Flame Thrower by By: Leah Crowe (early readers TXT) 📖

great. The kid was skinny with pale blonde hair, almost as light as his skin. He had piercing, ice blue eyes that looked almost soul-searching. He had a very cold aura about him that made me step back. I was not a big fan of the cold myself. I lived in Florida and still hated the winters! He briskly looked over the locker, and then slammed it shut and looked at me. He gave me an evil smile and I took another step back, almost bumping into Mark who had done the opposite of me and had stepped forward, towards the creepy kid. Mark grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him. The pale kid looked amused and deadly. I really wanted to get away from him. I wanted to go home and curl up in a ball on my bed. His presence was freezing me! I started to shiver. Suddenly, he moved at the speed of light and was behind me. The pale kid roughly grabbed my arm, pulling up the sleeve of my shirt. He saw the birthmark on my shoulder and smiled, but his smile held no happiness, only malice. I struggled under his death hold, but he only tightened his grip. In the blink of an eye, we were outside on the manicured school lawns. Mark had somehow kept up with this fast superman-like kid.
“Let. Her. Go.” Mark growled. It was a direct order and I got the feeling that this shrimpy looking kid who actually was quite strong would still not be a match for Mark.
“Make me.” The pale kid said calmly.
“Euclise, drop the girl or I will have no choice but to hurt you, revealing everything before it’s time.” Mark said in a deeper voice than before. Reveal things before it was time? WHAT?! I was so confused! The pale kid, Euclise apparently, began to twist my arm in directions it was not meant to go in and I yelped as pain shot up my body.
“Ok that’s it!” Mark said and I gasped as flames shot up from his hand. He threw the flames at the pale kid but a wall of ice suddenly shot up from the ground. Then, the pale kid banged me in the head and everything went black.


I finally came to after what seemed like days and yet my head was still throbbing. That guy had whacked me pretty hard! Everything was swirling around so I closed my eyes. I could hear someone calling my name, but it seemed so distant that I paid no attention to it. Finally, my head stopped pounding and was now down to a dull thudding so I decided to brave it and open my eyes once more. Things were still blurry, but after a moment or two, the world stopped turning like a whirling dervish and I saw Mark peering down at me.
“Trisha? Are you awake?” he said with concern.
“No you idiot I am sleeping with my eyes open!” I snapped, suddenly remembering all that had happened and wanting information, now. “Ok so what the HECK happened back there! So this pale guy comes up. Starts checking my birthmark out and then grabs me. Suddenly I’m outside and you have freaking FIRE in your HANDS and you throw it at him! Then, there is an ICE WALL! IN THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST! IN SOUTHERN FLORIDA!!! Do you know how wrong this whole thing is?! What the heck is going on? I want some answers!” I demanded, wanted to stamp my feet but I was lying on a bed and I was too tired to get up.
“Calm down Trish! Remember to keep breathing! I’m just glad you’re ok! I am so sorry I let that happen to you! I was supposed to keep you safe but I failed and I should be ashamed of myself! My one task and I blow it on the first day!” Mark said with so much despair that I want to hug him but then a word stands out to me and I stop, completely confused.
“Wait you’re supposed to protect me? What the heck? Why would I need protection? I’m no one of importance! Until today, I haven’t been attacked by anyone! Plus how would you know about me? I mean, didn’t we just meet today? This isn’t making any sense!” I sighed, thoroughly exasperated!
“Well I guess I will have to tell you now.” Mark said and I got the idea that I was in for a long story, “It all begins many, many, MANY years ago when man began to first mess with something now called DNA but at the time they didn’t know that. Anyways, they messed with some people’s DNA giving them, strange abilities. Suddenly, one could control fire just by calling it in his mind. He thought about it really hard and BOOM there it was in the palm of his hand! He could burn into peoples mind temporarily and could shoot the fire out of his palms! He could create walls of fire and, the best of all, he could form the fire into the image of a dragon that was very powerful and destructive. He found he could only do this once though. There was another, though, that had his DNA spliced up. He could control frozen water. He was an almost perfect opposite of the other. He could turn even the air into ice. He could turn water into wicked sharp needles and shoot them through the air, could create ice walls, and throw ice rocks through the air at high speeds. Both men were now very powerful and very dangerous but they were mistakes. The people working on the men decided to end the experiment and tried to put them down like dogs but the men killed all the scientists. The men decided to buy their own island with the scientist’s money and live there were they could be in peace without people judging them by their funky powers. They soon became lonely and decided to bring some ladies onto their island. They married two women and had kids and their kids had kids and so on and so forth till the whole island was overpopulated. One day, an ice guy killed a fire guy and ordered that all fire people should leave the island. The fire people didn’t want to leave and said that because they killed one of their men, the ice guys should leave! What was a little dispute turned into a bloody war and many lives were lost. The fire and ice people conquered more islands for the different races and the population of both is growing.” I sat there processing all that information and let Mark get a breath!
“Ok so wait, there are people with powers fighting over some islands and this applies to me how? And by the way this is all completely crazy and slightly confusing!” I said, still trying to process al this information. Mark obviously saw the look on my face and started to better explain the whole situation because he was being rather vague.
“Ok, well here’s the thing: I am a descendent of the first guy, Robert Paine, who had his DNA spliced and could control fire. I have the power to summon fire and bend it to my will. I am a more powerful bender and I can even summon the dragon, though I will only be able to do it once so I am saving it for a very special time.” I gasped! So he could control fire? But that was impossible, right? He had done it before and I had seen it so I had no choice but to believe him, and I guess that explained the ice wall from the other dude.
“So how do you know you can create the dragon if you haven’t ever tried it?” I asked because my brain had stopped working properly at “I can summon fire” and I had nothing better to say. Marcus took off his shirt and I had to bite my lip to keep from gasping. He had a perfect tan and some nice abs! He turned so I could see his shoulder and there, right below, was the fuzzy image of a dragon!
“Whoa! Since when have you had that?” I asked.
“Since I was born. I’ve had this mark and it proves that I can summon the dragon.” He said.
“Ok, ok so let’s pretend this is real and not some crazy dream. If you have this war and all, then why are you here protecting me?” I asked. Mark sighed and put his shirt back on.
“I can’t tell you that right now. It’s way too soon. You wouldn’t be able to process it. Just understand this; the ice generation is trying to kill you. And it’s my job to keep you safe.”


I didn’t give all that Mark had said much thought because I knew that this was all my imagination. Gosh, when I got bashed in the head, I probably got my brains scrambled a bit and I was now hallucinating all this! I looked around to see that I was in the school nurses office and most of the day had gone by. What a great first day of school… I tried to get up but started to feel woozy so Mark pushed me back down on the bed.
“Gosh, first day of school and I already have haters.” I mumbled, trying to sound happier than I was. At this rate, I’d have to call my mom to come and drive me home herself. She really hated that. There was a reason why I took the bus. Mark looked really worried.
“Trish, you have a bump the size of my fist on your forehead and you look really pale.” He said, “Please don’t tell me that on top of you getting bashed, your now worried about what I told you! I mean, I probably should have waited but—“ He was cut off because I butted in my thoughts.
“Ok look!” I said, “A) I will be fine B) you’re officially crazy and C) the whole thing with the fire and ice people is definitely my brain going wacko from the fun little experience today. Anything new you want to lay on me? Since I’m completely wacked, I’m in the right mind set to play Dr. Phil. So lay it on me because I can definitely take it!” Mark gripped my arms and looked like he was about to say something, but stopped.
“Yeah you’re probably right. That could never happen.” He said, almost with defeat in his voice, “Did you eat something funny for breakfast? I mean, fire in my hand? Really?” He tried to shake off all he had said. All I can say is this; I was officially crazy.
“I think I just need to go home and forget all about this.” I said.
“Well my family lives at the end of your street. Want me to drop you off at your house?” Mark asked me.
“Really? Thanks Mark! You’re a life-saver!” I exclaimed.
“Not very good at it, am I?” He muttered under his breath. I close to ignore that because today, I didn’t need anything else weird to happen to me. Mark signed me out of school and picked me up off of the bed, carrying me out of the nurse’s office and down the hall. I think I saw a girl swoon! Ha! I swelled with pride at how sappy this looked because it would make every girl within a mile radius wish she were me! Point for Trisha in the popularity game! Mark swung open the front door to the school and pressed a button on his phone.