Chapter 01: Axel
I was laying on the couch inside Threshold, the video game store where I worked. Nine AM didn’t bring many customers, especially on school days like today. Sometimes I wondered why we opened so early. The only thing I could fathom was so those on the early shift could have a couple hours alone with the plasma-screen multi-console. I had already beaten Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess twice and I was working on my third round. Can’t get enough of the classics.
The door jingled as someone entered the shop. I would have ignored him until he reached the counter, but the smell of smoke drifted to my nose. I didn’t even pause as I told him, “Hey, no smoking in here.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him turn to me, a surprised look on his face. It seemed he hadn’t noticed me until then. He ran to me.
“I need water!” he said. “Please, help me!”
It was then I noticed his hand was on fire.
I jumped off the couch away from him, throwing my controller to the seat. I hurried to the back room, hoping someone left a water bottle in the community fridge.
“Please, you gotta help me! I didn’t mean to...”
I returned to see that he had hopped over the counter. Without a word I poured the water over his hand, which stopped burning with a hiss.
That was the only sound for a few seconds. I stared at him, mouth slightly open. His dark hair was singed, probably from whatever lit his hand on fire. His blue eyes were troubled, worried, scared, awed. He had to be a couple years older than me, since he wasn’t at school; I had graduated early.
A little something in the back of my mind sent a trigger to my stomach, setting off butterflies. Something about his wild appearance made him extremely attractive.
“I should call an ambulance,” I said.
“No!”
I took a step back.
“I... I mean...” His eyes broke contact with mine, searching the ground as though the right words were hidden there. “No one can know. I’m fine, see?” He lifted his hand for me to see. There was no evidence that it had ever been on fire seconds ago.
“Wrong hand,” I said. He raised his other hand. It was just as bare. Perfectly burn free.
I took another step back. “Yo-you’re messing with me. You probably u-used hand sanitizer or whatever. M-my cousins showed me once.” My back hit the wall. I felt the blood drain from my face.
He shook his head, looking almost as scared as I was. “Th-that must be it. I must have... touched the fire after using hand sanitizer. I couldn’t have started that fire. I... couldn’t...”
I pushed out a laugh, though it sounded more like a squeak. “Okay. You’ve had your fun. You can go home now... Put it on Facebook or whatever.”
His breathing grew ragged. He looked at the street through the shop windows. It was almost deserted. One woman jogged on the opposite sidewalk with a stroller. A car zoomed past going the other direction. The boy hid behind the counter as the car slowed at a stop sign.
“K, seriously,” I whimpered. “You’re freaking me out!” My knees wanted to crumble, but I held my ground; now that the boy was crouching, I had the advantage of height.
Did video game tricks work in the real world?
“Where do I go?” the boy said. I looked down at him. His knees were curled up to his chest and his arms tugged them close. He rocked back and forth, eyes on the ground.
I was cornered by an insane kid.
“Look, I’m just gonna make a quick call, m’kay?”
He sprang up and stopped me before I could move. My breath caught in my throat.
“You-you can’t! They’ll take me away! The fire wasn’t my fault!”
A loud engine rumbled in the street and we both looked at the dark van that pulled to the curb of the shop. I breathed a sigh of relief. A customer. They could help me with this crazy kid.
But no. The kid had ideas of his own. He pulled me into the back, frantically looking around.
“Is there another way out?”
I heard blood rushing in my ears. His grip was tight on my wrist. I could only hope he didn’t have a weapon, and that this didn’t turn into a hostage situation. I hesitated, listening for the tell-tale sound of the door.
The bell chimed. I opened my mouth to scream, but the boy slapped his hand over my face, pulling our bodies close.
“You idiot!” he whispered. “You’ll get us both captured!”
I wriggled my hand around within his grip, but only managed to hurt myself in his tense fingers. I knew I would have a bruise later. The boy started backing away from the counter, still searching for a second door. It wasn’t a conscious effort to keep the door hidden. The employee entrance was just the best spot for posters. Over the years of never taking them down, the posters ended up making it difficult to find the exit.
The customer then said, “I know you’re in here, kid. Just come with us. It’ll hurt less if you’re cooperative.”
I paled. This was no customer.
“Come out from there willingly. Otherwise...” I heard a click. It reminded me of something I’d only heard in movies. “Otherwise, things could get messy.”
In a flash, I decided the boy was the lesser threat. With my free hand, I pointed to the door hidden under the posters.
The boy checked outside first, then pulled me through. The sunlight momentarily blinded me.
“Is that your car?” the boy asked, indicating the sole vehicle parked behind the shop. I nodded; his hand was still over my mouth.
“Give me your keys.”
I didn’t move.
“We have to get out of here now!” the boy snarled. “Here, I’ll let you go, but you have to help me.”
He slowly lifted his hand off my face and I took a deep breath through my mouth. So many questions popped into my head, I remained silent for a while, unable to move. The boy put his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face him.
“Please, I don’t want you hurt on my account. Just give me your keys and we’ll get out of here.”
“Why?” I managed to ask.
“I’ll explain once we’re safe. Please.”
I couldn’t stand staring in his eyes.
Thump!
Our heads turned as one to the door we just escaped through. The man inside must have hit the wall or something to make such a loud noise. I heard yelling through the concrete. The boy turned back to me.
“Now!”
With shaking hands, I pulled my keys out of my pocket and wordlessly handed them to the boy. He dragged me to the passenger side, then hurried to the driver’s side. He already had the engine on before I closed my door. I couldn’t get my seat belt buckled as he spun around. The employee door slammed open. A man in a black suit ran out to my car as we sped away into the street. I watched him shoot at us until I couldn’t see him anymore.
Feeling light headed, I sat back in my seat. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. The boy took a sharp turn too fast and I almost toppled into him. Then I hurried to put my seat belt on.
“Is he following us?” the boy asked. I looked back again and saw no sign of pursuit. I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I gave him a thumb’s down. I wished he would slow down. If he was running from someone, he shouldn’t break the speed limit, especially since we were nearing the busier parts of town. He took a few more turns before he slowed down. We joined a line of cars waiting to turn onto main street, and I closed my eyes.
“Names first,” the boy said solemnly. “I’m Axel. What’s your name?”
I glared at him, but couldn’t help but feel the stupid butterflies again. That was the name of one of my favorite characters. “Tell me what’s going on.”
He glanced at me, but didn’t say anything. His jaw worked as he concentrated on driving. There was silence in the car for a short while, but I gave in.
“Gwen,” I said with a sigh. “Call me Gwen.”
“I’d say it’s nice to meet you, Gwen, but this isn’t the best of circumstances.”
“Understatement,” I said, and closed my eyes again.
Axel sighed. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that. This is all so new to me...”
“What do you mean?”
It took him a moment to gather his thoughts. “I just moved here. My family lives on the same street as that store. I saw it the other day and wanted to check it out, but I hadn’t had a chance.”
“Quite the first visit. What does this have to do with anything?” I asked.
“Not much, I guess.” He paused. “Well, all of my siblings are younger than me. They’re school shopping right now. Both my parents work, so I was alone. I was having troubles with the stove; I’ve never had to use a gas stove before.”
“Never? Not even camping?”
“I’ve never been camping.”
“Never been camping? What about BBQs?”
“My dad handles the grill. He never bothered to teach me, and I hadn’t bothered to ask. But this is beside the point.”
I scolded myself in my head. “You’re right. Sorry. Continue.”
“Anyways, I was frustrated and thinking about fire. I got angrier and angrier until... my hand caught fire. I didn’t feel anything, but I freaked out. I... accidentally set the house on fire.”
I gasped.
“I wasn’t thinking straight. I should have called the fire department, but I was too weirded out by the fact that I didn’t feel a thing. I ran out of the house to find that van parked in my driveway. The guy got out of his car and pulled out a gun. He told me to get into the van. I ran in the opposite direction and hid in your shop. You know the rest.”
I tried to soak it all in. It was like a story. Things like this didn’t happen in real life. I asked wearily, “Didn’t you say you used hand sanitizer?”
Axel had no answer to that. I didn’t need one anyway.
The car stopped. I opened my eyes to see that we were at a park. Young mothers chatted on benches, watching their children run around the playground. It looked so innocent. So normal. We sat there for a while in silence. Axel turned off the engine but didn’t get out of the car.
“I... I should go home,” I said.
Neither of us moved.
I heard a sob and turned to see Axel with his head in his hands. His shoulders shook with the effort to keep from crying. I felt tears well in my own eyes. Seeing someone so helpless, I wanted desperately to help him, but I had no idea how. I climbed up to sit on the center consul so I could hug him. There were no words to fix this.
After a few minutes, Axel gently shrugged me off, and I slid back into my chair. He wiped his eyes on his sleeves and gathered himself. He unbuckled his seat belt.
“I’m sorry for dragging you into this. You should go home now. Forget about me. You’ll never see me again.”
Without waiting for a reply, he got out of the car.
“Hey!” I said, hurrying out of the car myself. I ran around the front to grab his arm. He shrugged me off again, but stopped.
“Where will you go?” I asked quietly. He stiffened. “You can’t really expect me to just forget all this.” I walked around so I was facing him. He wouldn’t look at me. “Let me help you.”
“I’ve put you in too much danger already.” He tried to step past me, but I stopped him. He tried again and I got in his path. Finally he got angry and looked up at me with burning eyes.
...Literally.
“Get out of my way,” he said. He shoved me aside. I gasped with unexpected pain. I fell against my car and to the ground, where I sat dazed.
“Gwen!” Axel said when he realized what he had done. He knelt next to me and reached out. That’s when we both saw that his hands were aflame. “Your shoulder,” he said weakly.
I rolled my head to the left and saw what he was talking about and where the pain had come from. My sleeve was on fire. I gasped and patted at it with my right hand. Once the fire went out, I didn’t dare remove my hand to look at the injury.
Axel clenched his jaw and fists, obviously upset that he couldn’t help. “Do you see now? I’m dangerous, and I’m hunted. I don’t understand any of it, and I can’t put you in the middle.”
I watched in amazement as the fire slowly drained from his hands. By the time he was done talking, his hands were back to normal. He followed my gaze, only then noticing the change. I looked at his eyes until he looked into mine. My mouth twitched into a pathetic smile.
“You can control it.”
“What?” he asked, rocking back into a sitting position, as though my words were a physical blow.
“You’re like that guy in Fantastic Four. You control fire.”
“You’re delirious with pain,” Axel argued. “Let me drive you home.”
“I’m serious!” I said, suddenly angry. “Don’t you get it? That guy came to your house right as you discovered your power! You’re special! You have a magical ability! Why are you staring at me like that?” Axel’s mouth was in a small ‘o.’
“You’re... floating.”
“I’m what?” Anger turned into fear in an instant.
“Look at the ground below you.”
I did. I was six inches away from it. I fell back onto the gravel with a bruising thump. The blood drained from my face. “You’re right. I’m delirious.”
Axel said nothing as he helped me up. I pushed him off me and walked to the passenger side.
