Here it is, part two. I've been working on it since before part one was cleared to upload. I've had a couple friends on Darth Aussie's discord. If you want to hang out with me and meet the awesome group there, go check out his profile, the link is on there. While you're there, definitely check out his works. He deserves the credit for bringing this great group of folks together, which ended up supporting me in my writing endeavors. Again, thanks guys, wouldn't be here without ya!
Sadly, work on my stories will be slower and more intermittent just due to my current job. I am a chemist, I started this job back at the end of July, Mid-September we had one employee put in their two weeks, and at the time of writing this, we had another put theirs in. Right now, they now have me running a section of a lab by myself that is normally run by two people. It wears a bit on both the mind and the soul, and I have definitely found a couple grey hairs over the past month
But enough about me and my complaining, you're here for the story, so without any further delay, here you go.
As always, all characters in this story involved in sexual acts are over the age of 18.
Chapter 6
I was standing in the front door of the house I grew up in, a packed duffel bag in my right hand and my truck keys in my pocket. I was leaving, I had to get away from here, clear my head. It was about two weeks after the incident, Steph was out of the hospital, she didn't get hurt too badly, all things considered. Some small second degree burns on her arms and face, along with several large third degree burns on her legs. Right now, she was home, but wheelchair bound until they healed. I couldn't even be in the same room as her, it hurt me deeply, knowing I had something to do with that. After I had gotten out of the burning building, we were rushed to the nearest hospital. She was treated for her burns, I had a full physical, naturally. I walked out of a burning building without the protection I had walked into it with, that was enough reason for me to be checked out. I was fine, to everyone's shock, including my own. I should have been burnt, horribly, but my skin was smooth, unblemished. Only thing that was different were my eyes, what once were a sapphire blue, were now a malevolent purple, with an occasional glow that danced like flames.
I looked around one last time, examining the house. I saw my mom moving around the kitchen. Her back was facing the door, and she was talking on the phone. She wouldn't realize I was leaving until I was already gone. Bri and Mark were upstairs, they had some homework they needed to finish, and wouldn't be coming down for an hour or two, at least. Steph was in her room, doing something, I had no clue what. Only one I wasn't sure on their location would be...
"And where do you think you're going."
That voice, gruff, and slightly slurred, belonged to one person in the house, the one I wanted to avoid the most. My father had been drinking more lately, and that absolutely made his lips a bit looser. I'd overheard his arguments with mom, the words he'd said, what he'd called me, they stuck with me. I felt something deep in my soul start roiling whenever he called me a freak, a monster. He was the biggest reason I was about to get out of this house. After everything that happened, he bounced between ignoring my entire existence and insulting me behind closed doors. It was different, before it was tacit approval, somewhat at least. I had to do something truly outstanding to get any kind of compliment, otherwise, it was expected that I do as well as I did. He was a hard man, but he used to be fair.
"Leaving, I need to get my head on straight, and it isn't happening here."
He looked at me with no small amount of disdain in his eyes. There it was, the disapproval, something familiar at least. It happened every time I came home after doing things that were 'beneath me', according to him at least. After every party I went to, or after I came back from a date with a cute lamia who transferred into my class when I was seventeen. Now though, it was tainted by a bit of anger, and a well-hidden flash of hatred. That part was very new, even just a week ago, it wasn't there, but today, something slipped in his perfectly controlled façade.
"Thomas, don't."
That was mom, always the peacemaker. She was better at keeping her thoughts in check. Still tried to help me, but even she was cautious around me. That hurt, my family used to be close, but after the incident, there were definite fractures inside the household. Even Bri, in her naive fourteen year old brain, could tell something was up. We tried to keep her out of the loop as much as we could, didn't want to traumatize her, but she knew something. She'd tried to spend time around me, but I would always make some kind of excuse, I didn't feel like it was safe for her to be close to me. I didn't want her anywhere near me, in case another burst of power happened.
My father sneered, and I could see that something changed. The alcohol made him a lot more standoffish, confrontational. I could tell, he was about to say something, and that I wouldn't like it, at all.
"No, he can damn well tell us where he's going, so I can send the department there to put out anything else he lights on fire. Can't have you hurting more people, Firestarter."
He put so much venom in that word, Firestarter. It was a term he used for arsonists, something he hated with a passion. It hurt, he thought I made the fire worse, just for the glory of saving more people. Despite there being literally no evidence of me being able to do anything like this before. Thank God for one of the detectives, she was a fire mage, and knew something about the burns, that they weren't something 'from this earth'. I was cleared of charges rather quickly; she was tight lipped about how it happened though. I didn't question it, even if in the eyes of the law it was not my fault, my father would not be told otherwise. I was the reason his niece ended up in the ER, I was the reason the probies were reduced to ash. I was a criminal, plain and simple. Normally, my mom mitigated most of his vitriol, but not today, today was a boiling point for both of us. I felt something in my blood demand I strike back, say something to hurt him, and in my anger, I complied.
"Fuck you then, you saw the reports, there was no evidence, and I was cleared of all charges. You're just being a stubborn old bastard."
My mother let out a slight gasp from the kitchen as my father froze. His eyes grew wide, then narrowed into slits. That was one thing he'd instilled in us, respect your elders, do not insult them, do not swear at them. By not only insulting him, but calling him a bastard too, I double dipped into the disobedience. It took him a second to fully process it, but he marched up to me, getting in real close. His face pushed in close to mine, and he started shouting at me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Bri and Mark, looking at us from the top of the stairs, and from the other corner, I saw Steph wheeling herself from the guest bedroom we had on the ground floor to see what the yelling was about.
"Young man, you may be an adult, but you are still in my house, my rules apply, now, would you like to rephrase what you just told me?!"
I could smell the alcohol on his breath, it stank, horribly. His face was starting to get red, and the color deepened by the second. In that moment, with his full attention, I decided I was finally done tiptoeing around him. If he wanted to call me a freak, a monster, he could damn well do it to my face. I shoved him away from me, making him back up a couple steps.
