Wild Fire

by Heather Glidewell

  *****

  When the jet landed I was rushed into the limo and we drove nonstop to the house where I was pushed inside rather abruptly. Once inside I tore the hat from my head and pulled the headband from my hair and felt my body shift back to normal. I sighed in relief as the clothes instantly became much tighter.

  “Thank god!” I moaned breathing in deep.

  Mona looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Oh please it wasn’t all that bad.” She sighed taking her hat off and letting her blonde hair free.

  “It was far worse than you would think.” I said looking at her. “It was only for a few hours try twenty years. Imagine what you must do when you are in the camp in a few days. You have to be something other than what you are. You have to be ruthless and uncaring willing to break down the camp that you helped build. That is until you can get the boy out.” She winked at me and motioned for me to follow her into the spacious living room. Pangs of memories hit me hard. This is where it began, the day my father told me what I was.

  “Tomorrow the fun begins Dawn are you ready? First though we must choose a name for you. I told you there was a prophecy but the woman who they believe is coming currently has no name.” Mona sat down on the couch and crossed her ankles in a lady like fashion. “Or at least none was listed in the text that I read. Which is possible you never know with Hybrids what they really want.”

  “What were you thinking?” I asked refusing to sit. It was hard enough being in this room. I could only imagine how I was going to feel when I set foot into the room that was mine as a child.

  “Something bold, and of course it must be old. You have to act well beyond your eighteen years. You have to be poised as if you have seen this world through centuries of change.” She looked at me with her hard eyes.

  “Prudence.” I said quietly. For some reason that name kept coming to me at some inopportune moments. I never shared it with anyone in fear that they would think I was crazy, or hearing voices. Well hearing more voices than usual I should say.

  “I like that name. Prudence Warren.” Mona smiled pleased with the name that we had chosen together. “Can you remember to answer to that once you get there?”

  I nodded.

  “Good.” She looked towards the wall and the old clock that still stood there. I used to spend hours watching that clock. The pendulum always amazed me with its tick tock noises each time a second passed and the clang of the bell when the hour would hit.

  “When do we begin my epic transformation?” I teased wanting out of the room. I honestly wanted completely out of the house. The apartment I had so loved was not far away I would give anything to go there again and escape all these memories that kept flying around me.

  “First thing tomorrow. For now though I want you to try and change something about yourself. Something small.” She was persistent.

  I thought for a moment. Something small? Everything on me was relatively small I wasn’t the tallest Warden. I closed my eyes and I willed for change. I felt a burning sensation and opened them not sure if what I was working for had actually been achieved.

  “What color are my eyes?” I asked bending down to look at her.

  “Blue.” She smiled. “A crystal blue. Oh Dawn you did wonderfully.” She hugged me tight and I felt, for once, that I had pleased her.

  “So this may not be as hard as I thought.” I felt triumphant as I stood up tall.

  “Just means that we have one less thing to do. You know you will have to hold that change, make it permanent. No worries on if you waver I have the ability to have your change masked in magic if you forget to keep it up.” She patted her pocket as if the trinket was secured there.

  “What can’t you do with magic?” I asked. I had spent my whole life believing that magic, in part, did not exist. I believed the only people that had magic at their disposal was my father.

  “Magic is limitless. When you have it you have it, when you don’t there is always someone out there willing to help.” She answered me she smiled and it hit her eyes making them twinkle. “Your father is not the only one that has other beings at their disposal.”

  “You said you were like a fairy godmother.” I laughed and she looked at me shaking her head.

  “I am a wish demon. I gained my power from those that felt that they were too weak to make their dreams come true.” She stood up and looked down at me. In her heels she was nearing five ten.

  “So you fed on the weak hearted?” I asked and she bowed her head.

  “In a way I suppose you can say that. Not all of them were weak. They were just missing something, they needed just a little boost.” I could tell she wasn’t fully comfortable talking about her blood.

  “So you are Earthbound?” I asked not ready to let go of the subject.

  “For the most part yes. I haven’t seen the walls of hell in centuries. Now if you ask if I miss it I would tell you simply, no.” She turned to walk away from me. “I have some matters to attend to concerning tomorrow. Your room is as you left it. I made sure not a thing of yours left this house.” She walked away leaving me to my fear of being eaten alive by the memories.

  I wandered the house and took in the changes that were made and the things that were the same. I entered my father’s study with apprehension, afraid it would trigger the memory of that day that felt so long ago. The couch was gone, replaced instead by a reclining chair and a set of book shelves. It seemed that I was not the only one that had tried to erase the memories. I ran my fingers along the edge of the large mahogany desk, my father’s files still sat on the top of the desk as he probably left them.

  I left the room a few minutes later and wandered down the hall to the room that had once been mine. I opened the door and the smell of lavender hit me. I had loved that smell, found it soothing. My walls were still the same pale pink that I had pleaded with my father to have. He had caved when Mona had promised it would not be too pronounced. My twin bed sat in the same spot as it always had the pink bedspread that I had left on it years ago still laid there. Amazingly not a speck of dust had made its way onto the fabric.

  My book shelf that I had enjoyed for so long held the books that I had been reading as a child. The simple cover for Little Women still lying face up on the third shelf my old bookmark still holding the last piece I had read. I suddenly felt fourteen again, like I had never left the luxury of my father’s home to find my mother. It hurt my heart to know that it was all still here.

  I opened the drawers to my dresser and marveled at the clothing that was still inside. Satins and silks expensive fabrics from France and England brought home after my father’s trips across the sea. Oh how I had loved these presents as a child. The new articles of clothing that he would pick up from the designer shops around the towns he worked in.

  Pictures of a smiling blonde still sat on my dressers top. Along with the images of my long lost friends. I was smiling in most of them my blue eyes sparkling. I picked up one of the frames and looked at it longingly trying to picture the woman I would have become without the changes I underwent in the past year. So innocent, so pure, no thought that her world was going to come crashing down around her.

  In the same spot that I had kept it for years I found my diary. The last entry made two days before my father had his little talk with me. There was no signs that I was different other than the memories of the dreams. The dreams that I could never remember but would wake up from screaming. Had these dreams been visions? Thoughts of things to come?

  Shawn, you should see this place. It has been kept as if I had never left. My room looks the same as it did on the day I ran away. I hoped that he could hear me as far away as he was from me at this moment.

  I know. I have been there plenty over the last four years. How else do you think I knew where to find you? Aside from father telling me it was in Missouri. There was a telepathic laugh and I sighed to myself.

  I d
on't know if I can do this. I sat down on my old bed feeling the familiar comfort wash over me.

  Of course you can. You are THE Dawn Weathers, Fire Warden and daughter of two very powerful Purebloods. According to legend you can do anything. Let's not forget I met the last Fire Warden you are far more powerful than she ever thought she would be. I laid down placing my head on the pillow. This is where it really started, the dreams. I only wished I could remember them. Maybe they held some clue as to what I was about to face.

  How old were you when it started? When you knew you were different from all the other kids. I asked placing my hands behind my head.

  I was about ten I suppose. Things were already getting weird at home. The Pastor and his wife were becoming quite confused about me by then. Apparently I wasn't the only one that noticed the smell of burnt fabric in the middle of the night. There was a silence. I wondered if he even remembered that far back in time. I mean it was over five hundred years.

  I was thirteen when the dreams started. Funny thing is I don't know what they were about. I closed my eyes like that was supposed to help me remember.

  You seem tired, take a nap, we can always talk later. His voice in my head was soothing. So that is what I did in a manner of minutes after his last bit of conversation. I fell in to a sleep that was so deep I found myself lost in the sea of memories.