The sterile walls of the room pressed in, suffocating in their perfection. No windows. No door I could open on my own terms. Just the monotonous hum of fluorescent lights above, flickering slightly like they were debating whether to give up on existence entirely.
Honestly, I understood the feeling.
The world outside this room felt distant, like a dream I could no longer touch. A life I was only told about but had never truly known.
The room was a cage. No, not even that. A cage at least had bars, something to grip, something to fight against. This? This was a vacuum, a place where nothing changed, except maybe my own sanity.
I sat still, my hands clenched tightly in my lap. Except now, my fingers weren't just fists of frustration—they were reminders. Traces of something unfamiliar still lingered on my skin, like my body hadn't yet gotten the memo to forget what just happened. Water.
That moment still haunted me. The way the water had moved—not against me, not separate from me, but with me. Like we had some kind of secret agreement I wasn't aware of. Which was ridiculous, because I had always burned. Always destroyed. Fire was inevitable, a force that consumed without hesitation. But water?
Water was patient. Water adapted. Water waited. And frankly, I had never been the waiting type.
So then, why? And how? it wasnt possible to gain more than one ability.
The questions dug into my skull, gnawing at the edges of my certainty. If even my own body could betray me, if even my own ability wasn't what I thought they were—then what else had I been wrong about?
I let out a bitter laugh, running a hand through my hair. No. It didn't matter. It didn't change anything. This wasn't some grand revelation—it was just another sick joke. A fun little cosmic prank at my expense. Next thing I knew, I'd wake up tomorrow and discover I could control houseplants or speak fluent dolphin.
Choice. Now that was a word people loved throwing around. Like it meant something. Like it wasn't just a nicer way of saying, Here's an illusion of control, have fun with that. I could pretend Ezekiel's offer was a choice. I could tell myself I had the power to refuse, to walk away, to decide my own path. But I couldn't even open the damn door to this room in the mornings and at night.
Yeah. Real empowering. No, I had never been given a choice. Not when I was locked away. Not when my family let me disappear. Not when my own body decided, Hey, what if we switch things up a bit? I had only ever been reacting, trying to make sense of a life that had never been mine to control.
I stared at my hands again. Fire had always felt like a truth I never needed to question. Water felt like a lie I didn't know how to believe. And yet, its real. I had felt it.
That should've meant something.
…But what?
Could it mean I wasn't as trapped as I thought? That not everything was set in stone? I swallowed hard. No. That was dangerous thinking. If I let myself believe that, then I'd have to accept the possibility that other things weren't as solid as they seemed, either. My family. My memories. The truth I had built my hatred on.
And if that cracked, if even one piece of that foundation was wrong,then what the hell was left of me?
The walls around me felt even smaller. The air heavier. It wasn't just the room that was suffocating, it was the weight of knowing that if I questioned one thing, I might have to question everything.
I grabbed the cup of water sitting on my monitor stand, more out of habit than anything. My fingers hovered over the surface, just barely brushing against the rim.
The water shivered.
I froze. Oh, hell no. With all the grace of someone avoiding a cursed artifact, I carefully set the cup back down. Nope. Not dealing with that. Not tonight. Not ever.
I forced myself to look away from my hands.
There was no escape. No true choice. Not for me. Maybe that was the only truth I could hold onto. Maybe the only thing I could do was survive in the illusion. Play the part I had been given.
But then why?
Why couldn't I stop thinking about the water?
And why, despite everything, did it feel like the first real crack in the walls of my fate?