Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 11

I was in the bathroom, applying a new coat of lip-gloss when Heather and Sara thundered in, livid at some tidbit of gossip they had acquired. Typically, when gossip disturbed them—before they called for a shopping day—they came to the girl’s restroom to scream at each other about the incredulity of it all until they felt better. Then they morphed back into smiling snakes with perfect hair and made the appropriate phone calls for hooky.

Just as I had put everything back into my purse, Heather smacked it off the counter, sending the mascara, blush, and other contents skittering across the white tiled floor. My gaze rose to meet theirs and it was apparent this was not the typical tidbit of upsetting gossip.

“What have you heard?” I asked coolly, not wanting to suffer more of a verbal thrashing than needed.

Sara shoved me backwards, a sink jabbing me hard in the side as I stumbled. “Everything!” she screeched, her features transforming into a distorted form of spite.

I grabbed the sink and used it to steady myself as I looked back to her; I was thoroughly befuddled as I had no idea what “everything” meant. Violence wasn’t in her usual modus operandi, though, so whatever the gossip was, it was personal.

“How you plan to steal my boyfriend,” she vociferated, slapping me across the face. Her new manicure broke the skin of my cheek. “How you’ve already been fucking him!” She landed another cruel blow, her nails feeling like an animal claw on my cheek. “How you’ve been fucking him since this summer…and it explains why you never gave names!”

A hailstorm of blows poured upon me, knocking my from my feet; I was too stunned to think of some definitive action to take other than to shield my face and make myself as small a target as possible. I knew I couldn’t continue accepting this torment as that would possibly result in the eventual bludgeoning of my skull, but my mind seemed frozen when it came to offering solutions. It didn’t help that her acrid voice continued to echo in my thoughts, chasing away the few frail attempts my mind tried to make at thinking. She would have to tire eventually, or someone would come into the bathroom. As she took up kicking at my arms and shins, I tried distancing myself from it all, numbing my body to the blows and blocking out her voice.

It wasn’t until she proclaimed me numerous, colorful names of increasing insult that my mind made itself up without my knowing it.

“Stop!” I yelled, a gust of air forcing her away from me. My voice sounded cold and distant; it wasn’t mine, though I knew the words came from me. Inside, it felt as though some part of me had awoken and taken control. I no longer dominated my body. Some other entity, who had seen enough of Sara’s petty battle, did. It stood taller, straighter, and radiated with a divine anger that sent Sara and Heather whimpering into the hallway.

Slowly, my body followed.

The two had already gathered a crowd that imprisoned them. My body's gait stopped some distance from them. When their terrified faces met my gaze, my lips spoke, a slow, deep sound erupting from my throat.

“What right have you to judge based on rumor?” the unfamiliar voice thundered. “What right have you to blame your faults on another?”

Sara seemed to pluck courage from the curious onlookers. She stood and moved towards me, wobbly on her feet, but determined.

“Bitch! You think you’re hot stuff screwing around and lying to everyone!” she screeched, lunging to recommence her attack. I sent her slamming into the lockers where she slumped to the floor, cradling her head in her arms.

“Leave me alone,” the voice said slowly, articulating every syllable so she’d be sure to understand through her concussion.

With that, whatever had been inside me disappeared, leaving me with a strange sensation of having too much room in myself. Realizing everyone was staring at me, I walked away as calmly as I could manage, the crowd parting to let me through. Shocked, horrified, and curious faces looked on. No one said anything, though. They were all terrified...of me. This fact didn’t hit me until much later as I sat at home listening to music.

Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 10

The thought of facing Drei still terrified me. He had tried to prepare and help me, but I was too stubborn to listen. Ever since the bounty hunter and the less than comforting chat with my mother, I didn’t want to admit he was right. It hurt my pride enough to realize my own ignorance; I wanted to hold off hurting it any more.

School finished in a blur; class elections, junior prom, graduation and finals slid together into a solitary block of random images that made no sense to me. I missed my games but was timorous at being caught or attracting unwanted attention. For me, there was no escape from the mundane everyday life I faced, the life I had once invested so much in.

Even summer was just a sequence of parties, appearances, and shopping trips to New York, California, and Paris. My friends were going through senior madness: a “disease” our school had dubbed the craziness for jumping the bones of anything alive the summer before senior year. Their exploits were recounted in vivid detail over overpriced coffee. If questioned myself, I played a similar tune of countless faces passing through my door, but never offered tales of specific encounters without prompting. After all, there were none in reality to spare. It wasn’t me and I wasn’t ready—not to mention the thought still brought flashes of my birthday back a little too vividly.

Part of me wished I could have enjoyed the summer more, but I couldn’t pour my heart into a half-life. It felt like all summer I asked myself if any of it was worth it. Was this petty existence worth anything at all? And every time I asked, the answer was no.

Mother filled the weeks before school with college visits so I could learn which colleges best suited me. I felt more relaxed and involved as I went from one campus to another, comforted by the less superficial atmosphere. It was promising me something more of a life. And while I strolled through lecture halls and parks, I forgot myself. I felt more at peace in my skin, putting aside any disturbing realities of my life. I am somewhat ashamed to admit I had forgotten Drei in that time as well. In fact, all of it had been forgotten.

I returned for the start of school with my new resolve and feeling less troubled. My worries consisted mostly of finding time for my three advanced placement courses, seven clubs, four volunteer commitments, and anything else that would keep my mind from everything I had forgotten. Of course, then, I hadn’t realized that was the purpose for my over-involvement.

A couple of months into the school year, I found everything slipping from beneath me again. All the control and the careful steps I had taken to stay ignorant were stripped from me. All with one disastrous event.

Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 9

That week I hated myself. I had blown off Drei, literally, and hadn’t trusted him because he told me the truth. How screwed up was I that I couldn’t stand the truth? What did that say about me? Or anyone around me, for that matter?

After the bounty hunter had left, I felt hollow, wondering how much more of what Drei had said was true. It would certainly explain what I had avoided thinking about but I still couldn’t imagine what my mother’s response would be if I asked. Deep down, I didn’t want it to be true; it would mean I still had some inkling of what was happening in my own life if it wasn’t. I didn’t want to find out everything was a lie. Something I didn’t know.

Curiosity won out soon enough, demanding I learn the truth before I dismissed everything. Yet I was still hesitant. It wasn’t a subject I really wanted to go into. Not with her. She was always so temperamental and dismissive. Guess that’s where I learned it.

“Mother?” I called meekly from the doorway of her study.

The study was a large room, half library, half home office. The half as a library sported floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with every craft, self-help, and romance book she deemed worthy. Amidst the shelves was a cozy sitting area with old leather armchairs and dim Tiffany lamps. The half as an office bore a large wrap-around mahogany desk with a sleek laptop and a red leather chair. Along one wall was a bookcase of binders concealing different files and patterns she occasionally used when she sewed—which had been increasingly less often over the past years. In the far corner was an antique sewing table, renovated and shiny, the cherry wood giving a sense of peace to the stiff setting.

She sat elegantly in one of the chairs of the half library, her reading glasses resting on the tip of her nose as she pored over a volume of by the latest over-hyped psychologist.

“Yes?” she replied distantly, a bookmark hovering just above the page as she read to the end of the paragraph.

“May we speak?”

“Of course, darling.” She closed her book with a soft snap as I sat demurely at her feet. “What do you want to speak of? Is it about a boy?”

I hesitated, not certain it was such a great idea any more. “Sort of,” I replied.

“Is he nice?” Trust her to make this out to be something it wasn't.

“I’m not so sure,” I responded honestly. “He said I was adopted,” I added quickly before she could conjure another question.

Her face concealed something beneath the sympathy she portrayed. “Oh, honey,” she cooed, pulling me up to sit on the arm of her chair. “Don’t listen to such inanity. He’s just trying to bother you.”

I let her stroke my hair and hold me like she used to when I’d had a nightmare and was younger. She babbled to me some more, but I felt numb. Her words felt fake and syrupy, as if they were meant to reassure me secrets could be kept with calm and coaxing. Perhaps it was better to hear a lie and believe I still had some control over my life than it was to hear the truth when so much had made me feel fragile already.

Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 8

I went on to play my tricks for the next few weeks. The end of my junior year was near and depressing, not to mention dizzyingly busy as teachers threw caution to the wind and seemed to triple our regular workloads. My tricks offered a laugh to brighten my day or a preoccupation to keep me going and refreshed. Drei’s warning about bounty hunters lay buried and forgotten in some distant memory.

Until one day when I was called to the counselor’s office. She said I had a visitor, supposedly a college admission counselor wanting to see if I was the right type of person. It was nothing peculiar, considering this frequently happened; I had probably appeared in their database through purchased test results and they wanted to vet the lead. I traipsed down the hall to the conference room.

The man awaiting my arrival was dressed in a black suit, a pair of reflective glasses tucked securely into his breast pocket. He was bald with forest green eyes and a fat nose. Something about his demeanor reminded me of how FBI agents were portrayed in movies.

“Sit,” he said, a large hand gesturing toward a stiff chair, his dark eyes locked on me. His voice sent a tremor down my spine. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure this was a routine visitor.

“Sit;” he forced his face into a distortion he must have thought was a smile.

I sat cautiously, every alarm in my body sounding as he sat across from me.

“So, I’m just here to talk with you about college and see if this might be a good option for you,” he said less than believably. He shuffled through some papers before him, all marked with a school name I couldn’t make out but he didn’t hand me any brochures. “Uh…first of all,” he started, “what makes you special?”

“I’m a leader,” I said, though it was true less often than not. It was one of those things counselors tell you to really push since it’s what every college wanted to hear.

He cocked a shaggy eyebrow at my answer. “Why?”

“Because I’m smart and talented…people like me.” I shrugged, drawing on all the flightiness I had accumulated over the years from my friends. My primary concern was if he’d buy into it.

“Can you do any tricks?” he prodded further, leaning forward slightly.

Drei’s warning hit me like freezing water. Bounty hunters, he had called them. This was one of them. I knew it, without anyone having to point it out—I wasn't so hopeless. Part of my mind chided that he could mean something along the lines of cheerleading or extreme sports, but then why had my stomach suddenly gone AWOL?

“What kind of tricks,” I questioned carefully, fully aware of rigidity of his entire body, still pulling out all of the flightiness I could.

He seemed taken aback, as if he had expected me to brag about my freakish powers. My abilities to move anything I so desired. “Moving things,” he said lamely, seeming to doubt the words as they left his thin lips. “An unusual knack for plant work. Uncanny ways of playing with water or fire. That kind of thing.”

I pretended to think for a moment, seeing comedy in the following few minutes. “I can move things,” I admitted slowly, playing at being unsure.

“Good,” he replied, relief settling into his middle-aged face as he set a mug in front of me. “Move this to that corner,” he ordered, gesturing to the far corner of the desk.

My fingers grasped the mug and sat it where he had pointed.

“Without touching it,” he elaborated, slapping it on the desk before me again, his teeth grinding as he tried to hold onto his warped version of a smile.

I grabbed a pencil and slid it across the desk.

“Without using anything but air,” he growled.

“Well, that’s ridiculous,” I insisted, crossing my arms and throwing myself against the back of the chair. “How can a person do that?”

“Try,” he said, a hard edge in his voice.

I did, focusing on pulling the air together but making it seem like strenuous work, like it had been when I first started. I even sat forward and put a hand to my temple. Of course, since I was trying so hard but not really focused on moving anything, the air resisted me. (It didn’t much appreciate being called on for nothing at all, I had learned.)

It seemed a small eternity passed before he said, “Stop before you hurt yourself.” He sounded defeated, and I felt a sense of pride rise in me. I had taken care of it, just like I had told Drei I would. “You’re not right for us,” he said tiredly, slouching forward and rubbing his temples.

As I left the room, I heard him mutter something about rich girls and his own stupidity. Part of me wished I could show him what this rich girl could do, but I knew that to be unwise.

Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 7

My jaw dropped. My mother? The same one who was constantly nagging about boyfriends and college? “My mother’s at home asleep,” I said slowly.

“No, your mother has been locked away for 17 years.”

“That’s not possible!” I crossed my arms, trying not to let his words sink in too deep. Suddenly I felt cold, and the fact I knew practically nothing about him seemed really important. Like it was reason enough to block out anything else he said and dismiss it as a lie.

“It is. And if you are not careful, they will reunite you,” he threatened, though his voice wasn’t as cruel and frightening anymore.

I was silent. Thoughts jumbled in my head and left me wordless. He was so serious I was somewhat convinced he was telling the truth, but the idea was ludicrous and I had no reason to believe him. I saw her all the time...unless—

“I could take you away. You would be safe. We take care of all the elementals,” he offered, his voice gentle and alluring after the long silence that had fallen between us. The scent of flowers filled the air. It might have been my imagination, but instead of finding it soothing this time, it made me doubly uneasy, almost nauseous.

The idea seemed okay, but fear swelled in my mind. What would I do without school, college prospects, or friends? How could I survive without the comforts I found every day, the security in the fact I had everything I needed? I couldn’t leave everything behind; it didn’t seem possible. Aside from that, how safe would I be with Drei should I trust him? I didn’t know. He had soothed and saved me, yes, but that was when people still expected to see me. If I ran away, that expectation decreased to nearly nonexistent and what would he do then? Would he still be safe?

“Who is we?” I asked instead, attempting to think about something that didn’t bring so many unanswered questions to light.

“Vampires, like myself,” he answered, as if trying to prove I could trust him.

I scoffed, more out of terror than disapproval. “You’re out of your mind,” I insisted, trying to calm myself. It wasn’t working very well. “First bounty hunters, then my mother, now vampires? This is—this is a total joke.”

My mind repeated those final words, trying to convince me that was the truth. It fit into the boxes of my life; the rest of it didn’t. I could even make a box for being an elemental, and stretch things to make it fit, but I wasn’t going to try for everything else if it was easier to deny it all.

But my heart refused to believe he was lying. It argued I had always suspected this harsher reality, even if I never wanted to admit it.

Wanting to escape that place and the gut-wrenching feeling my world was collapsing, I forced Drei away from me and dashed back through the park. I was able to escape him easily enough; I wasn’t as lucky with his words.

Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 6

One spring night, I couldn’t sleep, even with sleep aids. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I was anxious and full of energy. I couldn’t bear to lie down or sit still, so I decided to go for a jog.

The guard at the gate buzzed me through and I took off along the path coursing through one of the nearby parks, enjoying the feel of cool air on my face. I felt alive and empowered by the clear night and the chatter of wildlife around me—so much clearer than I ever remembered.

I experimented with using air to make me faster, to deepen my breathing; I was enthralled with the results. The freeing feeling spread throughout me, sending my mind into levels of ecstasy beyond any runner’s high I’d previously experienced.

At some point, I had closed my eyes, letting my feet lead me through this solidly fraudulent world. Something yanked on my arm and spun me about. When I jerked my eyes open, Drei stood before me, a tight grip on my wrist to keep me from going anywhere. He looked deathly serious as he said, “We need to talk.”

His words echoed hollowly in my head. What did we have to talk about? I hadn’t done anything wrong. Well, nothing that I knew of. Besides, I hadn’t seen him in months. Why was he showing up all of a sudden now?

Drei dragged me along to a bridge, seemingly because of the stream trickling below—since he checked over the side as if assuring himself there was water there—though that didn’t make sense. Then again, how much of who he was or what he knew did?

“You cannot be careless,” he warned; his voice was low and gruff—waking terror inside my chest—and his features were paler than usual.

“It’s just little tricks,” I muttered, trying fruitlessly to escape his scathing eyes. Why was this such a big deal? If he didn’t want me using these powers—or whatever you wanted to call them—why did he show me I had them in the first place?

“And tricks are hilarious!” he snapped and I flinched. This was a whole other disposition, distinct from even how he’d been in that alley. “Of course risking your life for fun and games is hilarious!”

“My life?” I questioned dumbly, feeling completely lost in the conversation and trying not to say too much in case it angered him more. I liked him better when he was happy; even disappointed was better than this.

“Bounty hunters watch for careless elementals,” he said, his eyes livid and passionate with a hint of fear somewhere on their edges, though I couldn’t imagine why he would have anything to fear. “It is their job. If they catch you, you are shipped off to some government building to be experimented on. Is that what you want?”

“No,” I replied meekly, struggling to find something solid to support me; it felt like everything was slipping away from beneath me. Not only had my life been turned completely on its head, but now the change I was beginning to actually enjoy was bringing its own restraints. As if my life didn’t have enough of those already. “But I can fight them;” I sounded more confident than I felt as I pulled free from his grasp. “They don’t know what I can do. They—”

“—already took your mother.”

Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 5

Over the next couple of weeks, school was bearable. My friends wanted to know all of the details to the break-up. Who broke-up with whom? Did I cry? What did I have as comfort food? Most of all, is that why I was gone for a week? I, of course, knew all the answers to provide minimal damage: he broke-up with me; a little; no food, just old movies; yes and no, no further comments. This pleased my friends all of three minutes before they realized there was no juice. So they went on to pump Carol for information on what Dan was like up close and personal.

At home, I spent time practicing the skills Drei had helped me discover, slowly improving to the point I didn’t have to focus as long or hard. I could stare at a spot and pull all the air together before almost instantaneously. It was exciting, to say the least, even if it was still somewhat unwanted.

I soon became bored with the standard moving things and began experimenting at school. If I felt myself slipping away into sleep during a class, I would send a piece of paper flying on a draft of air to spook someone. Or, my favorite, send a message to one of my sleeping friends and enjoy her frantic looks when she suddenly awoke. They swore it was ghosts, which only improved their image because that was apparently the new rage.

Still, I found it highly entertaining. And the more I used my newfound gift, the more I came to appreciate it.

Elemental: Chapter Two, Part 4

“What?” I asked, a little let down he wasn’t celebrating with me. Was that too much to ask for?

“Nothing. It is as I thought.”

“What did you think?” I questioned, nervous and slightly upset. He makes me do something positively ridiculous and then can’t even congratulate me when I can do it? No. That’s screwed up. “I’m not letting you turn me into some little science project if that’s what you thought.”

A gentle smile cracked his lips, only adding to my annoyance. “Not at all.”

“Then what?” I demanded, not sure how I felt about his attitude. He wasn’t even reacting, really. What kind of person didn’t react to something like this? Well, obviously Drei. But what did that mean about him?

“Do you really want to know?” I nodded and he continued, “You know of the elements, correct?”

“Of course,” I replied, sighing to calm myself enough to hear him out. “Water, earth, fire, and air.”

“Then you know that some people are born embodying these elements?”

“No,” I scoffed. I thought everyone knew that was superstition. And yet he seemed so serious about it all. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know.

“Well, people are. More often than not, people are born of earth and water. Fire used to be a common element found in people; but somewhere around the 60’s they started going insane and being charged with arson. So they were mostly committed. As for air, they have always been rare. They bloom the latest of all the others.”

“When do they bloom?” I questioned, genuinely curious, but slightly confused since I didn’t think this had anything to do with flowers. I hated it when things stopped making sense or when they didn’t make sense to begin with.

“Earth and water bloom as early as four, fire around ten generally, and air are so rare, there is no mean age. Some bloom in their 20’s, some in their later life, and others yet in their late teens.”

“So you think I’m an air element?” I queried, resisting the urge to point at myself in extra emphasis or burst out laughing to make this all go away. That’s all I really wanted at this point. Just to make it all go away. Pretend it wasn’t happening.

“Yes. After all, you did just prove it with that experiment.”

He was starting to confuse me. Since when did freakish powers make me an element? The two didn’t equate in my mind. Though I wanted to say this aloud, I didn’t want the answer since that would suggest I was accepting the explanation he was currently giving me when I wasn’t sure I even wanted to.

“Actually, the proper term is air elemental, if you care to be specific,” he added, as if this was just a minor detail and not my life.

“I’m supposed to believe that?” I questioned, sounding more incredulous than intended.

“Not right away,” he replied dejectedly, a sadness filling his pale eyes, though they didn’t look away. “No one believes it right away. It is a lot to swallow.”

I breathed deeply, not sure if he was lying and trying to hurt me or if he was honestly telling me the truth. Everything was just so screwed up. Richie trying to have his way, those men in the alley, the cold, and now this. It was building up and I wasn’t sure I could handle it all in my life, let alone the same week. It just didn’t seem possible.

“I can’t…” I said, closing my eyes and shaking my head. “I-I just can’t. Not right now.” Maybe not ever, I didn’t add. I stood to leave, turning to apologize before walking out the door.

I knew I’d hurt him and let him down, that he was possibly expecting more from me…but the responsibility of what he was suggesting was too much to handle, emotionally, at that point.