Magic Children

Chapter 32 Boulder Public Records Center - Brigit

It wasn't hard to warp my way into the building. But I've been warping all night and now it's early morning and I'm bleeding from everywhere and I don't even know if I can see straight. I'm crying so hard.

Why would I think my mommy didn't want me? I want her so bad. Why didn't I want to go home? I want to go home. She held me and clung to me and I remember, she hit the people trying to take me away. She sobbed and told me she loved me.

Why didn't I think she'd want me back?

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm crying so hard I have to take deep breaths to breath. I just need to find my birth certificate. It'll have the address on it. Maybe my mom still lives there. Dodger said go to Lyons, well that's not specific. I need to know where in Lyons. A zip code. Something. At least I can find out my parents names and then go from there.

But I don't even know where to start. The records center is huge. There are rows and rows of cabinets. I open them at random and can't even determine a pattern. Does it go by name or year? Last name or first name? And what order is it in? All the letters are jumbled together. Well, at least the entries mostly seem to go by letter but where is F? I suppose it would go by Frigg not Brigit.

I turn on lights only as I need them, flicking them off quickly. I don't need to be caught. I need to go home.

I hear sirens. Why though? I warped in. I didn't set off any alarms.

But police cars are flashing outside.

I duck, hiding behind a row of files. All the lights off. I'll warp out if necessary, but I really want to finish looking. I scrub blood and tears off my face. I don't need to look like a mutant.

"Put your hands up."

"I'm sorry I'm just looking for someplace to sleep," I say, standing up and holding up my hands. Maybe ten cops. Holding electric guns? Why do they know I'm a mutant? They don't they're surprised.

"Don't move," they're going to cuff me anyway. Damn it. Sorry, that's not happening.

I freeze all of them. Put them to sleep? I can try I don't want to hurt them, but they are a lot more coming and putting them to sleep will take a minute.

"It's okay. They're here for me, not you," a voice says from behind me. And then all the cops crumble into flames and ashes.

"Who are you?" I ask, spinning around, wiping fresh blood from my face. A man is standing behind me. Maybe Dodger's age, so young ish, but he has fine, dark hair, a handsome face, and sly grin. He's wearing a black turtle neck, black pants, and has a long black overcoat.

"I'm Angel, also the reason they're here," he says, kindly, "You were just unlucky enough to break in the night I did."

"What did you do them?" I ask, exactly as the cars outside also burst into flame.

"I set them on fire—specifically I magnified the heat energy already in them, here," he holds out his hand to me, "Put your hand near mine, I'll show you— it isn't hard."

I hold out my hand. He places his above mine and I feel an cold rush through my hand, then an intense heat as if I'm burning up. Then cold again.

"Try to pull the heat back from me---there you go, very good," he says, smiling again this time as I tug the heat forcibly back into my cold hand. "You've done that before, haven't you?"

"Only once---I was mad. A friend died on the chair. I didn't know what I was doing, and it scared me," I admit.

"Yeah, it works better when you're mad," he says, nodding.