(Saturday afternoon.)
"Mom, I don't feel so good." the young girl said, leaning against her mother's side as they pushed the cart up the frozen food aisle in the grocery store.
"What's wrong?" her mother asked absently, as she looked over the selection of frozen vegetables.
"My body hurts, like a headache, but all over. Everything is sore. I feel really tired, the young girl said, pushing her auburn hair behind her ear, an automatic gesture.
She slumped over the handle of the grocery cart, her lanky frame bunched together to take up as little space as possible.
"Lilyn, stop slouching."
"Sorry, Mom."
"Is it that time?" her mother asked, turning to look at her.
Lilyn's fair cheeks turned pink and she shook her head. The blushes made her freckles stand out more. Her mother smiled sympathetically and put an arm around her shoulders.
"I don't ask that to embarrass you, it's a legitimate question. It's normal for a 14 year old to experience some odd discomforts at that time. You do look a bit pale, though."
Lilyn glanced at her mother out of the corner of her eye, a ghost of a smirk on her lips. She knew her cheeks were very pink from her embarrassment.
"Ok, you looked a bit pale before I made you blush." her mother said with a sigh of exasperation.
Lindsey Morrow stopped the rolling cart and made her daughter turn to face her. She looked Lilyn over once and then again.
"You are pale, and there are smudges under your eyes. Have you been sleeping?" she asked.
Lilyn's blue eyes made one clockwise orbit in their sockets and she said "Yes, Mother." in a bratty tone of voice.
" Don't you 'Yes, Mother' me. You complained about not feeling well, deal with it." Lindsey told her.
"Sorry, Mom."
"Let's finish shopping, we're almost done. Then you can go home and take a warm bath and lie down. We'll call the doctor in the morning, see if we can get in." Lindsey said.
"Can I go lie down in the car now? I'm really starting to feel bad."
Lindsey looked at her daughter again. She looked very tired. Lindsey touched Lilyn's cheek.
"Sure, Lil. I'll see you in a few minutes."
Lilyn took the car keys and left the store.
(Thursday evening, 5 weeks later)
A worried child greeted Theo Morrow when he got home from work that day. He was barely in the door before Tad, his 20-year-old son, cornered him.
"Dad, Mom's really worried. Lil hasn't gotten out of bed since yesterday. Mom's been on and off the phone all day with Dr. Hawthorne." Tad said, jittery and shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
"Ok, Tad, ease down. Mom and I will work this out. Why don't you go get dinner started while I talk to your mother?" Theo said, hanging his coat up on the rack and leaving his briefcase on the floor under it.
He laid his hand on Tad's shoulder momentarily before walking into the living room. Tad went past him into the kitchen. Theo watched his son's auburn head disappear behind the cabinets. He found Lindsey sitting on the couch, the phone in one hand and a wad of tissues in the other. Her eyes were red and there were tearstains on her cheeks. He sat down next to her and hugged her close.
"Lin, what's going on? Talk to me honey, he whispered.
Lindsey took a deep breath and let it out with a shudder.
"You know Lilyn wasn't feeling well when you left 2 days ago. She went to bed the night before last and she's only been up once since then, yesterday morning. We tried to get her to wake up several times today, but she was really groggy and mostly unresponsive. Dr. Hawthorne says it sounds like the flu, but it doesn't feel right. Something is really wrong, Theo. I know Lil; this is not normal, even for being sick. She's been exhausted and feeling bad on and off for weeks now. Maybe longer, but I've known about it since the last time she went grocery shopping with me." Lindsey's voice got cloudy as she talked, the tears in her eyes building back up to spill over her cheeks.
Theo took a tissue and wiped her face gently.
"Dr. Hawthorne says it sounds like flu? What did he recommend?" he asked.
"He said if she wasn't running a fever or coughing to just give her aspirin and water and let her sleep."
"Then maybe we should listen to him, Lin. He's taken care of both of our children since they were babies."
"I know, Theo. But this still scares me. She's never been sick like this. Ever."
Theo Morrow hugged his wife and stroked her back, trying to think of something else comforting to say and failing. He saw his son peek into the living room from the kitchen and retreat quickly when he saw his mother crying.
"C'mon, Lin, let's go see her. Maybe she's doing better."
Theo pulled Lindsey up off the couch and led her up the stairs. The light was off in Lilyn's room and the door was pulled almost shut. Theo pushed it open and walked quietly into the dark room. Lilyn was a lump under the comforter, only her pale freckled face and mop of orangey red hair peeking out of the blankets. He squatted down beside the bed and touched Lilyn's shoulder. She didn't move and her breathing didn't change. Theo nudged her and when that failed to rouse her he gave her a gentle shake. Lilyn's eyelids fluttered and she mumbled something incoherent.
"Lil, sweetie, Dad's home. Wake up honey." Theo said softly.
Her eyelids fluttered again and she squinted up at him.
"Hi, Daddy." she whispered. Her voice was hoarse.
"How ya feeling, sweetie?" he asked.
"Bad, Daddy. Real bad. I just want to sleep. I'm glad you made it home ok." she replied with a yawn wide enough to crack a jaw joint.
"Ok, sweetie, go back to sleep. I love you." Theo said.
"And I love you, Lil. Get better." Lindsey said from behind him.
"Love you too, Daddy, Mommy. Don't cry, Mom, I'll get better soon..." Lilyn said, her voice drifting off.
Theo and Lindsey left the room quietly, pulling the door shut behind them. He coaxed Lindsey downstairs into the kitchen and convinced her to eat something even though she said she wasn't hungry. Tad had made spaghetti and garlic bread, which eaten in silence by the three people in the kitchen.
Tad excused himself early and went and sat by Lilyn's bed for an hour while he studied for an exam in his college psych class. Lilyn never moved while he was sitting in there.
Theo and Lindsey took turns checking on Lilyn until they both finally succumbed to exhaustion shortly after 2am.
(Friday morning)
Lilyn woke suddenly. No alarm clock, no noise or fall out of bed. Just awake. Her throat was very dry and she still ached. But her head was clear and the aching was in her joints and her back, not in her muscles anymore. She hurt like she had been lying in one position too long without moving. She glanced at her clock and saw that it was 7am. She could smell smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Lilyn sat up, pushed the blankets off to get out of bed and froze with one foot on the floor. Her arm, at least she thought it was her arm, was pitch black. Both arms and hands were black, as were her legs when she pushed the comforter off. Lilyn bounded off her bed, across the room and skidded to a stop in front of the medium sized mirror on her dresser. Her face was black; her hair was a bright fire engine red. Only her eyes remained unchanged, a clear sapphire blue staring back at her in the mirror. Lilyn was breathing raggedly, her chest hitching with the effort not to scream. She saw something flickering in the bottom of the mirror and turned around. The carpet next her bed was on fire, small flames but spreading rapidly. She thought about trying to put it out and as her thoughts focused on the flames she felt a pain in her hands and more fire sprang from her fingertips and fell to the floor, igniting more of the carpet. Lilyn started screaming then, long and loud, holding her hands out in front of her, away from her.
The door opened so fast it bounced off the wall. Lilyn jumped and the scare was enough to stop her screams. Tad was standing in the doorway, a baseball bat in his hands, scanning the room for the intruder. His eyes fell on Lilyn and he froze, gripping the bat so hard his knuckles were white. Her parents stumbled to a halt behind him as they saw her too.
"Tad, Mommy, Daddy, help me! Make it stop!" Lilyn pleaded, tears finally surfacing through the shock.
She was still holding her hands out in front of her. Fire was dribbling like liquid from her fingers, falling toward the floor. Her family was rooted to the spot in the doorway, too shocked to do anything.
"Please! Please help me." Lilyn sobbed, sinking to her knees in front of her dresser, fire still falling like rain from her hands.
Droplets of fire fell on her pajama top and burned right through it. This snapped Lindsey out of her shock. She went into the bathroom and grabbed the small plastic garbage can, emptying it onto the floor. She filled it with cold water and ran back to Lilyn's room with it.
"Stay where you are, let me put out the carpet." Lindsey said as she eased her way around the bed.
Half of the water went onto the floor, extinguishing the carpet. Lindsey knelt down in front of Lilyn and placed the plastic garbage can on the floor between them.
"Put your hands in the water."
Lilyn plunged her hands into the water left in the garbage can. There was a hissing noise and some steam rose from the receptacle. Lindsey peered over the rim. The fire was still burning in her daughter's hands, making the water shimmer and roll, like a pot boiling on the stove.
"Mommy, make it stop!" Lilyn said, panic clear in her voice.
"I can't, honey. I don't know what's causing it." Lindsey said in a bewildered tone.
Lindsey looked to her husband and son for support. They were still frozen in the doorway.
"Is that really you, Lil?" Tad said suddenly, staring intently at her face.
"What a question. Of course it's Lil, Tad. Look at her face. Her skin and hair are a different color, but it's the same eyes, nose and mouth, the same chin and cheeks." Lindsey told him before Lilyn could say anything.
Tad dropped the baseball bat to the floor and rushed over. Theo followed slowly behind, looking thunderstruck. Lilyn sniffled and looked at the floor. The water hissed and steamed. Theo crouched next to his daughter, keeping a careful space between them, which did not go unnoticed by Lilyn. She started to cry again, great wracking sobs that made her shake.
"Lilyn?! What's wrong honey? Talk to me!" Lindsey demanded.
"Just go away! Leave me alone if you're so afraid of me!" Lilyn shouted. She pulled her hands out of the water and scrambled to her feet, intending to run out of the room.
Theo jumped up and grabbed Lilyn from behind, wrapping his arms around her torso, holding her against him.
"Lil, sweetie, I'm sorry! We're all freaked out and scared right now. I didn't stop to think about what this must be like for you, you're the one it's happening to, he said quickly as he struggled to hold her still.
Lilyn stopped fighting her father's grip and relaxed. Her hands were still burning so she kept her arms up, but they were starting to hurt.
"How do we stop the fire?" Tad asked from his place on the floor beside his mother.
"I don't know." Theo and Lindsey both said.
"Lil, how did you do this?" Tad asked her.
"I'm... I'm not sure. I saw the carpet on fire... I was going to put it out... but my hands started to hurt and the fire started pouring out of them." Lilyn sniffled.
"Umm, maybe if you concentrate on your hands not burning, they'll stop?" Tad suggested.
"Tad, this is no time for gimmicky comic book ideas." Theo said sternly.
Lilyn nodded at Tad and closed her eyes. She focused on the faint pain in her hands, the sensation of the fire pouring out of them and told it to stop. She heard her mother gasp and opened her eyes. Her hands were no longer burning. Tad was grinning like an idiot and her father looked relieved.
"I knew all that comic book reading would come in handy some day!" Tad said with laugh.
Lilyn went to her big brother and hugged him.
"Now what do we do?" Lilyn asked as she stepped back from Tad. "I can't go to school like this. I don't even know what 'like this' is."
"We'll go see Dr. Hawthorne. He might be able to help us, her mother said.
Lindsey shooed everyone out of the room so Lilyn could get dressed, and went and called Dr. Hawthorne.
(Friday afternoon)
Lilyn felt like she was suffocating. She was wearing a tracksuit and a parka with a hood on it and she was covered with a few old sheets. Her parents thought it would be best to keep her changed appearance under wraps until they figured out what had happened, so Lilyn had put on all the layers they asked and huddled in the backseat of her mother's car for the ride from their rural property into town to Dr. Hawthorne's office. Her mother kept trying to talk to her until Lilyn shouted that she couldn't hear very well through all the cloth covering her. The truth was, Lilyn was scared and really didn't want to try to carry on a conversation with anyone. She had a feeling that this was not going to work out as well as her parents hoped. She knew in her gut that they were being too optimistic, were giving the people of their town too much benefit of the doubt. She instinctively recognized that humans tend to fear what is different from them or what they don't understand. A small tremor raced down her spine as she thought of all the things an angry and frightened mob could do.
"Lil, we're here. Crawl out." her mother's voice came close to her ear, shaking her out of her morbid thoughts.
Lilyn extracted herself from the sheets and stuffed her hands in the pockets of her parka, keeping the hood up as she walked across the parking lot to the clinic's doors. She paused on the threshold, seized by the sudden notion that this was a very bad idea. Lindsey touched Lilyn's shoulder, gently pushing her forward.
"Come on, let's get to it." Lindsey encouraged.
Lilyn sighed and stepped inside. The receptionist recognized Lindsey Morrow and waved her over to the door that led to the exam rooms.
"Dr. Hawthorne said for you and Lilyn to go into Room Three as soon as you got here." she said by way of explanation.
Lindsey thanked her and pushed the swinging door open. She and Lilyn walked down the hallway to Room Three and went inside. There was one chair and an exam table, as well as a rolling stool. Lindsey sat in the chair. Lilyn refused to sit on the table unless she had to, so she sat on the stool. As they waited for Dr. Hawthorne, Lilyn started to sweat. Her skin was wet with perspiration and her hands felt sticky and very warm. Her palms started to throb and Lilyn pulled them out of her pockets just in time to see the fire oozing from the tips of her fingers. Lilyn concentrated on her hands for a few moments and the fire trickle stopped. Lindsey was stomping on the fire droplets on the floor to put them out, leaving sooty streaks on the linoleum.
"What happened?" she asked Lilyn.
"I think I'm getting too warm. Help me take the parka off, Mom."
Together they pulled the parka off over Lilyn's head. The t-shirt she had on was soaked through with sweat, as well as the jacket of the tracksuit. Lindsey took the jacket from Lilyn and hung it on the back of her chair. She picked up a couple of pamphlets advertising new immunizations and handed them to Lilyn.
"Fan yourself with these, hon."
"Thanks, Mom." Lilyn mumbled, fanning herself vigorously. "I didn't mean for it to happen again... it just sort of started, she said quietly.
Lindsey looked at her daughter, compassion and curiosity and a little bit of fear all mixed together in her eyes.
"You made it stop, honey, before it got out of control, before you got hurt. That's all that matters." She opened her mouth to say more but the exam room door opened.
Both turned to face Dr. Hawthorne as he shut the door behind him, looking at the jamb to be sure he wasn't shutting his lab coat in it. He glanced up and smiled at Lindsey, then turned his attention to Lilyn.
"What have we... oh my." his voice died as he got a good look at her. His hand went to his chest and he swayed a bit.
Lindsey reached out for Dr. Hawthorne's arm, worried that the elderly doctor was going to fall, but he steadied himself. He walked closer to Lilyn, looking her over.
"Lily? How are you, girl?" he asked softly, a note of wonder in his voice.
"Umm, weird, Doc. That's the best I can come up with." Lilyn said, a wry smile on her lips.
Dr. Hawthorne nodded and motioned toward the exam table. Lilyn hoisted herself up and sat on the edge. Dr. Hawthorne took out his stethoscope and listened to her heartbeat and her lungs.
"All your skin turned like this?" he asked.
Lilyn nodded.
"You seem to be in good condition, everything working. Is the skin and the hair the only developments?"
"No. There's something else. Show him, honey." Lindsey said.
"Step back, Doc. I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt you." Lilyn told him.
Dr. Hawthorne raised an eyebrow but stepped away from Lilyn. She extended her right arm, held her hand palm up, closed her eyes and thought about fire. The pain came in her palm again and the fire dribbled down her fingers, dripped off her hand. Dr. Hawthorne made a strangled yelp and backed away a few more steps. Lilyn looked at him, her eyes crinkled with the pain from her hand.
"My hand hurts right before I make the fire come. Sometimes it happens without me meaning to do it. If I think about it I can make it stop, she told him.
She concentrated a few moments and made her hand stop leaking fire. She hopped off the table and smudged out the burning drops on the floor.
"Let me see your hand, Lily." Dr. Hawthorne said, and Lilyn showed him her hand.
He poked it in the palm, turned her hand over, and looked her arm over from wrist to bicep. Then he released her hand and stepped back.
"Show me again."
Lilyn put both hands out in front of her and closed her eyes and made the fire come again. She opened her eyes to see the exam room door open and the nurse who was looking for the doctor gaped at the sight of Lilyn. She saw the fire in Lilyn's hands and looked wildly around the room before she stifled a shriek and fled, the door slamming behind her. Lilyn started to tremble, her eyes filling up with tears. The fire poured faster from her fingers, great rivulets headed toward the floor and counter.
"Lil! Put it out, before you set the building on fire!" Lindsey said urgently.
"Oh dear. This is going to get sticky." Dr. Hawthorne said.
Lilyn gave a hysterical little half-sob half-laugh and put her now not-burning hand up to her mouth. The situation wasn't funny, but Dr. Hawthorne's understatement was. Dr. Hawthorne patted her on the shoulder.
"You are in fine physical health, Lily. I have no idea what happened to you, but you seem to be okay. I'll see if I can rustle up a specialist or two for you to see. There's no one locally who'd be able to help. Now, the big question is, do you want to keep this a secret?" Dr. Hawthorne asked.
"I have a feeling it's too late for that." Lilyn said.
"Agreed. Theo and I will decide what we are going to do. Any specialists you can get us a referral to would be appreciated." Lindsey said.
Dr. Hawthorne nodded, hugged Lilyn, and shook Lindsey's hand. Then he escorted them out of the exam room after Lilyn got covered up again. She could see everyone staring at them as they walked toward the front doors. She knew the nurse had told everyone who would listen what she'd seen. Her gut started churning when she realized that everyone was backing away as they approached the doors, not wanting to be too close. Lilyn pushed past her mother and ran out the door, across the parking lot to the car. Lindsey jogged after her. She hugged Lilyn as she unlocked the car. Lilyn lay down on the back seat and cried the whole way home, all the while thinking about her hands not burning.
(Saturday afternoon)
The phone rang again for the umpteenth time that day. Lilyn didn't even bother to get up to answer it. It was probably another anonymous call; some jerk who would yell something rude into the phone when she answered. Lilyn suspected it was some of her classmates, since they all sounded young. She kept watching TV, tuning out the ringing of the phone. Her brother had unplugged the answering machine an hour ago after a particularly nasty message made Lilyn cry and run upstairs to hide in her room. Angry footsteps sounded in the kitchen. Lilyn heard the phone receiver get snatched out of its cradle and her brother yelling into it. Then he slammed the phone back down and stomped into the living room. Tad flopped down on the couch next to Lilyn with a frustrated sigh.
"You know, we are not out in Hicksville here. How the hell does news travel so fast around here when this isn't exactly a small town?" he said rhetorically.
Tad felt sorry for his baby sister. It had been just about 24 hours since the nurse had seen her in the exam room and freaked out, but the whole town somehow knew about it. The harassing phone calls had started late last night. He suspected the only reason they hadn't had anything thrown through the windows of the house was that they lived on a couple dozen acres on the outskirts of town, and it was too far to drive just to chuck a rock. Lilyn was holding up, but Tad didn't know how much more she could take. And this was just the beginning. Their parents were in town right now, having been called down to the mayor's office. The mayor did not work on Saturday, ever. Tad knew that this was a potentially disastrous situation for his family and that Lil was blaming herself even though she had no control over what had happened.
"Oh my god." Lilyn's startled exclamation cut into his thoughts.
"What?"
Lilyn pointed at the TV. The local news had cut into the program with a live feed from city hall. Theo and Lindsey Morrow were coming out of the front doors, accompanied by a man Lilyn and Tad both recognized as Michael Shaw, their family attorney. Michael was waving the cameras away and saying "No comment" over and over to the repeatedly shouted questions from the reporter.
Tad glanced at Lilyn and saw that she was on the verge of tears again. He clicked the TV off and took her hand.
"Come on outside, Lil. Let's go do something."
He tugged on her until she stood up, and then led her outside. They walked down to the lake behind the house in silence, until Lilyn cleared her throat. Tad glanced sideways at her but didn't push.
"Tad, can you help me learn how to control this? I'm really scared, and I know Mom and Dad want to take me to a bunch of doctors, but I'm terrified they're going to lock me up somewhere because they think I'm dangerous." Lilyn said in a rush, her grip on his hand tightening convulsively.
"Sure, Lil. But why me?" he asked.
"You thought of how to make it stop when we were all freaking out yesterday morning. It's worked every time I've tried it, which has been a lot. It seems like stress makes it come on and I have to make an effort to turn it off."
She pulled her hand out of Tad's scant seconds before a few spurts of flame leapt off her fingers.
"See? I'm all whacked out about being locked up or hunted or something and my blood pressure spiked and I almost set your hand on fire." she said, waggling her hand in the air between them. "But if I concentrate, it stops."
Tad watched as the flames seemed to melt back into his sister's onyx hand. He looked into her blue eyes; the same blue as his own, and saw the pain, the fear, the longing in them. Tad reached out and hugged Lilyn to him tightly.
"Sure thing, baby sis. I won't let you down, he promised as she sniffled into his shirt.
Their mother called them from the back deck a little bit later, so they turned around and went back into the house. Theo was sitting at the dining room table with Michael Shaw, each drinking a cup of coffee. Lindsey poured one for herself and gave tea to Tad and Lilyn as they sat down.
"Hey kids." Michael said in greeting.
The siblings nodded at him but remained silent, picking up on their parents' somber mood. Lindsey cleared her throat and seemed ready to speak, but she couldn't say anything and finally looked helplessly at Theo.
"The mayor called us in to see him today because he's heard about what happened to Lilyn. We talked about the effects this is going to have on the town, the community and on Lilyn." Theo said. Tad started to say something but Theo held up his hand. "We called Michael to go with us because I wanted someone there who would understand the ramifications of the situation as it pertains to Lilyn's liberties and rights. So we had a long discussion and some decisions were made."
"What kind of decisions?" Tad asked angrily. This scared him, badly, a hell of a lot more than the stupid prank calls.
"Tad, ease down. Lilyn is not going anywhere. I know what you're thinking and we did not agree to lock her up like some animal." Theo said calmly, watching his son relax as he comprehended what had just been said.
"What's been decided?" Lilyn asked quietly.
"For your own protection, you have been legally withdrawn from school. Your mother is going to home school you until you earn your high school diploma. The mayor will hold a meeting with the police chief and his top lieutenants and make it understood that any hate crimes committed against you or your family will be dealt with swiftly. There will be no turning of heads, no covering up. Your home phone number will be changed this afternoon and will remain unlisted. The only thing the mayor asks of you Lilyn, is that you not provoke anyone." Michael told her.
"Define provoke." Lilyn said, suspecting she already knew what the answer would be.
"Don't go into town unless it is absolutely necessary. Do not start confrontations, ignore anyone who tries to give you a hard time." Michael replied.
Lilyn nodded but said nothing. Tad said it for her.
"So Lil has to be a virtual prisoner in exchange for his protection?!" he burst out, his cheeks flushed red with his anger.
Lindsey laid a hand on Tad's arm, making him look at her.
"We agreed with his assessment, Tad. We want Lilyn safe. If she stays home and on our property, she will be. That's all that matters right now, she told her son, understanding his anger and feeling proud of his protectiveness toward his sister.
"Well, this sucks!" Tad exclaimed and leapt up from the table. He stomped out of the dining room and they listened to his progress through the house and out the front door.
"I'm going to go lie down. I don't feel so well." Lilyn said and left the table.
Lindsey called after her, but Lilyn didn't acknowledge it. Lindsey sighed and rubbed her face with her hands. Theo put his arm around her and shared a commiserating glance with Michael. They all knew this was only the start of it.
(Six weeks later)
"What about that one?" Tad asked, pointing at a tree about thirty feet away from the dock.
Lilyn looked up from where her feet were dangling in the lake, which was bubbling gently like a Jacuzzi around her toes.
"It's, what, twenty five or thirty feet away? I'm not sure." she replied.
"Come on. You said you'd try. We know you can get ten feet of range, easy, he chided.
Lilyn looked back down at her feet. The bubbling water got sluggish and stopped moving altogether. Tad slapped her leg gently.
"What's with you today?" he asked.
Lilyn pulled her legs up and hugged her knees to her chest, hunching over her kneecaps.
"It makes me uncomfortable, that's all. It doesn't hurt to bring the fire anymore, but I'm still afraid of it, of what I can do without meaning to." she said quietly. "My friends won't talk to me on the phone, like I'm contagious even from that kind of distance. It never bothered me before to be here at home for long periods of time, I love our property; I can hike the woods or boat and swim on the lake. But now I'm a prisoner, because people are afraid of what they don't understand, and I am the freakiest thing that's ever happened around here." Lilyn stopped speaking, aware of the bitterness in her voice.
Tad sighed and slung an arm around Lilyn's shoulders, pulling her against his side in a familiar gesture of affection. He rested his cheek against the top of her head and said,
"I know this is hard for you. I remember what fourteen was like, it wasn't all that long ago for me. Losing your friends and your freedom is rough, but you made the choice. You told Mom and Dad you didn't want to go east and live in a center where they can help you with this, and they respected that and didn't force you to go. But you have to learn to control your abilities, for your safety and ours. That's why I'm pushing you about this. If you find your limits, it's easier to control. I'm trying to help you so you don't end up in exactly the place you don't want to go." He squeezed her hard against his side before he went on. "I know you think I'm insensitive, that I'm treating this like it's only some grand adventure, but Lil, that's the only way I can deal with this without becoming totally freaked out. My fear and worry for you would paralyze me if I let it. So I don't think about how scary this is. I just think about what I can do to help you, and help Mom and Dad."
Lilyn shaded her eyes with an onyx colored hand and glanced up at her older brother.
"I didn't know you could be so deep, Tad." she said with a smile, only a trace of her melancholy evident.
Tad made a face and tugged on her braid.
"Don't tell anyone, ok? My rep's ruined if word gets around that I'm actually a thinking, caring human being. Now up you get, and set that tree on fire." he told her, giving her a little shove.
Lilyn stood on the middle section of the dock. After five minutes of concentration, nothing was happening and she was ready to give up. Tad teased and pestered her until she tried again. As the minutes passed, Tad sat very still and silent, not wanting to disturb her. Lilyn's eyes had that faraway look she got when she was deeply focused and Tad thought she might be able to make this happen, as long as he didn't distract her. With a sudden whoomping sound, the lowest branches of the tree thirty feet away burst into flame simultaneously, all the way around the trunk. Tad jumped to his feet and grabbed the fire extinguisher he'd lugged out to the dock that afternoon and jogged over to the tree. It took several minutes to put the fire out completely and the extinguisher was empty when he finished.
"Remind me to tell Dad to order some bigger ones next time." Tad remarked as he threw the used canister into the bin they'd dragged outside for just such a purpose.
Lilyn was still amazed at what she'd done and didn't say anything at all.
(Three and a half years later)
The bus was rolling along at a steady speed, the rocking of it and the hum of the road under the tires conspiring to put Lilyn to sleep, even though she was suffocating in all the concealing layers of clothing she was wearing. She looked out the window through drowsy eyes and thought about her family. They were probably frantic by now, as she'd been gone for almost a month. Lilyn was counting on them not calling the police and starting a search, as that would only bring more attention to her physical condition and could cause her to be harmed if found. No, her parents wouldn't do anything they thought might endanger her. Her older brother Tad would never forgive her. She'd left in the middle of the night, taking off from their campsite out on the boundary of her parents' property. Lilyn had gotten Tad to go camping with her on a weekly basis once she realized she was ready to leave. It was easier to go away if you could lose yourself in the deep woods and get several towns away from home before emerging into civilization. So she'd packed a little extra every camping outing, and hidden it all near the property fence, accumulating her traveling kit over a period of two months. No one ever noticed. On that last hike out to the campsite, Lilyn was almost positive Tad had noticed that she was planning something. But he was sound asleep when she got up to leave, and he never followed her as far as she knew. Even now, knowing theyd most likely read the letter she'd left for them, she was sure her parents were killing themselves with worry and that Tad was so angry with her he'd never speak to her again if she tried to contact him. Lilyn was very sad and fell into an uneasy sleep as the bus rolled down the highway, taking her further from home and the only security she'd ever known.
(Three years later)
Lilyn stood in the bus station in New York City, leaning against a wall and watching the departures. She was tired, a bit hungry, and definitely dirty. People studiously ignored her as they passed her, which was good, as she didn't want to be noticed. They ignored her the way they ignored the rest of the shambling dirty homeless people in the station. She'd managed to find out the price for a ticket to Paragon City, Rhode Island without having to actually talk to any of the station personnel. Now she had the money, but if she didn't find a way to clean herself up, she was sure they wouldn't sell a ticket to her. Lilyn hefted her backpack, much abused and taped together with duct tape in places, and headed out of the station in search of a shelter, or a halfway house. She could get a meal and maybe a shower and trade some of her less damaged clothing for better quality goods, though all of it was likely to still be ugly. The hardest part about visiting shelters was keeping her secret. But she needed to get clean and camouflage herself so she could get to Rhode Island. Paragon City sounded like the only place on Earth where she would be free to just be herself.
She'd first heard about Paragon City through the media. She'd found the newspaper in a trashcan in San Francisco, near Golden Gate Park. She had pulled it out of the trash and read the whole story in a matter of minutes. It was a city where people with superhuman powers lived freely, and not only were they tolerated, they were welcomed with open arms. There was even a government policy enacted that provided room and board for registered super beings. Paragon City became Lilyn's Mecca, and she started her pilgrimage across the country that same night. It was not very different from her journey from home, in that she still slept in dumpsters and raided the trash for useful items and food to survive. It had taken her four months of walking and hitching rides on passing freight trains to make it from California to New York City, and another two months to scrape up the money for the bus ticket by panhandling and pawning small valuables she found, on the street, in the trash. Now all she had to do was get clean and presentable enough to make the purchase without getting arrested for vagrancy.
After searching for over an hour, she found a shelter that was open and had bathing facilities. She waited until the bathrooms had cleared out around lunchtime and quickly showered. She put on her cleanest outfit, a threadbare tracksuit she's brought with her when she left home almost four years ago. The legs fit too snugly and were too short, but she covered her ankles with a pair of gym socks. After putting her hiking boots back on, she rooted around in her pack for the clothing she felt she could part with and folded it all up with care. She approached one of the shelter's volunteers, asking from the depths of her hood if she could trade these clothes for jeans and a sweatshirt. The volunteer took the bundle of clothing and directed Lilyn through a doorway behind her. Lilyn stepped into a small storage room lined with shelves. There was a large assortment of clothing stacked neatly on each shelf. The volunteer had told her to find the items she was looking for and bring them back out. Lilyn dug through a few stacks until she found mens' jeans long enough for her legs and a big baggy NYU sweatshirt with a hood. These she carried back out into the main room and showed to the volunteer, who was kind enough not to remark on the fact that Lilyn was wearing her hood up and had gloves on inside the building. Lilyn went back into the bathroom and shed her too small tracksuit, hiding in one of the shower stalls to change. Once she had the newer, cleaner clothes on, she dug in her backpack again and pulled out her most precious belonging aside from the money she had scraped together. She carefully set down a full tin of pancake makeup and an applicator sponge. She pulled her hair back from her face and spent fifteen minutes carefully covering her entire face, neck and both ears with the makeup. She left her hair in a ponytail, washed her hands and put the makeup away. She pulled her gloves on and grabbed her bag, leaving the shelter almost at a run, excited to be on her way.
Once back at the bus station, she ducked into the bathroom to check that she hadn't smudged her disguise, then steeled her nerve and approached the ticket counter. The transaction was over in less than two minutes and Lilyn was in possession of one ticket for Paragon City. The next bus was leaving in twenty minutes. Lilyn walked outside to the loading area and paced back and forth until the driver opened the door. Lilyn leapt up the steps and thrust her ticket into the driver's hand eagerly. The older gentleman smiled at her enthusiasm and motioned her down the aisle. Lilyn went to the back of the bus and took a window seat. After another twenty minutes the bus was started and they drove out of the bus station. She was on her way!
The sound of the bus door being opened startled Lilyn awake. She had fallen asleep about an hour after they'd left the bus station. Lilyn looked out the window and saw tall buildings, a park, some sort of government building, gigantic statues.
"Paragon City, Rhode Island." the bus driver announced.
Lilyn grabbed her backpack and edged down the aisle. She had to wait patiently for the other people to get off the bus. The driver gave her an odd look as she stopped next to him and Lilyn turned away instinctively and gasped when she caught her reflection in the overhead mirror. She had smudged the whole right side of her face when she'd fallen asleep and her onyx skin was glaring from a wide swath of her cheek. She yanked her hood up and shoved forward, causing the few people in front of her to stumble out of the bus. She jumped down the steps and was going to run when someone slammed into her from the left and knocked her down. The person kept on going, didn't even stop to apologize. Lilyn scrambled back up and was almost immediately knocked back against the bus, this time by several people running by as a group. She stared after them for a moment, and then turned to her left to rush away and collided with someone who came up to about shoulder height on her. They both fell down, the other person yelling as Lilyn flailed her arms and tried to get her balance before she went over. No luck, she landed hard on her backside and bounced once.
"Ow! What'd you do that for? I almost had them!" came from the girl Lilyn had run into. She got to her feet and stood over Lilyn with her hands on her hips. "Now they're gonna get away and go warn the others. Sheesh."
"Sorry." Lilyn mumbled, trying to get her legs back under her.
The girl, who had reddish brown hair, was wearing a blue jumpsuit with buckles all over it. Her hair was in pigtails and her boots were blue like her outfit but the soles were really thick. She stuck out her hand to help haul Lilyn to her feet.
"Ah, well, it's ok. Not a big deal. You new around here?" she asked.
"Yeah. Just got off the bus." Lilyn said, brushing off her jeans. She turned to grab her backpack and froze. The other bus passengers were staring at her like they'd never seen anything like her before.
Lilyn glanced at her reflection in the window and realized her disguise was ruined, smeared almost into nonexistence. She sighed, swallowed past the lump of threatening tears and scrubbed her gloved hands over her face. She bent down and grabbed her backpack, straightening up roughly. The girl looked up at her and her eyes widened a bit and then she smiled.
"I'm Berry, she said, sticking out her hand. "Well, the full super hero name is StrawberryIce, but my friends call me Berry." she added as Lilyn tentatively shook her hand. "Do you have any powers?"
"I... uh..." Lilyn was very aware of the rest of the passengers standing behind them.
"Don't worry about it. Let me make a guess. You do have powers, you were not able to live freely wherever you came from, so you came here when you heard about Paragon and how different it is. Am I close?" Berry said with a smile.
Lilyn's eyes grew wet and she nodded mutely. This girl got it all on the first go. Berry took her by the arm and started away from the bus.
"Come on. I'll help you get registered and then we can find you some place to stay. I know where everything is, I was born here. What's your name?" Berry asked as they walked across the parking lot toward the government building Lilyn had seen when she first woke up.
"Lilyn. Lilyn Morrow."
"Well, Lil, welcome home."
Lilyn smiled.
Come on, come on, the suspense is killing me. Write faster!