Rouge (18 page)

Hunter snickered and received
a stern glare from Joshua. “Relax, I’m not gonna burn you.”

“Don’t say that so
confidently,” he replied and scribbled furiously. “All it takes is one flash of
anger and we all go
kaboom
- well, except you.”

“Fine.”

“Now… try concentrating on
the oxygen particles in the air, like we did yesterday. Can you see them?”

“Yeah.” She marveled at her
ability to actually sense the tiny elements in the oxygen around them and feel
the way the heat moved with it. “How do I do that?”

“So far… I have no idea. But
it does come naturally to you, so I assume it’s a part of your understanding of
science and how you contribute that to your powers.”

“I’m
so
getting into Hamilton,” she grinned.

The ball of sparking flames
floated like a ghost around Hunter’s body as she breathed deeply. She found
that she needn’t even look at the ball to know where to move it, and soon it
was spinning faster and faster around her until the ball was no longer there,
but a ring of fire like a great halo circling her body. She opened her eyes, a
smile wider than a Cheshire cat cut across her mouth. Power just like what
she’d felt in the alleyway surged through her, but this time it didn’t feel
evil. It was blissful, intoxicating and warmer than all the fire she’d ever
produced.

Joshua was staring,
horrified, frozen, until he panicked, snatched the fire extinguisher and aimed.

“Joshua, n-”

He released the nozzle and
before Hunter could finish, a cloud of sodium bicarbonate burst from the pump
in his fingers and blew directly into Hunter’s face.

The pale white cloud settled
and she opened her eyes and glared at him.

“I’m done,” she said through
her teeth, tasting the acid in her mouth.

“Wait Hunter, I have to tell
you-”

“Goodnight.”

Hunter hopped off the table
and stalked to the door of the lab, leaving a trail of snowy-white footprints
behind. Joshua stared at the door, still grasping the fire-extinguisher as
though it were his life support.

The apartment was empty when Hunter
awoke the next day. She found a note on the kitchen bench, begging her to stay
home and practice controlling her powers. Joshua had refused her the permission
to go anywhere but the lab and work, and Hunter was sick of it. She was
confident that she could face even Benny and not lose control. Not only was she
ready, but the idea of training even for another ten minutes made her toes
curl. She couldn’t stand it another day. She had to get out.

Hunter showered, dressed,
ate breakfast and caught a taxi to school. She spent the entire cab ride
arguing with herself. The voice of the fire assured her she’d be fine, that her
training had made her stronger and tightened the bonds she had on the flames in
her core. She couldn’t stay away from civilization forever, and Joshua had no
more control over her than a single hose had over a raging bushfire. This was
as good a time as any to test herself.

But the smaller and wiser
voice of her innocence warned her that it was foolish to leave home. Work was
different; a place where she could be herself, a place where she was calm. But
school…

What if she put someone in
danger? What if she lost control? There was no Joshua with a fire extinguisher
this time. She could expose herself. She might kill again.

When the taxi dropped her off
at the end of the road in direct line of sight of the giant iron gates and the
hundreds of students slowly moving inside the building, her fears consumed her.
She couldn’t do it. The fire tingled, either warning her not to go or begging
her to unleash chaos, so she gave up. Never again could she go through what
she’d suffered after the man in the alleyway lay dead upon the concrete.

“I’m really sorry,” she said
to the driver, “but I changed my mind.”

He let out an exasperated
sigh. “It’s gonna cost
ya
sweetheart.”

“I know,” she replied and
gave him a new address.

The taxi took her to Saint
Paul’s chapel cemetery. Being early morning on a Monday, there weren’t many
people around. Hunter was glad. She forced herself to thank the driver, careful
not to meet his eye or even touch him, and hurried into the shadow of the
trees.

She passed grave after grave
until she came to their headstones.

Tears lodged themselves in
her throat. Suddenly, they looked completely different. Shadowed and dark,
buried with their secrets and a life neither of them asked for.

Hunter knelt before her
mother and father’s simple black headstones and put a hand on each. She closed
her eyes and breathed in deeply. The smell of the coming spring filled the air,
and her body was warm. She didn’t even feel the water from the earth soaking
her knees. The strangest sensation coursed through Hunter’s skin as she sat
with her hands on the graves, wondering what her life would be like if her
parents were alive.

Would she still be who she
was? Would she be confident in herself, would she still not care what others
thought of her? Would she be the popular cheerleader with the quarterback
boyfriend and no career ahead of her? Would she even know Eli?

No,
she thought to herself with a smile.
I’d
be the one picking on him.

It was because of her past
that Hunter became this person. If her parents hadn’t died, she wouldn’t have
her powers. She wouldn’t have even talked to Eli. She wouldn’t be strong,
charismatic and different. Fate, God, whoever, had cursed her with no real
family but gifted her with a purpose. And it wasn’t until now that Hunter
realized that.

A burning sensation blew
through her blood, as if her mother had heard her thoughts.

“I love you,” she whispered
and gently laid a kiss on her mother and father’s headstones. “But now I don’t
need to wonder what life would be like if things were different, because this
is the way I am, the way you made me.” A small tear raced down her cheek.

She waited a moment longer
until it began to drizzle light rain. It fell slowly, tiny drops resting on her
shoulders, her red hair and the graves where her parents were laid to rest. She
stood and walked out of the cemetery, warm inside from the burning fire that
simmered in her soul.

When Hunter heard the apartment door
open and the sound of Joshua’s expensive shoes on the tiles, she turned on the
couch and switched off the television, giving him a welcoming smile.

“You’ll never guess what I
did today,” she grinned.

Joshua set his briefcase on
the bench top and undid his cufflinks. “I hope it was practicing control.”

“Yup,” she lied. “But in a
much more entertaining way. I dried my washing, except I accidentally burned
two of my T-shirts and an old pair of track pants, but eventually I got the
technique right. And I cooked lunch without using the stove.”

“Well, then there was no
point in fixing it was there.” He put a hand on her shoulder and gave her an
almost warm smile. “I’m proud of your self-control Hunter. Soon you’ll be off
to school without a second thought. Anyway, what made you suddenly so
understanding?”

“I realized something today.
That there’s no taking away the fire, so I might as well get used to it being
here. It’s a part of who I am. Maybe one day I can use it for heroic things.”

Joshua’s face fell. “Hunter,
you can’t use your powers like that. People will find out it’s you.”

“So what? Not using my
powers would be like… winning the lottery and choosing to put it away in the
bank instead of using it to solve world hunger. It’s selfish.”

There was something in
Joshua’s eyes that started to scare Hunter. He joined her on the couch, staring
out at the beautiful city view and the slowly sinking sun, clenching his fists
together.  “Look, I know that when you think of people with powers, you
think of capes and masks and saving the world. But I care about you too much to
let you throw the rest of your life away.”

Hunter turned to him,
kicking one leg up on the couch. “Joshua, what are you afraid of?”

His eyes drifted to hers.
She’d never seen fear there. Real fear. Nervousness, awkwardness, worry, sure.
But never dreaded fear.

He exhaled hard. “I need to
tell you something.”

“Okay.”

“There are people out there
who would want to do you harm if they knew what kind of power you possessed.”

“Like… lock me up in a lab
and stick needles in me?” she smiled jokingly. Joshua nodded and Hunter’s heart
sunk. “Oh. How do you know that?”

“I came across them during
my research. They were working with the labs in Sweden. When I destroyed all
the manufacturing companies, they somehow discovered my identity and had people
called Agents follow me. These men knew I had been working on a formula. I was
afraid they were watching me, watching
you
, so I hid all traces of the
stone and Feucotetanus in room 57 and pretended I knew nothing. They never came
back.”

“And
how did you destroy these labs Joshua? On your own?”

He
shrugged immodestly. “I did my research, posed as a scientist and cut them open
from the inside. It did take some years, but there were only two labs, and they
were very small and secret.”

Despite
the pride in Joshua’s tone, Hunter had to admit she was a little afraid of him.
If he had the ability to destroy a super-secret drug in a foreign country, what
else was he capable of?

“Point
is, they’re gone forever,” he added.

Hunter
was slowly zipping and unzipping her jacket, feeling a nervous energy rise
inside her. This was why Joshua was always so over cautious of her. Why he felt
the need to call her fifty-billion times when she was out. Why he became sick
with worry after she ran away. Joshua was afraid these ‘Agents’ would find her.

“Who do these Agents work
for?”

“A genetics company. You can
imagine how desperate they are to get their hands on someone like you. You’re a
scientist’s dream come true.”

More fear settled in her
stomach like food she could not digest. She was afraid to ask any more
questions.

“This is why I
implore
you
Hunter to be cautious with your powers. More than cautious. They could still be
watching us. If you reveal your powers to anyone, anyone at all, they will
sniff you out and find you.”

“Okay,” she nodded sharply.
“Thanks, you’ve just given me wonderful nightmares for the rest of my life.”

“I’m only being honest, like
you asked.”

She gave him a wry smile.
“How thoughtful.”

Joshua’s jaw set hard as he
stared at his hands and muttered, “I just don’t want to lose you Hunter. You’re
the only piece left of her.”

Hunter’s heart clenched in
sympathy. Joshua loved her mother more than even Hunter did, and she couldn’t
believe she’d been so blind to it before. Pain radiated from his body; she
could almost see it in the air. Lifting her hand, Hunter placed it on Joshua’s
shoulder.

“I promise you won’t lose me
Joshua. I won’t use my powers, at least until I know I’m ready. Please… just
don’t take away what’s still normal in my life. If I stop going to school any
longer, I’m going to lose Eli.”

“Will that be so bad?”

Hunter smiled at the child-like
hope in his eyes. “Wow, you’re really jealous aren’t you?”

Joshua laughed bitterly. “I
guess I never thought the day would come when you’d finally replace me.”

“Hey, it’s too soon to tell
okay?” She stood and marched into the kitchen. “Hungry?”

“Starving.”

Hunter’s feet were frozen on the
concrete. Not only because the chilly bite of the winter air swirling around
her made them stiff and cold, but because she was scared to take another step.

Before her were the great
iron gates of her school. The grounds were almost empty, and Hunter glanced at
her watch, realizing she was early. The cold wind blew around her and for the
first time, she was thankful. The heat didn’t feel so angry inside her, as if
the flames were silent and chilly. It was comfortable, and gave Hunter
confidence to step through the gates.

She stuck her hands in her
pockets where her cigarette packet was tucked away. Like a thief in the night,
Hunter glanced behind her and walked briskly around one of the side buildings.
There was nothing like a good smoke to calm her down.

When she smoked in the
apartment, she felt no fear in summoning the heat, clicking her fingers and
lighting the cigarette with her own flame, but the very thought of using her
powers in public - even hidden behind the science building between the shade of
an oak tree and the giant air vent - made her stomach flip. She imagined men in
black suits and shady glasses lurking in the trees, watching her closely.
Agents of whatever secret laboratory Joshua feared so deeply.

She lit the cigarette with a
lighter and inhaled the glorious smoke deep into her lungs. She hadn’t quite
figured out the science behind it, and couldn’t ask Joshua for his expert
opinion since he didn’t know she smoked, but it did the trick. In a matter of
moments, she felt much better about entering the school building and facing the
stares. She’d missed over a week of school. On top of the rumors that still
circulated and the dirty looks people shot at her daily, the school population
would have a field day with her reappearance. Of that, she was sure.

“I heard those things give
you lung cancer,” came a voice from her left and Hunter nearly jumped out of
her own skin.

There stood Eli. He had just
come out of the science building and must have turned the wrong way. He wore a
woolen gray coat, dark jeans and a navy-blue beanie, his glasses rimming his
beautifully strange green eyes. He hadn’t changed a bit.

Hunter braced herself for
the fire to boil beneath her skin and instinctively held her breath. Eli
observed her with careful eyes, expecting her to appear sick.
Laryngitis,
she
thought to herself quickly.
That’s what I said I had.

“Um,” she wheezed and tried
not to look at him. The fire hadn’t burned yet, but she didn’t get her hopes
up. “Sorry you had to
er
... see that.”

Eli shrugged and leaned
beside her on the science building wall. His arm just touched hers, and the
current of electricity between them buzzed with life and energy. Hunter was
fascinated, but Eli didn’t seem to notice.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m
fine with it.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You
are?”

“My mother used to smoke.
Dad still does. I don’t like it myself personally, but it’s kind of
comforting... in a weird, poisonous way.”

She laughed, and it felt
good. She hadn’t laughed in weeks. This
is what I’ve been missing.

“Still, I don’t understand
how you can smoke those things. They’re revolting. It must be worse after
you’ve been sick for so long.”

Hunter found herself nodding
as words got stuck in her throat. It worked to her advantage however, because
she was supposed to have a throat condition. Her heart was shrinking at the
lies she knew she’d have to tell Eli from now on. Her absence from school. Her
strange behavior. If ever they started dating, she’d have to explain her hot
flushes, her fear of intimacy, even Joshua...

“Are you sure you’re okay
Hunter?” Eli asked and when she looked up at him, his green eyes gazed down at
her, caring and innocent. After spending so much time with Joshua, it was
strange to be around someone who didn’t know what she was and what she’d done.
In a way she felt ten times guiltier, but it was also a relief.
To Eli, I’m
just a girl. No powers. No ugly past. No shame and guilt and curse.

Hunter gave him her best
attempt at a smile. It felt alien.

“Yeah. Just tired.” The bell
rang for class and she dropped her cigarette, grounding it into the concrete.
“We should get to class.”

She began to walk towards
the front building when Eli grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

The touch of his skin was
like a match lit inside Hunter. A shock ran down her spine, splitting through
her blood and suddenly the fire in her core was blazing. She yanked her hand
from Eli’s and spun her back to him, forcing the fire down before it could get
out of control.

“Sorry,” he muttered, his
cheeks flushing deeply. “I was... I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I was um... I was wondering
if I might be able to ask you something.”

Hunter counted to three
before she was sure the fire had slithered back to whatever hell it came from
and then turned to meet his gaze. Anxiety splashed across his masculine
features. “Sure.”

“Uh, since you’re feeling
better, I was wondering...” he pushed his glasses further up his nose, took a
deep breath and said very quickly, “would you like to go on a date with me?”

Hunter found herself
answering before her mind could argue against it.

“I’d love to.”

Eli beamed. “Great, um… so
Friday then? You’re not working?”

“I can swap shifts,” she
nodded.

Why not?
she thought.
I deserve some semblance
of normalcy in the raging cyclone of my life
.

There was a knock on her bedroom door
and from behind it came Joshua’s voice. “Hunter, are you dressed?”

“No!” she replied and
grabbed her dressing gown from the rack behind her door. Clothes were strewn across
her bedroom in an attempt to find something decent to wear. “What do you want?”

She peered through the crack
to see Joshua standing in his work clothes with his reading glasses on. “I
wanted to know if you’d like any dinner.”

She shook her head. “I’m
going to bed early.”

His gaze lingered for a few
suspicious seconds, then he smiled. “Okay. Did you do the training exercises I
asked today?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I’m
sore as.”

“Good. I’m proud of you Hunter,”
he told her with as much solemnity as was possible for him. “You’re improving
vastly and I think you’ll be ready to go back to school soon.”

“Sure, yeah, thanks.” She
snapped the door shut in his face before guilt consumed her and Joshua noticed
it.

“Um, okay, well I’m going
down to the lab for a little while to finish grading papers,” he shouted from
outside her door, “so if you want dinner, it’s in the fridge. We’ll start
training again tomorrow night when I get home from work.”

“Okay,” she called. “I’ll
see you in the morning.”

She listened for his
retreating footsteps and then slipped on her boots. After pinning her long red
hair into a messy bun of curls, Hunter rugged herself up in a dark coat and
scarf and slipped out of the apartment.

The entire drive through the crazy
Friday night traffic in the cold winter weather, Hunter tried desperately to
fight off the butterflies in her stomach. She was excited not only to get out
of the house or to be spending time with Eli, but because she finally had
something in her life that didn’t leave her confused or alone.