a/n: content warnings: death by fire scene at the end of the story

Yara blinked rapidly, her vision distorted for a minute before clearing.

It's happening again.

For the past two to three years, strange and cryptic incidents had been happening around her. Whenever she walked, any leaves around her seemed to rustle. She had even become proficient at taking care of plants – something she was not always great at doing. Living organisms seemed to recognize her touch, almost as if they connected with her.

She used the little tricks to her advantage until they became problematic. She would feel thirsty all the time, no amount of water she drank gave her the satisfaction she craved. Once, a freak fire started in her school. Rumour had it that Yara had somehow caused it because of her awful temper. She had a strong feeling the rumors were true but didn't understand how that could be since she had no recollection of setting any desks alight.

Yara distanced herself from everyone after that incident. She realized that she could be a hazard to others if she didn't learn to keep her emotions in control. No matter how much her classmates taunted her, she remained calm.

The sun was making it hard for Yara to breathe. It felt like the rays were setting her lungs on fire. She had just woken up from a nightmare, and it was possible that the heightened emotions from her dream were causing the strain on her airway.

Once Yara managed to calm down, she shook herself and began to prepare for another torturous day at school.

As she walked there, she couldn't stop thinking about her nightmare. It was the first time any of her dreams were so vivid. There was a fire. Lots of it. At first, she thought the fire was engulfing her. Then, with growing horror, she realized that she was the cause of the flames. Just as the realization settled in, she began to feel drained. She looked around and noticed steam. The water in her body was evaporating from her.

And then the nightmare had ended.

She was shaken out of her musings when a leg tripped her. With a sickening lurch, she went flying to the ground, hands, and knees scraping the hard pavement. Tears gathered in her eyes from the pain and humiliation, but she quickly blinked them away before her tormentors could see them.

Yara quickly stood up and brushed down her clothes. She didn't have to look up to see who had done it. His name was Yudh, a boy she had been crushing on before learning how despicable he was.

Yudh clapped his hands mockingly. 'How sad. It's almost been a year since we started our... game, and the freak still does nothing to prove that she isn't a robot devoid of emotion.'

One of his minions laughed. Yara gathered the strength to look up just in time to see someone hand Yudh a small box. Her blood ran cold when she saw what it was. A matchbox. Yudh smirked at her as he slowly opened it at an agonizing pace.

'Let's see if this finally draws some reaction from the brat.'

He brought the matchstick to the box and searched her eyes for any reaction. When her face remained blank, his shoulders slumped, and he struck the matches.

This time, Yara's poker face fell. The tiny flame reminded her of her dream, and it felt as if her whole body had become a human torch. She screamed and toppled over in pain. In her hazy state, she watched as her bullies shouted in terror and ran away. She could hear footsteps approaching her before everything turned black.

When Yara opened her eyes again, her head was pounding. It took her a moment to take in her surroundings. She was in a lab. It was blindingly white, with a few splashes of grey and silver.

'Ah, you're up!' A feigned voice said. Yara could detect the undertones of stress and paranoia laced in the tone. A male scientist appeared in front of her, wearing a white lab coat with his hands buried in his pockets.

He grinned at her. 'We were getting quite worried, so we ran a few tests to check if you were okay.'

'What... what tests? What the hell? Who even are you?' She asked, her scratchy throat straining with every word.

The man's smile faltered as he cleared his throat. 'Straight to the point, I see. That's fine. That's good. Saves us the time and energy. Let's start with your unusual traits then.'

'My unusual traits...' she muttered, heart spiking with the realization that he knew everything about her abnormalities. Well. It was better to get some answers now. 'Do you know what's happening to me?' 

The scientist pulled out a metal chair and made himself comfortable. 'You've been having strange experiences for the past few years, right?' Yara nodded. 'Well, there's no easy way to say this but, you were not born the normal way.'

Yara inhaled sharply. She had started to accept the possibility that she might not have been normal, but hearing it from the scientist somehow still made it sting.

'You are an experiment, my dear,' the scientist said. 'There are a few more like you out there in the world.'

Why was the old geyser beating around the bush and not stating his point? In what way was she not normal?

'I assume you've heard of the Pancha bhoothas, or the five elements.' When Yara shook her head, the scientist's eyes widened. 

'Well, they are the five elements – fire, water, earth, space, and air. Together, they are said to form life here on planet earth. Everyone thought it was all nonsense, but my team had been conducting research on this for a while now. You know, what if the legends were right? What if the five elements could actually create life? It took a lot of effort, sleepless nights, and failed experiments to reach the point where we are now. You, my dear child, are one of the lives created from the five elements,'

Yara gasped and her head began to spin. Gods, this was so stupid. She must have hit her head really hard to hallucinate to this level. But the scientist ignored her panic and continued.

'We created the right conditions to foster your growth from five abiotic components. You, along with four other children, were incubated this way. This method wasn't completely foolproof. Like all life, you needed nourishment from a mother, or we would risk losing you. So, we searched for women who would be willing to incubate these experiments in their wombs and raise them as their own. Of course, we had to write them a hefty cheque for such an experiment.'

Yara shook her head. 'No. That's not me. Mamma would never do such a thing. I am her child; her own child.'

Pity dawned on the scientist, 'I know this is hard to digest, but it's the truth. The faster you accept it, the better you can deal with it.'

'So what's happening to me now?' Yara asked, failing to keep the tremble from her voice.

The scientist clicked his tongue. 'Ah! Now that's a hard question to answer. Our best guess is that the life we created was stable in its early stages, but when it matured further, your flimsy body become incapable of handling the epic forces contained within it, and now it's starting to fall apart.'

That did not sound good.

'Is it just me, or is it happening to the other children as well?'

'Interesting. I see your limbic regions have significantly developed, more so than your peers. When they listened to what I had to say, they immediately began shaking in fear for themselves. But your selflessness exceeds theirs by a mile.'

Yara ignored the compliment and circled back to her previous question. 'You haven't told me what happened to them.'

The scientist tilted his head to the side before speaking. 'As I said before, your body is unable to handle the strong forces churning within it. And it's falling apart. Their bodies were much weaker than yours, and well... you can guess what happened then.'

He didn't need to elaborate. Fear slipped down her back like ice, chilling her to the core. Her poor brain tried to cling to some shred of logic to ensure her survival, and a desperate question tumbled from her lips. 'You said.. you said you ran a few tests to make sure I was okay.' 

The scientist laughed. 'And here I thought you were smarter than them. I said we were checking if you were okay. We are not sure of it. In fact, we are almost certain that you're not fine at all. You see, among all the elements contained inside you five, some became stronger than others and begin to struggle for freedom. For many of them, it was either air or water, but yours is different. I'm sure you are aware of what your element is.'

'Fire.' Yara whispered. Her nightmares, her strong reactions to the tiniest flame – everything pointed to this nightmarish fact.

The scientist beamed as if he hadn't just told her that there was fire within her struggling to burst out and engulf her. 'Very good. I see you've been observing yourself well.'

'What's my state then? How much time do I have to live?'

He glanced at his watch. 'I'm not sure. That's something you have to figure out on your own. The fire is still a part of you. I will be giving you updates on its status.'

'Mamma. Pappa,' Yara whispered, 'I need to see them. I need to get home.' She tried to sit upright, but the scientist pushed her back down.

'You can't go back, young lady. Not until we finish your tests,' he said, the friendly glint in his eyes long gone.

Yara took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. Her eyes searched around before they landed on a name tag attached to the scientist's lab coat. It said...

'Yama. Your name is Yama.' She spoke.

At once, her body started releasing heat again. Terrible heat. Yama was right. She could feel the fire within her taking over, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She watched through the blinding pain as her body erupted in flames, real flames this time. When it spread across her body and tainted her vision, her bleary mind finally made sense of it all and she let out a blood-curdling scream, even though every cell in her knew there was no escape.

In the end, all she saw were the hues of the fire, embracing and extinguishing her.

a/n:

Whew!! I swear that was the darkest chapter I've ever written. It's for a contest, and the prompt you see above is the one I chose.

For those who didn't understand the ending, and for those who want to know the meaning behind the names:

Yara: means friend in hindi. Symbolizes the actual connection she had with her own body. She didn't actually own it, she was just friends with it, until the relationship broke.

Yudh: Means war in hindi. Not much of a deep meaning, I just wanted a good name to embody his devious nature.

Yama: here comes the interesting part. Yama is the Indian god of justice, but he's more commonly known as the god of death. 

Now, you can take it however you want. Either the name is a coincidence for his nature, or he's the god of death in disguise. Why would the god of death try to create life?

I haven't come up with anything yet. But if you have any suggestions, you're can type them in the comments below and let me know what you think of this story.