Blaze of Glory 1.

“Come on Sera, have one, I’m having one.” Rhona urged, holding the box out in one manicured hand.

“I don’t know… Agnes would be annoyed if she found out.” The portly teenager hesitated, twisting one strand of black hair nervously.

Her blonde friend scoffed and wiggled a cigarette at her, “Agnes is lovely, you wouldn’t get in trouble even if she did find out! Come on, aren’t you curious to find out what it tastes like?”

“Or are you too chicken?” Lindsey added, leaning against the wall with her brown eyes twinkling, “Bawk bawk.”

“No, I just don’t want to get addicted, do you know how much smokers spend on these things?” Sera said, “I want to keep my money for drinks and the bus and clothes! Fun stuff I’m already addicted to!”

“You’re going to get addicted after just one? As if!” Rhona retorted, “Don’t be such a wet blanket, you won’t know unless you try.”

“Bawk bawk.”

“Eh, fair enough, fine then.” The brown skinned girl relented with a deep breath, then plucked a paper tube from the box and bit down on it. It tasted fairly neutral, a little dry, but-

“Sera, eh, you smoke it, not eat it!”

“That’s just Sera, eating’s her first instinct.” Lindsey jibed, and Sera forced a laugh out with the girls. After all she was the largest of them, and ate accordingly, but it was hardly her fault that both girls were built like rakes. The fag fell out as soon as she opened her mouth and she sighed and took another one from the box, clutching it between two fingers like she’d seen smokers do.

“So… you did bring a lighter right? Or matches?”

“Matches? Who uses matches Sera? It’s twenty fifteen, not ye olden times.”

“So you brought a lighter?”

“No.” Lindsey waved her thin hands theatrically, “Why would I? It wasn’t my idea!”

“I brought matches,” Rhona offered, producing a box from one of the inner pockets of her school blazer, “Unless they’re not cool enough for you.”

“Do you have a brick in there too in case you need to phone someone, troglodyte?”

“Brick? Nah, this backpack is my new state of the art telephonic device, it only takes a week to recharge.”

“I say! Simply splendid!” Sera chirped in, only for Rhona to sigh at her.

“Don’t try and do the accent, Seraphina, dear. It doesn’t work, you just sound like an indian failing to sound british.”

“Yeah that’s what I was going for.”

“Sure you were.” Rhona scoffed, struck a match and lit her own cigarette, then lifted it up to inhale the smoke. A look of puzzlement swept over her face, and then the teenager doubled over, erupting into a fit of coughs.

“Haha, weakling! That was only one breath!” Lindsey laughed, patting the girls back while Sera picked up the dropped box of matches, not wanting to delay any more last she endure more teasing. The fag she held in her lips again to free up her hands, and fished a match out before striking it along the boxes edge.

WHUMF!

“Ah!” Sera squeaked in surprise as the entire match flared up, consumed by flames and her fingers were brushed painfully by the sudden burst of heat.

“She can’t handle smoke and you can’t light a match? What is this, Dumb and Dumber?”

“No, it just flared up, like it was covered in oil or something. Gave me a surprise is all.” Sera scowled and grabbed another one from the box. She struck it straight away, then hissed and flung it away as the entire stick flared up again. “They’re faulty or something!”

“Oh, sure they are.”

“They are too, I’m just lighting them, watch!” She huffed furiously and took a third, tightly holding the box out to demonstrate, and then struck it. Sparks flew and flames flared up a third time, greater this time, lapping over her fingers with stinging heat, and lighting up the cardboard box for good measure. The girl hissed in pain and jammed her burnt fingers into her mouth, letting the burning items fall to the ground.

Lindsey burst into laughter at the sight, stooped down and lit her own cigarette on the fiery box, chuckling all the while, “Cahahahahahha! Really? Wow, Sera really, you are a special kind of klutz you know that? I didn’t know you could light a match, match box, and your hair on fire all in one go!”

Sera sucked her scorched fingers and frowned, “Hair? Aaaah, no put it out!”

She spun around suddenly, hands flailing at her long dark locks while the two girls broke into another round of laughter, “Gotcha! I can’t believe you fell for it!”

“That’s not funny, I… urgh, I don’t like fire!” Sera snapped, looking at the blistered skin of her fingers, and the smouldering box of matches, “You rigged it, didn’t you Rhona? Coated them all in something to scare me!”

“What?” Her blonde friend wheezed, still struggling with her cigarette, “Heh, no, it wasn’t me, those are normal matches; you managed that all by yourself. But I guess you can’t try this out now if we can’t light them.”

“Better not to, Sera’ll blow us all up if we let her.”

She scowled and looked at her phone, trying to look as disinterested as possible in the face of their cheer, “Fine by me, I’m gonna head and get dinner, seeyas later!”

“Haha, bye!”

“See you tomorrow, try not to burn your house down!”

“Try not to choke to death Rhona, its smoke that kills you, not fire!”

She strode off out of earshot shortly, and wove her way through the cities crowded streets, hugging her school blazer tight around herself. School had been over for a good hour already but the uniform wasn’t too bad, with a skirt and the top button opened, tie stuffed into her pocket. It was only about twenty minutes’ walk from the park they hung out at to her house anyway, so by the time she reached the small ground level flat the smell of dinner already hung in the air.

“Hey Agnes, I’m home!” Sera declared, shrugging her shoes off and stepping into their small kitchen, “What’s for dinner?”

“Just in time, made a nice little bit of korma,” Her adoptive mother called from their warm steamy kitchen, “How was school?”

“Dull, long, boring.” She sighed and sat down at the kitchen table, watching the old lady busy herself. Agnes was in her late forties with a cloud of greying hair and small wrinkles at the corner of her eyes, but nonetheless she dressed youthfully in jeans and a cardigan.

“Same as usual then. Any evening plans?”

“Nah, just chilling out, only got a little bit of maths and physics homework, won’t take too long.”

“Good, can you set the table for me dear?”

“Fine.” She muttered, and set about collecting cutlery, glasses and juice for the table, before sitting down and glancing at her phone. Predictably Rhona had already text her;

“Still alive, fags suck, feel like I’m gonna hurl. Lindsey’s all smug but hers wasn’t even smoking! Blown up your house yet?”

“Yeah, burnt down house, didn’t you see it on news-“ “Ah” She hissed and sucked at her burnt fingers again.

“Everything okay? Don’t suck them, you’re not teething are you?” Agnes asked.

“No, they’re just sore.” Sera answered, looking at the reddish tips of her hand before the older woman grabbed her wrist.

“Mmm, burns? What were you doing?”

“Uh, chemistry, was lighting one of the little… Bunsen burners and it caught my fingers.”

“Not chemicals?”

“No, I didn’t spill acid or alkali or anything Agnes. Don’t worry, it’s fine.” She replied, trying to ignore the burning sensation still present as she finished the text. Agnes took her at her word and soon enough set out their plates of korma and rice and naan bread and began chattering away without concern. Sera listened and ate, well used to her parent’s wordiness, and then cleaned up once they were finished.

As planned she went and worked in her own bedroom for a while, plodding through the difficult sums and calculations and texting before getting her laptop out and relaxing for a couple of hours. A while later she headed back through the living room to find Agnes ironing and watching the tv.

“All done?”

“Yeah, I finished the homework ages ago, I just fancied a drink.”

“Did you get it right?” Her thin fingers folded a shirt up.

“I dunno, yeah, think so.”

“Fair enough, can you get me a coffee while you’re at it?”

“Yeah, sure.”  Sera answered, turning the kettle on as she leaned against the kitchen doorframe. “Anything good on?”

“An old Frost is coming on, old detective one, just waiting for it.”  Agnes frowned and sniffed, “Actually would you mind lighting up one of those scented candles I got for my birthday. Little bit smelly in here.”

Sera frowned, unable to detect the smell, “Do I have to?”

“Problem? You can take over all this ironing if you like, young lady.” Agnes smiled thinly.

“Fine.” She sighed and went through a drawer until she found the candle and set it on the table. A box of matches was already lying conveniently nearby and she took them up hesitantly.

“Something wrong dear?”

She shook her head- no, there was no point worrying; it couldn’t be that, she was only seventeen, young. The last matches had just been bad luck. Her fingers shook the match and rattled the box as she placed it, breathed in, and jerked the black head along the rough cardboard, ready for the-

Crack!

The match splintered, both halves tumbling from her fingers and she let out a nervous giggle before taking up a second one. Normal matches. Yeah, not a problem! She smiled and struck it, the match hissing and sparking as it scraped along the side, then glowing heat flared up.

Fire burst up from the match, a surge of glimmering orange flames flooded out instantly. Her hands were engulfed in searing heat, skin blistering in agony, the box caught fire and she gave a squeal of surprise and pain as she toppled backwards. She hit the floor with a gasp of pain and felt tears tumble from her eyes. The box fell a foot away, blazing brightly until a wet towel smacked down on it again and again until the flames smouldered away and Agnes dropped to her knees.

“There we go, you did that! Aw, I can barely believe it!” She cried out ecstatically and wrapped her arms around the teenager, “Don’t worry Seraphina, you’re fine, you’re more than fine, this is wonderful!”

“No… Ag…Agnes, my hands hurt, they’re… b-burnt…” She sobbed, leaning into the older woman, “I-it was just a f-fluke, n-not me, it w-wasn’t me- A-aaaaah, Agnes!”

“Yes, your hands, sorry, I’m just too excited, let me see!” Agnes smiled and leaned back, taking hold of the girl’s wrists curiously. Her hands skin was blistered, pink and shiny down to just past the wrist, still burning hot and sensitive, flaring with pain when her carer poked the skin with one skinny finger.

“A-ah! Don’t, please, i-it’s sore!”

“They’re not too bad, we can try again if you’re so sure it wasn’t you my dear!” She grabbed the charred box again, fingers fiddling inside to find an intact match, “Ah yes, the next fire will probably be larger, well done that was incredible! And at such a young age too, I’m so proud of you, I was ready to wait a couple of years but- was that the fire too, the chemistry one? Just out of the blue?”

“N-no, I don’t want to make a fire, it hurt!”

“Think of it as practice, Seraphina, at this rate you must be almost ready to bloom already! There’s only a few other signs and you’ll be all grown up, ah my little girl! This is just wonderful, go on, try it again!” She pushed the matches forward into her burnt hands, grey eyes glimmering with excitement.

“It’s sore, I can’t, Agnes, please!” She gasped, wincing as she pushed the matches back to her.

“This is no time for modesty, I’m certain you’re capable; you’re like a star already, just go on!”

“No!” The box flew across the room as Sera leapt to her feet, chest heaving, “Mum stop it! I don’t want to, it freaked me out earlier, I only just started doing it after school! Please… just…. It’s too fast, it’s out of nowhere, I can’t deal with it so suddenly like this! Stop it!”

Agnes stared up at her in surprise, blank confusion clear on her face, “It’s hardly sudden, Seraphina, you’ve always known you’d grow up, you were excited about it when you were little-“

“Just, just shut up, you don’t get it at all!” the teenager shrieked suddenly, turning on her heel and running out of the living room, out into the hall, and out into the night. Chill hit her head on, but she kept watching, glaring ahead fiercely as her mind whirled. She had to be wrong, surely, she couldn’t be ready now! She was only seventeen, she wasn’t even old enough to drive yet. She was supposed to have years of childhood left before she was plunged into adulthood, actual adulthood where she’d be trapped forever!

Her footsteps echoed through the quiet twisting street, her body dyed orange in the fickle light of the streetlamps, and long black hair twisting in the cool breeze. It wasn’t fair for it to come so suddenly like that. She was meant to get little things first, little things she could notice and hide from Agnes and make her peace with before her surrogate mother even twigged that something was the matter. Instead it had got bigger every time, her fires flaring stronger and brighter with every instance as her reddened hands proved. At this rate… her stomach filled with butterflies, maybe Agnes did have a point; if she kept affecting flames how large would they blaze?

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she wiped her eyes before answering.

“Heya Sera, why didn’t you answer my text?” Rhona’s voice crackled through.

“H-huh? T-text?” She frowned- had her phone buzzed just before she went through to the living room?

“Yeah, a t-t-t-text asking if you wanted to head to cinema Saturday? I’m booking tickets. What’s up with the stuttering, you shivering or something?”

“Uh, yeah… yeah, I’m outside.”

“As if, what’s the matter?”

Sera sighed, her friend could read her too well, even over the phone or just in text.

“Well? Don’t sigh at me, I can’t gossip about sighing.”

“Eh, I just…  eh, exploded at Agnes, argued, got mad, ran out.”

A low whistle came from the other end of the phone, “You shouted at Agnes? Good thing you didn’t have a fag; you would’ve been all over the place, you maniac!”

“I-it wasn’t about that… other stuff…”

“You want to come over?”

She sniffed, “Yeah, th-thanks.”

“No problem, see you in a while, just… don’t mention the fags to my big sis, okay?”

She hung up and Sera suppressed a small smile at their misadventure earlier, then orientated herself. Luck or instinct had sent her fairly close to her friend’s house, leaving her with only five minutes of marching before she reached the old terraced house with its big bay windows and double front door. Sera rang it with a sense of nostalgia, she’d been coming over here since she was a cheerful pudgy toddler and Rhona a tiny girl dressed in the most garish multi-coloured outfits.

Nowadays she had definitely developed more fashion sense, she was dressed in skinny jeans and a small navy top when she came to the door and greeted her with a smile and a sympathetic hug. Sera smiled sadly and followed the girl up to her own room, a big comfy space covered in photographs and mess, so old that she had her own mantelpiece to cover in nick nacks and cute little figures.

“So what’s up doc?” Rhona asked as she settled cross legged on her bed.

“Just had an argument, shouted at Agnes.” Sera answered dismissively. No telling. That was her first rule, probably Agnes’ only real rule since she’d been told eleven years ago.

“What about?”

“Just stuff. Growing up, the direction my life’s going. And I snapped.” She breathed in, “All out of the blue, she starts going on about how I’m so grown up, how I’m ready to be an adult and… and like get on with my life just how she’s planned it. I tried to tell her no, I tried to be polite, she’s always polite, but she just wouldn’t hear me over the sound of her own stupid voice and I… I just lost it with her…”

“Just out of nowhere? That sucks.”

“Yeah, and she wasn’t listening to me at all while she was going on about my life… like, it’s my life isn’t it? I didn’t want to shout but she just wasn’t listening, she was in that, oh I’m so proud mode.”

“What was she so soppy over? Aggie’s nice but, what, did you get a good report or something?”

“I dunno,” Her mind raced, “She was a little under the weather so I finished off cooking for her?”

“Ah, that might do it, adult’s get pure emotional when you remind them we’ll be taking care of them eventually. You burnt your hands doing it too? It is not your day, girl.”

Sera sighed and nodded, scratching once pink hand idly, “Uh-huh, stings like hell, I spilt boiling water while I was putting rice on.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. It’s just… I’m happy like this, sure, school sucks but I’ve got friends, and it feels like… like if I grew up, I’d lose you guys… and… and lose,” She blinked and sobbed, feeling tears sting her eyes, and trickle coldly down her cheeks, “… lose me, lose Sera, I don’t want to turn into someone else completely and change everything… but its like that’s what she wants, she wants me to turn into some…. Some Ji… some adult leaving this… leaving the nest and making her proud and that’s just… just not who I am…”

Her friend bent forwards and hugged her kindly, holding on for a while in silence. Sera didn’t ask for more, she had no more words left to say, and there was a comfort unlike any other in simple presence, just in being with one another.

“We all change…” Rhona murmured softly, “When you think about it, we’re all different people all through our lives, and that’s okay, that’s good, yo-“

“No! Don’t quote Doctor Who at me, you big nerd!” Sera snapped, drawing back as she started to giggle.

The blonde girl frowned, “Yeah, but it’s a good speech, and it’s a good point, everyone changes and grows…  Hold on, you knew it was from Doctor Who just from that?!”

Sera smiled and shrugged, “It was a Christmas episode, and that one was cute and really sad, it put Agnes in tears.”

“And you call me a nerd.”

“You are, look at your fireplace!” Sera retorted, shrugging the tears away as they started to chatter about other things. It was a relief both to have spoken about it, and to move on to other things, to sit and watch youtube videos and laugh with her. Rhona made a point of getting her to watch the speech she’d tried to quote, but even so it was enough fun that Seraphina didn’t mind and lost track of time.

At least until Rhona’s elder sister called up the stairs, “Hey, Rhona, Seraphina’s Mum’s here looking for her!”

“Oh great…”

“Hey don’t worry- just remember, at least Agnes talks about your future with you and everything, mine’s is kinda too much on the Do It Yourself philosophy.” Rhona advised.

“Yeah, guess so.” Sera agreed, rising and moving to the door.

“Do you want me to come down?”

“No it’s… personal stuff, I think I can manage. Thanks for having me though.”

“No problem Sera, text me afterwards though, you’re always welcome!” She waved lightly, and Sera nodded and headed down the stairs, past Rhona’s sister Erin. Agnes was sitting outside as it turned out, her car humming and steaming, the light on, her face solemn and quiet. She hesitated for an instant, debating turning around or giving her the cold shoulder in place of burnt hands.

But she was too calm, all the anger gone from chatting with Rhona, so she simply slid into the car with a murmured, “Sorry for storming off.”

Agnes smiled, reached over and pulled her close in a hug, kissing her head lovingly, “Yes, I’m sorry too, my dear. I wasn’t thinking of you enough, the pain those burns will give you, and it was sudden to start getting so worked up about it. It just… worries me a little, seeing you develop so quickly, I don’t want to see you… you know… fall.”

Sera swallowed and nodded as the car started up, “I don’t want to… I just like having my friends and my life and everything… It’s a big change… Rhona was talking to me about i-“

“Did you tell her!?” Her tone was urgent suddenly, fearful.

“Mu- Agnes, I’m seventeen, of course not, I just… just made it seem like I was worried about normal growing up.”

“Ah, good girl.”

“So you’re not mad at me?”

“No, no, I... I understand. I was remembering when you were little and you had a wobbly tooth and you wouldn’t let me see it because it hurt.” Agnes relaxed, keeping her eyes on the road.

Sera snorted, “Because you’d yank the tooth out if I showed you it!”

“It was ready to come out.”

“It wasn’t, it hurt…”

“It would have come out when you ate anyway.”

“Then you should have let it.” She muttered sourly, and frowned as she looked out the window, “This isn’t the way home?”

“No, we’re having a little day off tomorrow, you and me, to sort this out, but we just need to pop into the factory and do a little cleaning to make up for it,” Agnes smiled, “Means you can have an early lie in in the morning, nice shower too.”

“Really? I don’t have to go in?”

“No, we’re going to have a relaxing day and take this at an easier pace for you.”

“Awesome.” Sera grinned, taking out her phone and quickly typing a message in, “Score! We’re cool and I’m getting tomorrow off! ”

Rhona’s reply took barely twenty seconds, “Ya jammy dodger! I’m jelly.”

“Yup, have a nice day tomorrow.”

“Really? Scotch free?”

“Cleaning factory a little bit tonight, easy.” She text back, and looked up as Agnes drove them around into an empty industrial carpark and parked. It was easily past eleven pm but still she felt energetic enough to get out and offer to carry the duffel bag Agnes had brought along while the older woman unlocked the shutter door and turned the alarm off.

“Here we are, it’s normally Jerry’s job to go over all the machinery and make sure it’s in working order at the end of the day but he’s off on holiday at the moment. Maldives.” She informed Sera as they entered into a back corridor smelling faintly of meat and gristle and tar. “We can get it done quickly so long as nothing’s wrong, and then if we don’t know how to fix it we just make sure it’s noted down for the morning team to deal with.”

Sera raised her eyebrows as they entered through a pair of thick double doors and into the huge dark space filled with belts pipes and looming vague mechanical shapes, “That’s all he does and he gets a holiday?”

“Well, he tends to do more of the fixing but it’s good to be thorough if he’s not here.” Her bony fingers flicked a light switch and a flickering tube of illumination sparked up at the far end of the hall, “Thanks for agreeing to come, we’ll start at the far end and work our way back- can you just take this cloth and run it over those black pipes there for me, tell me if you find any leaks or drips alright?”

The girl nodded and took the cloth, reaching up to wipe it along the nearest pipe while her parent scurried off to the far end to begin examining and fiddling with another device. Her phone buzzed a couple of times while she worked, exclamations of disbelief from Rhona which she smugly replied to and worked her way down the cluster of pipes. It was boring work, especially since the pipes all seemed to be in perfect working order, though she supposed that was good, that meant no one had molten fat dripping on them during the days work. It did take a while though, just working along the sections between two machines, and even when she finished Agnes was still fiddling pedantically with the first machine, a huge thick box of some sort.

“Everything okay there? I got the pipes done, they’re fine.”

“Ah good, can you come take a wee look at this for me? I can feel there’s a leak in the ceiling but I can’t find it, the light’s not good enough.”

Sera sighed and wandered into the tight steel cubicle, “Fine but will this take long? You made it sound like we’d be done in half an hour, not all night.”

“Yes, this is just being tricky, hold on, let me…” Agnes squeezed out past her, leaving the teenager more room to peer at the pipes and vents covering the ceiling and walls, they all did look okay, which one was faulty?

Something wet, thick and stinking splashed across her, and Sera squeaked in surprise and turned around just in time to see the thick metal door slam shut. A click and a thunk came as the lock activated, and she slammed her arms against the steel, breathing hard, “Agnes! AGNES! Help, it’s closed, Agnes let me out! AGNES! OPEN THE DOOR!”

“Shush, shush, you’re fine, Seraphina, it’s only for a little while. I’m sorry for rushing you but it won’t hurt for long, just be brave.” Her caretaker’s voice was muffled by the thick metal, but Sera made out enough to cry out as everything fell together. She was covered in petrol, and this was an oven.

“NO, AGNES, LET ME OUT! DON’T BURN ME! AGNES! OPEN THE DOOR! PLEASE!” Sera screamed, hammering her fists on the door. They stung and rang with the effort as she gasped for breath, tears pouring down her face and mingling with the fuel, “Agnes! Please, please, I’m not ready! This is INSANE, let me out!”

“You’re ready, I’m really proud of you Seraphina, it’s been an honour to take care of you all this time, my child, I know that you’re ready, my Jann.” Her voice sounded gentle and emotional, as if she was crying too.

“Agnes…. Agnes please! Let me out! OPEN THE DOOR! Please, I’m sorry…. Agnes, please… Mum let me out!” She cried, hammering at the door. Then the air grew hot, stuffy, and suddenly flames burst from vents all over the box and engulfed her in agonizing heat. Her words turned into screams of utter pain and she hammered at the door with flaming fists as the petrol caught and flared up with golden orange flames, consuming her flesh in the raging inferno. Her hair caught and burnt away, skin blackened and withered and her clothes flared and burnt away in the furious heat.

Another burst of heat came from within and she collapsed on the ovens floor as her lungs and heart were scorched by flames within eating their way out in a burst of orange sparks and crimson heat. Within moments there was little more than a blackened withered figure among the orange flames, curled up and immobile as the fires raged and incinerated it down to little but ash. The pain stopped for her, Seraphina found, sensation was cut off as soon as her body stopped functioning and then she was cut off, lost amid the hungry inferno. Her body cracked, orange sparks and light flew as flakes of burnt flesh tumbling off like scales while her mind felt nothing but heat, pure overwhelming heat ravaging her old self and filling her with power. There was no going back now.