The Curtain of Blue

In a dimly lit cave, a child drew pictures of fantastic creatures with chalk.  Dragons, unicorns, and lions with tentacles.  His aunt and uncle watched from the cave entrance, but no parents were in sight.  Every exhale from the child sent out a large puff of warm breath which clouded his vision, but he was determined to finish drawing his dragon.  Thinking it was about time to head home, his uncle dusted off his hat from the cold floor and lazily walked over to the child.  Adding the final effects to his dragon, the child turned to his uncle.  Intent on showing his handiwork, he smiled widely, but only saw fear in his uncle’s eyes.  A shriek came from his aunt, and the two frantically sprinted away from the child.  While any ordinary kid would cry in this scenario, a curtain of blue was pulled over that child's stage that day.

The sun shone into the room, illuminating the white wool sheets on top of a bed supported by a dark oak bed frame.  Atop this bed, there was a man who was in his mid 20s laying on his side.  He had medium long brunette hair, a chiseled chin, and surprisingly long lashes.  As the minutes passed on, the sunlight crept closer and closer to eventually shine on his eyes.

Slowly, the man opened his eyes to reveal bright blue eyes, but immediately squinted due to how bright it was.  Throwing his bed sheets to the side, he got up and stretched.  Leaning from the left to the right, he extended his left arm over his head and repeated on the opposite side.  He became more and more aware of his surroundings as his drowsiness disappeared with every stretch he did.  He heard distant chatter, likely the cafeteria of the motel, where people were getting ready for the day with small talk and breakfast.  The monotonous sounds of adults were pierced every so often with the loud cries of some baby crying.  Grabbing the ends of the bed sheets, he swung them gracefully over the corners of the mattress and cleanly folded them to make hospital corners. 

Walking to the window, the man grabbed onto the curtains to let more sunlight into the room.  On top of his windowsill lay blinding fresh snow piled on top of a thick layer of old light grey packed snow.  Outside, there were people dressed in thick parkas going about their day in the snow.  Some carried massive baskets full of coal, likely to be delivered to other households.  Others slung wrapped tools over their shoulders while they were on their way to work.  In the distance, there was a frozen lake with a large factory built over the ice.  The supporting metal pillars were deeply sunk into the ice like the roots of a tree latching onto the earth for balance.  Despite the crowds of people crossing the ice, it was so thick that the workers were fearlessly walking over it, leaving one to speculate about how difficult it was to have built the factory.

Grabbing his lean black bomber jacket, he swung it over his shoulder and exited the bedroom to walk toward the shared washroom.

“Oh sorry!” a woman around the man’s age with dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a beige parka, pushed open the door as he passed by.  The door almost hit him in the chest, but luckily, he reacted abnormally quickly and managed to dodge out of the way before it even grazed him.  “I didn’t think there was anyone still getting out of bed.  I oversleep often, so I’m used to being the last one out.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t hit me.”  The man checked over his jacket to see if there was any dust that might have gotten picked up.  Noticing there was nothing, he folded it beneath his arm, mentally smiling at both the jacket being unharmed and his quick reaction.  Smiling, he looked back up.  “I sleep in a lot too.  When I am tired, my brain just shuts off until something wakes me up.”

“That sounds… normal?  I tend to stay up late so I end up sleeping in to make up for the lost sleep.”

“Believe me, I wish I was normal…”  He took a step forward toward the washroom before pausing again.  Looking back at her, he smirked and said “actually, I don’t.  But I can always humor myself.”

The woman stared at him unimpressed.  “Simply saying it means nothing.  I am a firm believer in actions over words, so you’ll have to do more than that to amaze me.  Anyway, I’m going to the washroom too, so I’ll join you.”

“How’d you know…”

“Please, just because we wake up late doesn’t mean we don’t have to clean ourselves.”  She smiled and burst out in laughter.  Composing herself, “unless you’re too high and mighty for even the washroom to bind you” she snickered at him and made her way down the hall.

The man shook his head and smiled to himself before he followed her.  Catching up to her, he asked, “So what’s your name?”

“You sure you want to know a mere human’s name?  I’m amazed, I must have left quite the impression on you” she teased.

“Fine, I'll go first.” Unfazed, he stepped forward a bit to open the door for her.  “I’m Stark.  Nice to meet you.”

“Stark, that’s a cool name.  I sadly have a normal name, I’m Alyssa.”  She walked through the door and pulled out a bag containing her toiletries out of her parka.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope!  Now do you mind?” she beckoned to the other side of the washroom, split by a tiled wall with stalls lining the middle. 

“Right.”  He moved to the other side of the wall.

“I know this is a gender-neutral washroom, but I don’t feel particularly comfortable having a man be too near me while I… relieve myself.”

“I get it.  I’m sure you’ve had your unfortunate share of nasty guys being weird with you.”

“‘Unfortunate’ is one word for that.  I prefer horrible.”

Stark moved to the taps to wash his face.  He tested the right faucet and got cold water.  Trying out the left one, he got more cold water.  Looking behind to make sure he was not being watched, he grabbed a bucket and started filling it with water…

“What are you doing?”

Stark replied, “nothing.  I was just filling up this bucket with water to wash my face.”

“Good idea.” Alyssa went over to fill up her own bucket.  “Hey, it’s all cold water!”

“Well, that’s just unlucky for you.”  Lifting his bucket, he let her dip her finger in.  “I guess I got the last bit of hot water.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Well lucky for you, I can give you half of my bucket.”  He grabbed her bucket and poured her cold water out before tipping over his to give her some.

“Thanks… I guess you’re a little above average.”

“Wow, thank you.  I’ve never received such an amazing compliment in my life.”  He splashed some water over his face and rubbed his hands to spread the warmth around.

Alyssa put her bag of toiletries onto a ledge above them and unpacked a small towel and toothbrush.  She splashed water on her face as well, and then wiped her face with the towel to dry off.  After applying a dimple of toothpaste onto her toothbrush, she started brushing her teeth.  Muffled, she asked, “so how long hawe you ween at Fwozen Lake-“she spat out the suds from her toothpaste. “How long have you been at Frozen Lake Valley?”

“I’m here on a business trip.” Stark looked in the nearby mirror and started to comb his hair, splitting it into a rough side part.

Confused, she looked at him.  “A business trip?  You travel a lot?  The cold doesn’t bother you at all?”

“Quite a lot actually.  I don’t mind the cold, it’s not too bad.”

“Yea… I don’t think you’re amazing… you might just be a bit crazy…”

Stark chuckled, “Crazy is just what people say to demean exceptional people.”  He pulled out a tube which contained his toothbrush, and proceeded to brush his teeth.  

“Whatewer you say…”

Alyssa brushed her hair and Stark finished off brushing his teeth.  After collecting their belongings and packing up their toiletries, they made their way down the creaky stairs to get breakfast in the cafeteria.  The rich and sweet smell of pancakes wafted over their noses, making them both realize how hungry they were.

“Oh yea, so what business are you in for?”  Alyssa grabbed two wooden trays and handed one to Stark.

Stark took the tray, and opened his mouth to answer, but before words could leave his mouth, a loud distant explosion interrupted him. “That right there, is likely to be my business.”  With that, he put the tray back onto the pile of trays that Alyssa took from and started running while putting his bomber jacket on.

“Wait what, what are you doing?”  disheveled, she also put the tray back on the pile and chased after him.  "He’s very fast…" she thought to herself.

Stark ran through the front door of the Inn, and ran through the crowd of Parka wearing people like an agile black wolf running through a herd of sheep.  In the distance, he saw a pillar of black smoke, and a bunch of people running away from it.  Using his peripheral vision, he took note of where he was in the town, and concluded that the explosion came from the town square.  The people running away from the town square glanced over at him and some even stopped to stare.  Gritting his teeth, Stark pushed on but he knew that he was going to have spectators.

“Please, I have a family… What do you want with me?”

“I want a revolution, I want freedom, and I want rights.”

Stark turned a corner to finally behold the scene.  The mayor of the town was on his knees at the bottom of the snowy steps leading to the main building of town square.  Up the steps stood a hooded man wearing a ski mask.

“I have no..”

“Don’t play dumb with me!”  The masked man shot out a cone of bright red flames which lit up the dark smoke above him and the mayor.  “You know exactly what I am.  You people are afraid of us, and have painted us as criminals.”

“Please.. Please… just let me go.  I’ll correct things”

Stark jumped forward and in one swift motion, he grabbed the mayor and kicked the masked man into the steps, ruining his concentration and making the fountain of flames cease.  The bystanders all cheered him on, and hurried to help him get the mayor to safety.

“Listen buddy, you’re going to have to calm down.” Stark looked down on the masked man.

Somewhere in the crowd, Alyssa finally caught up and was looking at Stark standing over the man.  At first she was surprised, but then she started to figure out the puzzle that was Stark.

“How could you… I am making change in this world!  All my life I’ve been oppressed and I had to hide my powers because of fear!  None of this is my fault, it’s the world that has faulted me!”  The man climbed back onto his two feet and dusted off the snow.

“You need help.”  Stark looked around.  "Too many people…"

“Shut up!”  The man stomped his left foot on the ground, and formed a fist with his other hand.

"The water was cold, and it was too much of a coincidence for him to have used up all the warm water.  He is able to wear just a small jacket while the rest of us have to wear parkas, and he travels in the cold a lot…" Alyssa took a step absentmindedly in Stark's direction.

“You don’t want to do this.”  Stark held out his hands in an effort to stall him.  “I’m sure you’re a good man and don’t want to become a killer.”

Closing his eyes, the man hesitated.  He looked around to see the gathered crowd around him.  Many looked scared, and he even saw Alyssa deep in thought.  Scanning the faces of the families protecting their children, he loosened his grip slightly.  But then he saw a mother pointing at him…  she was talking to her son while pointing at him… and he knew exactly what she was saying.  “He’s a bad guy… a monster… if you see people like him, run away.  They aren’t human.”  He clenched his hand harder than before…

"All this evidence points to…"

Stark saw the look in his eyes, and stood up straight…

The masked man punched the air in front of him, aiming at Stark and the crowd behind him.

"Stark must be…" Alyssa was now in front of the crowd.

A fireball sparked into existence from the masked man’s fist.  A blast the size of a truck shot towards Stark and the crowd behind him gasped and tried to run away.  The speed it was heading at them was too fast, and there was no way to run out of the way of it’s fiery destruction.  Alyssa, knowing this, just stood still to see what would happen.  She didn’t want to believe it but…

Stark shook his head.  He took a deep sigh, and faced the fireball.  Extending out his left hand, he spread out his fingers as if to catch a baseball.  "The gig is up."  As the fireball shot towards him, Stark focused on slowing it down.  Once it got to a manageable speed, he slowly closed his hand.  As he did this, the fireball in front of him became more and more condensed.  The ball of fire was nothing more than just a super hot marble by the time it was between Stark's thumb and index finger.

The masked man stared at him bewildered.  “No way… you… you caught it.”

Everyone in the crowd gasped in shock and pointed at Stark.  Smiling innocently, Stark faked a sigh of relief.  “That was cute.”

Enraged, the man screamed “WHY ARE YOU!” He shook his head violently.  “WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING THEM!”

“I’m not.”  Stark eyed the marble of fire in between his hands.  “I just hate it when trash Fire Manipulators give me a bad reputation.  So I’m here cleaning up garbage like you.”

“YOU!” The man surrounded himself in flames this time, and saw Alyssa in the corner of his eye.  He made a mad dash for her, and didn’t falter at the sight of her shock and fear on her face.  He extended his hand surrounded with fire to claw at her.

“Attacking ladies?  Not a cool man.”  Stark moved the bright white marble to his right hand.  It hovered above his index finger as he put pressure on his middle finger and thumb.  Snapping his fingers, the marble turned into a controlled blast of bright blue flames which sped at the masked man and engulfed him.

There was nothing left.  Stark had burned that man out of existence.

Alyssa collapsed from shock and stress.  One moment, that man was running at her, flames around his arm like the talons of some phoenix.  The next there was just a flash of blue, and then that man was gone.

Stark looked around.  The crowd stared at him like he was a monster.  He ignored them and walked over towards Alyssa.  “I’d say I’m sorry about lying, but since I got the situation under control...”  He crouched down and offered her his hand.  “How about we go somewhere and talk about it?”

Alyssa slapped his hand away.  “Please go away.”

Stark retracted his hand and stared at her for a second.  This woman who he had just met and started to build a friendship with had rejected him.  For a brief moment a wave of sadness washed over him, but as soon as it came, a curtain of indifference cascaded over it.

His uncle and aunt left him, of course a woman he just met was going to leave him too.  He was used to this and had long realized that only he can make himself happy.  The ice age they lived in was brought about by magic.  While Fire Manipulators were not the cause of it, all forms of magic were frowned upon.  

Getting up, Stark walked away from the townspeople and Alyssa.  As Stark passed a house, he saw a young boy looking through the window.  Knowing he had little time, he quickly made a tiny snowman with the tiny sticks and rocks that he found.  Placing it in the snow in front of the house, he lit a small twig on fire and made it look like the snowman was carrying it as a torch.

The boy's face lit up with wonder and while it was a bit hesitant, a smile spread from cheek to cheek.  Stark looked at him and a slight grin perked the side of his mouth up gently.  Sometimes...sometimes a light shift of the curtain lets thin needles of light pierce through the heavy sea of blue cotton.  And sometimes, Stark lets a single tear freeze on his face.