a good way to go.”

  “Dinner? I do love your cooking, so I can’t argue with that. Jake has a free night again? I have a lot of questions for him, and lot of catching up to do.”

  Finally, a chance to meet Jake! I want to see what kind of answers I can get from him, instead of Talib, on this whole mess.

  “Well, we were talking. Both of us thought it’d be a nice idea to get together and discuss how you are doing. Jake plans to bring a friend over and I thought, well, we thought, you’d like the chance to get to know your sponsor. Jake wants to be there for you, since he knows what it’s like to be the only one left in your family. You have a lot in common, to be honest.” She unlocked a door with her clump of keys and turned the light that struggled to pour down the stairs that led to a dusky basement. “He feels so horrible about not having enough time to talk to you about things.”

  “I’ll be there. What time?” Rubbing the back of his neck, he looked into the grimy darkness they called the basement. I hate going down there…

  “Seven thirtyish. Thanks again, Hotan.” Patting his shoulder, she made one more comment as she left, “It’s a blessing having your help to keep this place in shape.”

  “No problem.” Huffing, he started his descent down the stairs.

  The wood would crackle and moan under the weight of his footsteps. Chills raced up his spine like roaches with each mournful cry as if teasing him that they would drop him into the endless abyss below. The room was dark and musky as he turned on the hanging light bulb. He looked about the room full of dust-covered boxes, reading the labels as he scanned the room with his eyes. Some had toilet paper, others had chemicals such as bleach, but the majority of them were unreadable or not labeled at all. Starting to his right, he worked his way around. Moving boxes around the crowded room, he was trying to figure out where the light bulbs had been nonchalantly forgotten.

  He flinched as something scurried pass his feet, quickly turning to watch the small, fast moving object zoom between two boxes. Shrouded in the dim light and darkness of the cold room he couldn’t make out what exactly it was. He shrugged to himself knowing it was most likely a mouse or rat. They were common in this old building’s basement along with any other old building in the world. He turned back and continued digging through the boxes finding paper towels and the regular light bulbs, yet no signs of the long fluorescent he needed.

  Opening an old unlabeled box, he found some old Christmas ornaments, which seemed a tad personal to stores there, since it had been the maintenance supply closet for decades now.

  Did Annie put these here? But I’ve never seen her use any of it. Maybe it was left behind by a resident? I wonder…

  He started to dig through it until he cut his hand on a broken glass. He snatched his hand out of the box promptly and walked over to the light to give it a closer look. It felt worse than it looked. It stung badly as he pulled a broken shard from the small gash and a stream of warm dark colored blood dripped off his hand. Grunting in annoyance, he sighed pressing his left thumb firmly on it to stop the bleeding. He closed his eyes to try to focus. He had been feeling irritable all day. He turned back to the boxes to finish the job at hand.

  I don’t have much time to spare today, too much I need to get done.

  Closing the Christmas box, he started to search somewhere else. Moving the labeled boxes behind him, he came to some that were even more questionable.

  I know these boxes have been here, but I never noticed them so, open and having so much personal items in them. Why are they all off the shel-!

  His heart jolted when he heard a box behind him fall off a shelf. The violent bang and clutter of it hitting the cement floor made every muscle in his body tighten. He turned back to see nothing. Cautiously he walked over, mumbling to himself. “I’m going to bring traps down with me next time, Rat. You’ve knocked one box too many off the shelves.”

  Out of curiosity, he opened the box and looked at the contents. Pulling out old books and photo albums, he shrugged to himself.

  Well this is weird. Why would there be photo albums and things like this down here? I’ll take it with me, dig through it and see if there’s anything worth keeping or maybe see if I can figure out who owns them.

  He started to search the shelf again, finding the tube lights near where the box had once rested.

  Finally! I can get out of this basemen
t! I hate how dark it gets down here.

  Heading back up the steps with the boxes, he turned the light off as he reached the top. He looked down the dark eerie stairway as if he was saying goodbye. Pushing the door closed, he could hear something. Right before it completely shut, he thought he heard a voice. It seemed as if someone, or even a child, had giggled or whispered something as the door shut.

  What was hiding in the dark cold basement of the building, or am I freaking myself out?

  He shook his head in dismay, thinking he was starting to really loose it now. Feeling paranoid, all he could think is that it needed to stop before it caused him to go mad. He sighed again, making his way back to the ladder in the hallway. Pulling a tube light out, he climbed the ladder and slid the cover to the side. Unsnapping the burnt out light, he quickly replaced it with the new one.

  “Mmm! Aren’t you sexy!” He froze as a girlish voice broke his whirlpool of thoughts. “All hot and sweaty. Standing up there on that ladder like a statue of hotness.”

  “Hey, Kasie,” The shorthaired girl, who lived on the first floor, was well known to all in the building for her flirtatious ambience. “What do you want? Need something fixed?”

  “You! What else would I want, boy!” She tilted her head with attitude, her body language always more exaggerated than the average person. “Are you single yet? Have you dumped that hoe of yours? Because you know I’m sexier than her. She can go to hell.”

  “Unfortunately I haven’t dumped my girlfriend.” Sliding the cover back in place, he slowly climbed back down off the ladder. “Because I like her, and for some reason she still likes me. So sorry, I’m still unavailable, Kasie.”

  “Oh. Is that so?” She pranced off, seeing that she was getting none of the attention she had wanted from him. “Whatever! I’m too good for you anyways!”

  Closing the ladder up, carrying it down the hall, he put it in its corner of the laundry room. He pulled his cell phone out a moment and glanced over it.

  Still no word from Shellie or Kyle.