I woke up from a knock from the door. No nightmares this time. No random street animal brushing against me. No cops asking what am I doing asleep here. Just a knock.

I lifted my groggy self off the bed and sat up. Guess I found it in the middle of the night when I was sleeping. Or I actually decided to sleep on it. On the carpet was the dirty plate from last night. My stomach lightly growled in relief, glad that something useful had found my stomach instead of stale dirty leftovers.

I got up from the bed and opened the door. Wiping away strands of greasy hair off my forehead. Ian stood on the other end. Wearing an old cardigan that had holes and stains at the sides.

He greeted me with a smile. "Mornin'."

Doesn't his cheeks get tired keeping that thing on?

I grunted out something as I gave out a wave.

"Sleep well?"

"Um...I think so?" How do you sleep well again? That's a thing right?

"Sall good," Ian nodded. "We're gonna have some breakfast and we'll get started with some magic training."

Oh yeah. Magic. My flames are magic.I'm a witch or whatever. I'm a magical freak.

I nodded and closed the door on Ian and his smile. I glanced over at the closet of new clothes then at myself. Dirt and singes covered the six months of jeans I stole from a thrift store. Sweat stains and holes poked out of my sweatshirt I found out the park one day. I could change into something new, it would feel pretty good to wear some fresh clothes. But I haven't showered in a pretty long time. So the stains on my skill will just move over to them. They'll become dirty just like me.

I could shower. But is that gonna wash it all away? How long will it take? I'll probably be in there all day trying to clean myself and the smell of fire would still be on me. It would pretty much a waste trying to do either of those at this point. Just go downstairs. Get it over with.

I glanced over at the empty plate and picked it up. Taking a second before opening the door. I poked my head into the hallway, no one was there. Kinda thought that Blane would be by those doors to the library. Guess not.

I walked downstairs to the living room. It wasn't as lively as was yesterday. There were a few people on the couch talking to each other. At the main table, was Ian and Andy. The girl from last night, Mary-Beth, was at the table with them. She had headphones on, head down at her plate. Finishing off what looked like pancakes.

The smell of fresh breakfast stirred my stomach. Ripping off the plug and making a new hole. Maybe there's some magic that can cure hunger. So I wouldn't feel a ping of pain every time my stomach growls around food.

Immediately, Ian noticed me and waved at me. I gave a small wave back while Andy gave a soft nod. Mary-Beth was still absorbed in her food, soft muffled noises coming out of her headphones as she stayed in her own universe.

"Morning," Andy mumbled.

"There's a variety of breakfast stuff already cooked up in the kitchen if you wanna pick something out," Ian added.

"Okay," I nodded, "thanks."

Ian's eyes landed on the empty plate and his smile grew bigger. He turned to Andy who nodded as he started whispering something.

I shuffled myself into the kitchen to see it busy. There were a couple of people at the sink washing dishes while one guy was focused on stove. A soft purple glow was behind his eyes, watching spatulas and food move onto pans to be cooked. Little beads of sweat forming on his brow.

The white eye girl, Niki, watched the guy as she munched on her toast. Her gaze watching the floating objects carefully.

"Don't burn yourself out." She said.

"I'm good," The guy sighed, his fist turning into balls. "This is good practice for me anyways."

The soft glow behind his flickered away as soon as those words left his mouth. The food and spatulas clattering to the ground. The two over at the sink jumped, looking over at what happened. Niki smirked a little as the guy stared at his mess with a disappointed look.

"Keep practicing," Niki said before walking out.

A cold chill brushed down my spine as she walked by me. Those eyes chilled my blood as they glanced at me. What kind of magic does that? Although, who am I to say? I can burn shit.

I could still feel those pale white eyes looking through me. Just something about them froze my heart. I squeezed out what I hope was a polite smile, doing my best to stuff down the cold feeling inside of me. Niki glanced down at the plate at my hands and nodded as she walked out of the room.

A rush of warmth came back into my body. My fingertips started to burn, no flames, no numbness. Just a check to see if I was still alive.

I still haven't figured that out yet.

The guy by the stove let out a stiff laugh, picking up his mess. One of the people at the sink joked at him about something as they continued washing. I just put the plate on any open space on the counters and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and headed back out.

Ian and Andy were still at the table talking. Mary-Beth had migrated away from the table and sat over at the couch. Watching the tv with one of her headphones out. Niki was over at the card table. Folding it up to make room for something.

I sat at the end of the table, a good couple of chairs away from them. Wiggling my toes to make sure they got enough blood flow from the massive tundra that passed by me.

Ian pointed at the apple in my hand. "That's all you gonna eat?"

"Um...yeah," I mumbled, glancing over at Mary-Beth. "I'm not really hungry now. But I'll eat some more later."

Ian flashed a thumbs-up as Andy mumbled through a mouthful of eggs.

"Think we should?" Ian asked, looking back at Andy.

Andy coughed down his food with the help of some orange juice. "Would help her out."

Ian's face paused for a couple of seconds, gears visually rotating on his face. I glanced back at Mary-Beth, her focus still on the TV. The apple felt clammy against my skin. Lunch will come up and I can try to eat something more than just a single fruit.

"Um," I muttered out, "Thanks for-"

She didn't look back but gave a response. Raising her right hand up in an "ok" sign. I let out a sigh as she put on the other side of the headphone. Andy and Ian traded looks with each other as I brought my eyes back to them. Ian's smile got bigger while Andy nodded.

I just took a bite of the apple, watching the two silently communicate with their expression.

"So, Meril?" Ian asked, drawing his focus back to me. "You ready?"

No is still an answer, right? I can still run away back to a dirty covered corner and burn there, right?

I slowly nodded back, gripping the apple as an anchor.

Ian's smile softened. "Don't worry. We're not gonna go too long. Just bare bones. Kinda like a workout. If you feel like you need to stop then we'll stop, alright?"

I nodded again. Let's see if we can actually tame the wild consuming fire that's more instinct than common sense.

"Alright, let's go."

Andy waved at us as Ian got up and started walking over to the hallway by the stairs. I followed after him, a few steps behind. Looking over at the other residents here. They all had a mixture of expressions on their faces. Some actually looked like they were happy. Absorbed in their activities. A couple had the same expression as Mary-Beth, zoned out. A few seemed happy about it while some looked sunken in. Mary-Beth looked neutral. Her eyes watching the tv as her body gently rocking side to side.

No sign of that Blane guy. Must have gotten in another fight with the doors or something.

"Hey Ian," Niki called out, the two of us a step out of the room.

Ian turned around while I kept my eyes on the ground, doing my best to avoid those eyes. Maybe it be rude to ask if she could wear sunglasses over them. It'll still be rude not looking at her. Try looking somewhere close to her eyes. Her nose? Yeah, let's try that for now.

"You know where the chairs for the meeting are?"

"Yeah, they should appear if you touch the sigil on the shelf," Ian answered, pointing at the shelf bookcase.

Her eyes narrowed from the corner of my peripherals. Nope, can still see them. And they look like they got colder. Try her forehead.

"Oh! Right, sorry. I think they're down in the basement."

"Thanks." Niki nodded, waving at us.

Is she waving at me or Ian? Can't really tell when I'm staring at her forehead. I am way too tired to be trying to deal with all this new shit. I just wanna go find an abandoned corner and curl up now.

Ian nudged me in the back and my eyes snapped back to a regular stare. He was over at a blue painted door a foot away from the stairs and front door. I sighed, popping some internal zit that was settling in my stomach and walked over to the door.

He looked over at me with one hand on the doorknob. "We can stop whenever you feel tired, okay?"

So now? I nodded digging some of the thumbnail into my middle finger. A faint buzz of numbness starting to bite at the tips.

Ian nodded back, opening the door and walking in. I waited for a second and followed him in. The inside of the room was a lot bigger than I thought it be. It was also a drastic change from the homely atmosphere that this place gave. The room was a huge concrete, worn down room. It looked like about maybe a hundred feet or something as I glanced around. The ground was missing some chunks of cement with some spots holding a strange stain.

Over at the end of the corner in front of us was a desk that had jars of plants, rocks and other weird objects. I hoped didn't come from humans. Ian rushed over there, shuffling through some of the abandon books and paper for something.

"Where are we?" I asked, looking behind us. The blue door was still there standing against the concrete wall. Unharmed and blending in.

"Still in the house," Ian said, shoving some of the papers into the book. " When I built this place, I knew we needed a place to practice magic so no one could get hurt. So I had a buddy of mine make this for us. It's a little pocket dimension charm he casted for us. So no fire is gonna spread and hurt anyone."

Too late.

"Found it!"

He turned around twirling a small metal rod in between in his fingers. It had swirls covering the shaft with rune looking letters around the handle.

I looked back at him with a flat face. Digging deeper into my middle finger. "What did you want me to swing that around and say magic words?"

"Well, no," Ian replied less sarcastic than me. "Words and chants are pretty complicated magic. They can be pretty powerful and hard to control so were doing the bare basics here."

He stopped twirling the rod and handed the end over to me. "This will help control your fire. Think of it as training wheels."

The numbness was starting to eat into the bone. Vibrating through the muscles, clamping down on the nerves. Spreading to my arm like a violent fungus. The longer I stared at that small metal rod, the stronger the numbness got. Little splashes of lead balls dropping into the back of my throat.

Am I just gonna be stuck like this? In a numbing fungus that covered me. Poping out spores, covering my lungs in ashes of burned building and my own skin? So who would it hurt if I reach out and grab that rod? I'm already broken. There's nothing else I can break that would matter.