Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire

by Jade Sánchez

  Monachi

  Masters of Water and Fire

  Story by Jade Sánchez

  Title: Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire © 2013 Jade Sánchez © 2013

  www.monachi.sanchezart.com

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-10: 0989546020

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9895460-2-7

  Published; November, 2013

  First Edition Printed; November 2013

  E-book version created in the U.S.A. Paperback version Printed in the U.S.A.

  Book Cover and inside illustrations created by Gary Donald Sánchez: www.sanchezart.com Referenced used:

  Harry Potter ©

  Doctor Who ©

  The Hunger Games ©

  “The road not taken” © Robert Frost “I love it” © Icona pop

  “My Immortal” © Evanescence “According to you” © Oranthi

  For additional “Monachi” character content, And author bio, please visit the official “Monachi” Website at: www.monachi.sanchezart.com

  Published by Shamrock Haven Publishing, LLC.

  www.shamrockhavenpublishing.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced by any means without prior written consent of the author and the publisher.

  I dedicate this book to my friends; Maddy Vogel, Penelope Eck, Briana Gant, Gailen Sendon, Kaitlyn Osgood, and last but not least Addison Woelfle. No matter how crazy and odd I get, you stick around. Thanks for motivating some of the names in this story. I hope you all enjoy the book!

  Introduction

  Thank you! For your time and interest in reading my debut "Monachi" wisdom novella. Through my

  and personal experiences throughout this story, I wish to inspire emotional bursts in all of you! It may even hold you on the edge of your seat if you stop at the wrong place.

  Although my character (Tess) is a sad person, I am not. A friend of mine was going through a rough time and she was upset, so I created a ‘sad’ character to show her that everyone is sad sometimes, yet can be surrounded by people who love and care for them.

  As I write this, I have a second “Monachi” novel in the works, which involves the elements of…you guessed it; earth and air. I hope that you enjoy this story and look forward to the next one.

  Jade Sánchez 11/18/2013

  Prologue

  Sometimes, when things are happening so quickly and you’re being put under pressure, your mind goes blank and suddenly you’re at a loss for words. Well, that’s what happened to me and my best friend when this whole story began.

  But first, let me tell you a little bit about the two of us. Let’s start with my friend.

  Tess is her name, and she is my best friend. She is twelve years old. Her hair is slightly wavy, just past shoulder length with lots of body, and is dark brown with a reddish tint. Her hair style reminds me of Rose’s hair style from “Doctor Who©,” her favorite T.V. show. She has tan skin that never burns from the sunlight. Her eyes are almond shaped and hazel in color. She wears prescription lenses with red frames, but most of the time she wears contact lenses. She loves the color red because she’s a pyro, a lover of fire!

  My name is Maddy. I am also twelve years old. I have straight, shoulder length blonde hair. I have peach skin that does burn easily in the sunlight. My eyes are also almond shaped, however my eyes are light brown in color. My vision is just fine. My favorite color is blue. I love water. I love to swim; it’s my life.

  Tess and I have known each other since she and her family moved next door to me and my family six years ago this month. We have been best friends ever since.

  We were lucky enough to have the same teachers all throughout elementary school. Though, now that we are in our first year of middle school we only have a few classes together, including Math, English, and History.

  We have Math class right after lunch, and this is where the story begins….

  Chapter One Intrusion

  “So that’s about it,” Tess stated. We were talking about the recent trip she went on. “Sounds exciting,” I told her. A few brief seconds later the bell rang and we went to math class.

  While we were learning about how to find the area of a circle (Pi times radius squared), we heard loud banging on the door. The math teacher fell silent as we all turned our heads to the back of the room.

  Christy opened the door and stood aside as two men came booming towards Tess and threw her against the wall. Shocked, Tess just stood there with her mouth open, not sure what to say.

  “What is going on here?” asked our teacher. One of the men threw a box to him, and inside was a piece of paper. As the teacher began to read it silently, the other guy came storming towards me and grabbed my arms. He proceeded to throw me against the wall. Just as shocked as Tess, I too, stood there speechless.

  After pulling herself somewhat together, Tess shouted while being handcuffed. “What do you want from us?”

  “You, Tess Turner, are under arrest for being a Monachi. Same goes with you, Maddy Webber. You are also being charged for being a Monachi,” roared the guy who was handcuffing Tess.

  In my mind I was wondering; what is a Monachi? In similar words, and infuriated, Tess had already began asking that question. I was afraid this would make her even more furious. “I demand to know whatever a Monachi is, and why I’m being charged for being one!” she yelled.

  “A Monachi is a person that has powers over one element, of some sort. The reason we know you’re one is because it’s written in the stars,” the guy who was handcuffing me answered.

  “SO YOU ARE ARRESTING ME BECAUSE SOME STARS TOLD YOU TO!” Tess screamed at the top of her lungs while stomping her foot angrily.

  Then the weirdest thing that ever happened, materialized right in front of our eyes. It seemed they might’ve been right.

  Chapter Two Abduction

  Tess’s hair started on fire! Yeah, I know it sounds a little crazy, ok maybe really crazy, but I swear it happened right there in front of my eyes. Well, of course the school’s fire alarm went off and water started pouring out everywhere. But even that didn’t put Tess’s hair out. The school evacuated; all except the agents, me, and Tess.

  Tess observed, “My head isn’t even hot.” How could she even say that? Her head was on fire! The agents started moving towards Tess. Then they poured a bucket of water on her head that put the fire out.

  After they did that, they smacked Tess across the face and went back to arresting us. I was pissed off, but I wasn’t about to start a fire.

  While the rest of the school was evacuating, we were being pulled to an unmarked van; like the ones the FBI uses to catch the most dangerous of criminals. They shoved us inside and locked the door behind us.

  We both just sat there, completely still. When they started the engine we heard the men say, “Next stop, Washington D.C.” We looked at each other. We lived in Idaho. This was going to be a long ride.

  Just then, we stopped. “Wait! Carson, weren’t we supposed to get that Penny girl, too?”, one of the men asked. It sounded like Tess’s arrester.

  “Oh yeah, but for what reason again, Rodger? I totally forgot why,” Carson responded. “For being a chameleon, remember?” Rodger retorted. Carson left the vehicle and went back to the school.

  “What’s a chameleon?” I asked Tess. “A chameleon is an animal that can seem to

  turn invisible and visible at will,” she whispered back to me. I figured she would know something like that. I’ll explain why, later
.

  Soon after, the back door to the van opened and Penny was thrown in. Penny is petite compared to Tess and I. She has green eyes and long, smoky brown hair. She is about 4’9 or 4’10 tall. Tess is 5’1, and I am 5’2.

  We all sat in the back as the men were driving. We had no idea what was going to happen to us. Tess looked to the front of the van and yelled, “Hey idiots, will you let us out now! It’s really not funny anymore.” They didn’t seem to hear her. She banged against the glass and yelled even louder, “Hey I’m talking to you!”

  One of the men spoke up. “We can hear you pounding, but can’t hear what you’re saying. Sorry.”

  So in the back of the van we sat. “At least we have a bit of privacy,” Penny said, attempting to brighten up the mood.

  “Privacy is all we can get,” I retorted. Tess put one arm around me, to comfort me. We were all in for a bumpy ride. “Well at least youdidn’t start your hair on fire in front of everyone. You know, you can never go back to school,” Tess said sourly.

  I snickered. If you ever want to make a joke out of any problem, trust Tess to do it.

  “Well, what else can you do?” asked Penny, anxiously.

  “I really don’t know,” Tess muttered. “My hair just started on fire because I was mad, I guess. I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  “Well, maybe if they get you mad again you’ll do something different,” replied Penny.

  The van seemed to pick up speed, and then took a few sharp turns that threw us around the back. Then, it felt like it drove over some potholes, knocking us around again. Then, all of a sudden we came to a screeching halt.

  I guess it’s time to test her theory.

  Chapter Three Pit Stop

  The men jumped out and opened the back doors. Were we picking up more innocent children? I looked outside. There was a sign that read “Indian Creek Reservoir.” “What are we stopping for?” Penny asked politely.

  “Pit stop. But don’t get excited, you’re not getting out. I hope you girls are good at holding it because your next bathroom break isn’t until Washington D.C.,” Rodger declared.

  Carson went into the gas station while Rodger waited outside the van doors for him to come back. “I hate these guys already,” I grumbled.

  All of a sudden we heard Carson come back and Rodger leave. As soon as Rodger was inside the building, Carson swung open the door and tossed us each a bag of chips and a bottle of water. “Dinner, eat up!” he laughed. “Save some for breakfast too, because that’s it.”

  He was getting on my nerves.

  “Um…, Maddy what are you doing?” Tess asked. I didn’t know what she meant until I looked at my water bottle and saw it shaking. All of a sudden, the lid on my water bottle popped, and water came shooting out directly towards Carson. I didn’t quite know what I was doing until it was covering his mouth, drowning him. Seeing this through the window, Rodger came running out of the gas station to help his friend. Tess shook me vigorously and I lost focus. The water fell from his nose and mouth and onto the pavement. Rodger slammed the back door on us and climbed up front.

  When we started to move again, Tess poured about one-fourth of her water bottle into mine. Penny did the same thing. I told both of them, “Thanks.” That was kind of them.

  “You guys are too cool. I wish I was a Monachi,” Penny remarked.

  After about three or four hours of silence, Tess looked at her watch. It was 9:55 PM. Penny yawned. The van came to another halt. Another bathroom break? We sat in the back of the van completely still. Rodger swung the doors open and threw a box in the back and slammed the door quickly.

  I crawled over to the box and opened it. It had three pillows and three sleeping bags. I tossed the red set to Tess, the yellow one to Penny, and I used the blue set.

  The back of the van was surprisingly roomy. Tess sat nearest to the door, then me in the middle, and Penny in the back.

  Penny crawled into her sleeping bag and fell asleep immediately. Tess laid down sprawled across the floor. “Since when was it decided that it is against the law to be different?” Tess asked herself. A question we knew neither of us could answer.

  Tess crawled into her sleeping bag half an hour later. “At least I can escape to my dreams,” she said to herself. She turned to her side and began to cry, silently. I could tell she was crying because she kept sniffling and wiping her face. Ever since I’ve known Tess, she’d cry herself to sleep. Sometimes she just got temporary melancholia, or a feeling of sadness without a cause. But this had a cause. When she finally did fall asleep. I looked at Tess’s watch. It displayed 1:05 AM.

  I crawled into my sleeping bag and started thinking about all kinds of things, particularly the times that my friends and I had been teased or bullied in the past; in school or just in our neighborhood while playing or walking to school. Being in the situation we are in right now, feels just as bad.

  I felt a tear rolling down my cheek. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

  Remember when I said that I’d explain later - why Tess would know that kind of mystical stuff? Well, here’s the later.

  Ok, so it’s kind of simple, and obvious. She believes in that kind of stuff.

  Ok, so maybe not so obvious. But maybe you already guessed that. Tess loves to look that kind of stuff up. It’s an odd hobby, but hey, at least it’s something.

  Sometimes people tease Tess for believing in that kind of stuff, but Tess isn’t the type to let it get to her. She just laughs it off. Imagine if someone started teasing you about your favorite hobby.

  Even if you get teased right now, be a Tess. Laugh it off. Most people just tease to look cool or make people laugh. Laugh with them. Ignoring those kinds of people works too; once they see it doesn’t bother you, they’ll eventually stop.

  And if you’re the bully, then you need to stop bullying. It’s not funny.

  A quote from someone who has been bullied:

  “I really dislike being hated…reading your hate mail…and how you say I'm going to hell… you don't know me, my problems, and how much I hurt. You don't know how much your words hurt me… you don't know how much your actions torture me… you don't know…you just don't know.”

  That’s how most bullied victims feel.

  Chapter Four The Cage

  I woke up at 10:15 a.m., eyes blinking rapidly. I sat up and looked around. Penny was packing up her sleeping bag and pillow. Tess was still sleeping like a log.

  Penny noticed that I was awake. “Good morning, how’d you sleep?” she asked with a grin. Penny was cheerful, despite what was happening.

  “Pretty good, how about you, did you sleep well?” I questioned her.

  “As well as Tess is,” she stated; we both gave Tess a glare. Sleeping like a log.

  After I packed up my stuff and put it in the box next to Penny’s stuff, Tess yawned and sat up with a stretch. “Good morning sunshine,” Penny told her.

  “Shut up!” Tess snapped. She was not a morning person. With clenched fists, she threw her arms up in the air, screamed, and then threw herself back down.

  Someone needs to tell her that it’s 12:00 in the afternoon, and it’s time to get her lazy butt up. But instead, we stayed silent and let her sleep another half hour. When she finally did get up, she packed up her stuff.

  At about 3:30 p.m. we stopped for a bathroom break. Rodger opened the back doors to let in some fresh air. Tess gasped. The last time we got a good look outside, we were still in Idaho. This was completely different. “Where are we?” I asked Rodger.

  “We are about two hours away from our destination,” he replied.

  When Carson came to switch with Rodger, he looked at us. He stared at Tess for a long time. I heard Tess mumbling to herself, “I wish The Doctorcould come and take me away.”

  Carsonsmiled. “Well sweetie, you’re out of luck,” he laughed.

  Tess is easily set off. She yelled “SHUT UP!” and this time small flames, like a candle’s flame, shot out of her hands and at his face
. Whoa! Carson, who just barely dodged Tess’s fire by inches, slammed the doors shut.

  Tess threw herself down and pounded the floor as hard as she could. Believe it or not, after that, her hand set ablaze, as did her other hand. Carson peeked through the window and yelled, “Luckily Monachi’sonly have three powers.”

  Tess thought “Three powers?” and looked at her hands. “Crap, why didn’t I ever do this to my homework?” she asked herself.

  Penny laughed.

  Tess blew her fists out.

  When we set on our way again, I started getting nervous. What would happen to us? Dissection? Execution? Tests?

  I began to bite my nails. It was a habit I never grew out of. I usually have a rubber band on my wrist to snap every time I do it.

  The van came to a sudden stop. “Welcome to hell,” Tess muttered to herself. I looked outside to find a sign that actually said that. Well, it said ‘welcome,’ but someone spray painted the other part.

  The back doors swung open and there was a bright light, like we were going to the afterlife. “C’mon then, get out!” yelled Carson. We all sat still, refusing his command. He grabbed Penny’s hair, “Move it along!”

  Well that pissed me off. I hoped something would happen to Carson that could kill him, or at least maim him. I raised a hand;

  Come on power, I need you now! COME ON POWER, I NEED YOU! Carson chuckled, which made me even more pissed off. All of a sudden, a ball of water the size of a soccer ball formed in front of my hand, and shot over at Carson. He fell and started choking. Tess laughed, and clapped; “Bravo Maddy! Best trick of all.”

  Penny started clapping too. She kicked Carson, who was still choking. “Clap, you buffoon!”

  He started clapping.

  Seconds later, Rodger came rushing in and started giving CPR to Carson. After he was done, he grabbed Penny’s arm, and pulled Tess out of the van by her hair. Not wise. Tess’s hair started on fire and burned his hand. Tess shook her head and the fire went out. He grabbed her by the arm so she couldn’t try anything ‘funny’ on him.