“No,” Ashley said. “No!”

“It’s okay, Ashlet. This is not your fault. We’ll explain and we’ll get everything figured out.”

“No,” Ashley said, plaintive. “Cops only mean trouble. They’re out to get you. Dad says.”

“Ashlet, Ashley, shhh. It’s okay,” her mother said, reaching for Ashley’s hands.

Her mom’s fingers worked their way into Ashley’s palms. One of her fingers moved, and she felt the snapping. The flood of twisting nothingness came out with enough force that Ashley was flung backward. She landed in an awkward position, her hurt hand under her, and her power came out again, brushing against her body like a breeze and tearing up the floor under her.

Minutes passed where she was afraid to move, afraid to look. A car passed on the road outside. Then there was silence.

One breath after another, she used elbows and forearms to work her way up the part of the floor that had broken under her. She kept her back to the dining room.

The only noises in the house was of broken things breaking down more, and the noises she made herself.

Her room was in the back corner of the house. It felt like it wasn’t really her room, everything a fake replica of things she’d owned. Carefully, slowly, and insistently, she gathered the things she’d need. Clothes for warm and cold weather. An extra set of shoes. Socks. Personal things. Everything went into her school bag.

Here and there, darkness crackled around and through her fingers. Sometimes it danced back to her elbow. Other times it gathered in shapes in front of her fingers, inches away or arcing out to ten feet away. Here and there, parts of her room were grazed and destroyed. It only made it feel more false.

She went to the bathroom. Soap, acne cream, tampon, toothbrush, hairbr—

Her power ripped out as her hand closed around the hairbrush. It cut into the medicine cabinet, the wall, and into part of her bedroom. It annihilated a segment of pipe that ran through the wall, and it tore into wiring. Water flowed out and electricity flashed and the two made for a scary combination.

The electricity wasn’t visibly going for long, but she wasn’t sure.

She wasn’t sure about anything. Everything was scary. Some of the collected toiletries had fallen into the basin of the sink. She didn’t dare go after it. She would find another way to get a toothbrush and soap.

She went back to her room. Her bag. Favorite clothes. Essentials.

As she brought the strap around her shoulder, the power flickered. The strap broke.

She stared down at it, where it lay on the ground, her heart pounding.

She tried again, putting the one remaining strap over her shoulder. She couldn’t go out the front door. That was dangerous. People would see her.

Ashley could smell smoke as she passed through the house. Into the back room. Past the dining room, where the remains of the dining room table had been cast away.