This story is by Peter king and was part of our 2018 Fall Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.
Rainmaker
Fire!!!
A thunderous voice rang out in the dark night. Each time the word rang out it trembled off the stone walls of the house.
Ameer, the youngest of five children sat motionless in the center of the large living area, his senses came on full alert. Sweat running down his expressionless face. He contemplated doing something.
He lived a peaceful, lavish life with his parents and four sisters. Tonight that tranquil life slowly burnt away to ashes. The family owned the largest vineyards in the eastern hemisphere. Thousands of acres of the richest vines.
An uncaring merciless fire raged on the northern range. They could see the red leaping flames swirling up in the sky engulfing everything in its path at a furious speed.
Ameer watched as his father yelled out commands while running out the door.
His sister grabbed him sternly from his seat. They ran up the stairs to the rooftop.
“Follow me, Ameer. Let us go watch the fire from the roof. Do nothing stupid and stay at my side!”
“Stay here. Don’t move!”
From the rooftop, Ameer could see the hilltop blazing in red flames up into the night sky. Beautiful and horrific at the same time.
A puddle of water swirled in his open palm.
Ameer’s skin tingled from the unstoppable heat. His family was about to lose generations of work.
Shellan turned memorized from the devastation before her. “Ameer?”
Ameer slipped away from his sister, through the smokey uncannily quiet house, towards the fiery beast.
Stellan scanned the rooftop savagely.
Panic rose in her for fear of her father’s wrath for her neglect. Looking past the roof’s edge she saw a small figure below in the courtyard walking towards the fire.
Ameer knew he could help. The prickling beads of sweat formed on him from the thick smoke and flames engulfing the plantation while pools of water formed in his bony palms.
The fire sucked the air out of the night. Drying out the countryside, destroying all in its path.
He never heard the screaming cries of his sister pleading him to stop.
Ameer let his mind drift, upwards into the night sky. He knew he could retrieve small amounts of water from the sky. Enough to play in his scrawny palm. Perhaps he could help.
Extending his hands outwards to the heavens. His mind grasped the small pockets of moist air. Tugging, pulling every spec his mind could grasp towards himself. Further, then he had gone before. Upwards beyond the sky’s limits. Past the mountains, past the desserts. On his mind went, tugging, pulling. Yanking all the moisture from the skies. Heaving all the precipitation towards the vineyards.
Shellan ran towards her little brother. She stopped in horror as misty blue sparks erupted from his hands up into the dark sky. Wisps of lightning swirled around his little frame. Did lightning hit him she wondered?
Fear for the wrath of her father should anything happen to the only son under her care made her continue forward.
A drop of rain hit her in the face.
Looking up in confusion. A few more drops hit her face. Then the skies opened, and the rain poured down. A hard drenching downpour.
Slipping and sliding in the new mud, Shellan brushes rain from her face, straining to find Ameer.
Hands outstretched in a blue electrified globe Ameer stood, silent, unmoving, urging the rain on, his eyes pleading with the skies to quench the inferno threatening his family. Sucking every drop from the heavens towards the ground.
Little Ameer only pooled little droplets in the past. Playing with droplets on his skin. Hidden for fear of his family, the ropes of fear binding his powers soared. Loose. Unleashing the hidden monster within him.
“Ameer!! Ameer!!” Shellan found her little brother in a blue orb of electrical light. Again she called out to him. Unfazed he continued looking upwards hands outstretched. His little fingertips swirled with the electric fire connecting him with the sphere. His face hidden in an ecstasy of blinding blue glow.
She touched the blue electrified orb lightly. The orb rebounded her hand with a sharp slap of electricity.
Fear, confusion rose in her. Her little brother controlled this sphere and possibly the rain.
She cared not about herself, or this blue globe encasing her little brother. Her fear lay in her father if anything happened to Ameer. Stepping back a few paces to prepare for the worse. She slipped and pushed her legs in the slippery mud plunging through the orb. Electricity attacking her wet body, sending her sprawling at Ameer’s feet.
Ameer smiled up in the sky. Escasy of freedom, to unleash his power. Struggling to contain and hide is abilities for fear of his father and family. Afraid to be seen as a freak, unworthy, or worse a monster. Afraid of his father’s wrath. Now he was free.
A thump bounced against his leg bringing him out of his state of hypnosis. Shellan lay soaked and unconscious at his feet.
Ameer stopped the last of the rain, falling to the ground embracing his sister. “Oh, no what have I done?”
“I’m ok” she whispered up to him.
Tears streaming down his face, “What have I done.”
Groggy and almost in shock, she said “You saved us.” pointing to the smoke-laden sky and the hillside smoldering in the distance
“Don’t tell father.”
Shellan smiled up at her little brother. “What are you?”
End
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