Divided

by Alycia Linwood

  I was floating in the air, unable to reach the ground. My throat felt like I had swallowed sandpaper. Two shadows appeared in the corner of my eye, but I couldn't turn my head to see better. Cold breeze raised goose bumps on my skin, and I tried to warm myself up with my element, but I couldn't feel it at all. What the hell? Panic surged through me as I felt for my other elements, but there was only unusual emptiness.

  "Looking for something?" I heard someone's voice just as my body plummeted to the ground. I could only brace myself for the impact and try to fight the uneasy feeling of falling in my stomach. But strangely enough, I didn't feel any pain when my back hit the grass. I didn't feel anything at all. Someone stood above me, but his face was in the dark. As I tried to get up, I realized I still couldn't move. My limbs seemed dead and frozen.

  "Help me, please," I said, but my voice came out as barely a whisper.

  "No one will help you here, Ria." The voice that said it could only belong to one man, and that man was dead. I knew it because I'd killed him. Parker's face appeared in the light, his grin wide, revealing perfect white teeth. He squatted next to me, reaching out for my hair. As he did so, blood started seeping from a hole in his head, dripping down on me. I screamed, and this time my voice seemed to work just fine until Parker's big hand covered my mouth.

  "Shh, love," he said. "You don't want to wake the dead." He drew his hand back, caressing my hair while blood trickled down his fingers.

  "You're dead," I said. "I killed you. I know I did."

  "That's right. You killed me, and now you feel guilty." He trailed his hands down my shirt, sliding it up to expose my stomach. "I can do to you whatever I want."

  "No." I gritted my teeth, willing my body to move, but nothing happened. His blood soaked through my shirt as he straddled me. This had to be a dream. It just had to be. I forced myself to blink, trying to shake my whole body, to do something that would wake me up. Parker's mouth closed over mine, and I could swear I tasted blood.

  I found myself in my bed in the dark room, which I recognized as my new room in the building completely owned by Lily's team. Parker was gone, along with the pool of blood. Letting out a sigh of relief, I sat up, surprised that the window was open. Who was stupid enough to open the window in the middle of winter? Thankfully, the cold hadn't reached me at all. I slipped into my shoes and padded to the bathroom. The light was dimmer than usual, which meant that I should probably have to change the bulb soon.

  As I let the water run and splashed some of it on my face, I noticed a shadow in the mirror. Chills spread through my body, and I didn't want to look at the mirror again. I'd just had a creepy dream and my mind was playing tricks on me. Why would there be a monster in my bathroom? That would be so lame. Why extremely hot, half-naked guys couldn't appear out of nowhere instead of ghosts?

  Something fell to the ground with a loud thud, and I turned off the water and went back to my room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It must have been the wind coming from outside. Maybe I should shut the damn window... The window was closed now. Oh, well. Was the wind really that strong to open and shut the windows when it pleased? When I had time, I'd try using air to close windows. It would definitely be a great trick for times when getting out of the bed seemed impossible.

  Something black fluttered toward me out of nowhere, falling on my open palm. It was charred piece of clothing, and it was hot to the touch. As I lifted my head, I saw a shadow standing in the corner of the room. I yelped, jumping back. "Adrian?"

  "Where is your fire now, bitch?" A man stepped out of the shadows, half of his face burnt and distorted. His clothes were full of holes, his skin melting around it. Shit! I was in another dream. I'd never woken up! I recognized the man as one of the guards I'd killed while trying to save Adrian and myself. The other guard materialized a couple of inches from me, his body still on fire. I backed away, unsure what to do. My elements weren't working again.

  "You killed for him," the guard with burnt face said. "You took innocent lives to save him!" His voice boomed through the room like thunder.

  "You would have killed both of us!" I yelled back. "You weren't innocent."

  "We were only defending your father from the enemy," he replied. I covered my face with my hands, closing my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I was back in bed, but this time it was daylight. My eyelids felt heavy, and my eyes were closing again. No! I was sucked into the dream again, haze covering my vision. Two women floated above me, their faces pale and ghostly.

  "Give us back our elements," they said in unison. "You didn't have any right to take them. They belong to us, not to you."

  "It wasn't my fault," I said, trying to block out their voices out of my mind. "I didn't want your elements!"

  "Yes, it is your fault!" They rushed down on me, and I did the first thing that came to my mind. The ghosts screamed as water sprayed them, dispersing them into white, cloudy pieces. Water flowed out of my body, soaking my clothes, my hair and the bed. I better not have peed myself in my sleep or something.

  Blinking hard, I opened my eyes, my head finally clear.

  "Ria!" Adrian yelled from somewhere behind my back.

  "She's awake," an unknown voice said.

  "Let go of me!" Adrian's angry voice filled the room.

  "No," Lily said. "Make one step and I'll break your arm."

  Ok, what the fuck was going on? With a groan, I pushed myself up and realized I was completely soaked. My white T-shirt was see-through at this point, so I pulled my wet covers up. Everything around me was dripping and heavy with water. I looked down. Well, at least I hadn't peed myself. That was something. "It's ok. I had a bad dream." Or a couple of them.

  A gray-haired man in a white coat stood next to my bed, a pen and a pad in his hands. He must be a doctor of some kind. Lily held Adrian in what looked like a deadly grip even though she was much smaller than him. But somehow she had one of his arms twisted behind his back. "Let go of him. Now!" I said, upset that she dared to touch Adrian like that. What was wrong with her?

  "Only if he promises he won't touch you," Lily said. "Adrian?"

  "Alright!" he said, frustrated, and she released him. He made a couple of steps toward me, then stopped, his gray-blue eyes full of concern and fear. "How are you feeling?"

  "I'm fine now." I tucked a wet strand of my hair behind my ear. "Could you all get out so I can change?"

  "Ria, it wasn't just a dream you had," Lily said cautiously, watching me as if I were a child.

  "What?" I glared at her. "Are you trying to tell me that monsters are real? Do dead come back to the world of living?"

  "No, but you lost control of your element," Lily said, her eyes full of sadness and pity. "And if we add to that how you felt these days, the dizziness, jolts of energy..."

  "Now I think that I should have never told you that," I said, crossing my arms in front of me. "I dreamed I was using my element and I accidentally used in the real life. What's weird in that? In most of my dream I couldn't use my elements at all, so all that frustration built and built until I exploded."

  "That is quite possible," the doctor said, a small smile on his face. "But we need to consider other options. Your symptoms look a lot like consequences of spending too much time touching another magic disease carrier."

  "Oh, come on! I'm more away from Adrian than with him." Sometimes I hated Lily's weird logic. She was way too paranoid about touching other carriers, and she was projecting her fear on the doctor too.

  "Lily, I'm sure your people spent more time touching than we did," Adrian said. "The only difference is that you don't know about it."

  "No, that's not true." Lily licked her lips, trying to decide what to say next. "Adrian, listen, Ria went to you too many times when she needed to get back in control. You two even exchanged elements a couple of times. Being together and touching doesn't weaken carriers so much when they know how to control themselves, but in your case..."

  "So what if I helped her get back in control? That's wh
at touching other carriers does! It blocks out other elements." Adrian gritted his teeth. "Ria has been under a lot of stress lately. It's normal that her control slips from time to time."

  "Did your control slip?" Lily asked, her voice more intense. "Did you need someone to hold your hand when you felt like you were going to lose it?"

  Adrian chewed on his lip, a couple of unidentifiable emotions flitting across his face. "There wasn't anyone around to hold my hand!"

  "Exactly!" A triumphant smile appeared on Lily's face. "That's why you can control yourself. That's why you don't need to run to someone when elements become too much."

  "They never become too much. Not after..." Adrian closed his eyes for a moment.

  "Not after your training in the lab," Lily finished for him. "Ria never had any of that. Soon she won't be able to make a step without you. I know this because I saw it happen once."

  "I have three elements," I said, feeling excluded from the conversation. "I'm more likely to lose control. It's not because Adrian and I are close. A couple of months ago I had a very bad reaction when we were apart for days and that was horrible, but now nothing like that happened! Sure, I feel a bit weak, but at least I'm not hallucinating or having a breakdown. And I certainly didn't attack anyone. I've actually learned something about control while I was on my own."

  "You're both deluding yourself. The only reason Ria isn't falling apart right now is because she still has a bit of self-control, but that will go away soon. It's the calm before the storm. You know how bad it can get." Lily shook her head in disapproval. "She needs to learn how to truly control herself on her own before it's too late. No more easy help."

  "So what do you suggest?" Adrian spat out, pinning Lily with his cold glare. "Do you want to send her to some lab? How can she do that if she has to be the president and go to the university?"

  "That's the reason why I want you two to stay away from each other," Lily said calmly. "We can't send Ria to a lab, but she should stop touching magic disease carriers while she's still more or less fine. Her control will improve over time, but only if she doesn't have any physical contact with another carrier."

  "For how long?" I was too numb to feel anything, but deep inside I knew that Lily was right. Adrian and I both knew being with another carrier weakened us because Adrian's father had written that in his journal, but later we found out that only touching was a problem. Could I survive if I didn't touch another carrier? It seemed impossible, but the truth was that I always easily solved my crises by touching Adrian and that had to stop. I'd always been afraid I'd become too dependent on him.

  "As long as it takes." Lily looked down at her shoes like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

  "Can we touch each other at all? Maybe only for five minutes each day?" Adrian asked tentatively.

  "No. Not even a little and not even for a second," Lily said. "If you touch her, she'll most likely break like an addict who got a fix after a long time."

  "What if someone runs into me on the street and he's a carrier?" I wasn't about to let that go just like that. Lily could be wrong and our lives would be ruined because of her misjudgment.

  "You should avoid all carriers, but if you touch other carriers for a short time, they won't have the same effect on you as Adrian has. You got accustomed to his presence. Others wouldn't provoke the same reaction." Lily finally met my eyes. "We can always send someone different with you to help you if you truly need it, but we'll do everything to avoid such incidents."

  "That's ridiculous. You can't force me to stop being with Adrian." It was too soon. Adrian and I hadn't been together long enough to weaken me so much... or had we? "Shouldn't Adrian feel the symptoms too?"

  "He's had a lot of practice, haven't you, Adrian?" Lily said, her eyes flickering from me to Adrian, whose only reaction was to avoid her gaze. "When he starts to feel it, you'll be long gone, Ria."

  "Great. So now I'm dying or what?" I dug my nails into my sheets, feeling like I could rip them apart. "If I am dying, then it will be because I'm sitting here wet in a cold room!"

  Lily seemed to snap back to reality, blinking. "You should get changed."

  "Yeah, I should." I glared at her until she reached the door. The doctor slipped outside.

  "Don't touch each other!" she warned before she closed the door behind her.

  I sighed in relief. "Can you believe that shit?"

  "We should be careful. This isn't a game." Adrian spread his arms to indicate the whole room was dripping wet. "You need to learn how to control yourself. We've been postponing it for too long."

  "I know." I slumped back on the bed, splashing more water around me. Who could have known my element was that strong? It certainly didn't work that good when I tried to consciously use it. Or maybe I was blocking myself from using it in its full force because I knew the element wasn't truly mine? "So what do we do now?"

  "We'll figure out something." Adrian smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "The scientists have made a lot of progress. Maybe they can find a cure for the disease too."

  "Maybe." I reached out for him and he took my hand. "Don't tell Lily about this."

  "I'm not that crazy," he said, intertwining his fingers with mine.

  "We don't have to touch to be together, right?" I tried to lighten the mood, but that seemed like an impossible task.

  "No, we don't." Adrian sat down on the bed, not even a bit bothered that it was wet. He bent his head, his lips only inches away from mine. I could see a thousand of emotions swirling in his gray-blue eyes as I placed my other hand on his cheek. He leaned into my touch, as if he wanted to savor every moment. Closing my eyes, I covered the distance that separated us, parting his lips with my tongue. The hot kiss sent shivers down my spine, making me forget the damp bed, the uncertain future and every single problem I had.

  Adrian's hand slid into my wet hair, and something wet glided down my cheek. I wasn't sure if it was a tear or a wet strand of my hair. We were both breathless when Adrian let go of me and got up from the bed, licking his lips. "I'll leave you to change."

  "See you later," I said, and he flashed me a smile before closing the door behind him. A lump formed in my throat, tears threatening to spill out. I pushed the tears back, tracing my finger across my lips as if I could still feel Adrian's kiss. Taking a deep breath, I threw the heavy covers off of me and got up from the bed, my bare feet splashing in the puddle on my carpet. God, what had they made the stupid carpet of if it pooled water instead of absorbing it?

  I slipped off my T-shirt and looked around the room. Almost everything around the bed was soaked. I contemplated using my element to dry some things, but at this point I wasn't sure whether I could control my fire. The last thing I needed is to burn the room completely. Lily would want to shoot me if I ruined one of her best rooms.

  I rummaged through my closet, which had survived the flood, and searched for dry clothes. When I found a decent dark blue sweater and gray jeans, I was finally warm again. It would take a while to chase the chill completely away from my skin, but at least I was comfortable. A black box in the closet caught my eye, and I pulled it out from under a heap of clothes.

  A smile broke out on my lips when I opened the box and found the crystal necklace Adrian had given me. I put it around my neck, glad that I had something that would connect me with Adrian even if he couldn't touch me. I was surprised it had survived all of our moving around and changing apartments. The necklace seemed indestructible. Oh, yeah. Indestructible. I kind of like that word. Adrian and I were indestructible. Not even this little kick in the road could stop us. We'd figure out the stupid disease thing somehow.

  I'd learn how to control myself and my disease. Maybe it seemed difficult because I had to be the president, go to university and deal with the disease, but I felt strangely optimistic. I hoped the government would be too occupied with calming the public, or that they'd simply accept that it was the time to let the world know the truth about carriers because Lily and
I had big plans to change the education system a bit and get rid of a couple of boring rules. Someone could always accuse me of having the disease, but how they'd prove their claim was anyone's guess. For now, I was still the president of the Element Preservers.

  Even though it was too early to tell how normal people would react, I hoped they'd decide to plan what element their children would have because they couldn't be sure who was a carrier and who wasn't, so eradicating the disease by genetic manipulation should be everyone's priority. Besides, I'd ask Lily and Paula to help me come up with a way to promote using elements among young people. Maybe I'd finally learn how to do something awesome with my elements like I had always dreamed.

  I slipped on my favorite black high heels and strode out of the room. Come at me, world! I'm ready.

  ###

  Thank you for reading!

  The next book in Element Preservers series will be a novella told from Adrian's point of view. Check out my website for more info!

  If you like to read young adult books about demons and angels with a bit of romance, you can check out my book, Human. It follows a 17-year-old girl who tries to figure out who she is, and who would do anything for her loved ones. The book doesn't have any mature content.

  More info: alycialinwood.weebly.com

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter 01

  Chapter 02

  Chapter 03

  Chapter 04

  Chapter 05

  Chapter 06

  Chapter 07

  Chapter 08

  Chapter 09

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26