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

so long?” Euclise asked, ice puffing out of his mouth as he spook. The air around him was ten degrees colder in that one second and it kept dropping at a freakish rate. Trisha began to violently shiver as Euclise bent down over her. He’s going to freeze her inner fire! I thought as Euclise stretched out his hand, ice swirling around on his palm. I growled and burst into action! My palms were already lit because of my anger and I flung them at the swirling vortex on his palm. I didn’t miss. I never miss. Many long hours of training have helped me achieve that and for once I was grateful! Euclise snarled and stood up, facing me and getting into battle stance. I placed a ring of shape-shifting fire around us so that normal humans couldn’t see us. Euclise spit on the ground, disgusted by all the heat. On his side, he placed an ice barrier behind the fire to block the heat. I smirked. That wouldn’t last long. Fire trumps ice in this case! The barrier would surely melt. My eyes grew huge as saucers and I gasped. Euclise smiled evilly as he flicked his hand and the ice melting into water at his will and start to writhe in the air, dousing out the fire barrier I had made! Oh no, he was one of the Gifted! I don’t know if I can win anymore! He replaced my fire barrier with one of ice. “Ah much better. Now I can beat you more comfortably!” Euclise said and he laughed. It was not joyful but cold and menacing. I shuttered as the temperature started to put out my inner fire! I looked over to Trisha. Her lips were blue and she moaned. I stared at Euclise. He looked at me, amused. I growled. I may not be able to beat him, but I will die trying! Trisha was our only hope and I could tell we would be good friends if given the chance. I wanted that chance. My eyes turned red. My palms were dancing with flames. Steam started to rise from my body. I began to chant, making the flames rise even more! I lunged right at Euclise and I missed! I had grazed him though, and he howled. I screamed for him to shut up and lunged again. He was too busy wallowing in his pain that I knocked him right in the chest! SCORE! I had knocked the wind, or in this case ice, right out of him. The Gifted were prideful and thought no one could hurt them. They got sloppy and I had used this fact to my advantage! I began to cause the fire to writhe in the air, heading straight for Euclise. His eyes grew sizes bigger! Ha! The fire began to wrap him and he screamed! I laughed! I had become bloodthirsty. He had hurt Trisha and I would never allow that again. I wanted to see him in pain; to watch him melt and die! I was hysterical now! My eyes were bloodshot and I couldn’t even see Trisha anymore. I wanted. Him. To. Die! His hand started to flick around, but I failed to notice this because I was in a crazed state that came on during a fight. Suddenly, water started to fly into the air, dousing out the fire holding Euclise captive. It also knocked me straight in the chest, throwing me back! I was shaken out of my blood crazed state and held my head in my hands. I hated when I was like that! It happened when I got really mad! I would get overcome by fire and it would someday be my demise! The fire would envelop me and I would be at my most powerful, but it would later kill me! My fighting instructor told me I had it worse than the other students for some reason. I was very powerful but I could die easier! I had laughed at this at the time. Now, I knew it was true. I looked up to see Euclise. He was badly burned and was limping away. I had to admit, he had saved my life, and Trisha’s and he didn’t know it! I chuckled sadly and shakily stood up. I walked over to Trisha, picked her up, and at the flick of my wrist, the fire and ice barrier was gone and the world could see us once again. I started towards the door and set her on her bed. It was now almost nine. She snuggled into her covers and was asleep fast. I could’ve cried. I had been foolish and I would never let that happen again! From now on, I would be by her side as much as possible! She would never have to endure that while I was watching. I placed a spell with my fire on the house to put everyone to sleep and walked back to my house, shaking in rage at myself. I would make sure my vows were never broken!


~Chapter 4~
(Back to Trisha’s POV)
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! My hand shot out of the covers and I pressed the snooze button. Nine minutes later, the same routine was going on and I decided to get up. Putting on the first things I saw, I walked downstairs to find everyone sleeping. My mother was snoozing in front of the sink. She was even standing up! I looked around. My dad was asleep in front of the TV. My little sister was on the floor by his feet, asleep also and still holding on to her toys! WTH? How weird! Then, they suddenly woke up and what looked like fire left their bodies! Ok, that was really weird! I grabbed some food and ran to catch the bus! I’d have to figure that one out when I got home or I would be late for school! I already had a rough start and I wanted today to be better. I got to the bus stop to see Mark smiling at me. I waved at him just as the bus rolled up. We both got on and, thank god, we had a different bus lady! This one didn’t seem to hate me but she looked tired! I can relate! I thought. I seemed to be always tired, and hot. No, not beautiful! It always felt like I had some kind of fire burning my body! It was starting to become excruciating! Just thinking about it made it hotter and I winced. Mark looked at me with concern.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing, it’s just really hot! I feel like I’m on fire!” I said, wincing again. His eyes looked sympathetic and he seemed to want to say more but he didn’t. I wondered what he was thinking about. I looked down at my hand. It was red! It looked like it had been sunburned really badly! I gasped as liquid fire seemed to emit from it as well as my other hand! Marcus looked down curiously and then whipped out a cellphone and began to text someone. Odd? It’s kind of a weird time to be texting someone, right? I looked over his shoulder and what he wrote didn’t make any sense. It read; she is making progress way faster than we expected! She going through the first phase and already she’s feeling the pain! I think we should move soon. I looked at him but Mark dismissed me with his hand and sent the text to who knows who! We arrived at school and I reached down to grab my stuff. My arm was turning red! Ohmygosh! What is happening to me, I thought! Mark looked over and his eyes got really big!
“Wow, talk about fast!” he said under his breath. I looked at him funny but kept on walking because if I stopped, I was sure I would burn up and we would be late for class. Both things a definitely didn’t want to experience! Mark grabbed his stuff and ran after me.
“Um Trisha, there is something…interesting…that is going on with your arms and maybe we should go.” He said.
“No way! I already missed my first day and I am NOT missing the next!” I said with defiance. He sighed and said,
“Well, at least let me put something on it so it feels better. This happened to me once and I still have the stuff my mother used when she was alive.” My arms were burning, literally it seemed, so I complied and went with him back outside and around the side of the building. Mark stood in front of me and said,
“Ok, close your eyes because this might sting a little.” I did as he asked me to. I heard him mutter something and then what felt like flames enveloped my arms. I screamed! It hurt so bad, I could hardly take it! I doubled over and Marcus grabbed me. I opened my eyes to see the redness on my arms receding down to my hands, then my fingertips, and finally, it was gone, leaving only a strange little tattoo on my hand. It looked like a dragon and it was inside of a circle. That was definitely not allopathic meds he had just given me, that was for sure! I sighed and hugged him! He stiffened, and then hugged me back.
“Thanks,” I said, “That was really starting to hurt! I don’t know what was happening, but right now, I really don’t care!” I raced back into the school, dragging Mark with me just as the bell was about to ring. Just great!


After what seemed like a lifetime of rules, basic worksheets, and other first day stuff, the bell rang, sounding that it was time for lunch! I raced down the hall, happy to be freed of the endless classrooms! I walked into the cafeteria with Mark and found a seat that was empty except for this really cool looking chick and two guys. We asked if we could sit down.
“Sure,” the girl said, “By the way, I’m Maggie but everyone calls me Mags.” Mags stood up and shook my hand.
“I’m Trisha and this,” I replied, gesturing to Mark, “is Marcus.” He waved timidly.
“Well, this here is Pete and David.” Mags said and they waved at me then Mark, and motioned for him to come sit next to them. Pete was kind of short and had black hair and blue eyes. He had a nice tan and looked pretty strong, despite his size. David was ruggedly handsome with brown hair and green eyes that seemed to have gold flecks in them. They intrigued me and I found myself staring. When he started to look at me funny, I blushed and sat down. Epic fail, Trish…
“So why didn’t I see you yesterday?” Mags asked me.
“Oh, some dude bashed me in the head and I lost consciousness for most of the day.” I said, rather bored. Her eyes got big.
“Dude, that sucks! You ok?”
“Yeah I’m fine…I think at least.” I said laughing. I really liked this girl! We started talking about anything and everything, the guys adding “helpful” comments in here and there but most of the time; they were in their own little world talking about who knows what! During that week, I spent tons of time with Mags and Dave and Pete. Marcus and I had become inseparable! He almost became my own little stalker but I enjoyed his company so I was ok with it. It was Saturday and Mags, David, Pete, Marcus and I were on the phone doing a three-way? Or maybe more like a five-way.
“Hey, y’all I’m totally bored! Let’s go to the mall. Or should we go to a movie?”