꧁༺ℬυᖇN “Vicky! Vicky, wake up!” I stirred groggily and opened my eyes. WHOA everything was blurry. I blinked a few times to get my eyes to focus, until I realized that I didn’t have my glasses on. My sister was kneeling over me for some reason. Even from my fogged vision, I could tell that she looked panicked. What was going on? Wait. Did I faint? Suddenly, it all came rushing back to me. The ambush. The fire. “Vicky, I’m so glad you’re awake,” my sister, Vanessa, said shakily. I could tell from her voice that she had been crying. I touched a tender spot on my head, vaguely remembering being hit by some flying debris or a hard object or something (that must’ve been why I fainted!). It stung, and I knew there would be a giant bruise there for a while. “Here. I found these on the floor. They’re kind of broken, but I think they’ll still help,” Vanessa held up my glasses as she spoke. Both temples were broken, but I could fix that no problem. I used my power to form a temporary temple. Soon, after much concentration, a thin strip of ice replaced the broken parts of my glasses. “My power is being so . . . finicky!” I realized out loud. Vanessa nodded. “Mine too. But we’ll have to worry about that later. First, we need to get out of here!” I heard the familiar moan of a house about to cave in. Just hours ago, we had been ambushed. Our whole village was attacked by the pyrokinetics that lived beyond the mountains. We had never thought that they would do such a thing, but they burned the whole village. I think I had tried to fight them, but the next thing I remember was waking up here. The worst part about the whole situation was that my brother had been a major part in the ambush. I could see clearly with my glasses. There were still sparks of fire here and there, barely burning. The walls were creaking and moaning, barely able to sustain the weight of the house. “Come on. You can walk, right?” Vanessa asked, getting up and offering her hand. “Um, yeah. I think so,” I mumbled. I took her hand and she pulled me up. I swayed slightly, but overall I had pretty good balance. There was another creak. A beam came crashing down, right where I had been laying moments before. Vanessa and I were both frozen for a second, before we realized that we needed to get out of there. Now. Vanessa and I ran at the same time as hard as we could, but I stumbled and fell. Without missing a beat, Vanessa grabbed me and put my arm around her shoulder. We hobbled as fast as we could through the house. Flames suddenly confronted us, blocking our path, and we both used our cryokinetic powers to try and put it out. Both of us were very weak, and our powers weren't working properly. The flames went down, and we quickly jumped over them. “There’s the door!” Vanessa yelled excitedly. Still supporting me, she ran over to it and tried to open it. “Of course. It’s stuck,” she moaned. So we tried the only thing we could do. “On three, we run,” I announced. “One . . . two . . . three!” We came crashing through the door, wood splinters showering all over us. But we made it. We were safe. “There’s nothing like the smell of fresh air! Well, kind – of fresh air,” Vanessa coughed. I looked up. Clouds of smoke went on for as far as the eye could see. And the village was nothing but rubble. “Where is everyone?” I asked. Vanessa shrugged. “They fled, I guess. I hope.” A movement suddenly caught my eye. There were people on the mountain. “Vanessa, look! The pyrokinetics haven’t left,” I said excitedly. “Yeah, so? They’ll probably stay here for days. What do you want to do, go say hi?” “Yes – well, no. I want to go see Victor.” Vanessa narrowed her eyes at the sound of our brother’s name. “He’s not a part of our family any more.” “How could you say that?” I said, exasperated. “He joined a group of people that we necessarily don’t get along with. So what? You two used to be best friends.” “Vicky Elden, if you haven’t noticed, the whole village has been completely obliterated by Victor and his band of . . . of . . . hooligans!” Vanessa stomped off, and I could see that she was on the verge of tears. Ever since Victor ran away and joined the pyrokinetics, Vanessa had been very sensitive whenever I mentioned his name. When Mom and Dad died, Victor was the only supporter she had.
Normally, I would go and apologize, but this chance was too good to miss. I glanced at Vanessa, who was sitting on a rock feeling sorry for herself. She wouldn’t miss me for a few minutes. I made my way up the mountain, sometimes crawling on all fours so I wouldn’t be taken by the steep hill. Most of my strength had returned, and the thought of possibly seeing Victor again gave me a boost of energy. Panting and exhausted, I reached the top. The gang of pyrokinetics were gathered around a fire, laughing and eating the food that they had recently stolen. Victor was nowhere to be seen. There was a rustle behind me. I stood frozen in fear. I turned around, my hand up in case I needed to use my powers. I was surprised to see that there was nothing vicious or blood-thirsty behind me. Just a young man, carrying some supplies. He looked equally surprised to see me. Wait . . . “Vicky?” Victor gasped, dropping what he was holding. I couldn’t say anything. I just threw my arms around him and hugged him, like I hadn’t hugged him in two years. Well, the truth was, I hadn’t. “Oh Vicky, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you,” he said shakily. “I’ve missed you too,” I sobbed. After a few extra moments of hugging, we let go. “Why did you leave us? And why did you join . . . them?” I asked, wiping tears from my eyes. Victor looked completely bewildered. “What? I would never just leave you.” “But you did.” “You got the note, didn’t you?” “What note?” Victor’s eyes went wide. “I wrote a note saying that I was going to go away looking for a better civilization. We needed to leave some place that didn’t get attacked so often.” “Where did you leave the note?” “In Vanessa’s vanity. She’s always looking through it.” I moaned. “She threw it out the day you left! It was broken, and she was always talking about how she was going to get rid of it.” “Ha, I guess I don’t have a very good memory,” he said sheepishly. We stood there in silence for a minute. Then I asked the question that had been bothering me for the past two years: “Why did you join the pyrokinetics?” His mouth dropped open. “You wouldn’t think I would join them, would you?” Completely puzzled, I shrugged. “They forced me to join them. They said I had the skills, even if I was the only cryokinetic. If I hadn’t, they threatened to burn down the village. Please, PLEASE believe that I would never in my life voluntarily join them.” “Of course I believe you. That’s horrible!” “Oh, thank you,” he said with relief. “I was sure that you would think I was some monster or something.” “Well, I would never think that,” I assured him. “Vanessa on the other hand . . . she’s a different story.” Victor looked crest-fallen. “I knew she wouldn’t forgive me for something like that.” “Come back with us,” I urged him. “You can explain everything to Vanessa and leave these people.” “No, but I promise, I will,” he immediately replied. When he saw my expression, he added, “If we leave right now, they’ll see you and me and kill both of us. But I promise, that no matter what, I will return to you and Vanessa.” Before I could reply, a voice not too far away yelled, “Hey, Victor? Where are the pots and pans?” “Vicky, go. Now. I’ll return to you,” he whispered urgently. “Victor, I said, where are you?!” “Vicky, go.” “I can’t just leave you –” “Yes, you can. Please go. I’ll be back by the new year.” “If you’re not behind that tree, you’ll be sorry . . .” the gruff voice warned. With one last look at my brother, I sprinted as fast as I could down the hill. The mountain was even harder to climb down than up. I kept tripping, and for a solid thirty seconds I was rolling down. I got up, relieved to see that I had reached the bottom. “Vanessa! Vanessa!” I exclaimed, running over to the rock she was sitting on. “Where have you been?” her voice was filled with worry and relief. “Oh, on the mountain,” I replied, ignoring her gaping expression. “And guess what? Victor’s coming home!!”
