Our Powerful Family

Going Down In Flames

Leo POV:

Eva... she was screaming. It hurt me so much to hear her scream. I could hear the pain in her voice. Then I heard her scream my name and my heart sank. Was I causing her all this pain? I didn’t want to be the cause of her suffering... she means the world to me. Mi pequeño zorro. I could feel tears running down my cheeks as I watched her squirm, screaming and crying. 

She thought I didn’t want her. She told me. I know she let me flirt with her still. But she didn’t know how much she changed me. I used to be the asshole that tried to get a lot of girls in bed. But not anymore. Because I loved that girl. It took me a long time to realize what I was feeling. But I did. And I was going to tell her today when all this happened. But I didn’t get the chance. And now I was the cause of her pain. 

Finally, she stopped screaming. But then my expression dropped. A fog was slowly building around me. I struggled, I didn’t give a s**t about me. I just wanted her. We had fun that one night... weeks ago. She thinks I’m done with her. But damn, I’m far from done. 

I can no longer see her through the fog and that scares me. It was dark, where am I-?

The lights seem to suddenly come on and I’m in a room. It’s completely white and my eyes widen. When I was a child, I remember often seeing flashes of this room followed by immense pain. It was horrible. A big part of the shadowed past I couldn’t seem to remember clearly. I looked around the room, everything was white. The padded walls, the door, the cabinet, and even the two beds side by side. 

That’s when I saw her. “Eva?” I speak, stepping closer. Sure enough, it’s her. Only, she’s younger. She’s maybe nine, but she doesn’t look much different. Her skin is pale, white hair shining in the light, and a white hospital gown covering her small body. Fear rose in me. She was using the help of a machine to breathe. It was covering her nose and mouth, her small breaths fogging up the plastic. IV tubes stuck out of her arm, connecting to a beeping machine. Blood was going into her. She looked like she was dying. 

I tried to caress her cheek, but suddenly I heard the heart monitor flat line. My eyes widened. This wasn’t my deepest fear. Pain speared my heart as I watched doctors in white scrubs, with white masks on, rush into the room. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I suddenly looked to the side. I was there. Young me. I was standing in the doorway, watching this happen in horror. This is a memory. 

But... it was also a fear. Pain that I couldn’t describe. Because it all became achingly clear to me. Eva died. When we were kids. I couldn’t even remember being friends with her when we were this young. Maybe we weren’t friends. Maybe we just knew each other. But that doesn’t matter. She still died. The image of her and the room faded. I lifted my hands to my cheeks to feel the wetness there. 

But it wasn’t done. Suddenly I saw her again. This time, she was standing, her back to me. She said nothing so I walked to her. Darkness was around us, the ground fog. I reached out to touch her. But she suddenly turned, grabbing my wrist. She scowled at me and I felt my heart start to break all over again. “I wasn’t lying. I don’t love you! I will never love you and you will always be alone!” She yelled at me and my eyes widened. She released my wrist.

“Eva-“ I started, but she suddenly turned on her heel and stormed away. I watched her go, but suddenly I was crying out for her. The pain in my chest increased to a point where I just wanted to curl up into a ball and whither away. I still love her. But everything is going down in flames like my power. And maybe that’s why I have this fire? Because I destroy everything. Including the only girl I could ever love. 

But that memory... a time that must have scared me so much my brain blocked it. It hurt just to see that one part. I hoped it wasn’t true. But I knew it was. Somehow, someone dug into the deepest parts of my mind and brought that to the surface. However, I couldn’t even think about that right now, for the thing that hurt most was her saying she would never love me. Her leaving me. The thought of losing her is a pain worse than death.