Class E

It's short story Friday again! The only day of the week during which Nina reliably posts something!

"Audrey Vega,” the loudspeaker announced. 

I wiped the palms of my hands on the smooth skirt of my dress and stood up. My legs shook slightly and I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I was more nervous than I’d ever been in my life, but I was also excited. What would the serum manifest as in me? Would I be able to fly? Heal? See through walls? The other teens waiting in line looked like they had the same mixture of emotions as me, but finally it was my turn to receive the serum.

The room I was led to was spacious and bone white, bare except for a small table with three chairs, in which sat the three examiners. They looked vaguely disinterested as the nurse told me to sit in the metal chair facing them. She wiped a alcohol-soaked cotton ball over a bare path of skin on my arm. “You can look away if you want, Sweetie,” the nurse said.

I did. Needles made me nervous. A few seconds later I felt a slight pinch of the needle going into my arm, injecting the serum, and then it was gone. The nurse smiled, whispered “good luck” and then bustled out of the room.

The door closed with an ominous click behind her. “All right,” one of the examiners said, “show us what you can do.” I nodded and squeezed my eyes shut. In school they had taught us how to be calm, find our new source of power, and then draw on it.

I concentrated, feeling the rush of power within me. In my mind I latched onto it, drawing it out and then…

I burst into flames.

The judges startled in their seats. Two of them began frantically writing notes down in my file. I stood, frozen inside the fire. I didn’t feel any heat or pain but the blue of my dress had to begun to shrivel and burn, crumpling into black shreds of clothe.

I concentrated again, trying to turn the fire off. For a panicked moment nothing happened, but then slowly the flames petered out until nothing was left but the charred remains of my dress.

The silence that filled the room made my ears ring.

One of the examiners cleared his throat and then spoke, “It appears you have a class E power. You will be detained shortly.”

“You can’t be serious,” I choked out, a mixture of disbelief and anger stirring within me.

The examiners said nothing.

My mouth opened and closed, no words coming out. They couldn’t do this to me. They couldn’t do this to me. I raced over to the door. Desperately, I tried to open it. It was locked.

Then an idea struck me. I horrible, crazy, impossible idea. They couldn’t do this to me. Because I was stronger than them.

I walked over to one of the pristine white walls and pressed my hand to it. A few moments later I was engulfed in flames again and my hand began to burn through the wall, destroying it.

“Stop that!” another one of the examiners shouted.

I didn’t stop. The hole burning through the wall was almost big enough for me to walk through. Alarms sounded, shrill and screeching. Finally, enough of the wall was burned away for me to leave.

I made my escape.