My mother was away at work, my father was never coming back, and I was alone at home with the wooden effigy, constantly hearing a voice coming from it. I got out of bed, almost mesmerized, and headed towards it.
I saw it emitting an incredible aura. My gaze was lost and fixated; I took it in my hand to examine it, but then I saw something strange. The aura wasn't just moving—it was searching. As if trying to recognize something.
And then I understood.
It wasn't that the aura was touching Hitomi's bracelet. It was the bracelet that was reacting.
The carvings on it began to faintly phosphoresce, as if responding to my energy. But it didn't break. It didn't bend. It was an object of almost legendary level, resistant even to my power.
"Hitomi... what the hell did you create?" I whispered, while wearing the bracelet on my left hand.
I started to feel a flame, a warmth, throughout my whole body. I felt that I could use this power that was surging through me. I began to focus on the feeling of the flame... and then it came. Like someone was embracing me from within. An inexplicable heat flooded my chest, as if something primal had sprung forth from my very soul.
Suddenly, I wasn't alone.
For a moment, behind the flickering flame, I saw something—a vast form, red like molten metal, a woman with eyes like volcanoes, who was practically screaming. I couldn't hear her voice, but the pressure around me became unbearable.
A name formed in my mind, but before I could utter it, the vision vanished as if it had never been.
And then, the fire enveloped me. It didn't burn—it was me. The flame began to wrap around my feet and move up my right arm. Then it started rising from the right side to my head, licking the air with that momentum that drives you to do the impossible.
But before it was complete, I felt my left hand being engulfed, and then it covered my entire head. I looked at the mirror in front of me—then my hair, too, was consumed by this flame...
That's when I realized this would be quite interesting. As I stared at myself, my smile began to widen, but then I stopped abruptly. This flame... was it real? It wasn't burning me, it wasn't hurting me. It was a part of me.
The flame was not just warmth, not just light. It was something primal, something that wanted to be set free. I felt like it belonged neither to me, nor to this world. It was an entity on its own, and I... I was simply its medium.
For a moment, I felt a pull—a desire to see how much power I had. And yet, a small voice inside me wondered: "If I can control it now, what does that mean for the future?"
"I don't know how it works, but I will learn."
The flame still danced on my skin, but before I could try anything more, my body felt heavy. As if the energy had drained out of me.
"What the hell...?" I whispered. It was terrifying and thrilling at the same time. Was I just a spectator to something greater? Or was this power waiting for the right moment to swallow me?
My heart returned to its normal rhythm. I lowered my hand and sighed. I looked in the mirror again. My eyes... were they different?
The world around me faded for a moment. The room, the mirror, the wooden effigy – everything became secondary. There was only me and the fire.
Then, a moment of doubt. My legs slightly buckled. It was too... too intense. If I didn't concentrate, this power would swallow me. My skin was burning – not like I was being incinerated, but like I had a core of lava inside me. My hands trembled momentarily, as the energy permeated my blood.
And then I saw... my hair. The reflection showed me with flames dancing among the strands. Was it still the same? Or was it... changing?
"What the hell happened to me...?" I muttered.
For a moment, my heart froze. The wooden effigy was still glowing faintly. Had it... summoned someone? something?
Then a loud BANG! was heard.
A loud knock on the door.
I raised my right hand towards the door. The fire returned with violence. I seized the flame again, and all I heard was: "Do it, eliminate them." A wide smile appeared, just as I was ready to unleash a fiery attack.
For a moment, the silence was deafening. I felt the room drowning in the fire's aura.
And then, a second loud BANG! was heard on the door.
The knocking interrupted my thought, as if I had woken up from a nightmare. The flame extinguished suddenly, as if the darkness of the room had absorbed it.
My body trembled uncontrollably. It wasn't fatigue. It wasn't even pain. It was as if my bones didn't recognize their weight, as if my skin had forgotten how to touch the air. It was like I had been born again.
My eyes blurred for a moment, and the wooden effigy glowed dimly. My body felt heavy. It was just a piece of wood. And yet, I looked at it as if it had become something else. Something I had to destroy. My fingers went numb as the heat filled my palm. I didn't think – I just let it happen.
It took me several minutes to recover, to return to reality.
A third loud BANG! was heard on the door.
I jumped backward, my heart still pounding hard. It was as if someone had abruptly pulled a string that held me in the chaos.
"Aether!" Hitomi's voice was clear, but my mind was slow to connect it to reality.
A second voice followed immediately. "What did you call him? Do you remember his name is Prometheus now?"
There was an awkward silence; nothing was heard.
However, at the same time, I started to figure out who they were by looking through the glass panel in the door. I lowered my hand and put down the wooden effigy.
The voice (the inner, dark one) didn't sound like mine. Nor like anything that belonged in this world. It was whispered but it dissolved every other thought. "Do it. Eliminate them."
I didn't know who the "them" were, I didn't know why I had to do it. I only knew that the command sounded... correct.
Before opening, I heard it again: There was an awkward pause. A brief hesitation, before the first voice answered. "Uh... err, yeah, right! Prometheus!"
And then— "But... if I call him Promes? Do you think he'll mind?"
The darkness within me receded abruptly. The space around me returned to reality, as if I had stepped out of a dream. The room seemed alien, strangely large, as if it had changed.
And then, the door opened and their voices brought me back completely, smiling and innocent. They had no idea what had just happened.
...And yet, Galaxia hesitated.
"Are you okay, Prometheus?" she asked with a strange expression. "You have... a weird aura today."
Hitomi tilted her head and smiled. "What are you talking about, Galaxia? He's the same idiot we know!"
I laughed. It was the perfect opportunity to distract them.
"Exactly! And with this idiot, you have a date for a walk!"
They mustn't find out anything. Not yet.
Control yourself, Prometheus.
I clenched my fists for a moment, holding back the intensity. They mustn't find out anything. Not yet.
They smiled at me and the day started even more dynamically!
I told them: "Good morning, ladies!"
They replied: "Good morning, Prometheus!"
And I heard the nice part from Hitomi: "Hey Promi, do you want the three of us to go for a walk a little further out to see what you learned from the initiation?"
Hmm, can you refuse when a beautiful girl asks you?
So I responded positively: "Mmm, give me a minute to go change, because I'm in my pajamas!"
I changed and put on a white shirt, brown pants, and brown boots. I went downstairs quickly and we set off!
Add comment
Comments