The Campfire
The fire popped and hissed, stretching long shadows into the treeline. For the first time in seven years, the mountain air didn't make me shiver. I sat on a log, just staring at the white sugar cube on the end of my stick. Watching it bubble and turn brown was... weirdly calming.
"Don't let it catch fire, Kia! You've gotta keep it moving," Jasmia laughed.
Kia. The nickname felt heavy on my tongue, like a word from a language I'd forgotten how to speak. I slid the gooey mess into my mouth. It was way too sweet, but it tasted like peace. Maybe Lori was right. Maybe not everyone was a monster.
"So," Jasmia leaned in, resting her chin on her hand. "Lori says you're 'gifted,' but whatever you've got feels... different. Is it like gravity magic, or what?"
I froze. The sweetness in my mouth turned to lead. I pulled my sleeves down over my hands. "I... I don't really know."
"She's right to be careful," Lori cut in. His voice had gone uncharacteristically quiet. He poked at the glowing red embers with a stick. "I've felt it, Jasmia. It's not like ours. Ours is like tapping into a well. Hers feels like an abyss. Just a little bit of it looks like it's trying to break her."
Jasmia's smile dropped. "Is it really that bad?"
"I'm a 'bad luck charm,'" I whispered. The old insult from the village slipped out before I could stop it. "When I use it, things don't just move. They... they stop being."
The silence that followed was heavy, only broken by the wood snapping in the heat. To kill the tension, Lori stood up. "Alright, enough gloom. Watch this."
He stood by the fire, palms open. I watched, mesmerized, as the flames didn't just die—they listened. The fire swirled into ribbons of red smoke, spiraling right into Lori's skin. His eyes lit up, glowing like rubies in the dark.
"He can eat it, breathe it, wear it," Jasmia whispered, sounding proud as she put a hand on my shoulder. "Pure mastery."
I felt a sharp stab of envy. Lori moved with his power like it was a dance. I moved with mine like I was chained to a starving animal.
"Let's head in," Lori said, his eyes fading back to brown. "Welcome to the 'Vennxia Base'—it's a basement, mostly, but I'm working on the name."
The "basement" was a shock. It was huge—basically a hidden mansion carved under the dirt. As Lori showed me to my room, a small, paranoid part of my brain whispered that it was a trap. But when I felt the soft blankets of a real bed, that voice finally shut up.
My real adventure is about to begin.
The Next Day
The morning sun hit my face like a punch. I sat up, my hair a total disaster. I dragged myself to the mirror and pouted. Grumpy, puffy-eyed, and way too pale.
"Ugly," I muttered, splashing cold water on my face to wake up.
When I wandered into the kitchen, Jasmia was already there with a mug of coffee. "Morning, sunshine. Want some caffeine, Kia?"
"Sure," I said. The nickname made my face hot. We just sat there for a bit in the quiet.
"What's up, girls!" Lori bounced in, iced coffee already in hand. "Quick update,We're hitting the supermarket. We need food, and Kia needs clothes that don't look like she lived in a cave for a decade."
"Do we actually have money?" Jasmia asked, looking skeptical.
Lori smirked and glanced at the ceiling. "I... borrowed it. From people who didn't deserve it anyway."
"YOU STOLE IT AGAIN!" Jasmia yelled, sounding like an exhausted older sister.
I watched them go at it, feeling like I was looking through a window into a warm room. Lori just laughed her off and winked at me. "Don't mind her. Jasmia's just cranky because I've kept her in the friend-zone for ten years."
"SHUT UP, LORI!" Jasmia screamed, her face turning as red as his flames as she stormed out.
Lori just chuckled. "Be ready by one, Kia. We're going to the city."
I spent the next few hours alone. The kindness from earlier made me feel vulnerable, and being vulnerable was how you got hurt. I needed to be stronger.
I sat on the floor, focusing on my right wrist. Just one hand, I told myself. Don't let it leak.
I took a deep breath. Slowly, the black veins crawled like ink under my skin. A dark, heavy aura started to shimmer around my fingers. It felt like lead. My ears started ringing, and I felt a warm trickle of blood run down my earlobe. I ignored it.
I looked at the flower vase on the nightstand. Lift.
The vase groaned. The air around it warped and got thick. I actually smiled—it was hovering three inches off the table. Success.
But then, the "weight" shifted.
The pressure spiked. I tried to let go, but the power wouldn't stop—it started feeding. I watched, terrified, as the flowers turned gray and crumbled into ash in seconds. The porcelain started cracking.
Then, the room vanished.
A searing white light blinded me. For a second, I wasn't in the basement. I saw a woman—tall, with massive wings that seemed to cover the entire horizon. She looked like a god, or a ghost of one.
"Find the source," a voice echoed. It didn't come from my ears; it came from my soul.
A massive headache ripped through my skull. I screamed, clutching my head as the vase exploded into a thousand tiny shards.
I collapsed, gasping for air. The room was quiet again, just the sound of my own ragged breathing and the broken porcelain everywhere.
"What... was that?" I whispered.
The image of the winged woman was burned into my mind. I wasn't just a girl with a curse. I was a key to something much, much older.