Blazing Fire

Yelena

“Yelena?” Verón’s voice echoed in my head as he said it aloud.

“What?” I asked him, perhaps a little too harshly, then quickly retaliated, “Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.” I felt a jabbing pain in my head.

He raised an eyebrow before cracking a smile, “It’s all good, don’t worry. But, I was just wondering...about the quiz.” I shoved him with my binder and snatched my piece of paper from inside my locker.

“Nope, not a chance,” I smirked and shoved the paper back into my locker. He playfully shoved me back until he got hold of my binder. I then gave him the sheet of paper that was my cheat sheet for the Biology quiz. I didn’t know why he wanted my cheat sheet, because it was always so sloppy, “Well, if you want it so bad, just tell me what class you have next?” I said, “And why do you need the cheat sheet so badly? You could’ve asked Alia because mine is a mess.”

“Biology. That’s the one class I just can’t understand,” Verón made a face as I peered over his shoulder. I took a glance at his schedule and saw it had many random doodles all over it. “What about you? All things considered, you seem fairly calm about what class you have next.”

“English. Hopefully, I don’t have a ton of work to do. If I don’t, I might be able to go to the dance tonight,” I paused to think of a polite way to ask, “Are you doing anything tonight that may...interfere with the timing of the dance?”

“Yeah, I’m going.” Verón’s response seemed lifeless, which was strange. He normally had an enthusiastic response to something as fun as the dance. I shrugged to myself, He’s probably having a bad day. I thought.

A loud crash echoed down the hall. We both turned to look at each other, exchanged glances, and subsequently dashed down the hallway, but we weren’t the only ones running to the source of the sound. Other people had already gathered around the scene. I tried to look over the crowd of people but was unable to even see the source of the commotion. All I heard was a shaky voice amongst the crowd.

Verón gasped, “I-it’s.”

“What is it?” I demanded as I was standing on my tip-toes. Some people shoved past me and nearly knocked me off balance, but I ended up shoving them back. A scream came from the center of the circle, and I felt a jabbing pain in my head. Whispers from a multitude of people came from all around me, mostly people asking each other what in the world was happening. I tapped my temple, trying to calm myself down. My head felt as if voices were screaming to be heard, but everything was all a blur.

“Help me, help, help...please!” A shaky voice gasped. The voice said something afterward, but I couldn’t hear it. Once he (which I assume they were a he, the voice sounded like a he) spoke, the crowd fled like seagulls flying off the ground when something spooks them. Verón knelt down and took out a vial of glowing orange fluid.

“Relax, it will help.” I heard Verón assure him.

“What, no, no, no, no!” The victim screamed like he was being murdered. I heard a voice in my mind, but my head was throbbing too much to pay attention to it.

Aha, hello. It said, I looked around frantically and tried to find the source of the voice. I saw a few people give me strange looks.

Who are you? I tried to mentally respond but had no idea if it would work. I thought, This is ridiculous, Yelena. Talking to a voice in your head? Are you crazy?

That is not important. I will tell you my identity once I trust you. I rolled my eyes as the mysterious voice said this.

How can you talk to me?

Telepathy. Now, I would like to know your name before we continue.

I tried thinking of random names, Kathy! Natalie! Tayler! However, it seemed to pluck my name from my brain.

Yelena? I am correct, surely. It sounded more like a statement than a question because the voice probably stole my name from somewhere in my deepest thoughts. Hopefully, it couldn’t rummage through my head, because that would be creepy.

So, you can talk to anybody in their mind? That’s a little creepy. But, why choose me?

No. I can only talk to other people who also have the ability of telepathy. It’s been near ages since anybody had this power, and for a matter of fact, lived in the Distant Lands...

I’m not a telepath...wait, Distant Lands? What do you mean, you lunatic? My internal voice seemed to echo, and there was no response. I realized I turned away from the scene, but when I turned back, I saw Verón trying to calm the victim down as he gave him the vial to drink. Upon swallowing, he calmed down and closed his eyes. I didn’t really remember anything else that happened, but the next thing I knew was that I fainted right on the spot. However, the last thing I saw was something about Verón that was suspicious. He turned to look at me, but I saw...a flicker. His eyes had changed color, from dull brown to bright teal eyes. It was ingrained in my mind as I fell unconscious to the ground.

Verón snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Earth to Yelena!”

Wake up! He gave you something! It was orange! Or not, I don’t know! I’m colorblind!

Everything had come back to normal. Color rushed in through the corners of my eyes as I blinked a few times. Once again, he had the same vial that the orange fluid was in - but it was half empty. I staggered up and backed away from him.

Why not wake me up earlier? I demanded at the voice, And, you’re colorblind? You can see through my eyes?

Perhaps. I felt that emptiness again, then decided to shut up because the thing probably wouldn’t respond to me.

“Wait, wait. It’s just some healing fluid.” Verón reassured me. He shook it slightly so it made a swishing noise inside the vial.

I narrowed my eyes at him, “Really. You are getting really suspicious with all this newfound knowledge you have.”

“I swear, this isn’t what you think it is. Yelena, just hold on. This is just...chemistry” Verón said innocently. He set the vial down and put his hands up.

“Chemistry? Do you think I’m going to believe that? It was just...something that made him, I don’t know, die!”

“Who?”

“The guy who closed his eyes earlier, you know, before I fainted.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What?”

“I really have no idea of what you are talking about, I swear.” Verón shook his head. I breathed in and out, trying to maintain my composure, but it wasn’t working.

There was silence for a moment.

I soon began to feel furious. He was my only ‘friend’ and just literally flat-out lied to me, “If you have no explanation...” I paused. His expression was genuine, but my anger got the best of me. “Then you better get one together soon.”

“I—” Verón began.

I walked off and didn’t want to hear his annoying voice again. Somebody followed me, I could see them in the corner of my eye. I swear I could hear some hypnotic voices in my head, but I shook them off as I walked down the darkest part of the hallway. I was now alone with my thoughts in a quiet hallway - but it felt that somebody was watching me. I turned around to find nobody there, following me. As I looked down at my feet, a round, metallic tube was there. And it was beeping. It exploded. All I could hear was a strong gust of wind picking up. But, the truth was, I was only thinking about how much it hurt.