A Self-Study Within A Broken Mind

My fire was always considered the odd one out. My mom pretended to like the fact that it looked like a rainbow, but Dad and my brothers were never that good at lying. It was unique, unheard of even, but in their eyes only weird. My mom’s fire was lime green, like the shadow mages and their minions. She had good standing in their circles because of this fact, expanding relations with a powerful force. Dad’s fire was the classic orange-red. He was very common among firemongers, and the fact that Mom ever gave him the time of day was a miracle. His classical nature made instant pals with the other clans who kept up their orange-red fire circles. My elder brother Henry’s fire was a gentle orange, like that of twilight just past the sunset, lingering from blue sky to the gentlest orange horizon. I always loved that about his fire. He was artistic, putting shows on for our family and clans. This gathered a lot of interest from girls. He could be so sweet one moment, and very mean the next. T...

I came back, incidentally, not a day later, but two days after. Kara and Lila were still in the cube, but sat back to back in the center instead of being split into the corners of the container. They were not at odds with each other so the orbs did not activate to separate them. Tarne was not around, possibly learning ways to make silence feel even better. I walked into the cube with a smile, but found myself slowing down as I got closer to the two women housed in a room to settle their differences. They were both hitting the ground beside them, hands sore and bruised. I stopped, but it was too late, they stood up and lunged at me. With both of them pushing, they forced me to the wall of the cube and used me as the key to exit as well. It was a well-orchestrated plan, for a bunch of rubes. “Sorry,” I said, then put one hand each on their respective sides to send them flying back into the cube. “I came here to get you guys out, but that wasn’t very nice.” “Let us out,” Lila said, then t...

"Wake up, Barney,” a young voice spoke into his mind. Was it the end at last? Was this some semblance of a hopeful afterlife rearing its head, or was this darkness all it would be? “Come on, wake up, sleepyhead.” Barnaby felt pain all over his body. No, that life he led and lost wasn’t over just yet. With this thought, memories of his family now gone flooded back in. He couldn’t recall how they met their end, but the pain present in his body meant that he pushed himself past the limits. Perhaps that was enough. Barnaby tried to fade away from the pain, let go of life at last and join his family, but a small hand slapped his forehead a few times. Was he already there? “Barnaby!” The voice said louder. There was light beyond his heavy eyelids. Above him stood a young girl with shimmering golden eyes. Her face was covered in mud and blood, but she was not bothered by it one bit. Her lips curved into a smile making her look menacing paired with darker spots all over her body until sh...