A Sinister Game by Heather Killough-Walden

she would not be able to force the flames back down again when she was free , much less escape the building smoke that was already beginning to pinprick at her lungs .
    Victoria finished releasing both le gs and then slid quickly off the bed. She backed up toward the room’s single, white metal door and once more looked around.
    There was a window against one wall. Curtains had been drawn, but were now on fire. There was a dresser against another wall. The closet door was open; it contained uniforms and two pairs of shoes. The floor was marble. There was a big leather chair beside the closet – or was it leather and gold mesh ?
    She took all of this in quickly and returned her attention to Arthur. He was completely engulfed by flame at this point and his flailing was beginning to slow. He dropped to his knees.
    I did that to him , she thought. I set a man on fire .
    Victoria swallowed forcefully and concentrated on pulling together the energy she would need to squelch the flames.
    She closed her eyes and saw Arthur whole again. He was d ressed in his white uniform and white leather boots, his short black hair untouched by the blazing fingers that were currently destroying him . She saw his brown eyes in his wrinkle-free face with its weak chin and too-wide mouth and small nose. She saw his skinny neck and the collar of his jacket, all the way down to the small cheese stain just below the zipper lock on his left pocket. She saw him as he was before the fire that now encased him.
    She kept the image and its details clearly in her mind and allowed the tentacles of her power to unwind .
    T he heat in the room subsided. The crackling and popping of rising flames quieted and died down. Finally, Arthur’s screeching wails hushed to whimpers – and then into silence.
    Victoria opened her eyes.
    “ You …” Arthur knelt a few feet away, his entir e form shaking from head to toe. He was whole again, completely healed a s if he had not been on fire only seconds before. He looked down at his hands, turning them over in disbelieving fascination. He felt the hair on his head. And then – he looked at Victoria as if she were a monste r, the devil, a pile of vomit, or all three wrapped into one. “ You … evil , temptress bitch !” His voice shook as he spat his accusation.
    Victoria had never hurt anyone like this before. Despite the self-preservation , she knew she had officially crossed some kind of line. And that darkness drew ever closer.
    Though she was almost as shocked at what she had done as Arthur was, Victoria knew enough about strategy to realize that now was also not the time to show it. An attack meant nothing if you didn’t follow up on it, plant your feet and stand your ground.
    “Give me the code, Arthur, o r I will light you up again and I’ll leave you in here to die that wa y, ” she commanded. She knew that burning the way he had been burning had to hurt like nothing he’d ever imagined. She was hoping the memory of the pain alone would serve to coerce his cooperation.
    “ Fuck you , ” h e hissed.
    Victoria wasted no time.
    She narrowed her gaze. Energy coursed through the room and the bed began to rise slowly off the floor . Arthur glanced nervously at it. It rose a foot. Then two. And then it hovered in the air, three feet above the marble before it suddenly spun around like a top and then went flying past Arthur to slam into the door behind him. There, it lodged itself against the only official exit in the room, effectively blocking it.
    Victoria smiled as Arthur’s face went progressively white. She looked at the window; t he metal frame around the glass began to heat up and melt. It dripped in columns of molten metal from the top of the window to the sill below and then instantly cooled, forming bars across the glass.
    That exit was now blocked as well.
    “Last chance, Arthur. Get back to the console and figure out the code or I’m going to melt your boots into your feet. It’ll hurt. A lot