Finding Fire -Book 1 of the Finding the Element Series

Chapter One

My name is Fiona Wilder and I am on fire.

I had been alone since I was ten. Well not really alone, more like surrounded by people who barely know I exist or care that I am alive. That’s how it is in a mental institute.

Sadly, I was shipped there after an incident at my house. My parents couldn’t take my love for fire any longer, so when I accidently burned part of the house they decided it was time for me to be checked into a juvenile psychiatric ward.

I mean really what did I do wrong? They wanted to renovate that part of the house anyway.

I was already in my night clothes getting ready to crawl under the covers and try to sleep but Rocky came in and begged for a game of Go Fish.

Not having much of a choice in the matter unless I wanted her sitting on my floor, sobbing all night, I got up and returned with her to the sitting area where the game tables are.

I shuffled the cards for her and laid them out one at a time, making sure she saw the number of cards in front of her so she didn’t think I was cheating by giving her less.

Last time we played she threw the table over when she miscounted her cards, thinking she had four cards instead of five.

“How many cards do I have?” Rocky said with a slight lisp. Her voice is deeper than others in the institute but she is as girl as one could get.

“You have five cards,” I had said slowly, willing her time to count with her eyes. Her eyes twitch sporadically when she counts them. They remind me of a lunatic from a horror movie, but then again, she was in the psychiatric ward.

Rocky was enrolled because of her problems with cutting herself. She would cut her wrists multiple times a day, just to relieve depression. I still would see dried blood on her wrists some times, and then I wouldn’t see her for the rest of the day. They would find out and put her in what us patients called the box. The box was a giant white cushioned room where they put us when we had a relapse or needed some alone time where we would be safe from not only others, but ourselves.

Rocky wasn’t really a friend, she couldn’t keep secrets for anything, so my secrets stayed with me. People knew about my problem but they didn’t ever believe me or my parents.

Stupid people, have to believe in reality more than fantasy.

When my parents had dropped me off, the nurses were ready to offer my parents a room.

Please, making your hands turn to flame is obviously so old news to them.

I have the power of fire, I’d realized. It was something as natural as having a nightmare that would set me off into a human blow torch.

The flames would only tickle; not burn, but obviously it would hurt others.

I had hidden my talent so well, pretending to have an infatuation with fire, to cover up my own flaming hands.

“Your turn!” Rocky yelled harshly at me. I realized I had been sitting there, staring in space as she waited for me to answer her.

“Five?” Rocky said with a bit of annoyance.

“Uh, Go fish,” I said looking at my cards.

Gloomily she had picked up another card and begun to scowl just randomly at the cards.

“Seven?” I said hopefully. If she ended up having a seven she would not have been very happy.

“Go fish.”

I had breathed a sigh in relief and we went on for an hour, playing Go Fish until I could barely have kept my eyes open.

I had flopped onto my bed when my door opened slowly. Expecting to see Rocky again, I had been ready to tell her that Go Fish was over tonight, but then he came in. His blonde hair was flung all over the place and his blue eyes were twitching. It was so sad to see such a beautiful boy with such problems.