SHORT STORY ANTHOLOGIES | BURNING

My mother has always been afraid of my supernatural powers. Her limited understanding would not let her tread beyond the limits of her comprehension. Perhaps if she had today I would not be so frightened; feeling that I am a spawn of hell.

Since I was a kid I lived with her in a small apartment abandoned by my father; her alcoholism was stronger than her care for us. One day he disappeared and never came back, leaving me alone with my mother. Those feelings of abandonment began to influence me, awakening a power that ignited like fire.

I began to investigate for myself about that extraordinary ability I possessed, and I began to concentrate it; to focus it on different points of my surroundings. I managed to light a fire with my mind, but it was wild and incorrigible.

Once the fire was generated it was difficult to contain it; it burned everything around it, even my dreams it tried to consume. I stopped completely and hid my power, I decided not to use it again until, one day, a situation occurred that forced me to use my ability again.

My mother was suffering from hissy fits, she seemed to be as out of control as my power. One night, while preparing dinner, an episode occurred in her mind concerning my father's escape. He looked at me with wild eyes. He was holding a thick butcher knife. I was very afraid even though it was the first time since she had never attacked me, but at that instant I perceived her thoughts like a prey stalked by a lynx.

She approached me with cruel words: "You have the bad luck to look like him, you damned wretch!" I remained inert on the sofa until he lifted the knife as he stood in front of me. At the mere sight of the blade sticking out in my face I recoiled in horror and suddenly a flame burst into flames behind her back.

She saw the fire and ran into the kitchen, trying to put out the flames with water from the sink, but that only made the flames angry and they began to spread even more. I grabbed her arm and pulled her aside. I focused my mind on the embers and began to slowly dissipate them. My mother watched in astonishment and when the flame was completely contained, from then on she became afraid of me.

From that day on my mother distanced herself from me. She gave me nicknames like: "Demon", "Freak", "Lucifer's Wraith", trying to confine me in different places until she managed to keep me away from her completely. Losing her was painful but I managed to channel that suffering to control my power more, and thus turn the agony into flames.