I take a deep breath, scratching my head. I can't wait anymore. I need answers, and it's clear now that they are not going to come to me just by waiting, locked within these four walls. Even with Kelsi hacking the hospital's wifi and sneaking her computer in, we only got this much. They are all working hard at keeping me in the dark, and I'm tired of it.
"Three days," I say. "If I don't learn anything new from my sister or Bonnie within the next three days, I'm breaking out of here."
"B-breaking out?" Kelsi repeated in a whisper. "Boo, that's a little bit extreme..."
I shrug.
"If the answers don’t come to me, I'm going to them!"
Chapter 3
I take a deep breath, and open my hands again slowly. I count to three. One, two... A flame appears in the middle of my hand, making me smile. I check my weird watch, but it's still beeping green. My body temperature is probably still on the normal spectrum... I try to focus on the flame dancing in my hand. It doesn't look like a normal fire. It's dark red, almost an odd shade of pink, burnt pink. I put my hands closer together, and slide it from one palm to the other. My heart is thumping in my chest.
I'm getting the hang of this. There is no smoke this time, just a warm, cozy, little fire bouncing between my hands. I can't help but chuckle a little bit. It feels different from the fire I provoke when I'm angry. This one isn't dangerous... I try to bring it closer to my arm, the one without the bracelet. As expected, I don't get burned from that. Even my body hair is just fine. To me, this flame is barely warm. I look around me and grab a dead leaf that’s close to my knee. I'm sitting down in some meditation pose, and my back is starting to ache a bit, but I don't care. I take another deep breath and bring the dead leaf to the flame. As expected, it starts to burn right away, until the little ashes fall in between my legs. So the fire doesn't burn me, but it's still hot to everything else. I should have asked Benjamin what colors the flames were from the fire they found me in, but I haven't seen him since.
I sigh and decide to practice a bit more. I try to have it change position, flipping my hand over. Now, it's on the back of my hand, but it's harder to control. I frown and focus on pushing it to the tips of my fingers... As soon as I try to split it, most of the fire dies down, but I manage to have some go all the way up to my index finger and thumb. I pout. Yeah, maybe the roof wasn't the best idea to practice handling fire. There is too much wind here. I put my thumb and index finger together, and the fire goes into the little circle they made.
Why am I fine while doing this? No pain, no headache. My burns are healing just fine too, and more importantly, no voices... I just don't get the voices. What the heck was that? It was my first time actually having this kind of hallucination. Before that, there was always something like a shadow inside my mind. Now, it's outside too. I let out a long sigh. I'm never leaving this place if they find out I'm experiencing that crap more and more. I wish there was another witch around to teach me what the hell is wrong with me...
"Mara! Finally, I found you!"
I jump and extinguish my fire right away. I get up and turn around to find Bonnie, her arms crossed at the doorway of the rooftop's exit.
"Bonnie!" I exclaim.
I haven't seen her in days, I'm excited just to see her red hair flying around her freckled frowning face. She looks annoyed, shaking her head.
"You have a freaking tracking watch on you and you still make me run all around the hospital to find you!"
"Sorry... I needed some fresh air, and they won't let me into the park again, so–"
"You could open the window in your room, you know!"
It's my turn to frown. So much for fresh air, those damn windows barely open enough for me to let my arm out! I walked up to her, trying to hide the fact that I was practicing my fire handling.
"It's been a while," I say while walking back inside with her.
"Sorry. My older brother suddenly asked me to come and help them at the children's hospital, they were swamped, all the kids gave each other the flu..."
"Oh..."
I hesitate, biting my thumb. Should I tell her about Benjamin? After a while, I remembered Kelsi's words. If I want honesty, I'd better make the first step myself...
"I met... Benjamin."
She nods but doesn't stop walking. We are now going down the empty emergency staircase to get back to my floor, and it's awkwardly quiet in here. For some reason, I don't like enclosed spaces like these. There could be room for ten people on each floor, but if it lacks windows and air circulation, I don't like it.
"I know, he told me. As usual, he couldn't keep quiet..."
"...Why didn't you tell me? About... the other witches, and your older brother?"
Bonnie stops, putting her hands in her white blouse's pockets, and turns to me. I see her searching for the right words, licking her lower lip.
"I thought you might feel... too pressured. Everything that happened here happened... before you, Mara. Those witches are dead now, and you're not them. I thought you might feel bad if you knew what had happened. It's not that I have anything against you because of… the loss of my brother. Everyone knows this is a weird situation. We never expected another witch to show up, we don't know what to expect from you either... I also have to watch what I say, I'm under orders."
"Selena Whitewood's orders?"
"Yeah." She nods. "Selena is doing her best right now, but... it's complicated."
