Too Many Diversions

This Chuck Wendig challenge is harder than most.  1000 words and the title has to be “Fire of the Gods.”

Mary Goodheart’s grandmother raiser her arm.

“No Grandma,” said Mary.  ”That’s the arm with the medicine.”

“Come closer,” said her grandmother.  ”My time is close.”

The smell of over ripe oranges filled the room.

“Don’t be silly,” said Mary.

A scream came from the outside.

“Leave me alone,” screamed a woman.  ”I’m on the way into the hospital.  It’s safe ground!”

The cackling laughs of teens echoed from the street.  ”You aren’t in the hospital yet!”

There was a roar of fire.

The woman screamed again.  Sobs cut it off.

Mary thought she could hear a whisper; “My baby.   Please I am pregnant.”

Yellows and orange light filled the room.

“Wait!”  The voice of on older man shouted.

“Close the window Mary,” said he grandmother.

Mary walked over to the window.  Three boys held the balls of fire over their head and a man held them back.  The boys had chosen fire as their personal power.  Boys lacked originality but were just as deadly as the girls and the female preference for black and blood themes.

Fire of the Gods, she thought.  What Gods would give this power to adolescents without restrictions?

Mary removed the bar from under the window and started to slide it down.

“I sense a new power,” said the man.  ”The man spun his hand around the boys and the fires disappeared.

If only those boys would help that woman, just one of them, she thought.  I just don’t know how I can help.

The window slid shut.  Mary latched it and walked back to her grandmother.

“I’m sorry Grandma,” said Mary.  ”Boys had balls of fire, but a man stopped them.”

“Mary,” said her Grandmother.  ”I must talk to you.”

Her grandmother’s body shook with a chill.  Mary removed her own sweater and laid it on top of the blanket.  ”Rest Grandma.”

The grandmother’s eyes opened fully.  Then sweat poured from her grandmother.

Mary took her hand.  ”What is it Grandma?”

Was this the time?  Was Mary about to be on her own?

“Mary, my control is almost gone.  I can no longer stop you from realizing you have the Gift of the Gods.”  Her grandmother started a hacking cough.

“Grandma, no one calls it that anymore.  It’s called Fire of the Gods for a good reason.”

“Listen.”  Her grandmother had the same rebuke from when Mary was little.

“Okay Grandma,” said Mary.  She patted her hand.  This woman had raised her since she was an infant.  After teenage girls with the Fire of the Gods had killed her parents with dark smoke and blackness.  Mary would do whatever her grandmother asked.

“Mary, I wanted you to know before I left.”  Her grandmother pointed to a cup of water.  Mary handed it to her so she could drink before continuing.  ”Mary, I wanted to raise you to know that being pure of heart and full of love and kindness is all you ever needed.”

“You did Grandma.  Love and kindness is all we’ve ever needed.”

Grandmother’s face blossomed into a smile.  ”The Internal Light is bright inside of you.  It has kept you safe.  But you need the truth.”

“The truth Grandma?”

“Your father survived the attack that killed your mother.”  The old woman paused and put down the cup.  He smile faded.  ”He lost his way.”

Mary listened out of respect for her grandmother.

“You need to be stronger than he was,” her grandmother coughed again.  Mary reached for the cup of water, but her grandmother waived her away.  ”I will be able to help myself shortly dear.  Now brace yourself.”

Her grandmother took her hand back and then Mary felt a burning inside her.

“Anything you want,” screamed her grandmother.  ”Remember your Internal Light.”

The window crashed in, framing and bricks crashed down to it.”

Everything around Mary slowed.  But she was burning from the inside out.  A voice inside her screamed, “choose!”

This is crazy, All I want is to spread love and kindness.  All I want is to go places and stop meanness and bad people.

Mary felt herself rise.  Their was something holding her up from inside of her.

“Mother?” the man screamed from outside the window.  ”You have been alive?”

Mary watched her Grandmother throw a ball of something at the man just as she was hit with lightning.  He was knocked backwards and trapped.

He through a bolt of lightning at grandma!

Mary flew over to her grandmother.

Yes I can fly.  It is normal for me to fly.

She took her dead grandmother’s hand in hers and cried.

Mary felt no rage.

My name is not Mary.  It is Internal Light.  Mary is my secret name.

She felt love.  She flew out of the window and filled the man with love, with kindness, and with forgiveness.

The man waived his hand and undid the ball trapping him and plummeted to the ground.  Mary tried to catch him.  She did not want him to be hurt, just to feel love and kindness.

She missed.

The man splayed on the ground at the feet of the boys.

“Ha ha, we can kill this woman now,” said one boy.

“And then kill us a new power,” said another.  He pointed at Internal Light

All three boys raised balls of fire and threw it at the pregnant woman.

Internal Light threw a heart shaped shield in front of the woman and then stepped into the fire.  She dispersed it with a wave of love from her hand.

“You boys need to tell the others who have abused the Fire of the Gods that their is a new leader in town.  Her name is Internal Light.”

She smiled at the woman.

The boys ran away.

The woman stood cautiously then ran to the hospital.

Internal Light flew up over the buildings at looked down on her city.  She would fill it with love.