The Darkest Minds - "I'm a red,"

9.

She quickly pushes herself up off the ground and looks around. My attention turns to the second girl in the ring who's currently running at me, anger filling her face.

I force the fire from the trash cans up again, making them cross the circle to connect in a series of bridges, hoping to keep the girls away from me.

The blue-haired girl winces as one of my flames catches her across the shoulder blades. She keeps coming, though. And a second too late, I realize what she's doing.

I try to move but she's already on her hip, sliding into my legs. Falling, I let out a grunt, hitting the ground.

I surge up immediately though, throwing the girl off of me as hatred and fire flow through my veins, feeding the flame inside.

The brown-haired girl catches the one I threw, standing her up immediately.

They're too close for fire now, so it turns into a fistfight. My movements are precise and schooled, the training from my camp kicking in.

The girls also seem to be trained as they skillfully dodge each of the punches I throw their way.

"Come on, ladies. This is so boring," Knox heckles from above.

The girls backup, refraining from charging at me. I don't follow them, instead, I pace on my side of the circle, planning out my next attack.

I see a look of thought on the brown-haired girl's face. "Jamboree," she exclaims. That name sounds familiar... no, I can't think about that.

"No shit? Cate stopped checking on her one day. That's why," the blue-haired girl exclaims, putting something together.

"Hey, boo. We have to double-team her," the blue-haired girl says but I don't pay attention nor listen to this. My only command is to attack and kill.

"What good is that going to do?" The second girl asks.

"She can create fire and control it, but look at how much concentration it takes her. She stops the second you go for her like her brain can't handle both at once," they speak to each other but I focus, waiting for the two to attack.

"Shut up and fight!" Knox yells, getting bored.

"Distract her, I'll end it,"

I try to step towards the two but the brown-haired girl kicks over a can and I look towards it, confused. The crowd lets out confused gasps.

But as the girl moves on to the next can, the other one comes at me with a low cry.

As fast as I can, I move out of the way, putting my hand out and shoving the fire in my palm towards her.

She yelps, patting the end of the hair I singed. The flames lick at the strands. The girl drops to her knees, panting and cussing between her sobs.

The second girl in the ring starts toward us but with my mind, I cause the fire from the bins around the girl in front of me and I to surge up and out, twisting into shimmering webs of intense heat and light.

"Don't, Ruby!" The blue-haired girl screams.

I close one hand around the back of her neck and raise the other high above my head.