by Jennie Dah
‘Oh come on, what do you want from me?’ she whines dramatically and I’d have rolled my eyes if I wasn’t burning with frustration.
‘How am I doing this?’ I shift nervously when Arabella staggers to her feet. ‘I’ve never been in a fight like this before and why am I so damn flexible?’
‘Muscle memory?’ she mumbles.
‘Muscle memory my fucking fat ass,’ I suck my teeth at her. ‘I would’ve had to train for years to be this good and for my mind to know when to attack and defend and you and I both know I can’t even bend over and touch my toes without farting.’
‘In coming,’ she sighs and I gasp as my body flips through the air in a back flip and I land perfectly on my feet. Arabella growls and charges towards me with a scream.
My body spins and I land a roundhouse kick to her middle sending her flying through the air again. I can feel the echoes of surprise, pride and feelings of protectiveness seep through my mind and I calm down a little.
‘You have some explaining to do after I’m done here and if you think you’re getting out of this one forget it,’ I warn darkly finally having enough with her evasive intruding ass.
‘Kafui I promise I’ll explain everything when the time is—’
‘Get out,’ I snap finally breaking.
‘Okay, I’ll talk to you lat—’
‘No. I said get out,’ I say softly. ‘Don’t come back.’
‘Maka—’
I breathe in deeply and cut the connection pushing her out of my mind. The last time I did this we didn’t talk for a month. I ignore the hollow feeling inside me and tune back in to the woman glaring at me with blood soaking her shirt.
Shit! I did that? Her face is a bloody mess and barely recognizable with all the blood seeping from the cut on her brow, her cheek and her mouth. She snarls at me and I cringe at her bloody teeth.
“You got a little something…” I trail off pointing at her face with a grimace. Damn that looks painful.
If she can’t fight why would she challenge someone to come fight her? Something isn’t right. She gets off the floor and glare at me her eyes shooting daggers at me. She straightens up and wipe the blood from her mouth. Her arms stretch out to the sides and her head goes back.
What is she doing now? I gasp when the air around me crackles loudly and then streaks of lightning are crackling around her hands. Suddenly my body flies through the air and I land on the floor but not before hitting the wall.
But there’s was no wall. I groan in pain, an intense pain shooting through my stomach. I wheeze and get to my knees. I look behind but it transparent which means no wall but when I look closely it shimmers slightly.
Of course an invisible shield. I groan getting up to my feet. I crack my back and groan harshly releasing a few colourful words. Damn, that hurt. The fucking bitch hit me with a lightning bolt. Or was it an energy ball?
I look up but it’s too late for me to try and move out of the way as another ball hits me again but this time the pain doesn’t fade, it continues for a few seconds and I grit my teeth to keep my cry of pain behind my teeth.
Fucking bitch must have planned this knowing I haven’t got any powers yet. I sag in relief panting harshly when the pain finally passes. Intense anger washes through my mind making my blood boil. I look over at Nicholas and he growling and snapping at the hands holding him back.
Feeling grateful Michael and the rest of the guys won’t let him do anything, I roll to my back and look at the sky. I turn to look at Nicholas again but when my eyes meet his, the pain I see in them hit me harder than any of energy balls that has struck me before. He looks so vulnerable because I did that to him. I shake my head at him when he almost breaks free of their hold. I cry out in pain when another streak hits me again unexpectedly.
When the pain finally becomes a little more bearable I raise my head to see her and the smug look on her face has my blood boiling in my veins. She cackles loudly taunting me while hitting me over and over with lightning charged energy balls the next one more charged than the last one. When she’s finally stops, I’m curled in a ball on the floor breathing heavily.
“How are you still conscious?” she asks looking at me a little impressed and an image flashes through my head but it quickly disappear before I can grasp it.
“Because I keep wondering how you grew to be so fat,” I heave breathlessly and she hits me again but this time instead of it hurting me, it fuels my blood.
“Never mind that because when I’m done showing Nicholas just how weak you are, he won’t want you for a mate anymore,” she says her voice filled with venom. “Then I’m going to get him back. We’ll go back to how it was. Just me and him.”
What does she mean just him and her? They were together? No. That can’t be. Nicholas wouldn’t be with someone like her. Someone who derives happiness from other people’s misery.
He’s better than that. Isn’t he? Images of her and Nick together flash through my head on a continuous loop and I grab my head screaming for it to stop.
I scream until my voice turns hoarse and my throat hurts. Slowly I push off the ground back to my feet wiping the sweat and tears from my face. She’s just in my head.
My chest burns fiercely but this time I welcome the pain instead. Suddenly everything inside me begins to heat up and I embrace the burn. Even the blood in my veins feels like liquid fire. I close my eyes letting it wash over me.
Then the sounds start hitting me, the crash of the waves on the shore, the sound of the ants in the anthill busy at work and the sound of someone’s breathing. I open my eyes and glare at Arabella. She stumbles backwards with a horrified gasp her face draining of colour.
The crowd gasps along with her but I ignore everything else but her. I can smell the stench of her fear and it is foul let me tell you and I bare my teeth at her in a smile.
Slowly I roll my neck and it cracks softly. She hits me again several times with her lightning but instead of hurting me this time, it makes my blood boil hotter.
What the hell? I bring my hand up to brush the hair away from my face and freeze. I stare at the flaming thing that has become my hand in alarm.
I can’t see my hands anymore. Well I can see them but my skin is now glowing red with streaks of really big flames burning at it. I wave my hand experimentally to put it out but nope it’s still there.
I look back into the crowd at Nicholas and he’s staring at me like he’s never seen me before. I frown at him and look around and his expression matches everyone else’s.
Whatever I’ll deal with that later. I turn back to Arabella and she’s stepped back until she’s on other side of the ring. I cock my head to side and study her.
She doesn’t look anything like the smug person from earlier and I smile when I realize what is happening.
I have powers!
But how does it work? I stretch both hands out in front of me and they both burn brighter. I shoot my hands out and a flicker of flame leaves hitting Arabella in the stomach and she shrieks.
Over that small thing?
I remember how she enjoyed torturing me earlier and the anger rushes back, the pain in Nicholas’s eyes as he watched me and the idea that she and Nicholas used to be something makes my blood boil hotter in anger.
I extend my hands towards her and let everything out with a scream. I watch in satisfaction as large globs of flame hit her one after the other without any reprieve. She screams in pain while thrashing around on the floor. My anger burns hotter and the flame become a stream floating from my hands engulfing her.
The sound of her screams is a soothing balm to my soul. I hit her with everything in me and I distinctly hear someone yelling something but I ignore it. Suddenly an image flashes in my head and I gasp, stumbling back in horror.
I shake my head to push the image back but it clings to the forefront of my mind forcing me to face what I’d done. I’ve done this before and I killed someone. How? I look down at my hand but they’re no longer flamin
g.
Thick black smoke rise from my hand and I choke. My head fills with the black smoke, making my eyes sting badly until I can think of nothing but the pain. I killed a person. But why? I cry out in pain every part of my body in agony.
Something trickles down my ear and trail down to my neck. I get the same feeling in my nose and my knees wobble, my vision going dark at the edges. I hear someone yelling my name, then suddenly everything goes dark and I give myself into the comforting arms of the darkness again to escape the pain of what my mind is telling me I did as I feel my body tip to the side.
******
I groan in pain when I open my eyes and the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights stab my eyes. Slowly, I peek them back open again and wait for them to adjust to the lighting in the room.
Oh. Hospital again. Same room too. I look at the black smudge on the ceiling I’d spent hours looking at only a few days ago. What the hell happened? I grab my head when a stabbing pain shoots through my skull.
Fuck! What the hell? Then it’s like every sound within a five mile radius hits my cochlea at once. What is happening? I look over at the door when I hear footfalls coming down the hall.
They’re too heavy and noisy to belong to Nicholas’s. How the hell do I know that? I sit up in bed and groan out loud at how much everything hurts. I look at the door intently waiting for the person to enter. The door pushes open and that doctor guy comes in looking ragged.
Like he hasn’t seen a bed in weeks or the inside of a shower for that matter when I catch a whiff of his smell. I wrinkle my nose in disgust but set my face right when he lifts he head to me after closing the door. He look at me for a while before stepping inside a few more steps.
What’s wrong with him?
“Uhh…hello?” I say after a while when he says nothing. Why do I sound like I smoke fifty packs a day? I clear my throat a little and wince. What the hell have I been doing? And where is Nicholas?
“He’s down in the cafeteria getting a cup of coffee,” the doctor finally speaks. Oh, I must said that out loud. I nod awkwardly a few times when he doesn’t say anything else.
“What am I doing here again?” I ask only mildly curious.
“You don’t remember?” he asks stepping closer to the bed, his hands buried in his lab coat pockets. At his question a thousand images flood my mind and I fall back on the bed my body suddenly feeling tired, my energy drained.
Oh, that’s right. The fight.
“How’s Arabella?” I ask worriedly feeling horrible at what I did to her. I can’t believe I got so drunk on my power like that that I’d lost control of my senses to that extreme. I almost killed her and I was going to too. What have I done?
“Are you okay?” the doctor asks when a low keening sound leaves my throat.
I remember the image that’d flash through my head seconds before I’d passed out. I killed someone.
But I have a feeling there’s more to it and it has to do with when I first came here. Maybe something to do with the time I can’t remember. I need to talk to Stella. I know there’s something she isn’t telling me.
“Arabella?”
“She’s fine. Has a few serious burns that’d take a while to heal but she’ll survive,” he continues moving closer to the bed.
“Thank God,” I breathe in relief. “Where’s Stella? I need to speak with her.”
“Sorry Stella had to leave the island but you’ll see her soon enough,” he mumbles making my insides knot in dread. What’s with that ominous expression?
Just then I hear the soft footfalls of someone heading this way. I can almost see the animal like grace with which the person walks. My insides loosen a little when I feel it’s Nicholas. I look back at the doctor guy, Samson? Fredrick? Whatever his name is and he steps away from the bed with an annoyed look.
What’s with him? I dismiss him when the door opens and Nicholas walks through holding a cup of coffee. Even frazzled looking he’s still the best thing I’ve ever seen. A smile stretches across my lips when his eyes come straight to me.
He drops the cup on the drawer by the door and rushes over to the bed and takes my face in his hand. He turns it this way and that way several times before he stops to look at my face. I laugh a little at his behavior and he growls his eyes flashing yellow.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper softly since my voice still sounds like I’ve been smoking all my life.
Why I’m saying sorry I don’t know, I just know that’s what he needs to hear from me right now. He sighs heavily and pulls me into him squeezing the hell out of my bones but I grit my teeth and endure it. I bury my nose in his chest and breathe in his delicious scent.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” he breathes roughly squeezing me tighter. “What the hell happened out there Cicie?”
I melt into him at the at the nickname. No one has ever called me anything other than my name before. It’s either Kafui or Makafui. I didn’t even use Celia all that much until I left home. I stiffen when his words register in my brain.
“What do you mean?” I ask in confusion
“You were on fire!” he says somewhat proudly his eyes gleaming in excitement. “Like actual fire. Your hands turned to flames and even your hair was on fire. I’ve never seen anything like it before and the heat waves you kept releasing was crazy.”
“What are you going on about,” I laugh nervously at the words coming out of his mouth.
“Your powers came and—”
“What?” I shriek and immediately wince at the pain that shoots through my throat. “That can’t be my power. That thing is too out of control and dangerous. Can’t I just give it back or something? Get a refund?”
“Hey, it’s fine,” he says reassuringly cupping my face in his warm hands and I sigh. “I’m sure with a little training you should have a sound grip on it.”
“Where is Stella?” I ask drowsily suddenly tired, my head dropping down to his shoulder.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since we all left the arena. Why?”
“Because there’s something she isn’t telling me and I need to talk to her,” I yawn and he lifts my head back at to look at me.
“What do you mean she’s not telling you something?” he asks with a little furrow between his brows
“Because this isn’t the first time I’ve used this power,” I say a little loudly my voice increasing in volume and then I move closer to him to whisper. “I think I killed someone before.”
“No, that can’t be true,” he says shaking his head with a frown. “You’ve only being here for a few months and you only woke up from a coma a few days ago.”
“I know what I’m saying,” I barely resist the urge to yell. “My memories, they’re coming back but there’s something in my mind that’s hindering them and if I try harder I get a splitting headache.”
‘Kafui, you need to stop.'
‘Why?’
‘Because if you try to remember, you’ll hurt yourself.’
‘But I killed a man.’
‘You’re not supposed to remember that,’ she snaps in agitation.
‘So it’s true,’ I sag in defeat trying hard to understand what would make me kill someone.
‘Kafui, please you need to stop. You’re shredding your psyche.’
‘I KILLED A FUCKING MAN!’ I yell at her. “Do you not get that? I. Killed. A. Man. I need to know why I did it, I have to remember.”
‘Argh, please stop.’
“Celia?” Nick voice filters through the chaos in my mind and I look at him but he’s staring at strangely.
“Yes?”
“What are you doing baby?” I frown at his question not understanding him.
Owen moves behind Nicholas pulling a syringe out of his pocket and my eyes widen but before I can get to him, Owen stabs the needle in his neck pumping the green liquid into his body. Everything happens so fast I can only sit with my eyes wide in shock.
Nicholas eyes widen and then flash the yellow
color that I love before his eyes roll into the back of his head and he hits the bed. My blood heats at the sight of him unconscious and my fingers tingle.
“Easy now, you don’t want to do anything rash, just one flick of this button and he’ll die,” my head snaps up in horror at the man looking at me grimly.
That voice, I know it. I grab my head in pain as images after images flash through my head.
Being chained to a wall in underground cell, being tortured, the experiments and finally the image of a woman smiling at me softly and then holding me while I slept.
I definitely know that voice. Dr. Gideon Snow. I look up at the man in front of me and curse.
How the hell did I not figure this out? The way he looks at me should have at least gave him away but I didn’t care about him before and obviously I still don’t care now.
“Because when you washed up ashore, they brought you here for treatment and of course I couldn’t have you identifying me when you woke up so I had your memories removed,” he shrugs casually moving closer to the bed and I snarl at him my blood boiling and he jumps back in fright.
“Fascinating,” he says looking at me like I’m a bug under a microscope his expression one of absolute adoration and I cringe shuddering in revulsion. “The spell that was used to bind your memories was a powerful one. You shouldn’t be able to remember anything and I see you’ve developed new abilities too, you keep surprising me.”
I growl at him my blood flaming hotter ad I feel the heat in my hands.
“Tut-tut, that’s no way to treat the man you’re gonna be sharing you mind with and eventually your soul,” he smiles brightly and I snort.
My face twists in disgust at having to share anything with this pig. I gag for good measure and just I like I’d hoped he’s face twists in anger.
“You fucking bitch,” he snarls coming closer to me. That’s it, a few more steps and I can blast him to thy kingdom come. “You haven’t changed at all. Do you know what an honor it us to have me as a mate?”