Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire

by Jade Sánchez

  Chapter Seventeen Pitch Black

  I woke up in the morning to find Tess already awake. That shocked me. Tess was looking at the sky even though the stars were no longer visible. “Do you ever feel like you can’t get anything right?” she asked me, not even checking to see if I was awake.

  “Yes, all the time. But I eventually feel better as soon as I get something right.”

  Tess looked at me. “Thanks, again.”

  We looked down. We were getting closer to the ground; landing. Tess and I hugged each other. We had no idea what was going to happen next. All we knew is that we were in for some deep trouble.

  Once we landed, it seemed like a ton of random people came to check out what was going on. I didn’t blame them, we were a freak show. Two twelve-year-olds in a net, tied to a helicopter; the same two girls described on the radio. Who wouldn’t want to see that?

  The police flashed their badges, and everyone left. Tess looked at one of the officer’s dead in the eye, like they were having a staring contest or something. “Boo!” she said and they backed away. It was awesome.

  Tess was taken out first, straight into a box where they yelled “Get in the uniform, and don’t even try anything funny, its magic-proof.” 15 minutes later Tess came out of the box with the uniform on. It looked odd on her.

  I was next to go into the changing box. They pushed me in and yelled the same thing they did to Tess.

  I looked on the hook where the uniform was. It looked like it was going to be difficult to get on.

  When I finally did get it on after 15 minutes I came out of the box.

  Luckily for them, these uniforms were magic-proof or Tess would’ve set them on fire by now.

  They grabbed us by our arms and lifted us up onto a moving platform, and off we went. Where were we going now?

  When we finally reached our destination, it looked scary; like the ultimate prison. It was made of pure stone on the outside. When we got to the entrance it took ten minutes to get in because there were so many locks.

  It was pretty clean and white on the inside. I wanted to take some red paint and splash it all over. When we got to the front desk the lady didn’t even look up, but we were clearly visible. We were wearing pitch black in an all-white facility.

  She said, “Their room is ready, the one at the end of the hall.” The officers nodded. They dragged us; I’m not kidding they literally had to drag Tess across the floor, to our room.

  When we got to the room, they threw us in. “Have fun! This is your room while we rebuild the burned lab,” they said; glaring at Tess. They slammed the door shut.

  I looked around. It was like a cheap motel room. It had a bunk bed on one side of the room. It was made of wood, and had red pillows and blankets, which stood out from all the white.

  I looked into the bathroom. In a way, it was nice. It had a toilet, toilet paper and a shower, and that’s it. No towels, or soap or shampoo.

  Tess looked at me and asked, “So who gets the top bunk?”

  I raised my hand. “Me, I want the top!” I climbed the ladder and laid down on the bed.

  Tess sat on the bottom bed. “We were so close, and we lost it. Lost it all,” she sighed.

  I climbed down from the top and sat next to her. I put my arm around her. “We still have each other right?”

  “Yeah, we do.”

  “Then what else matters? We’re both still alive, and we’re still together.”

  Tess smiled, and laughed.

  “What’s so funny all of a sudden?” I asked.

  “I’m just happy we don’t have to do the living museum research.”

  I laughed, “Me too.”

  When I climbed back onto the top bunk, we both stared up at the celling. “What do you think was going through everyone’s mind when my hair started on fire?” Tess asked me.

  “Probably; ‘OH MY GOSH WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING TO TESS’S HAIR? IS IT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?’ Or something weird like that,” I replied.

  Tess laughed “Yeah, probably,” and then quickly sat up.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  Tess pulled on my foot. “Get down here. I want you to try something!”

  I jumped down.

  She took me by the arm and dragged me to the bathroom. I was so confused on what she was doing. She took us over to the sink, covered up the drain and filled the sink up with water. Then she looked at me and said, “Do something.”

  Puzzled, I asked, “What do you mean?”

  Tess let out a big sigh and said, Remember when you made that water levitate in the van, when Carson brought us drinks? Do that now!”

  “Tess, you brilliant idiot, these suits are magic proof.”

  “Yeah, but you levitated water using your mind, not your hands or your body.”

  I shrugged, thinking that it wasn’t the brightest idea, but it was an idea nonetheless.

  I looked at the sink and concentrated.

  Come on water, lift!

  COME ON WATER, LIFT!

  Then all of a sudden the water started shaking, and then splashing, and then it started twirling up from the sink. I was so surprised and excited that I lost focus and the water went back into the sink.

  Tess went up and hugged me. “Maddy, you are awesome!” she cried.

  “Yep, I am!” I said, agreeing with her.

  Tess wasn’t finished.

  “You see, I knew you could do it! You didn’t think you could, but I proved you wrong! Ha!”

  All of a sudden, Tess caught sight of something that stopped her celebration.

  Chapter Eighteen A Little Creepy

  She pointed towards the corner of the ceiling opposite of the shower where there appeared to be a security camera pointing right as us, moving back and forth. How did we miss that before now? Especially the blinking red light!

  Not only did we just figure out that they must have seen me use a power, but now we know to get dressed and undressed in the shower and away from the security camera’s view; because that’s a just little creepy.

  I mean, who puts a security camera in a bathroom unless you’re a pervert?

  We went into the bedroom and checked it out for more cameras. None. That’s a good strategy: put a camera in the bathroom where nothing really exciting happens, unless you’re a pervert, and not put one in a place where you can make plans and practice your powers.

  We bolted out of the bathroom. “Who puts a camera in a bathroom? How does that make any sense?” Tess asked. It was a rhetorical question.

  “I don’t know!” I replied.

  I sat down on Tess’s bed. This sucked, a lot. I mean, no one deserves treatment like this, especially people who are innocent.

  I heard Tess’s stomach roar.

  I forgot that we hadn’t eaten since Jason fed us. He was a nice guy. He would bail us out, if he was here. But he was in Idaho.

  I got up off the bed and tried something very childish and yet wishful. I tapped my shoes together once, and said;

  “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no…”

  Then something strange happened. Something very strange happened.

  Chapter Nineteen Frozen

  Tess started to rise.

  I didn’t notice it at first, until she yelled “Maddy! Are you doing this?” I turned to her and she was floating, five feet up in the air! “I said there’s no place like home not there’s nothing like Tess floating!”

  “Well,turn it off!” “Ok, just stop yelling.” I tapped my shoes together one time, and she fell to the ground.

  “You couldn’t have done that a little lighter?”

  “Sorry.”

  Tess got up, “Well that was weird. I wonder what I can do.” She tapped her shoes once again; and suddenly, as I started to walk towards her, I froze.

  I mean instantly, and mid-walk. I just froze.

  I couldn’t move.

  I could see and hear, but I couldn’t move, not even my mouth.


  Tess just stood there.

  Then she tapped her shoes again and I resumed.

  That was weird, but I wanted to try something else. “Hey Tess, could you do that when I jump up, I want to see if I would stop in midair. But this time tap your shoes together two times.

  “Sure, why not?” Tess tapped her shoes together once…and then…as she tapped her shoes the second time, I jumped…and I froze - in mid-air.

  Tess tapped her shoes again and I fell to the ground. It was very cool, what we could do with our feet.

  “This magic and stuff, it’s all a bit Harry Potter don’t you think?” Tess said.

  “Yep, you can put it like that if it’s not really happening, but it is happening. To us,” I replied.

  All of a sudden the door knob turned.

  We were both frightened of what might happen next.

  Chapter Twenty Maze of Flames

  Someone came booming in and grabbed Tess by the arm and yelled, “You, the chief wants to see you. A nd you too!” He grabbed my arm and dragged us out of the room and into… a dog cage? Tess got flung into one of the cages. The man quickly locked it with a key. I got thrown into another one, and then it too was quickly locked.

  He carried us into another room that had about ten scientists in it. He put the cage on the table and said, “Let the tests begin!”

  One of the scientists said, “Your magic- proof suits will be disabled. You will have to bust out of the cage using your powers. We provided a bucket of water for you Maddy.”

  All of a sudden our suits got a little less tight. Tess started her hands on fire and started melting the lock. I lifted the water from the bucket. If I could turn it into a key, I could unlock the lock.

  I tried to give the water some shape, and it began to form a rectangle. Then it began to look like a key. I made it go into the lock, and it clicked. I opened the door at about the same time Tess managed to get out of her cage. Then, Tess un-zipped her suit. She had clothes on underneath, as did I. I too, un-zipped my suit and got out of it.

  No wonder Tess etched “Put it over your clothes,” in the box when we were putting the suits on.

  Once we got out our suits the scientists started backing up. “Be scared of us,” Tess said. She had a plan, like she always did. She shot flames at the wall. She was about to set this whole facility on fire.

  As she ran towards the door, I followed right behind.

  She extended her arms out, and with her hands clasped together she formed a fireball extending out past her fists and hurled it at the door, melting the lock. She kicked the door open and we ran out of the room.

  We looked around; we honestly had no idea what we were doing. “This way!” Tess pointed. We ran that way and ran into a dead end.

  Ok, so we had no idea where to go and how to get out, and to make matters worse the building was burning. It wasn’t too bad now, but pretty soon we’d be in a maze of flames.

  It’s really hard to see the glass as half full right now. Right now it’s halfway to its destination, which could be full or empty.

  Tess looked around, muttering “What would the Doctor do?” Well Tess, it would be nice if the Tardis could come pick us up right now.

  Tess pulled out her imaginary sonic screwdriver; she even started humming, because it’s sonic, and started waving her hand in different hallway directions. All of a sudden, I did hear a humming sound. It wasn’t coming from Tess. I knew that much.

  “It’s a sign. T i m e to go this way!” she said, dashing down the hall towards the humming sound.

  As we were running down the corridor, we turned around and noticed that the fire had now filled the hallway behind us and seemed as though it was headed for us, with no other intention except to burn us dead.

  We turned around and continued running from the fire, and that’s not easy to out-run. Suddenly, Tess tripped over her feet, and rolled at least a few times, and crash landed right into a garbage can. The garbage can then tipped over, spilling all over the hallway, just far enough to catch the contents on fire behind us. I grabbed Tess by the arm, picked her up, and we continued running as fast as we could away from the fire. And from everyone else.

  When we got to the end of the hallway we were at the front door. We found out the humming was a very soft alarm.

  Tess dashed out the doors and jumped onto the concrete. I walked out the doors as she lay on the ground. “What was that for?” I asked.

  “It’s what The Doctor would’ve done,” she answered, getting up.

  We were finally free…for now.

  Side Stories VI

  The Doctor A long time ago Tess went to the school councelor, because she said that ‘the Doctor’ came to her.

  It’s true - I swear she said it. I believed her. I mean c’mon, wouldn’t that be cool if it did happen?

  But to this day she still swears that he came and that he could come back at any moment.

  I asked her what happened, and why he came by; because he doesn’t ever just drop by to say hi.

  She said that she was in her room reading in silence. Suddenly, she heard a sound. She described it as the sound of the universe, like we all know what that sounds like, right? She looked up and saw a blue police phone box in the middle of the room.

  She got up from her bed and went over to the box, and at the moment the doors swung open. Out he came! He was alone.

  “Hello, I’m The Doctor,” he said.

  “I’m Tess, what are you doing here?” she asked. She knew who he was but she was trying not to be rude.

  “I don’t know. I was in my box and it started going crazy like something else was driving it. Then I ended up here.”

  He went up Tess, face to face, and said “Who are you really?”

  Tess backed up a step.

  He went inside the T ardis (the phone box), and nudged her to come in.

  She went in, and acted surprised on how much bigger the inside seemed. “You can fit another room inside of my room?” she said.

  He nodded, went over to a compartment, punched in a code, opened up a latch, and grabbed some kind of futuristic looking scanner out. He then scanned Tess’s body about ten times over with it; all the while he was saying, “Nothing can override my controls, nothing. But you somehow did, and that’s impossible. Your just a kid, plus it takes something scary strong and scary big, yet I ended up in your room.”

  He put the scanner onto some other device, messed with a few controls, and flipped some switches. Lights started flashing, and as it started making whistling noises, he exclaimed, “It says that you’re not human, but it won’t identify your species.”

  He looked at her and smiled. “Well you can go now; it’s nothing don’t mind if randomly, around you.”

  to worry about. Just a blue box appears

  Tess smiled back, “Thanks for everything!” She stepped out of the box, and went back into her room. And with the sound of the universe, the Tardis disappeared.

  After that episode, she was convinced th at she was a time lord. It makes me wonder. M aybe it really did happen. Maybe it didn’t. Sadly for Tess, she’s no time lord, but she is a Monachi.

  Anyway, I just wanted you to know.

  Chapter Twenty-One Nothing Left

  We looked around. We had no idea where to go, or what to do.

  Tess got up and shook her head. I looked at her cast; man did that thing protect her.

  I ran ahead a bit. How long have we been gone? It felt like about an hour or two, and it somehow looked different. The streets were bare, with no sign of life.

  Tess stood next to me and pondered. We were in a dead city. It looked like there was nothing left of it. There wasn’t even a car in sight.

  “What happened? How come no one is around?” I asked myself.

  Tess looked around.

  There were no signs of life anywhere.

  We went into a local shop. No one was there.

  “Did the whole population of Washington D.C. just vanis
h?” Tess asked. She took a map and said, “So we’re right here, and we need to get all the way over there.”

  “How long do you think it’ll take?” I asked her.

  “Three to four days.”

  “That long? We might as well just hi- jack a jet, or a car.”

  “That’s an idea!”

  I don’t think she was kidding.

  “You honestly think we can hi-jack?” I said in disbelief.

  “No, but I have a pretty weird idea. I have no idea if it will work, but we have to try.”

  “What’s your idea?” I asked, afraid of the answer. Tess is a good person, I’m being honest. She can just have crazy ideas sometimes.

  “Ok, so we rob a bank and catch a plane to Idaho,” Tess revealed.

  “No. do you have another idea?” I quickly responded.

  She then said, “We dress up as animals and…”

  “No. D o you have a normal idea that is legal?” I asked.

  “No. Only crazy ones that are illegal,” she answered.

  I turned away.

  What choice do we have; walk the whole way? Not to mention we still have a huge chance of being captured. But, let’s face it; they will never stop looking for us. We will always going to be running from the law.

  Will we ever catch a break?

  They are always going to capture us, and want to conduct tests. We can’t live life like this; running from everything.

  “Tess, I think we should just give up. They will never let it go. They will keep hunting us down, and finding running. We keep on us. There’s no point in running, but we aren’t getting anywhere,” I said to her.

  “Maddy, if there is anything I’ve learned these last few days is to never give up. Don’t give in to the enemy. If you cry, I’ll wipe all of your tears. When you scream, I’ll fight away all of your fears,” Tess said with a smile.

  All of a sudden, a huge, black, shadowy human-like figure suddenly appeared behind Tess.

  “Tess, b e h i n d you!” I screamed.

  It was too late.

  I t grabbed Tess from behind, turned her around and blew some kind of pinkish-white powder into her face that quickly knocked her out cold, leaving her limp in its arms.