What Everyone Wants

A:

"I am not saying I do not appreciate the visit," I start, turning to Alieen, Alfred, and Matt as they stand beside their car, "But what are you three doing here so early in the morning?"

"Right now," Matt starts, "At the moment, I'm wondering what I just saw."

"I cannot answer you," I say. "As I do not have any answer myself."

"I thought you had to worry about only one shadow," Alfred says, his finger moving side to side. "Why was there a second?"

"Again," I say again but only slightly louder. "I cannot answer you as I do not have any answer myself. All I can tell you is that I was attacked by those two late last night and that apparently, our fight lasted until morning."

"That's a long fight," Matt says.

I turn behind and look at the ruins of what was once my gas station home. Even with my power, it will take a while to fix.

"Well, thankfully for me," I say, turning back to the others. "I do not have any plans at the moment."

"You're going to hunt those two down," Alieen says. She turns back toward me after staring at the sky.

I look at the sky myself, precisely at where the two disappear.

"No," I answer. "No, I am not."

"Really," Matt asks. "You're not going after those two. I mean, even after all of this?"

"No," I answer.

"Why not," Alieen asks.

"Yeah," Alfred goes on. "Why not? You told us you wanted answers to who you are, and I'm guessing those two have answers. Why don't you go after them?"

"Because my home is in ruins," I answer. "And before I go chasing shadows, I want to fix my home."

With that said, I turn around and look at my destroyed fence. Focusing on my power, I use my telekinesis the raise the fence, or at least the parts of the fence that can be raised. Now that the sun had risen, I can see the full extent of the damage.

"It is worst than I thought," I tell myself. Besides most of the fences being torn, the gas pumps are ripped from the ground and all over the place. The signpost with the price is also ripped from the ground but unlike the pump, it is not all over the place. It is on the side of the store, along with part of a wall and the roof. The ground is covered in holes and scorch marks.

I drop down to my knee and examine the scorch marks.

"Strange," I think. I think back to last night when I summoned literal walls of fire to trap those two shadows. "I did not know I could do this. How did I do this?"

I rub the blackened scorch marks and soot gets on my fingers. I sniff the soot.

"Strange," I repeat. This does not smell like regular soot. It smells, I cannot explain, but it smells different.

"What are you doing," Matt asks me out of nowhere.

Almost jumping, I calm myself down and turn to Matt.

"Matt," I slowly say.

"Yeah," Matt says. "What's up?"

"Please, unless you want me to use my power, step back."

"Actually," Matt laughs. "That sounds kind of awesome."

I shake my head and stand back up. I do not use my power. Instead, I just walk away from Matt. Matt, however, does what I did. He drops onto his own knee and rubs his fingers against the scorch marks. However, the second he touches the scorch marks, he screams and falls back.

"Matt," we all yell. Watching as Matt screams and rolls around on the ground, we all run to him.

"Matt," Alieen screams. She grabs and holds Matt. "Matt! Are you okay? What happened?"

Matt does not answer Alieen. Instead, he screams as he rolls back his head. Tears roll from his eyes as he breathes heavily through his closed teeth.

While Alfred and Alieen tend to Matt, I notice something. Matt is holding his fingers. I grab Matt's fingers and pry them away.

"Matt," I say, seeing his fingers. Two of Matt's fingers are burnt. I cannot be sure how badly but they are red and there seem to be some blisters on them.

"Matt," Alieen says. She must have noticed the burns too. She grabs Matt's fingers and examines them. "This is a second-degree burn!"

"A second-degree burn," Alfred repeats. "What? But how?"

No one says a word. The only person who is talking, or even making noise, is Matt. He is not screaming anymore but is sniffling. Despite not one of us saying a word, Alieen looks at me and I do not even need to use my power to know what she is thinking.

"Easy there," I say. I take Matt's hand from Alieen. "Matt, I am going to heal you."

"Just stay calm," Alieen says. "Matt, just stay calm. Okay? A got you."

Alieen looks at me and I nod my head. I hold Matt's hand in my and start to heal it. Quickly, the blisters fade away and Matt's skin returns to its normal color.

As I heal Matt, I accidentally look toward the car the three used to get here. In the back of the car, I see what looks like a pile of clothing.

"What are those," I ask. I do not give it much thought since by now, Matt's hand is healed and he is back to his normal self.

"Ahh," Matt sighs. "Oh god. Oh god! That hurts! That hurts so much! What was that! What was that?"

I would be lying if I did not say I slightly regret healing Matt.

"Matt," Alfred yells. "Matt! Matt!"

"What?"

Matt stops and turns to Alfred. The moment Matt stops, Alfred hugs him.

"Oh man," Alfred says. "I'm glad you're okay. What happened?"

"I don't know," Matt replies. "All I did was rub my fingers against that. When I did, it felt like I was suddenly on fire."

Matt points at the scorch marks on the fire. As he does, he, Alieen, and Alfred all take a step back.

"The scorch marks burn Matt," I think. I look down at my own fingers. The soot is still there. "My fingers feel fine. In fact, they feel more than fine."

I rub the soot even more, the soot going deeper into my fingers. As it does, I feel strangely energized.

"Come on," Alieen says. She starts to walk back to the car. "Let's just give A what we want and then go. We can go to a doctor afterward and see about your fingers, Matt."

"Uhh, yeah," Matt says. "Sure. Alfred, come on."

Matt nudges his head and Alfred follows him. Together, the three of them walk to the car and open the back seats. I watch from a distance as the three carry out a bunch of boxes. They carry out the boxes and drop them in front of me.

"What are these," I ask. Once more, I use my telekinesis power to open the box. Holding out my hand, I move the flaps to the side. "Canned foods? Box of Ritz crackers?"

I move to another box. This box is filled with jackets, pants, and even two pairs of shoes.

"These are for you," Alieen says. She sighs at first. She then turns around from me. She stares at nothing for a few seconds before turning back to me.

"This," she starts, pausing to take a deep breath. "This is the last time we can meet. I'm sorry, A."

"Wait, what? Alieen, what are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry," Alieen repeats. "But when you think about it, isn't this what we all wanted?"

I cannot be sure but it starts to sound like Alieen is crying.

"I mean, isn't this what we all wanted," she repeats. "You wanted to be left alone. I didn't want my friends to be involved in all of this."

"Wait, wait, wait," I say. I take a step forward Alieen steps back. She then shoots out her hands.

"Stop," she shouts. "Don't come near!"

"Alieen," I say, "Why?"

Alieen tries to say something but I cannot understand a word. She is stuttering non-stop. I try to take another step but Alieen quickly back away.

"Stop," she shouts again. She points a finger at me and I take it as a sign to step back. "Just know that I'm sorry. A, I really am, but I think this is what is best for all of us."

With that, Alieen turns and leaves. She gets in the car with Alfred and Matt and the three of them drive away without so much as a look back.

I am left alone with nothing but a bunch of boxes filled with supplies.