Burning Inside- Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Mira


    "Mira! Your mother is looking for you!" shouted Nina, hidden behind a book. She was always my favorite step sister, even though she rarely interacted with anyone. She was slightly taller than I, but I had 2 years on her. I nodded slightly, and she went back to reading. I scuttled into the small kitchen our apartment had, and found my mother sitting on a stool, skimming a cookbook.
    "Darling, your step father was in the capital and thought he saw you. Explain to me why you skipped school yesterday," she said without looking up from the book. Nina reminded me of her, even though they shared no relations.
    "I was bored."
    She looked up with an angry glare. "Just because you are bored," she whispered, "is not a reason to kill humans."
    "It's not like I was killing everyone I saw."
    "Still! I don't want anyone getting the least bit suspicious of us! Especially Hugh!"
    Hugh, my step father, was human, along with all of his children. I had very low tolerance for them, and they didn't like me either. "Well maybe you shouldn't have married someone your daughter would hate- and might even kill one day."
    "Don't say that, young lady! You would never kill Hugh, or anyone else in this family!"
    I bit my lip furiously. "I don't consider them, or any other humans," -I said the word furiously- "Family. If dad were here-"
    "Dad isn't here, okay? He won't ever be here. So you are to listen to me, and get over it. Stay in school. And you are grounded from all activities outside of this household."
    "We live in an apartment."
    "You know what I mean! No more after school outings! Not even to the wilderness park. You can enjoy living here, or you can stay in your room and burn yourself alive."
    "Wow, what a supportive mother,"  I said sarcastically. She sighed angrily and looked back down at her cookbook. I knew it was time for me to leave.

    
    As soon as my mother was preoccupied enough to not notice my existence- which happened a lot- I crawled out of the window in my shared room. My step family was used to me being gone, and they wouldn't notice if I disappeared for awhile. If my mother found out I was gone, though, she would probably send my Aunt Edalynn after me. She was really good at finding people. So I put my music on before I left, to make my mom think I was ignoring everyone. Our fire exit was probably the most used in the city. It was covered in snow, but it was packed down from me stepping on it. The world felt overly cold, which was both a relief and a burden; I liked the way it suppressed the ever burning fire inside of me, but it also choked the good feeling that came with my fire. I jumped over the small balcony and slid down the icy ladder to jump into the alley below my fourth-story window.
    I continued down the grimy passage and stopped at the street. Cars passed by unknowingly of the inhuman creature standing just feet away. Instead of going right, towards the school, I turned left and started walking again. I kept going for awhile and turned into another alleyway. Instead of the fire escape, I turned to a door with a small triangle mark in the bottom left corner and a rose in the top right corner. Only someone looking for them would see the small carvings. I knocked four times, waited two seconds, and knocked three more times. A slot opened and two large brown eyes were watching me.
    "Name," a deep voice demanded. Boden.
    "Mira Sikselden, daughter of Synnove Lessley and Rinan Sikselden."
    "Password," Boden ordered.
    "Move your butt aside and let me in, Boden, or I'll burn you alive."
    He apparently took the threat seriously, because the slot closed and the door opened just enough for me to fit through. As soon as I was in the dark room, I nodded at Boden and smiled. He was tall and muscular, and gave me an annoyed look. I rolled my eyes at him playfully and moved to the next door. Another slot opened, but no voice demanded anything.
    "Mira!" shrieked a girl's voice. The door opened and my best friend embraced me tightly.
    "Nice to see you, Aeryn."
    "You haven't been here in over a month! I was getting worried! I thought you died or something."
    "Oh, you seriously didn't think I would go and get myself killed did you?" She smiled at me.
    "Well, I suppose not, but you did worry me. I thought maybe Synnove grounded you or something."
    "She did."
    "And you're still here! Ha! This is why I love you, Mira." We sat down at a table in the quiet club. The walls were a dark blue, and the table was a black patio furniture-style table. A few others sat chatting at other tables, but it was almost lifeless. Aeryn sat in the chair across from me, with her blond curls done up in a high ponytail. Her features where almost elfin, with a tiny nose and eyes.  She was the prettiest person I had ever met, human or Ananke; that is, my species. Very few humans knew of the Ananke, who had lived in secrecy for thousands of years on Earth. It did come very close when one Ananke named a moon of Jupiter after us. But no one thought much of that, and everything returned to normal.
    Aeryn ordered two hot chocolates and turned back to me. "So, why're you here?"
    "Synnove," I started. I always referred to my mother as Synnove whenever I was speaking to someone else. "Grounded me for ditching school and saying I might kill Hugh."
    She snorted. "So you ditched them?" I nodded. "Humans. What scum."
    "Agreed."
    "Not to be disrespectful or anything, but I find it really disgusting that Synnove married one."
    "I agree completely! She even said that they were my family. Ugh!"
    "That's awful! You'll never be a family member with a human. Not you. You're the exact opposite."
    "I know. I just wanted to get away from our apartment. Seriously. We used to live in a nice house, but when Hugh moved in, with all four of his children, we couldn't afford a regular house. So we downsized, with a bigger family. Five teenagers, a highly dangerous non-human and her scum husband. I hate this!" I slammed my fist on the table.
    "It's just awful! But you still have us, right?" She gestured to the people around us. I nodded and a man came back with two hot chocolates. "Thanks, Arlyss. That'll be all," Aeryn told the waiter. Aeryn was gifted with both beauty and the ability to lie beyond belief. I was the only living being in the world who could tell if she was lying or not, and that was because she let me know. Once, she even convinced a secret service agent that she was the president's long-lost daughter and she needed to meet him at once, or she would die of cancer. It was hysterical.
    I chuckled slightly and Aeryn knew I was thinking about some of our past adventures. "Let's get out of this boring dump." She leaned forward and whispered to me. "I hear Devyn is in town." Devyn Velvon was famous among Ananke, and he had gotten into a mess with me a year or so before. He told me I was pretty and asked me to dinner, but ended up harassing me. So I killed three of his guards. He didn't like that. And ever since, I had been getting grief from random people. I didn't like that.
    "Let's go."
    We stood and ran to the first door, opened it and entered the small waiting room. Boden sat on a chair, reading a magazine. Aeryn smiled and winked at him, and he was dumbfounded. His eyes followed her until the door closed, and we were back in the chilly winter air.

    
    The night club was the easiest thing to spot on the whole street. Neon lights were flashing, and the windows were pulsating with light and silhouettes of people dancing to the extremely loud music. Aeryn motioned her hand towards the door in front of the building. I moved in front of the small line forming to get into the club. Before a man could step in front of me, I skimmed the door for the tell-tale marks of an Ananke building. Nothing. This place had to be human-run. The man was wearing a black coat with sunglasses and an ear piece. He held a clipboard tightly in one of his hands and a pen in the other. He wore a small name tag under his coat that read "Brendan".  
    "Sorry, miss. This is a private party."
    Aeryn got the first word. "We know, we were invited," she lied.
    "Names, please."
    "Well, I'm Cindy Price, and this is my friend Lilly Rosewood," she lied again.
    He consulted his clipboard. "Sorry, but you aren't on the guest list. Please step to the end of the line."
    "Oh, I know! Devyn told us that we could come, but the list was made up already, so he would just have us let in."
    "Not on the list, not in the club. I'm sorry, ladies, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
    "No."
    "Ladies-"
    "Oh, Brendan! We were invited to this party! I just- I just- lost the invite!" She burst into tears, and I had to fight to keep a smile off of my lips.
    "Well... I suppose I could let you in this one time. But only this once!" He moved aside and let us pass. "Oh, and Miss Cindy?"
    She turned to give him a sweet look. "Yes?"
    "Don't tell Mr. Velvon about this, please."
    She winked. "No problem."
    I tried to give him a sweet look as well, but it just didn't match up to Aeryn's. We stepped inside of the club and made our way to the bathrooms. We pushed open the door, and stepped inside. I slipped off the blond wig I was wearing to reveal my pin-straight brown hair. Aeryn took the wig and stuffed it in her purse, as well as her own red wig. She removed a crimping iron from her bag and began to make my hair wavy. I hated every thought of singeing my hair, but I let her do it anyway. Once she had finished my hair- which she did very quickly, I might add- she took hers down and straightened her brilliant curls. Once we had transformed our appearance, we stepped back into the pulsating lights. There was a mess of people hopping up and down to the beat and nodding their heads.
    Devyn and a group of his "friends" sat at tables in the center of the club, looking oh-so-classy compared to the humans all hopping around him. I looked around him to find a person who wouldn't be missed. One man with a foreboding look on his face stood within sight range of Devyn, trying to stay standing. He caught my eye and I motioned for him to move towards me. He took a few steps, but stopped when I did the same to another man, or so it seemed. He gave me a hating look and turned to look at Devyn. I searched for his body heat (which was rather difficult, because of the temperature of the room and the many people around him) and tugged at it, letting the feeling in my stomach go to start him on fire. He screamed and fell to the ground, but only one noticed- Devyn.
    Once he saw what had happened, he looked around frantically- for me. He had seen my talents before, and recognized them immediately. A slight smile sat on my face, ready to be spotted. But before he could find me, he was distracted by someone- Aeryn. She was tugging at his collar and whispering something to him, lulling him to the deserted corner in the back of the room. I followed behind, staying stealthy. He didn't recognize Aeryn because she had never met him in person. Once she had him away from everyone else, she leaned in as if to kiss him. But I was there, and I tapped his shoulder. He whipped around, but I had managed to stay behind him. Aeryn scurried away, but stayed within hearing range. When Devyn turned around to complete that kiss, he saw me.
    "I knew you were here," he spat out.
    "Oh really? Was it the burning man, or the sneaky friend?" I motioned to Aeryn.
    "The man."
    "Ah, I see. So you knew I was here when someone died. How lovely."
    "Yes, lovely." He took a step towards me. "So, how did you get in?"
    "My friend is good at lying, like I'm good at setting people on fire in the inside."
    "And as I am with looking good."
    "You wish."
    "Yeah, I guess that would be closer to my friendly aura." Devyn had the gift of making others like him, which is part of the reason he didn't like me. It didn't work on me.
    "Yeah."
    "So now that you've killed yet another person with me, I'm going to ask you to leave."
    "And miss the opportunity to crash a party? I think not."
    He exhaled loudly and look back at me with angry eyes. "Leave, now."
    "No."
    "Fine, then you'll just have to suffer the consequences."
    "Not likely."
    He stormed off back to his table, and consulted one of his guards. There was a lot of pointing at me and Aeryn and a lot of angry faces. After a few seconds, one big burly man came towards us. He grabbed both of us by our arms and started dragging us to the door. I struggled at first, but once Aeryn gave the 'OK' signal, I set him on fire. He fell to the ground, and we ran for the door. But before we left, Aeryn lit a match and dropped it into the garbage can. I pulled the fire alarm, triggering flashing lights and an annoying beeping sound. I also reached up to a sprinkler and broke the red vile, causing it to start spraying water all over the dancing humans. I took one last look as the room burst into a panic and flames, and I swear I saw Devyn looking straight at me. I turned and huddled out the only door the place had as everyone was going out. No one saw either Aeryn or I, because we were bunched together in the crowed of humans. Once we were successfully out of the way, we scrambled out of the area and into a deserted alley. We burst into laughter and fell to the ground.
    "I love times like these! It's so great to be back to our old ways!" Aeryn said in between belly laughs.


    Our little misadventure was all over the news the next day. The police suspected someone deposited a still-burning cigarette into an unspecified container, which burned the building down. The people who parished were trapped, according to them. Two humans, both men, were found on the ground with singed skin. An autopsy suggested that they had been drinking alcohol and the flame had gotten into it somehow, because their organs were burnt from the inside as well.
    "Shame," said Hugh. "I knew where that place was."
    I gave him a nasty look that suggested Why are you talking to me? and grunted in agreement.    
    "So, where were you last night?" He asked.
    "In my room."
    He gave me a stern look. "Not according to Nina, you weren't."
    "So I went out for coffee, big whoop."
    "Young lady- and I use that term very loosely- you are very well educated that you were grounded last night!"
    "By my mother, not you."
    "If you are grounded, you stay home, no matter who is or isn't the person that grounded you!"
    "You can't tell me what to do!" I screamed.
    "I am your father, of course I can!" He screamed back.
    "YOU ARE NOT MY FATHER." I yelled at him and marched to my room promptly. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I slammed the door behind me. I grabbed a duffel bag and started to stuff clothes and necessities into it. It took me a minute to realize that I wasn't alone in the room. Nina sat staring at me from the corner, book in hand. I assumed she had heard the whole fight from her position. I stiffened my jaw and continued packing.
    "I'm so sorry, Mira. He pushed it out of me. I didn't want to tell him-"
    "Save it for someone who cares," I interrupted.
    "But-"
    I looked back at her. "Listen, Nina. If you really want to make it up, cover for me. I'm just sitting on my bed crying now, right?" I said as I inched toward the window. She nodded slowly. "I'll be pretty upset for a while, right? Enough to miss dinner?" She was nodding more now. "Good. I always liked you the best." I gave her a small smile and pushed the window open. I figured that her stalling would at least give me a head start against Aunt Edalynn. I slipped out onto the fire escape and into the unforgiving cold.
    "Wait!" Nina shouted. Crap, I thought, she's going to rat on me. But when I turned toward her, she was holding out her new down coat. "You'll need this more than I do. I just sit in my room all day anyway." It was the first time I truly felt thankfulness towards a human.
    "Thanks."
    "No problem."
    I started to move away, but stopped and turned back. "Bye. I hope we run into each other some day," I said. And with that, I jumped down towards the alley and away from the life I hated so much.