by Jae Vogel
Sean closed his eyes and thought about the back of Dion’s van. He’d never been that close to a girl before. What was wrong with him that he felt guilty about being in love? He’s seen the inside of Emily’s mind when they were both trapped by those demon cheerleaders. She had just as much pain in her life as he did. Perhaps more. Her mom was out of the picture and was a continual source of embarrassment to Emily when she would visit. They had this to bond over mothers who were problematic. What was it about this part of Ohio that created such things? He knew too many kids with similar family problems.
Sean had never felt so close to anyone in his entire life. He was already trying to figure out a way to attend college on the same campus where Emily had applied. She wanted to attend school at Cincinnati that fall; he was supposed to go to a local college. He knew why his parents wanted him to stay close, they claimed it was to save money, but his mother didn’t want to let him out of her sight.
Once upon a time, he’d tried to initiate a relationship with another girl in school and it turned into a disaster. Sean never told anyone how depressed he was after she spurned him. He thought about arranging for a disappearance at the time. It used to happen. Guys could run off and join the military or even sign up with an ocean vessel. A quick trip to the library squashed these ideas. The American military was in the middle of major cutbacks after the Vietnam fiasco and it was impossible to get a position on a ship without your merchant marine papers. At least any decent ship and he had no desire to end up missing at sea. Sean swallowed his pride and returned to school that weekend with a better sense of his own place in the great scheme of things. At least only a few people taunted him.
No, the time had come to face up to his mother. He was older now, and if she couldn’t deal with him as a legal adult, it was her problem, not his. He walked to the door and found it open. Yep, she was waiting up for him.
Sean stepped inside and saw his mother at the kitchen table. For some reason, the house was built on one level and the kitchen was visible from the main entrance. His dad talked about doing something so there would be a direct entrance to the back porch. However, he needed to find the time to make the modifications to the house. Right now, he worked too many hours to even think about it. His father didn’t believe in hiring people to work on the house as he felt it was his job.
“Hello, Sean,” his mother said from the coffee table. “Is everything alright? I was worried when it turned nine and you weren’t home.”
“I’m fine, mom. Tired and I need to go to bed. I’m supposed to meet up with Dion and Lilly tomorrow at the mall. I might look for a job while I’m down there.”
His mother had continued to stare at him in the eyes as he walked into the house. He looked away instinctively. It was something he needed to stop doing: assume the submissive tone of a whipped dog. He knew what she was doing, but right now, he just wanted to get to bed and away from her. The last thing he needed was a confrontation.
“Are you sure?” she told him.
Sean kept walking. She would probably leave him alone this evening. At least she hadn’t said anything about the bruise on his color bone. He’s made certain to cover it up before going in the house. Almost to his bedroom, had to be careful not to arouse any suspicion.
“Never felt better,” he told her when he closed the door behind him. There, he’d made it. Now all he needed to do was get in bed and dream nice things about a girl named Emily.
Chapter 2
It was a short hike to Emily’s house the next day and Sean left a note for his mother. He claimed he was headed to the mall with some friends to find a job. Walking anywhere in their neighborhood was a challenge as the subdivisions weren’t built with foot traffic in mind and there were no sidewalks. Anyone walking down the road was seen as a potential troublemaker. He managed to get up early enough to avoid the looks of people leaving for work.
Finally, he arrived at Emily’s house. By his wristwatch, it meant he was just in time to arrive when they’d agreed. Dion would be ready to show up and they would head back to the mall one more time to see what awaited them. After yesterday, he was ready for whatever the mall sent in their direction. All he really wanted was to see Emily again.
She was waiting for him out front when he arrived. Sean walked down the driveway and she almost ambushed him from the hedges. One minute he was wondering if his clothes were presentable, in case her father was still home, the next he felt her arms around him and her lips on his.
“Wow,” he told her. “Do you always greet guys this way?”
“Only you,” she said. “Is everything alright? Did your mother give you a hard time last night when you went home?”
“No. What about you? Is your dad all right? I know you’ve been concerned about him for a long time.” He’d felt her pain when their inner minds merged. Sean still had difficulty separating his thoughts from hers after yesterday. It was as if another person was inside his head.
“We had a father and daughter talk,” she said. “He went into work and I made him promise to get out and meet some decent women.”
“He still can’t get over your mother. He needs to let go. At least you’re eighteen and don’t have to go visit her if you don’t want to.”
“Listen to who is talking. Did you stand up to your mother last night? No? I didn’t think so. Let’s go under the tree and wait for Dion and Lilly. The neighbors will stare if we put on too much of a show. I know a neighbor is watching us right now.”
Sean and Emily continued to be inseparable in the back seat of the van when they continued onto the mall.
“Hey, you two,” Lilly yelled from the passenger seat up front, “keep in mind we have to go back into that mall today and tomorrow. You need to keep your senses sharp before we enter that place.”
She didn’t get much of a response.
“I don’t like it,” Dion said as they approached the entrance to third section of the mall. “It’s too quite outside. Where are Karanzen and his thugs? It’s past ten in the morning and the mall is open. I expect he’ll greet us very soon.
Dion closed his eyes and tried to feel if any elementals were close by. He couldn’t feel any of the stronger ones, but if this part of the mall was dedicated to the element of water, where would they be? The nearest body of water was miles away and it wasn’t more than a large creek. They would make an appearance. He knew it. The elementals had no intention of allowing him to gain power over them if they could prevent it. The others had failed in their attempts to stop him, but he still needed the other two powers. And God only knew what lay inside that tower dedicated to the fifth element…
The doors to the mall popped open the moment they reached them.
Karanzen came marching out with four of his best men. They formed a cup outside the doors with Karanzen at the bottom and the other four on the sides. It was similar to the bowl of death the cheerleader elementals had formed the day before. Same concept.
“Sorry, Dion,” the security chief informed him. “You just lost your right to be inside here.” Karanzen folded his arms across his thick chest and starred down at the four youths in front of him. “I guess your uncle doesn’t want you in here anymore.”
“Your uncle?” Sean said to him. “He owns this place?”
“Majority stockholder,” Dion explained. “Which means he can get what he wants. Don’t worry; I just learned yesterday he was the one who built this place.”
“I guess family isn’t everything,” Karanzen snickered. “Now get out of here before I call the sheriff and have you arrested. Your friends have to leave too. They came in with you, they leave with you.”
“Leave, Officer Karanzen?” Dion asked him. “Leave as you did in the Chosin Reservoir? You want me to flee the same way?”
Karanzen became quiet.
He was in the frozen landscape of Northern Korea as he fled from the burning tank. The Chinese ‘volunteers’ had destroyed the tank minutes after they found it and flowed over the hil
ls after him and his men. He’d accidently discovered the main body of the Chinese counterattack as it swarmed across the mountains after the United Nations Forces. He ran and didn’t stop until his legs gave out. In the distance, he could hear orders and commands in Mandarin as the Chinese hunted down any troops they could find. It was cold, colder than he’d ever had to encounter in the open before. Explosions lit up the sky and it revealed the extent of the troops moving south. But he had no radio to let his side know what was on the way.
Dion watched Karanzen, as he stood there with his mouth opened, hardly able to say a word. His own men stopped and turned to look at their boss. A few of them had seen these episodes. They were rare, but the smart thing to do was just ignore them and go about your business. No one, other than the four they were supposed to keep out of the mall, stood outside the doors. It could change in a minute with more people walking their way through the parking lot.
Finally, one of the security guards, Izzy, walked over to Karanzen and spoke to him. It was all fine for him not to respond to questions in his office, but out in front of the mall it made everyone look bad.
“Are you there, boss?” the man said to Karanzen.
As they stood and watched Karanzen’s still form, everyone heard the sound of a bus pull up in front. No one found it odd the bus didn’t make any noise as it entered the parking lot. One minute the traffic was normal inside the lot, the next minute they were startled by the sound of an English double-decked bus as it pulled up in front of the walkway to the mall entrance. The bus was noisy and let everyone know it arrived by the loud sound of its horn when it came to stop. They could hear the sound of the brake as it was set in place.
“I didn’t know those things were over here,” Lilly said to Dion. “First time I’ve ever seen one outside of movies.”
“I don’t think this is a normal bus,” Dion said to them. “I feel some elemental movement. I believe we are about to see something other than people arriving for a tour.”
The moment he finished speaking, the doors opened to the bus and a horde of young women poured out of it. For a second Dion thought, it was a return of the air elemental cheerleaders, but these girls, all of who looked no older than eighteen, wore tracksuits and flip-flops. Across the front of their designer suits the logo “Aquarian Synchronized Swim Team” was emblazed. They proceeded to climb out of the bus for a good two minutes until an older woman in the same outfit exited with them. She looked at the mall and made some notes on a pad. Satisfied, she returned to the bus, the doors closed and it continued on its way.
Halfway out of the parking lot, the bus vanished.
“Nymphs,” Dion announced. “They’re nymphs.”
“Really?” Sean said. “Sounds like my lucky day. Ouch!” The exclamation came from Emily punching him in the side.
“Not those kind nymphs,” Dion said. “Water nymphs. As in elementals. These are water elementals and they’ve arrived just in time to get us into the mall.”
They had the same clear skin and ivory teeth as the cheerleaders the day before, but this group seemed light-hearted. The skipped down the walkway, singing and dancing as they went. The security guards neglected their boss who was still in a daze and turned their attention on the young women. On the side of the doors were glass windows and Dion could see men pushing to get a better view of the swim team as they came up to the entrance.
“Naiads I think,” Dion continued as they came closer. “Just be careful. I don’t know whom they are bound to at this moment. They tend to stick with a particular location. If they’ve been brought in here, it’s for a reason. Don’t get to close, if you form any type of attachment to them, they can become very possessive.”
He felt Lilly’s arm around him and noticed Emily pull Sean over to her.
The effect of the Naiads was powerful and neutralized any bad thoughts a person might have. Unlike the sylphs from yesterday, these creatures were already in their natural form. He’d seen them in lakes and on the beach at the ocean with his parents, who warned Dion to avoid them. Countless sailors had learned the hard way it wasn’t a good idea to spend time with the Naiads. If they took a fancy to you, they didn’t like to give you up.
The four friends moved out of the way, as the swim team swarmed around the guards, admiring their uniforms and badges. One took off a guard’s cap and admired herself in its reflection. Another patted the badge on one guard’s uniform. They seemed happy and carefree, which made it hard to avoid starring at them.
At that moment, Karanzen left his cataleptic state and saw two of the young women dance around him. He was speechless. He’d been terrified for his life and now he was facing two of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. Where was he?
The swim team swarmed past the speechless guards and began to flow into the mall on a wave of laughter. Dion realized they had the opportunity needed to get inside.
“Follow them,” he told his friends. “Go in with them; just don’t get taken in by them.”
Dion and his friends joined the mass of the naiad swim team as it swept into the mall as one continuous wave. The security guards had no idea what they encountered as the young women swept past them. Dion and friends managed to position themselves inside the group and avoid any confrontation with the security guards.
It worked. They were inside the mall in seconds, moving with the happy swim team as it continued onward in one mass. The four friends stayed to the middle and bounced along with them. They waited until they were far inside the mall and away from the main entrance until they peeled away from the water elementals. Exhausted, they went to one side of the mall and panted in relief.
The swim team had an instant effect on the shoppers in the mall. Men turned in their direction and looked on in admiration. Young women were impressed, as were the older ones with daughters. Young guys were inclined to find out who they were, what school they attended and did any of them have boyfriends? The elementals stayed together, but for the next few minutes they could have robbed the mall blind and no one would’ve noticed. They shared this with the air elementals that’d been there the day before in the form of cheerleaders.
Dion watched as they found their destination and headed toward it: a temporary store that sold swimwear for people who planned to vacation in the Caribbean. The mall had several of the “pop-up” stores which used spaces not rented out full-time and only needed the location for six months. By August, the store would close and a new place would open in the same location, probably a place that sold Halloween costumes.
Still in their tracksuits, the girls wandered over to and filed inside. As Dion still observed them, the swim team proceeded to strip off their suits. This created another round of interest as a mob of men soon gathered outside the store and watched. Much to their disappointment, and to the relief of their wives, the swim team had swimsuits on underneath the tracksuits. Each of them wore a different one. Most had two-piece bikinis, others had one-piece suits. Each was a different style. As the crowd of curious on-lookers moved into the store, the manager placed a sign in the window, which told those interested in the team who they were.
“I don’t believe it,” Sean said as Emily held on to him. “A bikini team.”
“Not all of them have bikinis on,” Dion said. He watched them take their tracksuits and stack them in the corner.
“I’m not complaining.”
This time Emily stepped on Sean’s foot.
Most of the customers appeared to be guys. Dion watched through the window, as men of all shapes and sizes would go inside the store, see a member of the swim team with a suit on her that he liked, and then ask about the price. This repeated itself over and over until the cash register was running full throttle and the sales staff working hard to keep up with everyone. Soon, a long line ran down from the sales counter to the end of the store. A large group waited outside the store, and private security guard appeared to escort people in and out.
“You have to admit,” Sean said t
o Dion, “it is an effective way to boost sales.”
“Are you going to go buy me something?” Emily said. “Because I have my eye on one of those.”
Sean took out his wallet and looked at it. “Uh, cash is a little short today.”
“Then don’t go anywhere near it!”
“I’m glad I don’t have to be the one who tells those men the girls aren’t human,” Dion said. “I don’t think they’d like their bubble popped, so it won’t happen.”
“And these are water spirits?” Lilly asked him. She had on a jeans jacket to match Dion’s today, but wore a pair of black pants and heels. Her mother commented before he picked her up that she had to have her eye on a new boy since Lilly was taking so much time to get ready.
“Elementals,” he corrected her. “A spirit is someone who once walked the earth in human form. These have existed as separate intelligences for thousands of years. They may have been here before humanity made an appearance.”
“I’m guessing they come in different forms?”
“Of course. You have the various types. Some never leave the water. The ones over there can exist out of water for long periods of time. Then you have the mermaids, which can never leave the ocean, the Lorelei that only live in mountain streams and the sirens that lure men to their death through song. The sirens are the most dangerous ones, but I don’t even think the sprites, which have very little interaction with humans, are safe. All of them resent the way humanity have manipulated the waterways and ocean to their advantage. I always find a way to warn people away from them if I see any around when I swim or even use a boat. You can’t allow yourself to get too close because they will become infatuated with you and won’t leave. If you spurn one they will find a way to do some harm. Too many people every year become involved with water elementals and fail to realize what they’ve done.”
