Burning Hearts

by Eva Chase

  “Subject 5-81,” Salt-and-Pepper said to him.

  Doll Boy nodded. “The fire-starter.” He gave me a grin that felt more sharp than friendly. “I’ve read your file.”

  I wasn’t sure if he expected me to respond to that, so I didn’t. The less I said, the less I could give away.

  Glasses finished setting up the experimental materials on the table in front of me. “We’ll start by going through the basic exercises you’ve completed before,” she said. “Please begin now.”

  Another rule of the Facility’s experiments: The sooner you cooperated, the sooner you were done. Not that I planned on acting as if this was easy.

  I focused on the first item in the row, a simple match. Heat tickled up through my chest. I could have lit the match in an instant, but I held on for nearly a minute before I let a spark slip free. A flame licked up from the match’s tip. I swiped my hand over the sweat that had broken out on my forehead. Conveniently, they’d think the strain I showed was from me trying to summon my power, not me restraining the energy.

  I moved through the objects, taking longer with each one. A candle. A tissue. A twig. A small plastic figurine that shouldn’t even have been flammable. I could have melted it into a puddle, but for the researchers’ eyes I only made it sag. Then I let the heat fade as if I hadn’t been able to hold onto it.

  “And this is the best you can do for range?” Doll Boy said. He gestured to the far side of the room. A few papers were tacked to the wall from some other subjects’ trials. “Can’t you even light up one of those for us?”

  I stared at the middle paper like I meant to try, but I was only going through the motions. After a long moment, I frowned. Naturally, the paper didn’t so much as singe.

  “Over time, we’ve worked him up from two feet to five,” Salt-and-Pepper said to Doll Boy. “The sonic pulses have had the greatest effect.”

  The sonic pulses did absolutely nothing, but I’d figured letting them see some minor progress would stop them from pushing even harder to bring my talent out of me. Let them think they were getting somewhere, and they wouldn’t wonder why they weren’t.

  “Hmm.” Doll Boy stepped toward the table and sat himself down on the edge, leaning his weight on one hand. He held himself with a nonchalance that made my body tense up. The researchers usually took this whole process very seriously. Doll Boy was acting as if it were a game. And at the same time, he looked at me like I was nothing more than a lab rat to him. One he’d be happy to dangle by its tail for curiosity’s sake.

  “But you have more in you, don’t you, Jason?” he said. I caught my back on the verge of stiffening. The staff hadn’t called me by my real name since the first few weeks while they’d been transitioning me in. And yet Doll Boy managed to make it sound as impersonal as my assigned number.

  He smiled again, a smile that left my skin crawling. “Like I said, I read your file. Burned your entire house down, didn’t you? With your little sister and your dad inside it. Such a shame.”

  I couldn’t stop all my insides from clenching up, but I did my best to control my outer reaction. Glasses shifted her weight, her expression gone tight. Salt-and-Pepper looked uncomfortable too, but neither of them spoke up. This new guy must have some authority over them.

  “I think,” Doll Boy said, “that a kid who can light up a whole building can manage a piece of paper across the room.”

  “I don’t know what happened with my house,” I said, quiet and flat. “I didn’t know I was doing it. I didn’t mean to do it. It must have been one spark in the wrong place.”

  The guy laughed, the sound as sharp as his grin. “Is that what you tell yourself at night? To convince yourself that you’re not a murderer? You know you’ve got blood on your hands. Or should I say ashes.”

  My throat choked up, which was a good thing, because I didn’t want to know what would have come out of my mouth otherwise. What the hell was he doing? Salt-and-Pepper had winced. Glasses was looking away now. The researchers put us through the wringer, sure, but they were always orderly and clinical about it. No one had mentioned the incident that had brought me to the Facility’s attention in years. The new guy sounded almost gleeful about it.

  “I didn’t mean to do it,” I repeated, as evenly as I could manage.

  Doll Boy ignored me. He leaned closer, his voice dipping. “Can you imagine the agony you put them through? Your own family. I hear burning alive is the most painful way to die.”

  My hands clenched. Guilt stabbed through my chest, with the same hot searing as when I—

  Oh. The familiarity of the sensation jerked me out of my emotions. I held on to it, squashing it down.

  He was trying to make me upset. Trying to see if I’d set the papers on fire with enough provoking.

  Well, he was out of luck. He had no idea how much practice I’d put into locking that part of myself down, for exactly the reasons he was laying out for me.

  I was never going to lose control like that again.

  “Hmm,” Doll Boy said again. I couldn’t tell if he’d noticed the shift in me. He straightened back up and offered me his hand. “Dr. Langdon, newly head of staff. It’s an interesting case you’ve got. That’s enough for now, but we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other, Jason.”

  I got up at Salt-and-Pepper’s prompting, feeling numb. Then an icy trickle of terror ran through me.

  I had years of practice keeping my powers in check. Lisa had just gotten here. How the hell was she going to cope when the Facility set this guy on her?

  4

  Lisa

  Okay, walk me through this. What on this plate is safe to eat and what isn’t?

  I was looking down at my cafeteria tray, perched on the hard plastic chair, but Jason’s mental presence hummed in my mind as if I were staring right at him. My sense of him was as strong as his broad shoulders and bright as his sandy hair, even though he was sitting on the other side of the beige room with its rows of round tables, his back to me.

  His voice rang clear and steady in my head. The salad and the fried chicken should be halfway decent. Attempt the mashed potatoes at your own risk. A pause. Actually, they’re not that bad today.

  My lips twitched with a smile I couldn’t quite hide. Thank you for putting yourself first in the line of fire.

  Anything for you.

  He kept those three words light, but a giddy sensation raced through my chest anyway. We’d only been talking like this for a couple days, but he had been there for me every time I’d reached out to him. I didn’t think I’d imagined the warmth in his eyes when we’d passed in the hall that first afternoon and he’d raised his hand to lightly tap his chin.

  I knew I hadn’t imagined the fluttering that gesture had sent through my stomach.

  It was so absurd that I could feel this way about anyone in the middle of what was basically a nightmare. But then, the last nine years of my life had been pretty nightmarish too. Since the first insulting comment I’d thought I’d overheard, building to a screaming match in my junior school hallway... You could even have argued parts had been worse. I’d had months at a time without being able to count on steady meals or a bed to sleep on.

  I didn’t trust a single person working in this place, and I wanted my freedom back, but I didn’t miss the frantic wildness that had driven me forward, from one catastrophe to the next, for so long. Jason soothed it with every thought he sent out for me to hear.

  How could anyone so alive have tolerated being cooped up in here for seven years? Or maybe the life in him was what had helped him tolerate it.

  He’d never talked about anyone who’d be looking for him outside the Facility. I guessed like me all the people who should have cared had turned their backs on him a long time ago.

  I’m going to have to find some way to repay you for all these inside tips, I said. Shit, wait, did that sound like a total come on?

  If it did, Jason didn’t run with it. Are you kidding me? Lisa, just being able to talk to you
is the best thing that’s happened to me in seven years.

  Considering where you’ve been those seven years, that’s not saying much.

  No, it is. Don’t you dare sell yourself short. Another pause. Oh, hey, they’re doing dessert today. Another inside tip for you: Get over there and grab a cookie now. If you wait, the only ones left with be oatmeal raisin, and you’d be better off eating cat vomit than one of those.

  I wondered if he could hear my internal laughter. Got it. Off to grab a cookie now.

  I wish I was sitting where I could watch you. The way your body moves when you— Shit. I’m sorry. Still getting the hang of this thought-filtering thing.

  The body he’d been thinking about had flushed from head to toe, but it was a pleasant sensation. He liked looking at me, huh? I got up, feeling a little breathless, and found a burst of courage. Don’t worry about it. Go ahead and get a good eyeful.

  Jason obviously wasn’t the only subject who knew to grab their cookie early. A bunch of the others on the same cafeteria shift were heading over to the serving table. I added a little sway to my step as I wove through them. I didn’t know for sure if Jason had turned to watch, but his presence suddenly felt a little hotter. A heat that coursed right through me, deeper than the earlier flutter.

  It felt dangerous. But I had a habit of running straight into danger.

  And I did, in my distraction, literally. I sidestepped an older woman who’d veered in front of me, and my shoulder bumped that of a guy in a lab coat who’d been crossing the room. One of the researchers. I hadn’t even seen him come in.

  I flinched to the side. “Sorry.” The apology slipped out automatically, before I’d taken in more than his coat. Then my eyes rose and met his flat, gray stare.

  The look on the guy’s hollowed face was so predatory that my legs locked. He stopped, his gaze sliding down my body and back up again. And I heard his thought in a clipped, self-satisfied voice, slithering into my head.

  I hope there’s plenty of potential to exploit in that one.

  A shudder ran down my back. My mouth popped open before I’d had a chance to think anything at all, an instinctive retort on my tongue.

  Lisa!

  Jason’s mental shout echoed behind my ears an instant before I spoke. It was so urgent my jaw snapped up, cutting off my voice.

  Damn it. Don’t react. At least try not to. That’s Langdon—the new guy I warned you about. He’s the last person you want wondering about you. Can you keep walking? I’m right here with you. We can do this.

  The guy—Langdon—was already peering at my expression more intently than I liked. Jason’s words carried me through my sudden panic. I bobbed my head with another mumbled, “Sorry!” and pushed myself away from him.

  There. The table, the cookie tray. I picked up a chocolate chip one. When I turned around, Langdon had wandered to the other side of the room, but my heart kept thudding.

  Good, Jason said. That was perfect. You’re okay.

  I was. I was okay because he’d caught me before I’d made a horrible mistake. One second later, I’d have revealed to that creepy dude exactly what I could do to. If I hadn’t had Jason watching over me...

  A flood of emotion rushed up inside me. My eyes went abruptly watery. I made myself drag in a breath and walk back to my half-eaten lunch, blinking just enough to stop the tears from spilling out.

  When was the last time anyone had stepped in to protect me? When was the last time anyone had cared enough to want to?

  Thank you, I said. Thank you. It didn’t seem like anywhere near enough.

  I’m just glad I was here. Be careful with that guy. I don’t think he has any standards for how he treats us at all.

  It wasn’t Langdon I was thinking about now, though. It was the guy sitting across the cafeteria from me, blond hair glowing under the artificial lights. I watched the flex of his shoulders as he finished his lunch. My fork moved from my plate to my mouth, but I barely tasted the food. The distance between us felt achingly wide.

  The guards called for us to move out. The twenty-five of us with the first lunch shift shuffled toward the door. I walked a little faster, weaving between the bodies until I was side-by-side with Jason. He didn’t look at me, but the side of his arm brushed mine.

  This is a little risky.

  Not as risky as the plan racing through my head. A couple of guards walked in front of us and a couple behind, but there were several people blocking their line of sight as we headed down the hall. I studied the walls.

  I’m not worried. You said there’s a spot along this route that the cameras don’t catch, didn’t you?

  Yeah. Right after we turn the corner up here. Why?

  Because...

  The stream of bodies followed the bend in the hall. Just as Jason and I turned the corner, I hooked my hand around his elbow. He glanced down at me, startled, exactly the way I’d hoped. In one swift movement, I bobbed up on my toes and pressed my lips to his.

  It was a quick kiss. Hardly more than a peck. The most I thought I could get away with. But the feel of his mouth against mine in that brief moment sent a wave of heat over my body. I pulled away, dropping Jason’s arm before we’d be back in camera range. Pretending that every inch of my skin wasn’t screaming at me to throw myself right back at him.

  And from the longing in his eyes before he wrenched them away from me, he felt the exact same way.

  “All right, everyone into your rooms,” one of the guards hollered. And once again, I had to watch Jason walk away.

  5

  Jason

  “Hey, kid.” Darryl knocked over my bishop with his rook. The clatter of the plastic pieces on the chessboard jerked me out of my thoughts.

  Darryl gave me a patient smile. “Somehow I’m getting the impression your head isn’t in the game.”

  He wasn’t wrong. About a quarter of my attention was on the game. The rest kept getting tugged away by my awareness of Lisa on the other side of the recreation lounge.

  She wasn’t doing anything all that notice-worthy, just shuffling a deck of cards to prepare it for another Solitaire spread. But simply knowing she was in the room was enough to set my entire body on high alert. Some parts even more than others.

  “It’s nothing,” I said, forcing myself to examine the board. Nothing. Ha. The touch of her lips against mine had been everything. I could almost still feel their softness, the heat of her so close to me, the curl of her fingers around my arm...

  The memory was driving me crazy. I hadn’t kissed anyone since I was sixteen. I hadn’t cared about a girl this much ever. A constant buzz of energy was thrumming through my body, so heady it almost scared me.

  It didn’t matter how much I wanted her. I had to keep all my emotions under control.

  I moved a pawn. Darryl rolled his eyes and swiped it with one of his own. Oh, yeah, I should have seen that move coming.

  “If you’re going to play like a zombie,” he said, “maybe we should stick to Snakes and Ladders.”

  I glowered at him. “You’re winning. Quit complaining.”

  Lisa’s low voice slipped into my head. When you’re done fighting over the chessboard, would you say yes to a game of Go Fish? Or are we still pretending we don’t even know each other exists?

  I’d love to. But I still think we’re better off interacting as little as possible anywhere the staff can see us. Especially with Langdon and his beady eyes lurking around. I don’t know if I can sit across from you and act like I hardly know you.

  What do you think they’d do if they realized we’re friends?

  I don’t know—I just don’t want to find out. Their first priority is always getting at our talents. Anything they think they can use to that end, they will. I don’t want them thinking they can use you to get at me—or vice versa.

  I shifted one of my rooks. Darryl’s queen darted across the board and stole my other bishop. This silent conversation wasn’t helping my concentration at all. But I couldn’t help addin
g, Is that what we are, then—friends?

  Too soon? Would you prefer “warm acquaintances”?

  Her tone was teasing, but I thought I heard a little nervousness in it too. Could she really not tell how I felt?

  I was actually hoping for more. I mean, once a girl grabs a guy and plants one on him...

  From the corner of my eye, I saw her hand twitch as she laid out the cards. I didn’t mean to, like, molest you. If I was coming on too strong—

  Lisa, I interrupted. It was amazing. Why do you think I’m sucking so much at chess right now? All I’ve been able to think about since then is how much I want you to do it again.

  Oh. Okay. She paused, and a playful note smoothed out the uncertainty in her tone. Me too.

  I grinned, which was totally the wrong reaction, because at the exact same moment, Darryl slid his bishop over to my king. “Check mate. Although you don’t look that bothered.”

  “Sorry. Thanks for the game.”

  He shook his head. “It’s fine. I kind of like seeing that you’ve got something worth thinking about that hard.”

  I watched him carry the game box back to the shelves. Yeah. Lisa was worth it. But what the hell were we even doing? How could we have any kind of a relationship in here? We couldn’t even really be friends, when you got right down to it. I’d just turned down a Go Fish invite for our own protection, for fuck’s sake.

  It wasn’t that difficult to take things slow, to keep our distance, now while we were still just getting to know each other. What was it going to be like a year from now? To know her inside out, and still be having to keep my distance... The thought overwhelmed me. The weight of it sank into my gut.

  I resisted the urge to glance over at Lisa. Whatever was sparking between us, it would be nothing, in any way that mattered, unless we could get out of here.

  Out of here. The idea felt so vague, as distant as the movies we popped into the VCR to watch on the TV screen. I tried to imagine it, and my lungs constricted.