The Last Phoenix

Chapter 3 - Red

Lilith heard the snickering in Lyla’s twins mind, they had never been fond of each other. From birth it had seemed that Lucas had only ever wanted to torment their sister. He was a mystery, where Lyla never shielded her mind from Lilith; Lucas had learned a long time to block her out. She would snitch every time he planned on doing something stupid. The cat incident was the last straw for both of them, who in their right mind would actually think it was okay to put a kitten at the very top of a tree.

“What do you find so funny Lucas?” Lilith turned towards him, “and look here you don’t have your block up. Maybe I should dig to see what terrible things you’ve been doing.”

Lucas smiled, “oh my dearest sister, what are you talking about? I don’t have anything schemed, but I do find it a bit amusing that you lost your protection today.”

Eli slapped Lucas on the back of his head, “leave her alone. I will not tolerate your s**t, Lilith stays to herself, or has been with Lyla on a regular basis since she was a child. If you invite her wrath I won’t save you, and you know what her wrath brings.”

Eli was the oldest, where Lilith was the youngest. The twins were only a year older than Lilith. Eli had always been more of a dad to Lilith than a brother. He was twenty years older than her, and their relationship was more of a doting father. He was the one who sat down to help her with her school work. He was the one who taught her how to ride a bike and to drive. They may not have much of a sibling relationship, but he was the one who helped raise her. Each of the older siblings more or less just picked a younger sibling to look after and he was never fond of any of them until he saw Lilith all bundled up in her white little blanket.

Lucas glared at Eli, “I still do not understand why everyone is so under her spell. She causes nothing but destruction! The fact her and Lyla are so close and you baby her is asinine.”

The truth was, Lilith did. She knew it, and so did everyone else. As soon as her anger or pain was too much she would lose control of her powers. From the time she was born her whole family was wary, because her hands would start to heat and anything she would touch would unfortunately end up aflame or burned. Most of her siblings stayed away from her, for fear of being burned. Eli still had the scar on his arm where she had left him burned after she fell off the bike and broke her arm. He sat through it all carrying her to the healer. She never meant to hurt him though, she apologized and cried so much when she saw the mark. There were burn marks through their entire home from when something bad had happened, but she never actually destroyed anything.

Eli wrapped his arm around Lilith shoulders and pulled her into him, resting his head on the top of hers. You could see the heat rising in her hands, they were becoming streaked with red.

“Brother, I will tell you one last time; if you do not like the ways of our home then leave.” Eli started to pull Lilith away.

Kana walked over scolding Lucas, “your sister is going through enough, the blocking spell is not working. So best mind your own block. There is no reason for you to antagonize her.”

And with that, every one of her siblings put their blocks up. It was a moment of defeat for Lilith, she hated that everyone treated her different, but what other way was there? With that she pulled from her brother and walked back inside, with the last word being “freak” from Lucas and then there was a fight.

As soon as the door closed behind her she ran to her room, things were changing so much and she needed an ice cold shower to help with the heat. The stone shower had been designed to withstand a moderate amount of heat. The hex had given added protection to prevent it from disintegrating. She had just made it to the shower before her clothes were starting to fall off her, her whole body filled with heat and tears streaming down her face. She turned the water on cold, and though it stung it seemed to help. The bathroom was filled with steam and the cold sting from the water only lasted a second. Slowly her body began to cool, the red lines through her hands and arms had begun to fade. After several minutes she adjusted the temperature to something a bit more normal and she started to scrub her body raw. She hated the feeling the fire in her veins made her feel. She hated the way everyone treated her over it.

When she was finally as cooled down as her body would let her, she dried herself and put new clothes on. Looking in the mirror, she noticed her eyes were still an amber color. She always loved the color on her, but she also knew she only seen that color when the fire was trying to burn.she finished her hair and grabbed her phone from the bedside to see if her sister had messaged.

(I miss you already)

(Me too and your douche bag twin caused a fight after you left)

(I really do not know how I shared a womb with him for 9 months.)

(I ruined my clothes again)

(Just always remember to breathe when you get angry, think of the plants and the dirt. Just remember all the things that keep you calm.)

She smiled, as soon as the storms were over the plants started to grow. She had been tending to her gardens for the last couple weeks. Those always calmed her soul. There was something about nature that seemed to ground her.

(I love you sister, let me know when you get there!)

(Of course Lilith, I love you too)

She got up to head outside, to find peace in her world.