The Girl Who Holds Fire

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2016

“I don’t know when the fire first started, I had the experience of when I first noticed, but I believe I had something in that just needed to be unlocked first.” Gosh, what a boring beginning to my essay. I’m not special. I don’t know why my English teacher, Ms. Henry, thinks I am. I’m just Jenna Miller, an ordinary girl. One that lives in the small town of Brywich, North Carolina. One that has good friends, a good family, and average grades. One of the many that go to Lillins County HighSchool. It is currently a Tuesday. I am at lunch and my friends are teasing me about writing in my journal, saying that I should “keep my nose out of a book for once,” even though I enjoy writing in it. After lunch, I have my least favorite and most boring class: math. I’m average at math, however, last year it was a lot easier for me. I am not going to dwell on math right now, right now I am going to enjoy having lunch with my friends and enjoy the thought of getting out of school in a few hours.

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2016

Journal, I am finally out of school for the day but while I was walking home I saw something glowing in the woods near my house. I stepped closer to find a red glowing flower, I felt like it was calling to me, crying for a home so I picked it and took it to my home. While opening the front door I put the flower in my other hand but when I looked at the hand the new flower was previously in, I noticed red veins pulsating in it. The colors in my veins began to grow more imminent, almost like they were being lit aflame and making my hand warmer. My hand was so warm that it started to feel like there was some unknown boiling substance being poured on it. It needed ice. When I got the ice from the freezer and held a cube to my hand, something peculiar happened: the ice melted and evaporated. After that, I started to freak out. What was happening? Why does my hand feel like it’s on fire? I put the flower in a vase filled with water but when I put the flowers in the vase, that water evaporated too. I ran to my room and tried searching the internet, each key I type fills my fingers with more pain. I tried to find out what was happening to me and what was causing the strange occurrences with my flower but I couldn't find anything about it. I looked at my hand again but this time it was on fire but I couldn't feel it. I screamed with terror as if I had seen a ghost. Well, I had just seen something so much worse. My thoughts were racing as the flames became larger. Why couldn’t I feel it burning? Is my hand going to burn off and become charred? I ran downstairs and put cold water under it but once again to my surprise, the water evaporated. Thoughts once again flooded my brain. What was causing this? How can I pick up a phone to call someone while I have flames coming out of my hands? Maybe it had something to do with the emotions I was feeling. As I tried to rationalize what I was thinking, the thought came to me. I needed to calm down and think this through before panicking. It was worth a shot. I decided to do some breathing meditation I learned in gym class and as I felt my heart rate start to decrease, the fire started to decrease until it was gone and there were no more prominent red veins on my hand. After the whole incident, my mom got home from work and I rushed to my room. I knew I couldn't tell her about it or she would think that I was crazy. At least I can tell you, journal. I think I'm going to lay down for a bit. If I don’t write more tonight, I’ll write tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2016

Wednesday, a whole new day but I keep thinking about what happened yesterday. School is dull compared to what I experienced at my house with the flower. I am at lunch and just told my friend Emma to meet me after school in the woods near my house. There's a part of me that is frightened that the power, or curse, that I used yesterday won't work today when I try to show her; she would think that I dreamt the entire thing and she would not believe me. The rest of me wants what happened yesterday to be a one-time thing where I never have to worry about it again.

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2016

Journal, I just got home and I have to tell you about what just happened in the woods. When Emma and I first got into the woods, she was obviously wondering why I wanted us to meet there. I told her “I have to show you something that I don’t want anyone else to know about, so don’t tell a soul, alright?”

She was frightened but intrigued, “What is it?” she asked. 

To show her, I told her to make me angry in any way that she could think of. She was confused but tried to make me angry anyway. She said things that would make almost anyone mad like calling me ugly, saying that my grades were bad and that I would never graduate. She told me I didn’t deserve my success in school, and that no one wants to be around me. In my heart, I knew she didn’t actually think those things so I told her to try harder. Oh boy, she did. “You know me and Hailey are just pretending that we’re friends with you because we feel sorry for you. If we left you, you would go back to being that one lonely nerd girl that nobody talks to.” 

When she said that it hit a nerve, a nerve I thought I had forgotten about. My deepest insecurities ignited a spark. That nerve she hit is what sparked the flames burning on both of my hands, the more I thought about what she said, the stronger the flames grew. I knew she did not mean what she had said. Emma, Hailey, and I had been friends for a while, yet, it still felt personal. This is what sparks my power. Emma was, rightfully, extremely shocked to find out my new power but after a moment of stunned silence, she calmed me down. My heart rate lowered back to its normal pace and the flames shrunk until they disappeared. Once the flames were gone, the first thing Emma did was say how cool that was. How she had never experienced or seen something like that before. I felt understood, and all the worry I had was washed away. Overwhelmed with emotion, I began to sniffle until tears poured out of my eyes. When she noticed I was crying, she reassured me that what she said wasn’t true. “You know Hailey and I are truly your friends and we love you.” she said. “I know,” I responded. “I’ve just been overwhelmed lately, and I was nervous you would shun me, or make fun of me.” 

“Of course not, I would never do that to you.”

After more explanations, we decided to get ice cream and then head home. Nothing much happened after. Until whenever I remember to write in here again, goodbye.

Saturday, March 6th, 2016

Hello, journal! Sorry, I haven’t written to you for a few days but Emma and I have been visiting the woods lately to practice using my power. We have discovered something new I can do with my power, I can create fireballs and throw them at things! The first time I created a fireball and threw it, I almost set the entire forest on fire, but then I learned I can also shrink the fire when I throw it in places. Even though it has only been a few days, I am learning how to control the fire better where I won’t set the school on fire if I get a bad grade. Just joking, I think I’ve learned how to control it. Until next time!

Thursday, March 11th, 2016

Hello, journal! Sorry, it’s been a long time since I’ve written here. What am I doing? I’m apologizing to an inanimate object. Anyways, my life has been pretty normal since I learned how to control my firepower. I just got back from practicing my powers in the woods with Emma today. School today was pretty boring, nothing much to write about it, but my experience in the woods was interesting enough. I was practicing my new power, setting things on fire just by looking at them. After I set a newspaper on fire in Emma’s hands and she blew it out, I saw a man in a black business suit in the distance behind her. By the time I told Emma to turn around and see him, he was gone. That freaked me out enough to tell her that we should go home. I am writing safely in my room now but I have a bad feeling about that man in the black suit. 

Friday, March 12th, 2019

Hello again, journal. It’s been a long time since I wrote here. I’m sorry about that. A lot has happened in the time we have been apart. I’ll start from where I last let off. It turns out that my bad gut feeling about the man in the black suit was right. The day after seeing him was a Friday and I was excited to be done with school for the week. After going to my room after getting home from school, I hear my mother ask “Honey, will you come down here please?” in a nervous and tense voice. 

When I go downstairs I see my mom at the door talking to men in black suits and one of them was the man I saw that Thursday in the woods. “What is going on?” I ask. Terror ran through my body.

“I think you are aware of why we are here, I know that you saw me yesterday in the woods. We know about your powers, Jenna. Your powers can be very dangerous and you need to come with us where we can find a way to exterminate these powers.”

My mother’s face contorted into shock. She asked what they were talking about. Before the man in the black suit could explain, I ran to my room. I knew what they were going to do to me, experiment on me like a lab rat and not care about me getting hurt. Were they from the government? Who did they think they were? I hear them downstairs talk on their radios. 

“The girl is upstairs, she won’t come willingly.”

 “Roger that, sending in a crew to eliminate the target, now.” 

Eliminate the target? Through my window I see black cars with tinted windows roll into my driveway. I feel it, my heart pounding in fear. Then a new emotion appeared: anger. How dare they walk into my house and try to take me! How stupid do you have to be to tell someone with powers that you are going to possibly kill them? What if they hurt my Mom? I would not allow this to go down easily. When the men in the first car that arrive step out of the car, my anger takes over and I shoot my fireballs at them. The heat radiating from my hands is blinding, to the point that I can barely see where I’m aiming. My eyes began to see red as I thought of the look in those men's eyes when they showed up at my door. There was no compassion there. No empathy. Just greed. Greed to get rid of me. I shoot flames out of my hands. My bedroom window shatters into pieces, the window I have looked out of all my life to see my mom coming home from work, to see the school bus coming to get me in the mornings. The school bus that would drop me off in front of the cafeteria for breakfast where I would eat scrambled eggs and sausages with Emma and Hailey every morning. I wish they were here, they might know what to do. I couldn’t drag them into this. Then I remember, my closet we would play in when we were younger, my closet that has a secret passage to the back door downstairs. I quickly take the flower I have that started all of this. As I walk down the hidden stairs I hear their low voices yelling things such as:

“Where is she? She’s not in her room.”

 “Check the bathroom”.

 “She’s not there, sir.” 

“Then check somewhere else, dang it!”

I have to get out of here. Tears run down my face as I run through the woods behind my house. In the woods, I stumble upon an old lady watering flowers outside of her small cabin. As I look closer, I notice that she’s not just watering her flowers with a watering can; she’s watering them with her hands. “Excuse me ma'am but-” 

“Let me stop you right there, I can tell you also have special abilities.” 

“How did you know?” 

 “By my age, it becomes an instinct,” she says. 

She could also tell that I needed help. She told me where to go to be safe, the North Carolina School of Extraordinary Skills. She gave me a map and I was on my way. Apparently, it was close to where I was but was hidden to those who did not have powers themselves. When I arrived at the school, I was immediately introduced to a man named Mr. Hunder. Yes, Hunder, not Thunder. He was tall and wore a button-up collared shirt with suspenders attached to a pair of gray slacks. He had worn-out sneakers on, which highlighted his cartoonishly large feet. He has wispy hair that was a faded brown with buggy eyes behind his round glasses and wore a kind smile when he talked to me. I also remember that he smelled like pine trees when I first met him. I learned that he was the principal, and he showed me all the classrooms, introduced me to some people, and showed me my room in the dormitory. I was overjoyed when he reassured me that he would call my mother and safely reunite us. The next day I got to see my mother again and the men in the black suits already told her everything about me and my powers. I apologized to her for getting us in this whole mess but she told me it was alright and that she was glad I was safe. That was three years ago. I like this school and I have made a lot of friends over the years but I miss Emma and Hailey, luckily we still talk on the phone sometimes. Also, Ms. Henry assigned me an essay in which I wrote about myself three years ago. I remember thinking that there was nothing special about me. I never got to finish that essay; however, I think I finally found my inspiration. I miss my old life but when one door closes a new one opens and I am liking where this door leads. 

Sincerely, Jenna Miller

 (The Girl Who Holds Fire)