He took a step forward.
The floor creaked.
From where I was hiding, I could only see his legs.
I heard the door creak and slam shut. He didn't move.
I imagined him staring at the lump under my blanket with his dead eyes. His face must have been empty, devoid of emotion.
Was he expecting me to wake up ? To ask him what he was doing there ? To beg ?
He moved forward. Slowly.
I wondered if he'd like it. If he'd be pleased.
He rounded the bed to the left. I spun noiselessly on the wooden floor, slipping on my T-shirt to keep him in sight.
The bed creaked. The slats sagged under his weight.
I looked down at his ankles. They were there, right in front of me. If I breathed too hard, he would feel the warm breeze on his skin.
My chakra flowed into my hands. I reached for his foot. My nail grazed the rough surface of his jeans.
I could break his ankle.
Leap from my hiding place and silence him before he could make a sound.
Crush his windpipe with the palm of my hand.
Smash his skull with my elbow.
Four seconds.
It would only take me four seconds to never be afraid again. To be happy.
The bed creaked again. His feet moved back.
I quickly pulled my hand away. The sole of his shoe followed me, pushing me further under the bed. The smell of ashes filled my nostrils. My bare feet hit the baseboard. Sweat cushioned the impact and prevented them from making a sound. The sole continued to advance. I bent my knees, twisting in half to keep moving backwards. And then it stopped.
There couldn't have been a hair between the tip of my nose and the sole of his shoe.
My heart was doing a rodeo in my chest. Good thing I hadn't jumped up this time.
His feet were spread wide. Only the front of his sole touched the ground.
This time I didn't try to touch him.
I was content with observing. Waiting.
Hoping.
He crossed his ankles. My eyes followed the movement.
Something shiny, in the shadow of a dresser, caught my eye above his legs.
There were two white shiny circles and little dots that looked like-
My breath caught in my throat.
I saw the expression on my own face fall as I realized.
The mirror. I'd forgotten to take the damn mirror off.
My blood ran cold. My eyes flew to his face.
A few oblique moonbeams entered the room through the poorly drawn curtains. The rays spread out in ovals on the ceiling, trapping the bed behind silver bars.
He sat in profile, leaning slightly over the rag doll wrapped in blankets.
He hadn't seen me.
But he was still leaning over the decoy.
And he didn't move.
I was petrified.
Did he notice that the hair was synthetic ? That the red and white were reversed ?
Did he want to hear me breathe one last time? Or did he…
The hands of the clock turned relentlessly.
Click.Click.Click.
He straightened up.
The silver light illuminated the top half of his face. He'd cleaned it. He'd combed his hair, too.
His eyes were lost in a blur, as if he were looking at something far away from this room, this moment, this life.
I waited, tense, for his next move. If he turned his head to the right, just a little, he'd notice the mirror and in that second see me hiding under the bed. He would realize that I knew - that I'd always known - and I would have no choice.
But if he chose to get up, walk to the door and close it behind him...
I dug my nails into the palms of my hands.
He was a child. Not even eleven.
He had no chin hair, had never looked at a girl other than to think she was boring. He hadn't even started high school. He'd never been farther than downtown on his own. He didn't know what it was like to skip school. To talk to his friends about the future. To imagine who he'd be when he grew up. To wonder if he was making the right choices. Or what the future would hold.
My heart clenched.
He's just a kid.
For the first time in months, I felt something other than intense hatred for him. Pity and sadness mingled to form a ball of fear that tightened my throat.
I prayed, begged someone, anything, from the depths of my soul for the boy to get up and walk away.
All he had to do was walk out the door.
I will pretend that nothing has happened. I'll forget everything.
I clenched my hands so tightly my knuckles were white. My eyes were glued to his reflection in the mirror.
Stand up. Please, Touya, stand up.
Click, click, click.
He turned his head to the doll. He stroked his hair with his fingertips.
I'm begging you.
His fingers slipped. For a long time, he looked at the shabby Shoto.
Then he stood up.
My sigh of relief was drowned out by the creaking of the bed.
I let my head fall back onto my folded hands.
That was it. It was all over.
I felt so good that for a moment I almost cried with relief.
It's all over.
A distant part of my mind - the part that had remained lucid - pointed out that he hadn't moved from his seat.
The bed creaked again. This time the slats creaked louder.
Confused, I lifted my head from my hands.
He was on the bed, astride the one who was supposed to replace me. He made sure his thighs didn't touch the blanket. So as not to wake me.
Watching him bend over the doll - over me - was a surreal experience.
His face was lost in the darkness. The moon shone down the sides of his anorak.
He wrapped his hands around my neck. Then, he squeezed.
The bed shook under his attack. So did the doll.
He leaned forward even more, getting bolder. He put all his weight on the front of the bed, squeezing and squeezing and squeezing,
The puppet's head exploded like a cork.
It hit the wall, bounced off it, and crashed to the floor with the sound of crumbling Legos.
I saw the look of pure astonishment on his face as he watched the plastic head roll onto the carpet. He sat back on his knees, stunned, his arms flailing.
Touya met my gaze in the mirror.
I didn't even think: I couldn't anymore.
Pure, unadultured rage boiled in my chest.
My skin burned. I could see nothing. Only white.
Chakra burst from the pit of my stomach and covered me like a second skin.
I grabbed the metal edges of the bed and dug my fingers into the mattress until I made holes in it. I stood up and lifted the bed with me.
And I threw it against the wall with Touya still on it.
The walls shook. Dust fell from the ceiling. Cracks appeared in the concrete.
One step and I was on the other side of the room. I grabbed the foot of the bed and threw it back, freeing Touya from it.
He blinked stupidly. Blood was dripping from his forehead.
I struck him with all my might.
At the last second, he raised his left arm and shielded his face. A dull crack echoed through the room.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
He screamed.
I raised my fist again. It blazed like a torch.
Blue flames erupted from his body like a tsunami. They whipped across my skin, drying my eyes in half a second. My clothes caught fire.
I brought my fist down on his broken forearm.
It looked like someone had poured oil on his flames.
They exploded like a bomb, climbing the curtains and devouring all the furniture around us. The temperature rose so quickly that I didn't have time to adjust.
Touya let out a scream of pure, unadultered wrath. The flames followed his call and bent to his will, all turning towards me. An inferno engulfed me, forcing me to cover my face with both hands. My skin grew hot. Scorching.
Deep, black smoke filled the room. It smelled like burnt plastic.
I put a hand to my chest and tried to control my breathing. The air was dry. Unbreathable.
I felt like I was in an oven.
The walls around us were melting. The room was on fire.
I staggered forward, trying to steady myself with my Ice. I'd only had my Quirks for a few years. Such a violent fire, it-
Touya grabbed me by the throat and pulled me roughly towards him.
“Where do you think you're going ?”
The skin of his face, fragile and bloody, fell off like scales. His flesh melted onto his hands, revealing the surface of his bones. His black anorak melted onto his own flesh, the semi-liquid bits of plastic mixing with his skin.
Burnt pork.
He leaned forward, pressing his bloody nose against mine. I could see the cartilage.
“If I die, you die with me”
And he laughed.
Fear gripped my insides. The flames intensified. I could barely breathe.
I slammed my skull into his nose with all my might.
The shock was so violent that my vision was blurred for a second. I fluttered my eyelashes and saw him lying in his infernal bed, blood spurting from his nose. His eyes were glassy.
I took a few steps back, staggering, trying to straighten myself.
Steam rose from my skin as my ice took care of lowering my temperature.
My skin was dry, cracked, and streaked with scarlet red furrows.
I exhaled a blizzard.
Then I returned to the flames and grabbed Touya's ankle. He barely protested, still stunned. I dragged him to the center of the room, right next to the carpet, the only place almost untouched by the chaos.
The walls were nothing but curtains of flames. The wall leading to the master bedroom had collapsed. The surrounding frame rumbled, threatening to collapse at any moment.
The cement continued to melt, gray rivers flowing and spreading in sheets across the floor.
I turned my attention back to Touya.
His eyelids were half closed, his small, pale eyes barely visible behind them. I cracked my neck.
With one step, I found myself astride him.
My fingers hovered over his bloody throat. No. Too easy.
I raised my fist over his face and struck. His head rolled to the side like a broken doll. I grabbed his chin and forced him to face me. Then I struck him again.
His lip split open. I kept going. More. Again. And again.
I didn't use chakra. I wanted it to be cathartic.
His blood splashed into my mouth. A drop passed between my parted lips and landed on my tongue.
I spat it in his face and kept hitting him.
The upper story collapsed on the bathroom. The smoke was getting murkier. Darker and heavier.
I coughed, wiped the sweat from my upper lip with one hand, punched him again.
He no longer looked like anything. His face was a blistering mass of raw flesh. I couldn't even tell if I hit his eye or his cheek.
The smoke scratched my throat. I coughed hard, almost spitting out my lungs. I let my fist rest on his chin, a phalanx slipping into his half-open lip as I tried to catch my breath.
The house would collapse any second.
I had to get out.
Leaning over Touya's sluggish body, I reached down to take a deep breath of fresh air. I'll go through the window and-
I screamed.
Touya, his vicious little blue eyes scrutinizing me from behind his swollen eyelids, had just sunk his teeth into my finger.
I raised my right fist.
He slapped my leg with his and rolled us onto our sides, my middle finger still in his mouth. He smiled at me. My blood stained his white teeth. He looked mad.
“What were you thinking ?”
He slapped my ears with the flat of his hand, disorienting me. A scream of pain escaped my lips. He sank his teeth deeper into my flesh. I felt like I was going to die.
“It's you and I, Sho-sho. You and I”
He squeezed.
I felt his teeth sinking into my bones. Pain exploded in my skull. Black spots danced on the fiery ceiling, on his disfigured face, on the curtains of lava that threatened to overwhelm us.
He turned his head to the side, twisting my finger. As if to rip it off.
The pain took my breath away.
I braced myself against the floor and tried to push him away. My chakra, unstable, slipped through my fingers.
I felt as if I was dying.
I'm going to die.
He grabbed my skull with one hand and smashed it against the ground. It felt like a sledgehammer.
My eyelids grew heavy.
Panic kept me alive.
I smashed his knee with my foot. He screamed. A flash of pure hatred lit up his eyes.
He began to tear at my finger.
His teeth - all his teeth - gnawed at my flesh. He crushed my finger, tore my skin, devoured my muscles.
Dark blood flowed like foam over his lips, rolling down his chin like a wave. He smiled at me and continued to devour me.
I let out a cry of rage and swung him aside, reversing our positions.
The fire engulfed us.
I smashed his nose with my fist.
He pulled and pulled with all his might, trying to rip my finger off.
An icy stalactite appeared in my right hand. His eyes became alarmed.
I stabbed him with it, drawing a scream of agony out of him.
A piece of charred parquet fell right next to us, ashes flying everywhere.
He sank his teeth into the last phalanx of my finger, trying to rip it off at the base.
I twisted the half-melted, frozen spike into his shoulder, making him scream.
He pulled harder. I screamed, too.
Our voices mingled, and I could no longer tell which of us was screaming.
A new ice pick appeared in my hand.
I stabbed him in the elbow. Then the wrist. The hand.
As if I was crucifying him.
Something snapped in my finger.
My vision blurred. The flames around us turned to red neon. The smoke came to rest like a dark, malevolent, deadly mass.
My stalactites were melting.
A last ice pick with a finer, stronger, sharper point appeared in my hand.
I didn't want to have to choose between getting out of this fire alive or keeping my finger.
But nothing mattered anymore.
Except his death.
I raised my trembling arm above my head, aiming for his jugular.
Panic flashed across his eyes.
I slammed the stalactite down with all my strength.
He let go of my finger. And went on fire.
A geyser of blue flame exploded from his body. The searing blast threw me backwards and sent me rolling across the blackened parquet floor.
My ice pick vaporized between my fingers. The hot steam boiled my palm. Red, mushroom-like spots appeared.
Touya stood up, his legs shaking.
I could only see his black silhouette in the midst of the whirlwind of flames.
Pieces of the floor fell like snow around him.
Part of the second floor collapsed onto the window, dooming it forever.
I dragged myself across the floor, clutching my bloodied hand to my chest.
Touya staggered in my direction. He raised a hand with burned fingers in my direction.
“Sho-sho, why are you running away from me ?”
My back hit the mirror.
The red flames consuming it were refreshing compared to the blue blaze.
“Come with me. Let's get this over with once and for all”
I spat a bloody mollard at his feet.
“Die”
“Not without you”
I inhaled the smoke, then coughed. The air irritated my throat and burned my lungs.
My Quirk brought my temperature down.
Touya slid gently to the ground, unable to lift his feet.
He stood still for a second, trapped in his own infernal torment. A sickening sound of scratching and tearing echoed through the room.
The sole of his foot tore off before my wide-eyed eyes. His burned skin stuck to the floor, a trickle of blood connecting him to his flesh like a rubber band.
He kept going forward.
I hid my right hand behind my back. Frostbite covered my fingers, my wrist, my elbow. The cold crept into my skin, freezing me until I was one with the ice.
I exhaled a cloud of steam.
The feet of the mirror froze.
A thin layer of ice covered the blackened baseboards and walls.
I waited defiantly for him to get any nearer.
Closer. Go on. Keep going. That's it, that's it.
The chilblains ran up my arm, slipping under what was left of my shredded t-shirt.
Ice appeared on the surface of my torso, spreading all over my body. My thighs froze as the frostbite spread to my toes. My bloody hand froze next, joining the rest of my body.
Ice crawled up my throat, tracing bluish veins along my neck and turning my lips purple. My hair became frozen crystals, hard and sharp as needles.
I waited, petrified, mad with rage, like an ice sculpture about to live out its last hour of glory.
I was doomed.
But I refused to let him live another day.
Touya repeated to himself:
“If I die, you die with me”
If I have to die here, I'll make sure he doesn't escape.
He took the last step.
I extended my frozen hands towards him. An icy breath escaped my parted lips.
The ice whirled, then exploded like a wave from my body.
The flames that devoured the walls froze.
The floor turned into an iceberg.
Touya raised his hands and his blue flames shot up to meet my frozen waves.
There was a sharp hiss. A cloud of boiling steam shot up where the two powers met. The mixture spread through the room like wildfire.
My teeth chattered. Ice nibbled at my cheeks.
I pushed all my chakra into my Quirk. There was the familiar ringing of bells. Then the ice, faster and stronger than ever, surged through my body like a tsunami.
It consumed walls, floors and ceilings. It turned smoke into black snow, blocks of ice falling like a downpour.
In a split second, half of my room froze.
Touya roared and threw his flames back to attack.
The impact produced nothing but boiling steam.
Neither of us could really feel it anymore.
So I continued to draw, deeper into myself, until my inner hand closed on the block of pure energy that was my Quirk.
The ice, so cold, engulfed my nose, my eyelids, my forehead.
The air solidified.
Touya fell to his knees.
His flames lost power.
He grabbed his head with both hands and dug his nails into his skin.
“No no no no !”
He tugged at his hair and pulled it out in handfuls. The smell of sulfur filled the room. He screamed.
“No ! No !”
The flames turned white.
They burst out strongly and violently, like the lava of a volcano that has just erupted.
The clash of our two Quirks turned the room into a living hell.
A burning, wet wind spread like a demon's breath.
The ice covering my skin melted like snow under the sun.
Red and white blisters appeared all over my skin.
I covered my face with my forearms and stifled a groan of pain.
I could feel my skin burning. Boiling. Melting.
Breathing in was like welcoming the evil in my body. Letting it spread in peace.
The lack of oxygen went to my head.
The adrenaline subsided.
I closed my eyes, unable to stay awake.
I could hear his scream, but it was no longer of anger.
The steam must have made him boil faster than me.
I smiled.
And then I fell onto my side.
The sounds were a cacophony. The blue of my ice blended with the white of his flames. It was a sky blue, an end-of-summer blue. The taste of burnt pork entered my mouth. The pain faded.
I lifted my eyelids slightly to take in the world one last time.
And then I saw them, standing in the middle of my room, bathed in a sea of fire.
The carved obsidian doors, so high that they were lost in the clouds, so wide that the horizon seemed to be nothing but them.
My hand, spread next to my head, shook.
The doors shook.
Then the creatures of the night broke free from them.
They glided across the floor like shadows, their steps as light as the caress of the night wind. Their blurry, indistinct bodies of smoke crept into this fiery tomb, feeling neither heat nor pain.
As if it were their home.
As if they were demons.
In perfect synchronicity, their faceless heads turned toward me.
I waited, motionless, unable to move a finger.
They glided through the steam, flying over piles of charred floor and broken furniture.
One of them raised a finger to my forehead.
Then a flash of red light burst from the shadows and pierced the obsidian door. The shadows flickered.
The finger passed right through me.
I blinked and they were gone.
Then two arms lifted me off the floor.
I let go, my disjointed arms hanging down my body.
“-oto ! Shoto ! Shoto !”
There was a slap.
I opened my eyes with difficulty. It was like waking up from a dream.
Flames crackled and part of the floor collapsed onto my bed. I could hear someone screaming, but it all seemed too far away.
“-my purpose now, eh ? You created me to surpass you, and the instant it's born, you abandon me !”
Someone covered my ears.
“What do I have now ? What do I have left ?”
The heat intensified.
The walls rumbled as if the whole house was about to collapse on our heads.
“You took everything I had and gave it to him ! I have nothing now ! I'm nothing !”
The white flames would kill us all.
Dad held me closer to his chest, protecting me from the falling debris.
The curtain of fire closed in on us like a giant jaw straight from hell.
Touya stared at us, a mad smile on his lips. Half of his body was now nothing but raw bone and flesh.
Both of his hands rose towards us.
Father whispered in my ear.
“Freeze”
I summoned all my remaining chakra and energy. I ignored the piece of flesh hanging from the end of my fist by a single, almost intact nerve.
A layer of ice, only a few centimeters thick, covered all my skin. The ice turned red as my bloody finger was encased in it.
Dad raised his left hand, the one that wasn't holding me. He held it up to the flames.
For a second, nothing happened.
And then the fire bent.
I saw the confusion on Touya's bloody face. A puddle of burnt flesh and blood grew beneath his feet.
He waved his hands, trying to call the flames back to him.
But now they only obeyed Dad.
He held out his left hand to what was left of my window, the one overlooking the forest.
The flames waved. And then, as if an icy wind had just uprooted them, they flew away.
My eyes widened, unable to tear themselves away from the spectacle of the flying fire. The ice on my skin was melting at breakneck speed.
Flames erupted from the charred walls, from what was left of the ceiling, from the ashes of what had once been my bedroom.
They flew through the air, swirling around us like a vortex of white light.
My father reached out and one by one they flew through the window.
He forced them to bend so they wouldn't keep their carnage in the house. He released them into the trees. They devoured them like matchsticks, but lost their power. White, blue, red.
My ice melted like snow in the sun and turned into a cool river on my skin. The water rolled off, evaporating on contact with my father.
My father let out a tired moan.
He fell to one knee, his breathing ragged.
He was melting.
I could see his organs through his translucent skin. His eyes had fluoresced, turning his sclerosis blue. His bones were red, burning like coals. I could see his veins, his arteries and all the blood flowing through them.
I could see his heart beating wildly in the center of his chest.
I put my hands on his chest, using my ice to cool him down. I pushed my chakra into him, forcing my Quirk to push beyond its boundaries one last time.
Steam rose at the contact, wisps of white smoke swirling around us. I pushed the ice into his body instead of the surface.
The frame creaked. The wall to the left of what was left of my bed collapsed into the room. The smoking ceiling light crashed between us and Touya with a thud. It shattered on the floor, shards of glass flying in all directions.
The ground cracked beneath our feet, as if the floor was about to open up and swallow us all up.
My father struggled to his feet. He cradled me on his hip, turned his back to the room, and used his fists to clear a path into the corridor.
Touya screamed.
“Don't leave me here ! Don't !”
While I was cooling down my father's boiling skin, I looked at Touya for the last time.
He held out a pleading hand, his pale eyes glistening with tears.
And then the rest of the floor collapsed into what was left of my room, condemning Touya to his own hell.