Flaming Water

Addie Baxter didn’t know where she went wrong. Or rather, she did, but didn’t understand why nobody had thanked her for her actions, why they still practically worshiped Ember Sparks after Addie’s repeated attempts at exposing her for the corrupt, narcissistic, arrogant person she really was. Ember Sparks was no hero. She was a coward, only entering the fights she knew she’d win and where nothing was really at stake. Addie had done her best. She really had, but now she was surrounded. Everyone was convinced she was a villain, someone bent on destroying the city’s finest hero, someone who deserved what was coming for her.

They didn’t know she was trying to save them from Ember, the very same person they had appointed as their savior. And Addie had too, at one point. The media portrayed Ember Sparks as a hero, someone to pull the city from desperation when they needed her most. With her ability to hold and manipulate flames, her powers were high above any other Gifted citizen. Most Gifteds could only do small party tricks; yet here Ember was, reigning over the flames with grace and sophistication, a girl of only nineteen supposedly saving the entire city with just a few flicks of her wrist. 

Addie was seventeen when she first met Ember. She was at the park with her little sister Sadie, watching her go around on the carousel. It had happened so quickly, she still wasn’t sure what had exactly happened. She had been waving to Sadie seated upon a plastic purple horse one minute and the next she was running towards the carousel, ducking for cover. Gunshots echoed through the park, and all Addie could think about was Sadie, and getting her to safety. People were screaming; Sadie was crying. Addie pulled her off the horse and ducked behind it, covering Sadie’s head with her arm. She looked around and saw others had the same idea, hiding behind the carousel animals with their children as well. Through the chaos, a gust of hot air rippled towards them, blowing Addie’s dark hair back from her freckled face. 

“Addie!” Sadie yelled, burying her face into her sister’s t-shirt. Addie brushed through Sadie’s hair with her fingers, pulling it up off her neck and tying it with an elastic to fight against the sudden heat. Shielding her eyes, she squinted up to see Ember Sparks wielding flames in both hands, her fiery red hair whipping around her face. The gunman stood down the path from her, his face paled but eyes determined. Addie watched, terrified, as Ember threw fireball after fireball at the man, only for him to dodge each one with surprising agility. 

“Addie,” Sadie whimpered again, grabbing Addie’s shirt. 

“It’s okay,” Addie said in a hushed whisper. She knew nobody would hear her against the roars coming from Ember just a few feet away, but felt like talking in a normal voice was wrong. Ember tossed another flame, hitting the gunman’s leg. He let out a surprised shout of pain, dropping his gun. A woman broke away from a crowd hiding in a grove of trees close by and reached the gun before the man could grab it again. She held it daintily, clicking the gun onto safety and keeping it aimed at the pavement before passing it onto a nearby police officer. Ember threw another flame which the man dodged, sending the flames into the grove of trees. The group scattered with screams as the trees burst into flames. Addie winced as the trees burned, knowing that it wouldn’t be long before the flames spread to the rest of the park. Just as the thought passed through her mind, Addie felt a tug inside her stomach, as if some force was begging her to approach the flames. Suddenly the air around the sisters cooled, no longer suffocated by heat but rather heavy with moisture. She felt her hand close into a fist, and a strange pulsing sensation began in her wrist. She tore her hands away from Ember and down to her hands. A ball of water was teeming in her hand, pulsing with life and hovering less than an inch over her palm. Her eyes widened as she watched the water swirl over her hand, held in her palm by some invisible force- the same force that was pulling her towards the flames. Raising her hand, the water threaded between her fingers. She shoved her hand forward, and the water shot out of her palm and onto the side of the carousel, dousing a carving of a carnival elephant balancing on a ball. Sadie looked at her with wide eyes. 

“You’re like Ember!” The girl exclaimed, an excited smile on her face despite the fight going on mere yards away. 

“I…” Addie stuttered. Her palm was empty now. She closed her eyes, trying to summon the water again. She envisioned the water in her hand, and moments after she felt that pulsing feeling in her wrist. Opening her eyes, she saw the water. With a shaky breath, she gently pushed Sadie off her lap and onto the space beside them, still hidden behind the horse. 

“Stay here.” Sadie told her, pressing a quick kiss to the top of her sister’s head and making her way closer to the burning trees in a crouched run. Taking cover behind the giraffe carousel installment closest to the trees, she raised her palm towards the trees and imagined a bigger ball of water. Once it was formed, she tossed it towards the trees. It hit the bark of the nearest one, and the flames went out with a hiss. She didn’t have time to celebrate her victory as the rest of the fire began to spread, slowly inching towards other trees as thick smoke left a trail in the sky. Addie closed her eyes again, focusing on the clouds above, keenly aware of that body of water as well as the moisture heavy in the air around her. She imagined pulling the water from the clouds, and the water falling directly atop of the burning trees. Closing her eyes to truly focus, Addie pictured the rain drenching the trees and the fire. Opening one eye, she watched as the clouds seemingly cracked open above the trees, dousing the burning leaves and bark. The rain was confined to only the grove, the sun still shining otherwise. With a satisfied smile she returned to Sadie, listening to the confused hushed whispers of the crowd. 

As Addie had been focusing on putting out the fires, Ember had taken down the gunman. Sadie and Addie watched a cop handcuff the man and escort him into the police car. 

“Addie, you did that?” Sadie asked, getting out from behind the horse and joining the thin crowd marveling at the rain, still pouring over the trees. 

“I think so,” Addie answered, her tone slightly dazed. She watched as a boy stuck his hand into the rain, pulling his wet hand back and flicking water at his friend with gleeful giggles. They watched it for a while, before they had to go and Addie summoned the rain away. They were walking home when Ember stopped them. She told Addie that she had seen what she could do with water, and wanted to mentor her.

“We’ll make a great team, Addie.” Ember had promised her.

So after Addie got out of school every day, Ember would mentor her. She taught Addie how to control her powers, and how to make them great. In that time, Addie began to idolize her. Ember would make jokes as she summoned fire into her hand, the flames dancing for them as they laughed. Soon, Addie could do the same with the water. She began playing with each body of water she passed, making fountains go twice as high and watching her classmate’s reactions as the pond outside of their school suddenly began to form shapes with the water. 

It wasn’t long before Ember requested they go out and put Addie’s training to use. She told Addie that a bank robbery was taking place across town, and before Addie could get nervous she ushered her towards the action. Addie didn’t remember the fight that well; Ember said that once they showed up brandishing the fire and water in their hands, the criminals were quick to surrender, and the cops took them away. 

The two became a pair. Magazines and newspapers wrote articles on Ember and Addie, featuring pictures of the two in action as well as sightings of them in public at coffee shops or the library. Ember would point out the magazine covers with their faces on it, saying that she would have picked Addie up a lot sooner had she known the fame and publicity she would bring. They had laughed about it at the time, but Addie now knew that she wasn’t joking. Addie knew that Ember would do anything to increase her fame. Nothing was below her. She remembered the first clue, the first red flag she had willfully ignored in favor of protecting the image of Ember in her mind. Ember was speaking into her phone in a hushed whisper. Addie didn’t hear much, but was able to piece it together. Someone was confirming plans with Ember, about robbing a hospital and stealing millions of dollars worth of medical advancements. Ember confirmed a time, and that she and Addie would be there. 

It wasn’t the first time Ember planned a fake crime to bring more victory and fame to herself, and it wouldn’t be the last. Addie didn’t recognize it at first. It took months for her to come to terms with her idol and partner’s dishonesty and inexcusable actions. Once she accepted the fact of the matter, she realized that she could not support or assist someone like Ember, and almost separated herself right off the bat. Before she did though, she thought about better ways to take Ember down. Ember wasn’t solving the city’s problems, she was making them, and only to hoist herself up onto a pedestal. After days of careful thinking, Addie decided that she wouldn’t leave Ember. No, she couldn’t. Instead, she stayed with Ember, messingup their special “missions”. It was easier to do now that she knew that there was no real danger, no high stakes. 

She began messing up their fights, purposely missing with her water shots and ‘accidentally’ drenching Ember in water, effectively plugging her powers. It wasn’t long before she realized that she was more powerful than Ember, that water trumped fire every time. And soon enough, Addie had to confront Ember on it. 

“What’s up with you? You’ve been acting weird lately.” Ember looked at her, drying off her hair for the umpteenth time that week.

“Nothing.” Addie shrugged, looking away. Ember kept persisting and Addie couldn’t deny it anymore.

“C‘mon Addie, we’re a team.” Ember insisted.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Addie said. “I know how you plan these things so we can win. You’re hurting innocent people and… and I can’t be a part of that anymore.”  

“I did it for us, Ad. Think about it. We’re famous now. They love us. You’ll be applying to colleges soon; no college is going to turn down the Addie Baxter, who’s saved this city more times than they can count.”

“But I haven’t saved the city.” She said angrily. “You tricked me into thinking I was helping people when really all I was helping was you.” She spat the word as if it were poison. 

“I didn’t want to do this, Addie.” She said with a sad shake of her head. Flicking her wrist, two flames appeared on her hands, crawling up her arms. 

“You don’t have to,” Addie told her, readying her own water. Ember charged at her, throwing a fireball in her direction. With a simple release of the tension in her fingers, Addie hit the fireball and it sizzled out. “You really don’t have to.” She repeated, voice quivering. 

She knew Ember was powerful but also knew she could outpower her if necessary. What scared her was having to hurt her mentor of two years who had betrayed her trust so easily. So she didn’t. Instead of fighting, Addie fled. Ember would taunt her for it at later encounters, sneering while throwing names at her along with the fireballs. Coward. Chicken. Wimp. Weak. Addie heard it all, but after a while, she developed an armor for it. They bounced off her imaginary armor, not impacting her or hurting her anymore.

But what had hurt, and always will hurt, was the way the city was so quick to turn on her. Just one word from Ember saying that Addie had betrayed her and the city had conducted a city-wide manhunt for her, determined to protect Ember the way Ember had “protected” them for so long. Addie tried to expose Ember for her true self, but nobody would even listen. So Addie went on the run, dying her hair and wearing colored contacts, switching her whole identity. Yet Ember still found her every time, and there was always a fight. Though Addie always was able to escape each time, her escape got narrower and narrower.. As she looked back at what her life used to be like, with her sister and her dads in their cozy apartment, she wondered why she was even still fighting. She was bound to be caught eventually. But still, she knew she couldn’t give up, for the sake of her sister, the city, and her own morals and ethics. To this day, Addie’s face might cross the news with her latest disguise, which is her cue to pack up and move yet again. Ember had followed her across the country, even across the world. Addie continued to speak out- or at least tried to-, but was ignored at best and chased out of town at worst. Still, she has no regrets, and knows she never will.