The smell of dried Switchgrass and the dust coming off the cracked earth burned my nose as I ran through the tangled brush, darting between trees and overgrown golden bundles of grass. I could hear my pursuers not far behind me, thrashing through the same underbrush my nimble body could easily maneuver. I ducked behind a gnarled old mesquite and tucked my knees to my chest. I sat there for a good while, trying to catch my breath as I choked on the hazy summer air,  hoping they would run past me and keep looking until our parents called us all back for supper. 

"It's not fair." I thought to myself. We had known each other for about as long as I could remember, but despite the closeness of our families, he always took every opportunity to have fun at my expense. So many times, of varying degrees of cruelty, that I cannot recall all of the instances anymore, just the ones that left me with more permanent reminders. This time, however, was different. He was different. This time we had been playing in the creek just down the trail from the campground we were staying at. Our parents thought it would be fun if we all went camping together, though I could not have disagreed more. To make matters worse, he had brought his friend with us too. I was all too familiar with this friend, as he was just as keen on using me as their sadistic puppet as he was. Together they made the dynamic duo who impressed teachers and charmed adults alike, all the while being the faces of hell throughout my childhood.

It was then, while I sat on a large rock along the side of the creek, playing with a frog I had found in the mud that I heard them laughing in the water. It was a horrible laugh I had learned to wince at just the sound of, followed by a large eruption of bubbles in the stream near them, followed by even more laughter. I figured that they had been trying to see who could make the bigger splash between the two of them. I felt the mist coat my cheek, arms, and legs and noticed a fog rising from where the two boys had been, with the latter nowhere to be seen. I panicked and stood up, looking for any sign of them. I knew better than to be concerned about their safety, but rather to be concerned for my own in a situation like this. Sure enough, they both emerged from beneath the water, another small geyser following them. "Stay still, I want to show you something." A toothy, malevolent grin on his face. "I just want to make sure that this is real and not me losing my mind." That's when I saw it, a ball of fire in his palm, dancing around in the warm afternoon breeze. It wasn't the fact that what he was doing was impossible. People have been documented doing the seemingly impossible for the better half of a century now. Rather, it was that he was 14, and so far one of the youngest people to have been able to use these abilities. Judging by the look of slight concern on his friend's face, it hadn't been long since he had first manifested his gift. He walked toward me, steam rising from his hand and water dripping from his swim trunks with one of his favorite cartoon characters on it. The sudden realization that my tormentor, the person who had been dictating my mood whenever he was near for as long as I had been cognisant, now had become a prodigy of a power that very few understood even to this day. I didn't know what to do, dread cascading over me. My instincts kicked in and I ran for my life.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I doubt I had run faster than I ever had at that point, which didn't help my gasping for air as I hid behind the old twisted tree. I heard the heavy thuds of their feet slamming against the ground as they charged their way through the towering grass, past my tree. I let out a haggard breath as I caught my bearings finally. I wasn't far from our campground, I could make it if I managed to stay quiet when I inevitably caught up to them. I began my trek, staying low to the ground, hugging cover when I could. "Where did that brat go?" I hear his voice bark in a hushed tone, almost as if he was trying to avoid drawing the parent's attention. "No clue man, but do you think we can go get some hot dogs? I'm starving bro. It's not like you won't have another chance to... y'know?" His voice trailed off. "No. He's around here, we just have to show him this so he knows who's in charge." "You think he doesn't know that already? Dude, you've been messing with him for as long as we've been friends. I think you should lay off him, it's just sorta shitty at this point." I was grateful for the support, but it didn't soothe the bitterness I still held for both of them. I listened to their conversation as I slinked past them. I could see the clearing where the camp was set up, I was almost safe. Almost.

I wonder if things would have been different if I had paid attention to where I was going, and watched out for that hole that caught my foot, anchoring me both physically and in fear. I fell, letting out an audible gasp as the air was knocked from my chest. "Found you." My spine prickled at the words, a shiver radiating outward from my core as I felt him step over me, standing just behind where I lay. "Now stay still, I just want to give you a cool tattoo!" The excuse was feeble, but we all knew that. We also knew that he didn't need an excuse to do what he was about to do. As he leaned down and lifted my shirt to expose my stomach, he brought the flame closer. At the last moment, just as I could feel the searing heat lick at my side, I lashed out, kicking him in the knee which sent him rolling onto his back. The fire in his hand flew past my head. I whipped my head around just in time to see the tiny ball of fire collide with the bag of charcoal we had brought to fuel our fire, exploding on impact. Tiny flaming embers began to rain down all around us, and it didn't take much for the straw around the outskirts of the campsite to catch. What started as a small wisp in a child's hand soon became a roaring inferno, quickly devouring the landscape. The chaos around us wasn't the worst of it though. The embers pierced the tents, simultaneously igniting and shredding them and any of their contents. We couldn't see our parents, but the melting tarps and screams of agony confirmed the worst. I stood there, numb. It had happened too quickly for my synapses to register what I was witnessing. That, or maybe it is just that young children are not meant to see these kinds of things. I barely noticed as the perpetrator of the blaze ran forward as far as he could before the heat became too much for him to bear. I watched the fire dance around him as he tried to control it and contain it, but even then he could hardly blow it in the direction he wanted. His friend and I watched, unable to comprehend the tragedy that had happened over the span of less than a minute. My throat was clogged once more, though this time from a mixture of smoke, dust, and trying to hold back tears. The cries of people around me were drowned out by the roar of the fire and the sound of summer evenings. Crickets, Cicadas, and birds all chimed into the cacophony, turning the summer evening into a haunting symphony as fire consumed my world.