The sound of his feet hitting the pavement was the only thing Mark could hear. It was over. His life and everything he had grown to like over the st little while with Victoria were over. He hadn’t stuck around after the explosion. The sight of the boys ying on the ground around him, still twitg from the lightning was enough for Mark. He only hoped that he could get home before Victoria.

  Mark stumbled briefly but tio run. His clothes were covered in burns, scrapes, and tears, but he didn’t care. He o get home to pack his things. He should have knower. He should have known not to get fortable. All he ever did was start trouble and cause problems. That was why his dad had abandoned him, and it was definitely why Victoria was going to do the same.

  Mark rouhe er, and his house came into sight as he stopped. Why was she there? She was supposed to be w. Why was Victoria home? There, standing on the porch, was Victoria. Rapidly, she paced bad forth as she screamed into a cell phone while sparks of electricity skittered across her scales. Finally, she yelled into the phone o time before she hung up and stuffed it into her pocket.

  Mark took a few steps backwards to try and hide behind a nearby tree but the movement must have alerted her as almost like mags Victorias gaze locked onto Mark. Worry and grief fshed across her face as she quickly started running towards him. Mark stood there for a moment before he turned and tried to run, only for Amethyst scaled cws to tightly around his wrist. He was done for. Mark could only close his eyes and wait for the beating to begin, but it never came. A fist never flew. Instead, Mark felt himself ed in a tight hug.

  No, this wasn’t right. Why was she hugging him? It didn’t make any sense. Mark o escape. He o get away before she hurt him. He knew she was going to do it. Maybe she was going to wait until she took him inside?

  “Thank the gods you’re alright Mark.” Victoria cried with relief as she held her child tightly. “The school called and said you had disappeared after a bolt of lightning crashed down in the schoolyard hitting you and a group of friends,”

  What? How had the school already known? The boys always hurt him, and the teachers never said anything, so how did anyone know that he had even been involved? Mark tried to step back, only for Victoria’s grip on him to tighten.

  “How about you e inside and we talk about what happened?” Victoria leaned back with a smile as she looked down at him.

  The world seemed to slow down around him as Mark felt a familiar tingling start crawling up his spine. He k. She was just waiting for a ce to hurt him i. “N-n-n-n-no I… I don’t,” Mark stuttered as he tried to escape her embrace.

  “Mark? What’s wrong honey?” Victoria said, her voice growing ed. “It’s like you’ve seen…” Victoria’s voice cut off as her eyes g Mark’s arms. “Amethyst?”

  All at o was like everything froze. No, this wasn’t supposed to happen. It was never supposed to happen like this. She was never meant to find out. Mark once more felt that liquid fire burning inside of him. “No, nononono.”

  “Mark, listen, i expin.” Victoria said as she tried to calm him down.

  Mark, however, couldn’t hear her anymore. Like liquid adrenaline, Mark felt the electricity c through his veins. He didn’t want to hurt anyone else. He didn’t want to hurt Victoria. Time seemed to move in slow motion as he pushed her away. Her eyes grew wide as she slowly fell backward.

  He had do now. He had hurt Victoria. Mark turned and ran. He didn’t know where he was going but he ran.

  ***____***

  Kilometers seemed to pass by in an instant as Mark ran, the electricity flowing through his body, allowing him to move at insane speeds. But Mark hardly noticed as he tio run.

  Mark barely even noticed as the terrain ged, the soft rolling pins ging to the med forest terrain. Finally, in the shade of a rge Elm tree, Mark stopped running as he struggled to breathe. Desperately trying to suck air into his lungs he sank to the ground as he tries to pull his legs up to his chest.

  Minutes pass as Mark struggles to breathe before he finally get his breathing under trol. Once he has mao do so he finally looks around the forest and where he has run to.

  The forest was entirely unfamiliar. In fact, Mark had no idea how far he had travelled or in what dire. The forest was at least 200… kilometers… away…

  …

  Oh, oh no

  How!? How had he e this far? Mark could feel the panic beginning to creep ba as he slowly rocked back against the elm tree behind him, but he couldn’t sit still. He o do something. He o work with his hands.

  With that thought in mind, Mark looked towards the ground as he tried to dig a burrow. He was sure that Victoria would never want him bayways, so he might as well make a home here. However, Mark was quickly stopped as he reached out with his cws, only to pause. For the first time in what felt like hours, Mark looked at his hands. What had once been thick, heavy pted fingers with dull cws for burrowing and covered in these dull, muddy brown scales were now slender and thin. The nails were sharp and bck. His entire hands and forearms were pletely covered in the vibrant amethyst scales. Mark tried to reach out to the earth to move it, to shape it, but he felt nothing. Sure, Mark had always struggled with his element, but he had never felt no response before. Mark could only stare in wo his hands, the beautiful amethyst scales refleg the small trails of sunlight as he turhem and admired. Agairied to reach for his earth, but he was, agai with silence. Mark felt it like a tingle along his spine as his anger grew, only to pause as he saw sparks of electricity dance across his forearm for a moment.

  Had… had he lost his trol of earth entirely? Mark was stunned by this revetion, though he couldn’t say that it upset him that much. Sure it sucked right now but that couldn’t pare to hoy he felt staring at the lovely amethyst scales as the lightning danced across them.

  If the scales were ing in this plete and the moult was ging him this much… maybe… maybe he could be like Victoria… No, he didn’t dare hope for it as it sounded impossible. Mark ahyst Draid? Only in his dreams. Besides, it was impossible. Everyone khat only girls could be Amethyst draids and since Mark couldn’t be a girl, then it was impossible… right?

  ***____***

  Mark had lost track of time as he watched the electricity dance across his new scales. Gohe hideous brown scales on his arms in their pce was a new coat of sleek aiful amethyst ones.

  Even the feeling of the electricity dang within in him made him feel good. It felt so… free? Mark felt like dang as he allowed the lightning to dance across his palms. Never before had he felt so ected to his element. And it did feel like his now. Before, it was like a small, limited e, but now, it was like a part of him that he never knew was there before. Mark couldn't help but giggle with glee. His reverie only ended as he finally turned his gaze upwards to the setting sun.

  Mark’s smile died as he looked up at the su. He had felt so free and happy a moment ago, but now, he felt scared and alone.

  Mark tried to remember how he had gotten there, but it was all a blur. He had been sprinting as fast as he could, he didn’t even know which dire he had run. Why had he been so stupid?

  Mark felt tears welling up in his eyes. He khat Victoria hated him by now and robably getting ready to throw out his stuff. Why? Why had he pushed her? Why had he hurt the one person who had ever really shown any care for him? Why did he always ruihing?

  He couldn’t take it anymore and he wept. Curled up at the base of aree, Mark wept. All the pain and hurt he had felt from his dad started to well up inside him. All the times his dad had cussed him out or simply beat him for any simple mistake. The broken wing, the discipline, and the plete detat. He… he had never really cared about Mark, had he?

  No, his father only ever saw him as an invenience. Mark had always been in the way. Always someoo be pushed aside when he was doh Mark.

  It hurt, it hurt so much that Mark wao scream. He could feel the lightning dang across his skin as his anger rose. Why? What had he done wrong?

  As Mark y on the grass betweeree roots, his thoughts turo Victoria. Just thinking about her hurt. She had been nothing but kind, g and loving. She had wanted nothing more than to hear him call her mom, and he had pushed her away. He had known her for only a short while, but she had shown more love and affe for him in that short while than his father ever had. He missed Victoria. He missed her presence, he missed her hugs, he missed her cooking. He missed his mom.

  Mark could only weep as he felt his regrets wash over him. It was all his fault. If he had just beeer. If he had just been bht, borer. If he had been smarter or anything different than what he was now, he might have had a parent that loved him still. But no, he had rui. It was all his fault.

  Like a fire burning out of trol, Mark watched as the bolts dang across his skin became brighter and brighter. He felt like he was vibrating almost. He o release this, all this anger and hate and self-loathing and… loneliness. So he did the only thing he knew how. He screamed.

  Like a primordial beast, a mighty boom echoed across the ndscape as all at once his lightning bsted into the night sky as he screamed with all his might, before finally colpsing to the grouirely spent.

  TheLilyinBloom5963