Elements of Love

Chapter 17: How the Fire Started

I'm still confused as to what happened earlier today, but now that the beach is closed, we (Flora, Moon, Em, and I) decided to talk on the roof of the hotel, which is open to the public but not very popular. I'm walking up the stairs right now.

I open the door to the roof and see a few pillows to sit on, with the other three already here. I sit down on the last pillow and start.

"So, this is going to be a difficult conversation, discussing trauma from all sides, so I'm not going to push anyone to say anything, but what Phaze said before is true, how we could hit each other's triggers at any time, so it's better to do this than to hide these problems." I say to which Flora nods in agreement, Em gives a thumbs up, and Moon starts.

"I'm saying my story first, otherwise I feel like I might get cold feet, so I'll begin." She said, we agreed, and she continued. "I- had a hard time talking to people for a long time, even my parents, our relationship is still strained. This is because the first power I awakened was mind reading, so when my parents lied to me as a toddler for my benefit, I saw through them and pointed it out. When my dad was stressed from work and said he was fine, I pointed it out, when my mom wanted to give me or dad a surprise, I pointed it out, I eventually got social cues, but I couldn't help but know everything about everyone for a while, since I wasn't able to control mind reading until I was ten. Having all this information in my head genuinely stressed me out, so in group gatherings I'd have to leave, as there were too many minds and only one reader, absorbing information too fast, it was hard to make friends too. I tried, but thoughts that hurt others feelings I would constantly hear, and I felt uncomfortable hiding the information from them, but since telling what someone was thinking is not helpful in those situations, I just left the groups, and telling people that I could read minds was prohibited, my parents said so, and I could tell why; they were scared for me, I was not an amalgamation, but I had powers, they wanted me safe, but it was harder for them to keep me sane. Not that I'm insane, I just have a bit more stress in my life compared to most people. Then I met a guy when I was thirteen, a bit older, and I fell in love.

Turns out that love isn't suited for mind readers.

I also was figuring out my other powers at this time, and my parents reluctantly let me share that I had my powers with my boyfriend, Wayne, and he was excited, he wasn't scared, and he wasn't the type of guy to hide anything, so the mind reading didn't bother him, he was lovely. Then one day we had an argument over something minor, but he overreacted a bit, curious I read his mind, and his mood wasn't matching his mind, going through his memories there was only one thing abnormal, he helped a homeless woman, one with black hair and pupils that were vibrating, like, the eyes weren't, but the pupils would vibrate out of and back into place, Wayne gave her some money, but the chemicals from the endocrine system weren't getting pumped at normal speeds, his emotions slowly became unstable. He became obsessive as a combination of losing some sanity but retaining his love for me. I reached out to an online friend whose name I didn't know. He was a guy though, similar age. Wayne found out about him, he got angry, eventually he started hitting me. I stayed with him, hoping he'd come back to his senses, this quite literally wasn't him. I confided in my online friend, we relied on each other, as he had struggles of his own, he knew about my powers, but it wasn't scary as he didn't know my name or where I was. My online friend suggested breaking up with him, but I was blinded by love at the time. Eventually, it became our anniversary, so I decided to surprise him, I hid in his closet waiting for him to come home, but he came back with another woman and opened his closet, so I had to teleport under the bed, I was scared, Wayne kissed the girl forcibly, the door to the hallway still open, and it seemed like the girl's boyfriend saw the kiss, said something about breaking promises, and then said that there was a girl under the bed, I didn't know how he saw me, but I couldn't see him. He left and the girl followed, Wayne checked under the bed and when we made eye contact, I'd felt like my soul left my body, it wasn't because he found me, it wasn't because he cheated, but for two reasons. One was that I couldn't read his mind, and the other was.." Moon looked down and her voice was trembling.

"..his pupils were vibrating."