He was taller, all the people on his side of the family were. He was stronger.

Ashley had nothing.

He moved her head into position and then let go of her hand to strike her across the face. She made another little-kid sound as she fell against the couch and she hated it, she hated that she wanted to curl up into a ball and make only those sounds. She hated that it wouldn’t do anything either way.

He bent down and picked up the poker. She watched, trying to swallow and find the breath to speak.

“First time I’ve had to lay a hand on you, Ash,” he said, and he sounded so sad. “You pissed me off, scratching me like this.”

She clenched her teeth. She tried to stand and she wobbled.

“You pissed me off!”

Again, with the painful shout. She dropped back down to the ground.

“Are you going to smarten up, make this a one-time thing?” he asked. “Answer me! Don’t go mute on me like she does.”

“I don’t know,” she said. Her head hurt where he’d pulled at her hair. Her mom wasn’t moving much, and seeing that hurt more.

“That’s not an answer, Ash,” he said. “Come on. If I’m going to hit someone with this, is it going to be you, or is it going to be her?”

The poker smacked against his palm.

She hadn’t made things better.

“Come on!” he shouted.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and everything went cold.

She opened her eyes, and they opened beyond the edges of her eyes and they kept going.

She saw emptiness, desolation, destruction, a… bowl of cereal floating in milk, without any milk. The ‘cereal’ was shapes she couldn’t wrap her head around, because they seemed to go on forever.

She could pull back, and she realized she was thinking on too small a scale.

She was thinking like a person and to wrap her head around this, she needed to look down on something far larger.

A sphere, cracked like an egg and cracking further, all in slow motion, with energy glowing through the cracks. Her awareness loomed above it all.

As slow as it had been, the moment she realized it was a planet, time caught up and everything moved in fast motion. The planet became dust and debris and there was nothing left behind.

She closed her eyes until they fit inside her eye sockets again. All went away, except for—for that energy that she’d seen and felt.

Ashley could almost hold it in her hands.

She raised her head and she faced him much as she had with the poker. He had the weapon now, and he approached. He said something and she didn’t hear anything at all.