The Elementals

I’m walking in the same, dark woods again. I look around blindly. I can’t hear anything. The fog is thicker, and a silver color. The trees loom out of the mist, black and opposing. I hate the silence. Somehow it’s almost worse than the screaming. I feel completely alone.

“Hello?” I call out. No one answers. I walk slowly through the forest. My footsteps don’t make a sound. I keep turning and jumping because I think I hear something. It must be my imagination. But it keeps happening. Slowly, I realize I can distinctly make out voices.

“Tide!” Faintly, it comes through the fog. “Tide!”

Suddenly, the forest is gone. It just zips away from my feet, like someone is pulling a rug from underneath. It’s rather disconcerting. I’m thrown onto a street. A water tower rolls around in the wind. I look around. It’s Rico and Stella’s town.

“Tide!” Stella shouts. I turn, searching for her. She emerges from the alley way, running. She spots me and rushes over.

“Stella! How-” I ask, but she stops me.

“I can appear in people’s dreams. The woman, Izila,” She gasps, “She is here! She is looking for you!” Stella turns around as shouts echo through the empty street.

“I can help!” I say, grabbing her shoulders.

“No!” She looks pained. “Do not come! It is a trap! Get as far away as you can!” She throws one last fear filled look at me and races away. I hear some gun shots and some yelling.

“Stella!” I shout.

I jump awake. I smack my head back against the tree and yelp out in pain. Rubbing my head, I glare at Coal, who’s laughing. “We have to go back to the town.”

“Why?” he asks. I explain my dream to him. He looks kind of offended, “You didn’t tell me she was an Elemental.”

“I didn’t think it was important.” I tell him and get up. It’s still dark out; I must have only slept for an hour or so. “Come on.”

“She said it was a trap,” Coal says, but he follows me, slightly stiff.

“I don’t care,” I snap, starting to walk faster. “They’re in danger because of me.”

“You don’t even know the way back.”

“Yes I do.” It might be Stella, or just the vividness of the dream, but suddenly I can clearly picture the path. I need to get to them. I slow down slightly so Coal can catch up. I know he needs to rest but Stella needs my help too.

Choose.

Shut up.

I keep walking, nerves jumping through the roof. The scenery is familiar. What if I’m too late? What if they’re dead already?

“Flippers,” Coal says, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Calm down.” I realize I’m hyperventilating. I try to steady my breathing, but it’s hard with Coal right next to me. A crow squawks in the trees. I jump. “Relax,” Coal tells me. I try to say “okay” but my voice won’t work.

An hour passes. I know we’re close. I can hear the echoing of Stella’s shouts from my dream. Coal is slowing down though. I glance frantically from him and the woods ahead. We reach the tracks a few minutes later. I sigh in relief.

It doesn’t last long.

My lungs start to burn with the smell of smoke. I see a dark, menacing cloud rising from the middle of a cluster of buildings, right where the warehouse should be situated. I let out a small, horrified squeak and race into the town. Coal calls after me but it’s like everything around me has been turned down in volume. I sprint to the street where I destroyed the water tower. I can hear my footsteps pounding the road like thunder inside my head.

There’s no one here. I spin around dizzily. The smoke is spreading through the air. I cough. “Stella!” I shout. I think I hear something and turn.

A tall woman emerges from the buildings. She walks over to me like she owns the world. “Why hello there!” She says in a strong voice. It sounds sort of musical and but hard at the same time. I step back. “I was hoping you would pass by. I am Izila Franklin.” She says her name with flourish, like she’ll be signing something important one day.

“Where are they?” I snap. She smiles at me, but it looks painted and false.

“Funny,” she says in mock confusion. “Your friend-Steel is it?” She sees my face and her smile widens. “Yes, he said very much of the same thing.” In that moment, I know she has them. She has Stella and Steel and the others. I’m positive she was knee deep in what happened to Breeze. She’s going to hurt them if I don’t do as she says.

I see Coal through the haze. I don’t yell to him, I don’t say anything. He looks at me like, who is that?

I shoot a glance back. Don’t come any closer.

He takes a step forward.

Stay. Right. There. One of us needs to be free. I glare at him and I can tell he understands. He looks pained, frozen in indecision. Then, to my relief, he slowly backs up into the smoke. I turn my attention back to Izila. She’s saying something about how delighted she is to have me at last.

“Come on,” she pats her leg like I’m dog that should heel. “Your friends are waiting.”

I really, really, want to punch her. But I don’t. Haltingly, grudgingly, I follow her past the burning warehouse. I see flashes of people running in and out, coughing, through the smoke. I think I see Rico, but I quickly avoid eye contact. I hope Coal is there helping to put out the fire.

Izila leads me to a plane just outside the main block of buildings. It’s this shiny, shmancy looking mini-jet that I can’t wait to tear apart. The door opens soundlessly and after giving her the I-want-to-kill-you glare, I stalk inside. It takes a bit for my eyes to adjust. The inside of the plane is just as fancy as the outside, with cushioned seats and polished walls and a mini-fridge.

“Tide!” I jump as Sparky comes up from behind a chair and runs to me. I glance back at the door, but it’s already closed.

“Hi Sparky,” I say, happy to see him safe. Maple peeks from under the table and Terra runs over to me.

“We were playing hide and seek.” Terra says, and shrugs. “It’s hard because the plane is too small.” Maple and Sparky dash over to her and she laughs.

I smile for their sake and then walk further into the cabin. Steel is there, getting up from his seat. He looks glad to see me.

He peers behind me, confused. “Where’s-”

I don’t let him finish. Before he can say Coal I drag him into a corner. Quickly, I whisper, “Security cameras. He’s in the town. He had to stay out of sight so Izila couldn’t find him.” Steel nods. I look around. “Where’s Stella?”

“I am here.” Stella says from the darkest corner of the plane. She’s almost invisible. I rush over to her. “I told you it was a trap,” she says, “Why did you still come?”

“Because I have issues with following orders,” I tell her. “Do you know where we’re going?” She shakes her head. “Is Rico alright?”

She looks pained, staring at the ground and shrugging. “I don’t know,” She whispers.

I sigh and sit down. The jet takes off smoothly. We travel for a while. I stare out the window. I’m slightly regretting telling Coal to go away. It would be nice to talk to someone, even if that someone is the most annoying person on earth. Suddenly, the plane stops moving and starts to descend. We hit the ground with a soft thump and I get ready to leap out the door or fight or something. There was one bottle of water in the mini-fridge. I grip it tightly, anticipating a fight. The airplane rocks violently. Everyone standing is thrown to the ground.

“Whoa!” I yell, gripping the armrests. “What was that?”

“That was-” I hear Izila’s voice snarl as the door slides open with a surprising bang and a kid is shoved in. “A nuisance taken care of.”

The door slams closed and a boy about my age stumbles in. His clothes are torn and bloodstained, much like my own. I jump as the pillows on the chairs start to levitate. The plane starts to vibrate again. I see it trying to take off, but whatever force is holding it down is doing a good job. I see the kid straighten, and his dirty blonde hair falls in his eyes. The cabin tilts from side to side, reeling with his movements.

I get up unsteadily, clutching the tables and chairs to keep from being thrown back and forth. “Hey,” I shout at the guy. “Stop it!” He ignores me and the plane lurches. I make my way over to him. “Are you trying to kill us?” The moving doesn’t stop. Terra slides and smacks her arm on a chair leg. I clench my rattling teeth and leap at the kid.

In hindsight, not my smartest decision. I slam into him, hitting the floor and I keep my hands pinning him down by his shoulders. The plane jerks, following our movements. Anything not bolted down goes flying, smashing into the walls. Then it stays still. The kid stares at me. His eyes are a light silver color, with black and teal flecks.

“Don’t you want to escape?” He asks. “Fight back?”

“Of course I do,” I snap. “Just not at the cost of other people. Now,” I get off him. “You can go kill yourself some other time.”

He stands up, a good 4 inches or so taller than me. I hate having to look up at people. “You’re beautiful.”

I open my mouth, process what he just said, and close it like a messed up fish. Yes, it’s a talent, thank you. “But,” I stammer, “I’m Tide.”

He smirks at me. “Caelum” He says it “KY-lum” and I recognize the language.

“Latin?” I ask, furiously hoping that the red has faded from my cheeks.

He raises and eyebrow. “Yeah. It means sky.”

I sit down, striving to be nonchalant, but probably failing. A quiet has settled. I look around and see that everyone’s eyes are on Caelum and me. I glare at them and Terra takes the chance to start talking to Steel. Slowly the plane erupts back into noise.

I look back at Caelum. “Gravity?” I ask, taking a guess. Considering the floating objects, it’s the most likely choice.

He sits down next to me. I shift restlessly. “So you’ve been through the drill.”

I motion to Steel, Terra, Maple and Sparky. “Couple of times. Do you know where we’re going?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing, princess.” Caelum says cheekily, smirking.

I tilt my head, narrowing my eyes, “Don’t call me that.”

“Too late.” He says, smiling at me. Wonderful, it seems no one is willing to call me by my real name. Especially tall boys with ultra large egos. Idiots.

His hair falls in front of his face again. I have a sudden, strange urge to brush it away. I tell myself it’s my OCD-ness kicking in, but a little voice in the back of my head says otherwise. I tell it to shut up. He glances at me staring and smiles in this obnoxiously knowing way. I look down at the table, squeezing the water bottle so the plastic crackles in protest. Suddenly, the cap unscrews itself and pops off and the water squirts out in my face.

“Hey!” I splutter at Caelum. He grins. I flick the water off and spiral it into a ring of droplets spinning in the air. He looks surprised for second and I snicker. “I’m not called Tide for nothing.”

“So it seems.” He says, laughing, and I get this sensation of floating. Then I realize I am floating. Literally. My hair is lifting like static and I have to grab the edges of the chair to stay grounded. Then it feels like a huge weight is on me and I’m slammed back into my seat.

“Oh, it is on!” I say and the water in the air splashes down, soaking Caelum.

His hair falls back in his eyes. We’re both laughing, but I have to sit on my hands to keep from reaching out. We play like this, back and forth, each trying to one up the other. The sky grows dark. I yawn, falling in and out of being able to process what’s going on around me until finally, my eyes close.