Incognito

There's No Place Like Homecoming

I See Fire // Ed Sheeran

If this is to end in fire

Then we should all burn together

Watch the flames climb high into the night

~

"Hold still, geez." Julie mutters under her breath, mostly due to her annoyance over me. I squeal as I look at the two inch curler in her hand, dangerously close to my precious face. I would very much appreciate that she wouldn't melt my face off with that fiery dragon of hers.

"I'm sorry I hate the heat!" I cry out, scooting farther in attempt to escape. She, however, doesn't let me and grabs a strand of hair as if she didn't even hear me. My fear has always bothered Julie, mostly because she's only trying to help me. After huffing for a moment, she calms down, noticing that I've closed my eyes in order to not panic. Heat and fire are two things that I could never stand and after Wednesday's League meeting, I was not ready for this. The thought of Julie under the burning tree flashed back in my mind and causes me to shiver.

"I don't understand. What could have scarred you for life for you to hate it so much?" She keeps an eye on me from the mirror in front of us. We are currently in her room, surrounded by all things hippie. Julie is a big fan of Taoism, even if she doesn't believe in it. "Accepting things the way they are" is what she lives by. So that explains why she has Dream Catchers hanging on the walls along with tie-dye bed sheets and a peace sign blanket on her mini sofa.

If there is one secret that I never told Julie or Alex, it would be the reason to why I have a fear of heat and fire. It's the way Ryder's parents died. Yes, he is an orphan in other words. I can remember it so clearly, as if it was yesterday and even if I try not to think about it, It pops into my head at the randomest times.

The fire department had come to the rescue four years ago when the mall was terrorized by people who are still not known today. All we knew at the time was that there were two hundred people that still needed to be saved and I was one of them. We all choked on the heavy air, as if an invisible force was slowly taking it away from us. It suffocated our lungs. The terrorists could attack once more for all we knew. At that moment, I was sure I was going to die. I was sure that I would never see my parents again and I should have told them I loved them that morning. But no, I had left on a bad note and went to the mall with my middle school friends like it was no big deal. Monterrey was never attacked like this before. Not with such a large amount of victims in the middle. Usually, when there was an outbreak, it would be the supers against the villains. But at the time, the supers were outnumbered by the villains. They were not capable of saving all of us.

Then one thing led to another, the second floor caved in and we were sure to be doomed. The ones still left on the second floor slipped and fell, falling to the first floor with thumbs. Probably unconscious or most likely dead. But somehow, there was a light. When I saw it, I thought it could have just been a window broken with the light peering inside, but it wasn't. It was something bigger than just a light, it was a super. Before we all knew it, the super heroes had done what they did best, saving our day. Pair by pair, we were all lifted and placed somewhere in the parking lot. I can recall being saved by someone that went by the initials AA.

I found out later, much later really, that AA stood for Adam the Almighty. Adam Waters was none other than Ryder's father. It never occurred to anyone that the villains of Monterrey could plan a second attack, one that was much greater than burning thousands of people alive...

"Lorena!" Julie exclaims in desperation. She looks at me as I look at myself. I look like I saw a ghost and metaphorically, I did. A ghost of my haunted past. "Are you okay?"