“Abel,” Addison pushed out in strangled voice I hadn’t heard him use before. “You should not have said that. She’s a little, um, oversensitive when it comes to throwing things away, I don’t think she’s going to like hearing you talk about destroying things in here in such a casual manner.”
The more agitated their conversation made me, the faster and faster the shoe spun in my mind.
In a disbelieving voice, Abel muttered, “What the hell are you talking about? She’s fine. Leave her alone.”
“Abel,” Addison barked at his brother. “Be quiet for a second.”
The shoe spun round and round inside my mind. So fast it started to blur. Thoughts of my mother and why I was surrounded by her things crept into my mind.
I shook my head, trying to shake the negative thoughts from my mind as I opened my eyes.
I shoved the shoe out of my mind, giving it a solid, mental toss. The flame flickered before going out.
I watched in awe as the shoe I had seen in my head flew through the air, crashing into the wall. It bounced off the wall and landed on the carpet with a thump where it immediately burst into flames.
My eyes rounded in horror and I screamed, loud and girly. The fire seemed to grow larger as my screaming grew louder. The flames grew higher, taller, crawling towards the ceiling.
I watched in open mouthed horror. Oh, what had I done now.
“Ariel,” Abel yelled in my ear as he placed his hands on my biceps and shook me roughly. My teeth clacked together as my head rattled from side to side.
A harsh beeping started, higher than the beeping of the alarm on the doors and windows. The smoke detector. That horrible sound was the smoke detector in the master bedroom going off.
Shit.
My uncontrolled emotions and the magic inside me that I had absolutely zero control over were going to burn Mr. Cole’s house down.
I didn’t want that.
What was the matter with me? I couldn’t do anything right. And now I was going to burn Mr. Cole’s house down when all I was trying to do was take some of the burden off of his shoulders.
“Where’s the fire extinguisher?” Abel shouted at me.
I shook my head; how would I know where the damn fire extinguisher was? It’s not like I’d ever had to use one before. I didn’t just light shit on fire with my mind on the daily.
Addison ripped a dress off of a hanger and started beating out the fire with it. He hit it over and over again until the fire went out. The carpet around the shoe was a charred, blacked out mess and the shoe still smoked a little.
Addison held up the dress he’d used to put the fire out. It had gaping holes burned into it and was completely ruined. “I’m sorry, Ariel,” he said in a sad voice. “We’re not going to be able to donate this one. I’m afraid it’s headed for the trash.”
“Girl,” Abel said, his voice shaking with suppressed laughter. “You tried to burn down Mr. Cole’s house.” He snickered, and a laugh escaped.
I whirled around and jabbed my finger at him. “I did not!” I shouted, getting angry.
Addison coughed, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh too.
“This isn’t funny,” I shouted, my voice vibrating with anger.
They both lost the battle at the same time and burst out laughing.
I shook my head, exasperated. With them and myself. It’s not like I had intentionally tried to light anything on fire, but it still happened anyway, and I could have easily burned the house down while I stood by and stupidly watched.
“Oh my god, twin, you should have seen her face.” Addison said as he clutched his stomach, like laughing this much had pained him. “She looked like she was going to piss herself when that shoe went up. Priceless. I wish we would have filmed it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled under my breath. “Laugh it up, assholes.”
That set them off again and they laughed harder.
Eventually, they calmed down and we were able to finish the job at hand without any more mishaps. They only made fun of me a little for trying to burn down the house, which I appreciated greatly. They spent two long hours with me, helping pack everything up. They never once complained and after the little shoe debacle, they stopped telling me to throw everything in the trash, I think it had something to do with Addison pulling Abel aside, outside of my hearing range and whispering to him. He probably told him not to push the loony girl any further out of fear I might light him on fire next.