In 1692, hysteria spread like the plague. If you acted suspicious, you were doomed. It all started when some young girls acted very bizarre and no one could explain it. Physicians said they were possessed by Satan. They accused three women of witchcraft. For the next few months, many others were accused of being witches. On June 10th, Bridget Bishop was hanged. 18 others were murdered the same way. Giles Corey refused to tell anyone if he was a witch or not. The executioners laid him down, put a board on top of him, and put weights on him until his life collapsed. People cheered.


There is no proof to say that these people were witches. Most people will agree that the Salem Witch Trials were tragic. Some say witches don’t exist. I say they just didn’t accuse the right people.

The citizens of Salem, Massachusetts liked to accuse people of things. It’s been almost 700 years since the witch trials, and the hysteria was still going strong. But they were getting closer to finding the real “witches.”

I love fire and watching things burn. I’m not crazy; it’s just in my blood. I’m a pyro-kinetic. I can create and control flames. Most people think that a pyro-kinetic has to have red hair, but that’s nowhere near right. I have blonde hair, but you can see the brown roots which compliments my blue eyes. No one would expect such a sweet looking girl to have such a horrible ability.

My power isn’t the worst one out there. We’ve always been really good at hiding what we can do though. It’s gotten easier to control our abilities as the birthday candles increase. My best friend Caleb can do something so horrible that most of the Salem could be destroyed if he wanted it to be. He can create earthquakes. It’s really easy to tell when he’s angry; he won’t show emotion on his face, but the ground will rumble behind him. No one has figured it out yet. We’re a perfect pair; we could be the end of society.

History class was the worst. It always repeats itself. One dictator fails, so another one tries, only to be assassinated. Is it really that hard to open up a book and find out why history is against you?

That day just seemed to be filled with suck. My teacher was just droning on and on, and no one seemed to care about what he was talking about. We were learning about a war. We were always learning about war. It’s the same thing every time. One group of people hates how another group does something, so they argue about it until someone dies.

He was lecturing about the types of weapons they used. He made a stupid joke about how they should have used the witches as weapons. Is there such a thing a witch racist? He would definitely be one. Right after it was said, a kid screamed. Her desk was a beautiful ice sculpture. I knew she had ice powers, but she had always kept it under control. She had never let her powers slip before. In another room, a teacher yelled. I never thought this would happen. Everyone’s powers were surging.
Most kids ran from the school, even if they didn’t have powers. We were all scared; we didn’t know what was going to happen. I waited outside for Caleb. I felt like a mother searching for her child during a shooting. He walked out of the school looking calm; I wanted to punch him in the face.


“Well, s***,” he said when he saw me. He didn’t stop walking, so I had to match his pace and fall into line.


“Is that all you can say?”


“Mina, I messed up.”


“What the hell did you do?” I didn’t want to know the answer to this.


“There was a little earthquake in my French class.”

“Seriously? Is anyone hurt?”


“No, they’re just a little spooked.”

“Do they know it was you?”


“No, but my teacher kept cursing in French. It was really funny.”

“How can you say that was funny? They could’ve killed you!”

“Mina, you need to calm down. If they see you freaking out about this, they’ll assume you have powers.”


“No captain idiot, that’s not how this works. If they see you acting like nothing’s wrong when the rest of town is in panic mode, then it’s obvious that you have something wrong with you.”

“Well, this is a conundrum,” he put his hand on his chin, looking like The Thinker. I wanted to burn his face off, but then I would have no one who even remotely understands what it’s like to have a destructive ability.

“You’re a moron. Now come on, let’s go to my house.” I was pretty close to yanking his arm off, but I didn’t care. We had to get home before something horrible happened.

When we got to my house, I noticed that my parents’ cars were parked in the driveway. Did they know something? I walked up the stairs of porch quickly. I didn’t like them being home. It’s never a good thing when they’re home.

They were sitting on the couch watching TV. There were reports about what happened at school. News travels fast in such a small town. They peered up at me, looking at me as if I was Medusa.


“Mina, did you see any of this happen?” Dad asked me, his voice dripping with anger and fear.


“Um, no, none of it happened in my class. Caleb and I have to go though; we have to go talk about this. We’re um, part of a student committee to ban people with powers from school. We’re co-presidents.”

“Alright, go ahead. Be safe.” I once again grabbed Caleb’s hand and dragged him up the stairs and into my room. My bedroom was special to say the least. The walls are blue, while the ceiling is a mixture of yellow, orange and red. We both sat on my bed and I put my head into my hands. Life just sucked, and I had to deal with.


“So, you never told them?” Caleb asked quietly.

“Of course I never told them. Do you know what they would do to me? They would get a rope and turn me into a Christmas ornament.”


“No they wouldn’t. You’re their kid. Doesn’t that mean that they have to love you?”

“I wish. It just means that I’m their problem. They wouldn’t even have to think about killing me.”


“They haven’t killed me yet.” My parents hate Caleb. They think he has powers, and they don’t want me hanging out with such scum. They’ve told me too many times to count that I should stop hanging out with him and find some real friends. I always tell them that I would rather have powers than to stop hanging out with him. There is an argument almost every day about it, because I always say that I love him. I love him like a brother. I’m pretty sure they think that we’re lovers.

“They don’t have proof that anything is wrong with you; except for you’re sense of humor. We need to work on that.”


“And then they’ll love me?” He batted his eyelashes at me. I grabbed a pillow and beamed over the head with it.

“Why am I even friends with you?”


“Because everyone in school hates you and I’m just so sexy.” I laughed at him. It felt good to laugh during a nightmare.


Caleb slept over that night. We thought it would be safer to if we didn’t walk outside at night anymore. Everyone was developing a, “guilty until innocent policy.” They were starting to accuse animals because those shape shifters could be trying to escape.


When we woke up, everything was in a state of chaos. There was the faint sound of screaming from a few streets away. I didn’t want to leave my house. I had no idea what they would do if they found me. Would they burn me at the stake? It would be an incredibly fitting end.


Caleb peered out my window. “Mina, you’ve got to look at this.” I went to the window and I couldn’t even talk. They were building a wall to keep everyone inside.


I ran down stairs, looking for my parents. They weren’t anywhere in the house. I ran outside, towards the wall. Caleb was right next to me. My dad was right at the base of the huge metal trap.


“Dad, what is this?!”


“Oh Mina, isn’t it great,” my dad sighed at the beauty of it.


“Did you design this?”


“Yeah! They’ll never be able to escape! We can get rid of them forever!”


“Why couldn’t we just kick them out? They wouldn’t come back.”


“Mina, that’s so naïve. Of course they would come back. They would be stronger than ever. We can’t take that chance.”


“But-“


“Don’t worry sir, I’ll explain it to her,” Caleb said calmly.


As soon as we were out of ear shot I asked, “So can you do anything about that?”


“Nope. My powers aren’t strong enough yet, and besides once they see me doing it, I’ll be shot.”


“So how do we get out of this mess?”


“I don’t know, but we shouldn’t be talking about this in public. Let’s go to my house. My parents might know what to do.”


We soon got to his house, unscathed. His door was locked, which was weird. His parents would let anyone in their house. They never made copies of their keys, so Caleb never got one. Something wasn’t right. Caleb grabbed a rock and threw it at the window. He repeated this process until most of the glass was gone. He told me to go through the window and then open the door for him. He lifted me up and I crawled through the window. The air smelled horrid.

I let Caleb into his house. We couldn’t hear any footsteps, which was weird. His dad has really loud footsteps and works from home, so he’s usually heard. We walked around his house yelling for his parents. I looked down on the stairs and saw a message:

“Caleb, we’re being taken in for questioning. Don’t know if we’ll see you again. Mina is the only one you can trust. Keep each other safe. No one else will protect you two.



Mom & Dad”

“We have to get out of here,” Caleb said.

“Where can we go?”

“I don’t know, but if we stay here, we’re sitting ducks.” Before we left, Caleb grabbed a journal.

“What is that,” I asked, pointing to the journal.

“My family, as you know, is nuts. Just like you’re family, we’ve been here since the original Trials. They’ve always thought that this would happen again, and they wanted to be ready. So every generation, they’ve been planning what they could do if us powered folks ever got caught. It might come in handy. Right now, I want you to burn the house down.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Yes, but I don’t want any evidence of people in this town having powers. My parents might have records of that stuff. So do it.”

“Caleb, I can hardly light a candle.”

“I know you can do it. Just concentrate on a piece of wood and let sparks fly.” I stared at the railing on his stairs. I wanted it to be a destructive rainbow. Suddenly, it combusted. A wall started to burn, and it was all because of me. It was a glorious sight. For a nice effect, I set the ceiling on fire. Before anything could cave in on us, we bolted.

“That was awesome!” Caleb was a little too excited.

“So, what now?”

“I don’t know. You’re the planner here.” I didn’t have much time to plan, because there was cool metal against my head.

“If either of you move, I will blow your brains out,” A deep voice said. We were caught. No were worse than caught; we were dead. Caleb didn’t want to go out unless he tried to stop it. The ground started to shake and that’s when a loud bang was heard. I concentrated on my assailant and lit his clothes on fire. It’s simple, don’t mess with my best friend, and don’t mess with me. Before the man became a bonfire, he shot me, but his aim sucks. He hit me in the shoulder.


And that is what led me to lying in the cool grass. I’m soaking the relaxing green with a heavy red. Caleb starts an earthquake. He wants this to be over for everyone. It’s a good decision, so I follow his lead. With all of my energy, I create one last flame. It will grow very quickly. My best friend and I close our eyes and let the destruction take us away.