• Chapter three
    Unfortunately, being the son of a dark master or whatever the heck dad is doesn’t exactly make growing up any easier for me. Normal teenagers have mood swings. I have complete personality shifts. What I’ve noticed is that the most serious ones come whenever Skylar or anyone else uses my name, Toren.
    When the bus stopped in front of the school, everyone rushed off the bus, while Skylar, her brother William and I took our sweet time. I glanced at William. I knew the only reason William bothered waiting around or hanging anywhere near me was because he was protecting his sister.
    “Tom?!” William was trying to get my attention. “Sky’ could you get…”
    “Toren?!” Before Will’ could even ask, Skylar was waving her hand in front of my face and shouting. That’s when something snapped. All I could hear were the words Toren and Necromancer. All I could see were my dad’s glowing red eyes.
    “Don’t use that name.” I whispered ominously.
    “T-T-Toren?” Sky’ sounded scared, but I didn’t care. I liked seeing her scared. What was happening to me? The part of me that was still conscious and aware, the part of me that was Tom was wondering just that, but the evil part of me was relishing this temporary fear… the power that it came with.
    Suddenly I was surrounded by fire, but it wasn’t burning me. That’s when I realized the fire was coming from me, and it was surrounding Skylar.
    “You!!” Will’ was fuming now. “You’re supposed to be her friend.”
    “Tom! Stop, please stop!” Skylar was begging.
    That’s when it dawned on me. I was frying my best friend. I tried to make the flames stop burning Sky’. The good news is they did. The bad news… They redirected themselves at the bus.
    “What did you do?!” the bus driver Mr. Winsen came up to us fuming.
    “Mr. Winsen, we didn’t…” Sky’ was pleading.
    “I know you didn’t Ms. Craig. I was actually talking to our little prince of darkness here.”
    “Mr. Winsen….”
    “Save it Thomas!”
    “I was just going to say that we should all get out of here before we worry about discipline.”
    “That’s actually the smartest thing you’ve ever said Tom.” smirked William. I glared at him. He shut up immediately.
    “We can use the emergency exit in the back.” said Mr. Winsen.
    I noticed Skylar hung back while Will’ and Mr. Winsen went to open the emergency exit. I hung back too. I wanted to talk to her. As I moved closer I knew she had been crying.
    “Sky’?” I took a hesitant step forward. I didn’t know how mad she would be.
    “Hmm?”
    “I’m really sorry. It’s just something’s wrong with me. I don’t know what it is, all I know is that sometimes when I hear my name, my real name, something just snaps. I’m becoming evil, like my dad. I just get worried that one time when it happens I won’t be able to come back from it.”
    “Tom, don’t say that. We’ll work on it together. We’ll figure it out, but right now we’d better get outta here.”
    “Good point.”
    We ran to where William and Mr. Windsen were struggling with the emergency exit door. I turned to Mr. Windsen.
    “It’s jammed it won’t open.” I turned around and noticed the flames were following us, spreading. They were determined to kill someone, I knew that for a fact.
    “Mr. Windsen, let me try.” I walked up to him and tried to pry the door open. At my touch the door swung open no problem. Mr. Windsen helped us down one by one, but before he could get himself out the flames caught him.
    “Mr. Windsen!!!” All three of us screamed at once. Skylar was crying. Will’s expression was stony. He climbed into the bus as the smoke cleared. I climbed in after him, helping Skylar in after me. The flames that remained all vanished as I climbed in. The bus didn’t look like it had taken too much damage. What caught my attention was Mr. Windsen, eyes still open, but glazed in a permanent expression of panic. Will’ checked his pulse, and looked up. His eyes were brimming with tears.
    “He’s dead.”