The Burning of Innocence

She reminded him of the sun. She moved as if her body was in tune with everything around her, and she listened as if the fire was telling her secrets. There was nothing unnatural about this girl, and yet it felt wrong for her to be inside these caves. Away from the sun, of which she reminded him so.

It was only I who could sense them in our family, which was due to my freak nature. As soon as I met my parents’ eyes, they knew who was at the door also.

Tarass was over before it started. Mother jumped into panic mode. My father, knowing better, asked our guests to leave through the back entrance as fast and quiet as they could. Silo’s expression changed when my parents tried to usher him out the back. I imagined he’d only heard about the Sniffers but never actually had a visit from them. Silo’s family had nothing to hide while mine was only hanging by a thread.

We’d already had three visits in my lifetime.

The guests had managed to leave but Silo said he’d forgotten something back in my room. Since there was no time to lose, I told him to go and get it. Meanwhile, my father was taking out the emergency kit where my parents kept their Occuli.

“Put the ring on,” mother said as she threw me the adjusting ring. Thankfully, I was too scared to drop it. When I put it on, my father came with the blue and yellow Occuli in both hands. Before I could brace myself for the hit, he crashed them together to produce the lightning that would change my eye-color from green to brown.

The ring stung my index finger as it stopped the small storm from spreading. I heard the thunder in my head but kept from screaming. My father’s invention was ingenious. It was supposed to not only muffle the sound externally but also drain the heat from my body so that I didn’t show any of the typical signs of a Medley: hot skin, fire allergy, and little to no sweating.

And the only thing that could blow the cover was the ring. Fortunately, the Sniffers never inquired about the ring… yet. Sometimes I thought of my life as a high-risk gamble, which I could lose at any minute. The stress alone was making me heat up again. Seeing this, my mother begged me to breathe.

I did.

Since we’d practiced this a hundred times when Trick was out, we managed to finish in the record time of two minutes. In the meantime, the ring was growing louder and more restless, chiming my verdict before I was caught.

Squeak-grunt-squeak-grunt-squeak. That ring was a joke.

My father made his steps toward the door, knowing that my mother wouldn’t be able to compose herself. But before he could open the door, I heard a flurry of steps behind me. I turned toward the back entrance to see Silo’s back disappearing. In the commotion, we’d forgotten that Silo was still in the house.

My mother’s face confirmed it. He’d seen the whole thing. And now, my father was opening the door to Hell. Just breathe. 





5 comments:

Ooooo

Not sure what to make of that. :D

Hey, Lyn, I follow you on Twitter, and visit Against the Odds from time to time. I'm an editor, and upon reading this, I found places where I'd love to suggest things to you, so I was wondering if you'd like to submit one of your flash chapters (maybe this one) for a sample edit.

If so, here's the link: http://www.pure-text.net/contact.php

@Lauren Thank you! I know I'm late in responding but I might take you up on that. :)

@Lola Thanks! Glad you like it. :)

That is awesome stuff there. Now I have to find the beginning of this.

I gave you a Shout-Out on my blog today. :)