A Flame That Doesn't Brun
The first thing she noticed was the smell. Gone was the charred scent of burning flesh. It was replaced by the smell of something empty; cold, chemical, and the slightest undertone of bleach.
Then the noise. A steady beeping from her right, the sound of muffled footsteps and voices, wheels rolling over a tile floor.
She could feel the needles in her arms, the rough gown, and the blankets on her still sensitive skin. She could feel a gnawing emptiness in her chest and something fluttering through her abdomen. Something warm, and getting warmer.
The noises picked up, the beeping getting more urgent, and the sounds of outside spilling in as the barrier was removed. “Ma’am?” A worried female voice called from her right, “Ma’am! Are you alright?”
Her eyes finally opened as flew up from the bed. The needles tugged painfully on her skin as she gripped the metal rails at her sides. Her breathing was heavy and her head felt crowded. Everything in the room was crystal clear but her thoughts were swirling faster and faster. Memories and images were bombarding her as her senses were being assaulted by the hospital room around her.
“Ma’am?” Came the voice again.
A soft hand brushed hers before it was jerked away with a gasp of pain. Her head snapped over to the nurse at her side. She was a bit younger than Ren, early twenties maybe, and clutching her right hand. She eyed it with concern. The overpowering smell of burnt pressed up against her again for a moment. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again,
“Are you alright?”
Her voice was so rough she almost didn’t recognize it. Before the girl could respond Ren choked on the three words she’d spoken, and her body was racked with a coughing fit that made her double over in pain. It felt like somebody was dragging their nails up her throat.
Her nails. Cracked and bleeding as she dragged herself across the broken floor.
The monitor's beeping picked up again as she tried to catch her breath. She was squeezing the rails so tightly it almost felt like they were bending under her hands. Through the roaring in her head, she heard the nurse gasp again, louder this time. She tried to shut out all the sounds around her and focus on her breathing. She hadn’t had a panic attack like this since she was a kid, but she tried to remember how to calm herself down.
In.
1… 2… 3…
Out.
1… 2… 3…
In.
1… 2… 3…
Out.
1… 2… 3…
Lock it all up in the back of her mind, behind a thick, thick door, until she could look at it again.
By the time she opened her eyes again, the nurse was gone. Her hands ached as she pulled them back to her lap and flexed them. Red drops splattered on the white knit blanket. She was bleeding? She looked at her hands and sure enough, her palms were marred by several deep cuts. She puzzled at them. She hadn’t touched anything sharp.
Knitting her brows together she looked to rails. For the third time since she’d woken up the breath left her chest. She hadn’t imagined it, the metal of her bedframe was warped in the shape of her fingers. More than that, it was glowing, the metal was red-hot. She flashed back to the nurse's injured hand. She must have burned it trying to touch Ren.
Without a thought, she ripped the wires out of her arms and shoved herself out of the bed. Her legs screamed in protest and she stumbled to the bathroom door and threw it open. She stumbled into the small room and caught herself on the sink. When Ren finally looked into the mirror her grey eyes widened in horror.
She looked perfectly fine. Her long black hair was messed up but it was all there. Eyebrows, eyelashes, and even the hairs on her arms were fine. Not a single piece was singed. There were no burns at all. Some bruising maybe, she could feel that. But other than being in desperate need of some lotion there was no sign she had been near a fire.
An explosion. She had been in a fucking explosion and didn’t have a single burn. But the others had… burned to death?
Her legs took this opportune moment to give out. Crumped on the cold floor in her thin gown, Ren thought she could see the flames again. Two silhouettes appeared in the doorway. Screaming echoed through her, Ren could no longer tell if she was in the hospital, or if she was still in Johnny’s lab.
She hoped it was the second. She hoped she could burn with the rest of them.
…
When she came to again she was in the back of an ambulance. She tried to run her hand over her face but found that she couldn’t, a silver chain linked her to the stretcher she was lying in. They’d handcuffed her.
She heard sirens outside the ambulance. The screaming was still there too. What was going on?
…
She wasn't sure how long she'd been in the holding cell they’d brought her to after the hospital. After she’d burnt half of it down.
Nobody had died, thank god. It had spread surprisingly slowly. The problem had been that it seemed to burn through everything, and it had taken several special chemical fire extinguishers to put it out. The only person injured was the doctor who had pulled her out of the flames.
The flames she had created. Somehow.
That's why she was in this cell. She couldn’t control it, the flames came and went with the tides of her emotions. Every time it happened the oxygen was sucked from the room until the fires died out. They usually disappeared before she lost consciousness.
She paced the empty metal cell as she’d been doing since she got there. With nothing to distract her, she found herself thinking over that day again and again. What had gone wrong? So wrong that every safety protocol had failed? And why had she survived? Worse, how and why was she suddenly bursting into flames?
She stopped, sat down, and closed her eyes. Leaning against the wall she attempted to steady her breathing. Having the air pulled from her lungs wasn’t a pleasant experience, but at least her fear was helping her develop some control.
For the first time in over a week, the thick door of her cell swung open. Lifting her head and unclenching her fists she glared at her unusual-looking visitor. A tall man in a long black coat, all black actually, and sporting an eyepatch.
“Now, I was just gonna leave you in here until you figured all this out.” He told her in a matter-of-fact tone, “But a friend of mine decided to be nicer.”
He paused and stared her down, “Before I let you out of here, however, I need to know you can behave yourself.” His single eye pinned to her spot, “Think you can do that?”
Honestly, Ren had no idea if she could control her new little outbursts, but she knew she wanted to get the hell out of this room. “Yes,”
“Good.” He stepped back from the door, leaving it open.
He looked back and raised his eyebrows. Pushing up to her feet she held eye contact and walked out of her cage. “In that case Miss Wright, let me introduce you to Dr. Bruce Banner. Otherwise known as The Hulk,”