The Fire Within

“Get yo ass up! Let’s go,” Luke yells. “I told you about sleeping all day. It’s 10:30 in the morning. You ain’t that tired.” Ashton wakes up while rubbing his eyes.

“It’s only 10:30,” he replies. “I don’t care. I said get up,” Luke says. Ashton’s father walks down stairs to the kitchen to make his cup of coffee. While he leaves Ashton throws the covers off of him and begins to get ready for the day. “And get dressed. We're going to get our haircuts today,” Luke yells up the steps to Ashton.

They both get in the car and head off to the barber shop. During the car ride there is nothing but silence between the two with the sun shining through heating up the leather on their skin on this very hot summer day. Luke pulls over to a donut shop for a bottle of water and iced tea and returns to the car.

“Which one is mine?” Ashton asks.

*chuckles*

“They both for me,” Luke responds while laughing. After they finish their trip to the barbershop Ashton goes straight to his room and closes the door.

“Why was I cursed with him as a father?” Ashton says to himself. “All he does is treat me like shit. I don’t get it. I don’t.” As Ashton continues to talk to himself, his hands begin steaming, after a while his whole body. “What is going on? Smoke? From where?” Ashton wonders. “I’m sure it’s nothing.” After he completes some homework, Ashton falls asleep.

“Hey Ash, dinner is ready,” Marley says. “Woah why are your eyes so light? “They never were before.”

“I just woke up,” Ashton replies. That happens to a lot of people. Here I come now.”

“Here’s your food. Oh my god why are your eyes so bright,” Barbara asks with an alarmed look on her face.

“Mom that happens to a lot of people when they wake up from a nap. I was pretty stressed out with the homework too and I think some of the hair from the haircut may have gotten in my eyes,” Ashton replies with a stern look on his face.

“I know you wasn’t up there crying?” Ashton dad Luke says jokingly. “yo. Don’t forget you have the chores tonight and them dishes better be cleaned right because there was shit still on them yesterday,” Luke says to Ashton without making any eye contact.

“I didn’t even have to do the dishes yesterday. Marley did,” Ashton replies with a confused look on his face.

“I don’t care who did them yesterday. I’m telling you now to make sure they cleaned. Matter a fact, hurry up and finish eating so you can start them now,” Luke responds. Now having an attitude with his father, Ashton decides to continue to eat his dinner at his own pace. “What did I just say. Hurry up and finish your food so you can do them damn dishes,” Luke says.

“Luke calm down. Let him eat his food. The chores will get done,” Barbara tries to calm Luke down as she begins to see his frustration with Ashton.

“See every time I tell the kids to do something you always have something to say about it,” Luke responds.

“I do not.” Barbara now begins to get angry with Luke. “You over there rushing him to eat so he can wash dishes. If it’s bothering you so much, why don’t you clean them? He shouldn’t have to rush and eat because you want him to do some damn chores. He can enjoy his food like the rest of us.”

“No mom he’s right. Let me stop enjoying my meal and go do  these dishes even though I didn’t dirty any of them. Excuse me,” Ashton stands up.

“That’s what your want to say out your face? You can do the chores for the rest of the week then since you want to be a smart ass,” Luke says while smiling. Trying his best to keep his anger under control and to himself so he won’t get into even more trouble, Ashton quickly walks over to the sink. Both his sister and mother go upstairs as they prepare for bed and get ready for tomorrow since the week was beginning again. Luke walks into the living room and watches tv.

“I swear I hate him so much. Who gives a fuck about these stupid ass chores,” Ashton murmurs to himself. While washing the dishes his hand begins to smoke again, causing the water to heat up rapidly. He takes his hand out and bangs it on the countertop forgetting his dad was still down stairs. *Bang!* when Ashton pounded the countertop with his fist, a burst of fire flashed from under his balled hand.

“What was that?” Ashton thinks to himself. He slowly picks his hand up to check for any burn marks.  “Fire? Why didn’t that hurt?”

“Aye!! What is all the noise in there?” Luke yells. Luke gets up and walks over to the kitchen.

“You in here crying again?”

“No,” Ashton replies, but doesn't look up at his father.

“Then why does your eyes look like that? And why is the trash still in here. That’s apart of the chores. You see its full. Take it out.”

Ashton continues washing dishes since that was what he was told to do first.

“What did I just tell you to do?” Take this fucking trash out.” Luke grabs Ashton and pushes him at the trash. “Why are you so damn hot? You sick or something?” Luke quickly pulls his hand back from Ashton after feeling his hot skin. “probably because you got this water on too high. Turn that shit down. Take that trash out.” Luke walks away and heads upstairs. Ashton remains on the floor. Palms on the ground. His eyes turn a bright yellow and his arms begin enlarging. He groans, as he tries his hardest to hold in his anger and rage towards his father.

“He’ll pay for this. This…...This humiliation. I’m supposed to be his son, but he treats me no better than this trash in front of me.” Ashton says to himself. Ashton begins taking deep breaths as he tries to calm himself down, knowing that he still has the chores to do and he needs to get to bed. “One day,” he says. “One day.”

“Ashton you’re late. You know what that means,” Ms. Greene tells Ashton.

“But it wasn’t my fault. The train was stuck at a stop for about 15 minutes. What was I supposed to do?” Ashton responds.

“Whether it’s your fault of not, that’s 2 points off of your grade. Be here on time next time so you can now turn your 69 into a 70,” Ms. Greene adds.

With all of the class eyes and attention to the conversation that Ashton and Ms. Greene were having, Ashton feels a little embarrassed considering the fact that everyone knows about his struggles in english class. He races to his seat next to his best friend Kutcher.

“Don’t worry about it man. I’ll help you if you need it.” Kutcher says as he tries to reach out to his friend.

“No. At this point I don’t really care and if I can’t do it on my own then maybe I deserve to to fail. I’ll figure it out,” Ashton says.

School is over and the boys just get off the bus and begin walking towards their homes.

“Hey Ash. Seriously, if you need anything just let me know. You know I’m always here for you. Look at me man. Is everything alright?” Kutcher tells him.

“Yea. Everything is fine and I know. Thanks. I do appreciate it.” Ashton tells Kutcher as he walks off and turns down the block to his house leaving Kutcher.

“Something isn’t right. I know it isn’t.” Kutcher begins thinking to himself. “It’s probably because of what happened in class today, but that wasn’t all that big of a deal and Ashton wouldn’t let something like that get to him so easily. Maybe its his dad. He always tells me the problems he has with him. That has to be it. I’ll wait and see how he is doing tomorrow.”

“Kutcher! Kutcher come here.” Ashton pulls Kutcher aside before they both enter school. Before Kutcher could say a word. Ashton begins speaking again. “Ok. Something weird is happening to me and I don’t know how to explain it. Yesterday, When I came in the door, of course that bastard starts yelling at me again for the dishes not being washed good enough and he claims that I did not sweep at all last night because the floor wasn’t spotless. I had enough of it. I was fed up with all of his shit so I exploded. I began cursing and yelling and I just felt so much anger building up. My dad grips me up and throws me against the wall and punches me a few times. He tells me to go to my room and not to come out. This where it gets weird. I was so angry I felt like I was getting hot. And I really was. I noticed there was smoke in the room and it was coming from me. I could see it off of my hands. Just as I became worried I overheard my dad talking about me to his friends, so I got angry again. That’s when it happened. Fire was coming off my hands. I quickly ran to the bathroom and put them under water. It was weird cause as I was doing that, my hands started hurting. They didn’t hurt when they first caught on fire, but when I put water on them it did. What should I do?” Kutcher stands there for a moment in disbelief.

“Dude. You have fucking powers man. That’s awesome. I wish I could turn into fire,” Kutcher says with excitement. “Come on, let’s talk about this in class.”

Ashton and Kutcher both approach the table where they eat their food, making sure they are away from everyone so they can discuss what has been happening to Ashton. “So can you control it?” Kutcher asks.

“Uhm I don’t think so. It just happens sometimes. I notice it only when I get angry.” Ashton replies.

“Maybe it only happens when you’re mad. Get angry so I can see.” Kutcher suggests.

“I can’t just get angry. Let me see if I can push it out. Come over here.” Ashton grabs Kutcher and takes him to a secluded area.

“Ok. Here goes. haaaaaaaaaa!” Ashton begins to yell and push as hard as he can to get the fire to erupt inside of him. Kutcher begins to laugh.

“Dude you look like you’re constipated and the shit is like right there but it won’t come out.” Kutcher begins to laugh.

“Really man? See I was trying to be serious and show you something,” Ashton begins to walk away. Kutcher continues to laugh

“Ard man calm down. You should have seen your face though. It looked so funny from my end. You looked like Goku from Dragonball Z or something,” Kutcher says while laughing.

“Wait a minute your eyes do look a little red from the….. (Kutcher pauses for a moment) oh never mind that’s just redness from when you were screaming and pushing like you had to shit.” Kutcher begins laughing again. “Come on. Let’s get your silly ass to gym class. It’s dodgeball today.”

“Alright class. I hope you are all prepared for class today because we are playing dodgeball. I’m going to split you in half and who ever is on your side is on your team,” The gym instructor splits the class in half into 2 different teams.

“Hey look who’s on the other team,” Kutcher looks in the direction of a group of teens and points. The group begins laughing at both Kutcher and Ashton. One of the girls whispers into the ear of one of the boys.

“I will. Don’t worry about that.” The boy says.

“Alright the game is about to begin let’s go. We don’t have all day,” Mr. Lou yells. “On your mark….get set….dodge those balls.”

Mr. Lou blows his whistle and the kids race to the balls. Everyone starts to run around with balls flying everywhere. Ashton and Kutcher catch a few and throw them back.

“Hey Ash! Come closer to me. Let’s work together!” Kutcher suggests.

“I got you Kutcher.” You know who I want to hit, Jason.” Ashton turns his attention to Jason and begins eyeing him down with balls flying everywhere forgetting all about Kutcher’s plan.

“Ashton, where are you going?” Kutcher loses sight of the game and gets hit in the face by Jason’s girlfriend Letisha.

“Oh that bitch. She hit Kutcher!” Ashton begins dodging balls as he shifts his attention to Letisha. He throws a ball with all his force at her. Jason, with a ball in his hand deflects Ashton’s ball and together they throw their balls towards Ashton. Direct hits as the balls hit Ashton in his face and head. Ashton falls to the ground grabbing his head. Jason, along with his friends began pelting balls at Ashton while he’s down.

“Hey hey hey! That’s enough. He’s out already.” Mr. Lou yells. “Are you alright son.”

Mr. Lou grabs Ashton’s arm as he tries to help him up.

“Yea, I’m fine.” Ashton tells Mr. Lou.

Mr. Lou quickly pulls his hand back from Ashton’s arm. Ashton picks his head up slowly as he looks up at Kutcher on the sideline. Kutcher notices Ashton’s eyes are a bright yellow.

“Holy shit,” Kutcher says to himself.

Ashton pushes Mr. Lou back to the bleachers and stands up with his arms three times the size they were before along with his body steaming. He grabs a ball and throws it at one of the friends. The ball is released with such force that it knocks the guy back a few feet. The class is stunned as everyone noticed the fire tailing from the end of the ball. Ashton grabs more and throws them all at the group. Becoming more enraged his hair catches fire and his arms begin to grow even more. The class scatters with fear. Letisha and Jason exit the gym holding hands.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Ashton says.

With his enhanced speed he runs and grabs a ball and throws it through the door catching the back of Letisha’s head. She quickly drops to the ground without moving a muscle. Jason continues to run.

“Jason, you’re next.” Ashton continues to chase Jason while laughing hysterically as he closes in on him with each step.

“Dodge this!” Ashton jumps into the air and throws the ball with all his might at Jason. The ball hits him in the back and Jason drops to the ground.

“How do you like it. I hope it hurts. It still doesn’t make up for all the pain you caused me over the years. Get up.”

Ashton grabs Jason and holds him against the wall.

“Why won’t you look at me? You never had that problem before, Jason.”

Ashton begins to chuckle. Ashton’s body begins to flame. He drops Jason and breaks a whole in the wall as he tries to escape the water from the sprinklers above.

Just as he leaves Kutcher runs up to him.

“Ashton! what the hell man. Is this what you were talking about? You can turn into fire?” Kutcher asks with a concerned look on his face.

“Yea Kutch. This is it.” Ashton’s last words to Kutcher as he blasts into a sprint leaving the ground where he once stood on fire.

Ashton is no where to be found for hours. He finally arrives home after his outburst at school.

“There he is. I was calling your phone. It’s nine o’clock. Where the fuck were you.” Luke begins to raise his voice as he stands up.

“I had a long day ok,” Ashton tries to go upstairs.

“Uhm where are you going? Bring your ass over here,” Barbara yells.

“No calm down Barbara. Don’t even get mad at him. He wants to stay out late, let him. He doesn’t live here anymore. Get your shit and get out,” Luke says.

Just as Ashton reaches for his book bag, Luke grabs it first.

“No no. This mine. I paid for this. Just leave since you want to be disrespectful and only do what you want to do.” Luke pushes Ashton towards the door.

Ashton grabs his father’s hand and pushes it back.

“Who the hell-” Just as Luke was talking, Ashton turns to his parents and bursts into flames. His hair is on fire. Even his eyes become flaming.

“I’m sick and tired of this. You think I’m disrespectful. I’ll show you disrespectful!” Ashton says.

Ashton blasts off the door and lets out a loud roar with fire coming out of his mouth. He pounds the ground repeatedly causing the porch to cave in as fire blasts from around him. He walks into street throwing fire balls at cars and the sky.  He stops and stands in the middle of the street and lets out another loud scream with a fire vortex forming around him, lighting up the night sky.

“Are you happy now dad?” Ashton shouts as he begins to laugh with an evil smirk on his face. He takes one look back at his home and sees his sister Marley standing on the sidewalk. They lock eyes and at that moment, Ashton begins to cool.

“Marley get over here!” Luke grabs his daughter and pulls her back in the house. “That’s not your brother anymore. He’s a monster.”

Ashton overhears his fathers words to his family and he begins to flame again.

“I don’t care if he’s on fire or not. He’s still my brother,” Marley says with a tear sliding down the side of her cheek.

“What kind of freak are you?” a man says as he stops at the top of the block in his car, astonished by what he sees in front of him. Ashton’s anger begins to take over his decisions as he charges at the car at full speed. He launches himself into the air and jumps down on the car, leaving nothing but blackened metal, a blackened man with fire surrounding him.

*Knock Knock*

“Ashton? Dude what is going on? We been hearing weird noises lately. Like explosions.” Kutcher says with a worried look on his face.

“I know. I did them. look.” Ashton’s hands and hair catch on fire. “I just came here to say goodbye man. I can’t stay here. Not like this”

*Police sirens*

“Back away from the house and keep your hands up!” The voice on the megaphone says.

“I’m sorry Kutcher.” Ashton takes off into the night leaving destruction in his path.

Police knock on the door of Ashton’s house.

“Ma’am, we want to do a DNA test on your son. We need to figure out what he is so we can stop whatever it is that is making him like this,” The detective says.

“Yes, of course. Here’s his mouthpiece.” Barbara hands the detective Ashton’s mouthpiece.

After a long discussion about the whereabouts and actions of Ashton the detective finally leaves.

*Barbara begins crying*

*Marley begins crying*

“My son. What has happened to my son.” Barbara drops to her knees. Marley comes to comfort her with tears running down her face.

“we’ll get him back Barb. Don’t worry,” Luke says.

*Knock knock*

“Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions pertaining to your son?” the detective asks.

“No not at all.” Barbara says.

“Ok we found that his skin cells have a yellow ember around them and are enlarged. How was your pregnancy with your son?” The detective asks.

“Luke, that explains why his eyes were always yellow. As far as my pregnancy. I did smoke with him, but so have a lot of mothers.” Barbara responds.

“Did you eat anything particular with him?”

“I did eat a lot of spicy foods. That’s what I craved with him. I couldn’t help it. We were also in Death Valley because of my husband’s job at the time and Ashton was born on the hottest day of the year.”

“Well there it is. While inside of you his body must have adapted to all of the hot temperatures he had to endure during your pregnancy. I guess as he grew, the cells became more advanced and now he turned into this. When did you guys first notice any weird changes?” The detective ask.

“Oh I know. When I told him he had to come eat that one day his eyes were yellow and the room was a little foggy.” Marley says.

“When was this Marley?” Luke asks

“Oh about 2 days ago. He seemed mad when you guys came back from getting your haircuts,” Marley adds.

“And then the loud bang when I asked him why was he crying. His eyes were yellow then too. Then he turned into fire when he came yesterday when we were yelling and screaming at each other. I think it’s triggered by his anger.” Luke comes to realization.

“So it was you who did this to my baby. You're the reason why he’s so angry?” Barbara begins to stand up.

Barbara begins yelling and screaming and starts to cry once more.

“We need to find him and get him back now!”

“We will do whatever we can to bring him back Mrs. Brown.” The detective reassures Barbara as he heads out of the door.

Barbara runs upstairs to her room and slams the door.

“Daddy, will we ever get Ashton back?” Marley asks with a concerned look on her face.

“I don’t know Marley. I do not know.” Luke says as he places his hand on Marley’s shoulder. She quickly pulls away and runs upstairs. She enters her room and slams the door. She sits at the foot of her bed staring out the window.