Runaway

by Alycia Linwood

  "The firefighters have finally stopped the fire that burned five houses to the ground. It is not known how the fire started, but the experts say it was caused by magic. The police suspects there were two people involved because the fire couldn't have spread so much without the wind. And we're not talking about a small breeze, but something as strong as a mini-tornado. A witness says he saw an explosion of wind and fire, so the police is looking for a fire and wind user. The estimated damage is a few thousand dollars," the reporter said, standing next to a half-destroyed house. Oh God, what had I done?

  I ran my hands through my hair, wondering if someone had seen us nearby and could associate us with the fire. The person Michael had asked to call the firefighters could probably give his description to the police, but even if they managed to identify him somehow, they would know he hadn't started the fire.

  I found my new phone and texted Oliver to ask whether the Element Preservers Organization dealt with police investigations when elements were involved. The place of the fire wasn't even close to this house, but if someone had seen the car... No, I couldn't think like that. The police wasn't exactly like in the movies where every case got solved in a second and some security camera with awesome zoom caught everything.

  But the point was that my little accident with the elements had cost some people their house. Could I have avoided what had happened if I knew what was going on with me? Was I really losing it? Was there nothing I could do to stay in control of my elements? I got a headache just by thinking about it. Maybe I should be locked up in some lab far away from everyone. Oh wait, I already was far away from most of people.

  So in addition to figuring out how to reeducate the world about magic disease carriers, I had to make sure I wasn't dangerous when I got back to the civilization. Awesome! How exactly did you convince people you were harmless if you couldn't even guarantee their safety when they were around you? Yeah, I didn't know either. The key seemed to be figuring out what had happened between Adrian and me in the lab.

  "What's wrong?" Adrian squinted at me, covering his eyes with his arm.

  "I burned some people's houses to the ground yesterday."

  "You burned the whole planet." He sat up, a wicked grin on his face, and pulled me into his arms.

  "No, not last night. Remember the fire when my elements went crazy?" I sighed.

  "Oh, that."

  "Yeah, that." I pulled away, rolling onto my stomach and pushing myself up on my elbows so I could look at him. God, his hair was such a hot mess.

  "Did anyone get hurt?"

  "Nope."

  "Good." He looked in the direction of the balcony, suddenly alert. "Someone's coming."

  "What?" I said, startled. I couldn't feel any other elements except Paula's and Michael's.

  "It's moving and it's still far. Probably our delivery." He didn't look too concerned.

  "How can you do that? I can't feel anything and I'm supposed to be the one out of control here." Not that any stalking skills would help me if people decided to use those super awesome suits, but I'd prefer to know if someone unprotected was coming.

  "I told you that already. Practice."

  And lots of suffering, I assumed. "We need to talk to Paula about what happened at the lab... in a non-disturbing and embarrassing way."

  "Just tell her everything. She already knows we're horrible human beings. She'll understand." Adrian shrugged.

  I glared at him. "We can talk to her, but don't mention anything about how it started."

  "Gee, Ria, I'm not a scientist, but I think she needs all the information to get to the accurate conclusion," Adrian remarked.

  "Well, I don't think the part about us kissing had anything to do with our elements going crazy."

  "Really?" His eyebrows shot upward. "I think it's the most important part."

  "Why?"

  "Because I believe it's related." He stretched out his arms, momentarily distracting me.

  "So you haven't felt anything like that before?" I asked.

  "No." He got up and picked up a dark blue shirt from the closet. "I had a feeling you somehow gave your element to me and I used it, but something like that shouldn't be possible."

  "No one's ever talked about it, but we know the government is hiding things like that from us," I said thoughtfully. "What I felt when that woman's element came into my body was similar, but I didn't get to keep your element."

  "It's possible we swapped elements for a few moments. We don't know much about magic disease carriers who can keep elements, so maybe we tried to steal each other's element but couldn't because we both have the disease." He frowned and slipped on the shirt.

  "Has anyone ever heard of a magic disease carrier who stole another carrier's element?" I went to find a pair of pants and a shirt, wondering when I'd be going shopping. How was I supposed to survive without my favorite pastime?

  "Not really. I don't think anyone ever tried to do that. It's hard to even meet with another magic disease carrier on the street, let alone know whether he has an element when you can't feel it." He zipped up his jeans and ran his fingers through his hair. "Why risk getting caught for killing someone if you can't get anything out of it?"

  "Right, so even if it happened, we wouldn't know anything about it because magic disease carriers didn't announce it anywhere." I yawned. "Why don't we just try it again?"

  "How? If it were that simple, it'd be happening all the time, don't you think?" He arched his eyebrow at me. "Besides, we need this house. We can't destroy it... yet."

  "Then what do we do?" I didn't want to destroy the house either, but how would we ever find out anything without trying it again?

  "You need to get in control of your elements and learn how to use air."

  "But that can take forever!" I threw myself back on the bed, hugging the pillow.

  "Is that what it's about? You barely got here and you already want to leave?" His mouth twitched as if he were trying hard not to laugh.

  "No!" I said, annoyed that he knew me so well.

  "Then we're going to practice with our elements for a while." He sat on the bed, reaching for a strand of my hair and twirling it. Maybe I should get a haircut because my hair was getting ridiculously long. Soon I'd be sitting on it.

  "And how are we supposed to learn something that we should be learning for four years at university?" It was true that our dumb education system was slowing us down, but that didn't mean we could learn all of that in a matter of a few weeks.

  "We don't have to learn everything. Half of the things people learn at university are for showing off with their element at parties and conferences, not really useful."

  "Who's going to show us how to do it? We can't hire someone from town to come teach us. I mean, we could pay him not to tell anything or kill him, but that could get messy." I innocently batted my eyelashes.

  "I have no clue where you get these awesome murderous ideas." Adrian's eyes sparkled with amusement.

  "Me neither."

  A knock on the door startled us and I sat up, breaking the contact with Adrian and realizing it was Paula. "Come in."

  "Hey." She smiled timidly. "I wasn't sure if you guys were still sleeping. Didn't want to wake you up."

  "Do you need something?" Adrian asked, and I wanted to smack him for sounding so rude.

  "I wanted to talk to you." Paula was looking directly at me. "I can come later if Adrian doesn't want to let go of you."

  "Sure, why don't we go outside?" I decided to ignore her comment about Adrian. I'd never let him tell me what to do like he'd done with other girls.

  "Great." Paula glanced at Adrian for a second, pursing her lips together. I followed her out of the door, waving at Adrian, who didn't look particularly happy.

  "Food's coming," Paula said as we walked down the stairs. "I got a text from Oliver about it."

  "Adrian said he could feel someone coming, so I guess it's the delivery. Are we sure we can trust this person?" I hadn't even bothered asking
my brother because he'd have definitely said yes.

  "Yeah, I guess. The guy's supposed to leave everything on the porch. He won't see us in the back yard."

  And thank God for the pine trees that hid us from view. "So Oliver paid for everything?" I didn't know how much money my brother had or where he got it from considering he couldn't have a normal job.

  "Yeah." Paula stopped in front of a rose bush, examining it carefully. "Do you know that this house has a basement?"

  "No, I haven't really had time to check out everything." I noticed an apple tree and walked over to it. Its leaves were whitish and it had no fruits at all.

  "Well, I was curious and went downstairs." She came to stand next to me. "Can you guess what I found?"

  "Umm, a torture room?" I grinned.

  "No." Paula scowled. "A fully equipped lab."

  "Why would anyone have a lab here?" I frowned.

  "I don't know. I think it was set up exactly for researching magic disease." There was an excited undertone in Paula's voice. "We could definitely use it. I found some interesting books too, but I can't believe it someone left it here."

  "Ah, great. I wish I knew who owned the house, but I have a feeling it was built for magic disease carriers. Oliver must be in contact with others, so they let him use this house. Maybe they don't know he sent us here." I was angry with my brother for being so secretive. If there was a group of magic disease carriers working together and helping each other, it would be a big news for everyone who believed carriers stayed away from others like them.

  "Are we talking about a secret organization or something?" Paula's curly blond hair fluttered in the breeze. "Maybe the Magic Disease Carriers Association finally managed to unite more people."

  "I don't think it's them. Almost no one wants to have anything with public organizations. It wouldn't really help their cause because the government watches the MDCA pretty closely." Why hadn't my brother told me anything about this? He probably didn't trust me enough because I seemed to be too close with my parents. Besides, my parents still hadn't figured it out that I had the disease. Surely enough, they knew I was involved with Adrian, but they hadn't given up on me yet, solely because they thought Adrian was the one who had two elements.

  "Michael was right. It's a whole new world out there, and that could change everyone's lives." The look in Paula's eyes was distant, almost like she was imagining a different kind of world.

  "Yeah, but no one knows when all the secrets will be revealed. It could be in ten years, sixty years,..." I shrugged. "I only want to know what's happening to me."

  "Right." Paula smiled at me. "I wanted to ask you a few questions."

  "Shoot."

  "Can you feel both elements all the time?" She actually took out a small notebook with a pen out of the back pocket of her blue jeans and started scribbling something.

  "Yes." The presence of my elements was always somewhere at the back of my mind, but it felt so natural that I'd never been uncomfortable because of it.

  "How do you choose which one to use?"

  Now that was a good question. "Actually, I've only managed to use fire alone because it's familiar, but air... Air was usually in combination with another element. I used it in the lab to open the door and on that field... it sort of slipped out on its own after fire." I was embarrassed to admit my self-control wasn't good at all.

  "You should try using only air."

  "I know, but I'm afraid something terrible will happen." I wasn't confident that I could do it without triggering fire. "Who knows if the element acts like that because of its previous owner? Maybe it doesn't like me."

  Paula burst out laughing. "Elements are closely connected to us, but they don't have feelings on their own. You're just nervous about it and projecting it on the element."

  "Huh." At least I hadn't killed anyone to get it, but it still made me feel bad to use the element that wasn't completely mine. Of course, once I actually used it, even in the combination with fire, it felt great.

  "Why don't you try this?" Paula picked up a dried leaf and made it float in the air. "It's very simple and doesn't require much concentration and energy."

  "Ok, I will, but if I start scaring you, run as fast as you can and get Adrian." I would never forgive myself if she got hurt because of me. "Promise."

  "I promise," she said, placing her hand over her heart. "But you should be fine. It's only a small amount of magic."

  I took a deep breath, clearing out my thoughts. Reaching for air wasn't much different from reaching for fire, but the image of air wasn't as clear as the fireball I usually imagined when calling fire. "Wait, what do you picture in your head when you use air?" It had never occurred to me to ask before.

  "A crystal ball, actually," Paula said. "My professor once told us to picture something solid, but still air-like. That's why I chose a crystal ball because I can imagine air inside of it."

  "Let's see." I picked up another leaf from the ground and laid it flat on my palm. Concentrating as best as I could, I felt air stirring inside of me, wanting out. The leaf flew out of my hand, but instead of floating in the air, it ended up stuck against the trunk of that weird apple tree. Ugh.

  "It's fine. At least you didn't burn anything." Paula wrote something in her notebook and looked up at me. "It's not easy to learn how to use an element."

  "I know." I kicked at the leaves on the ground. They seemed to fly better when I did that than when I used air. "But I'm afraid I don't have time."

  "You're just not used to living far away from the city, but it will get better. Don't worry. There's Internet connection and we can always order some clothes online." Paula's eyes were bright with amusement. Oh, God, what was I? An open book?

  "We don't need new clothes if we don't have where to show it off!" I threw up my hands in frustration. "And I promise it's not only that. My parents might need me for any crazy campaign they're planning. They'll find me no matter where I go."

  "Ria, Ria, it will be fine." She came over to me and hugged me. "Now why don't you try it again?" She found another leaf and handed it to me. Alright, I could do this.

  Chapter 19

  "What are all these files?" I asked as Paula was showing me the computer in the lab in the basement. The room wasn't big, but it had a big metal table in the middle of it, various cabinets with microscopes, tubes, glasses, potions and who knows what. The computer in the corner was old and unusually loud when it was on. I squirmed in the uncomfortable wooden chair, leaning forward to wipe some dust off the screen so we could see better.

  "They are protected with some seriously awesome encryption," Paula said. "Michael tried to crack it, but with no success."

  "Any clue what it could be?" I asked, turning my head toward the door because I could sense Michael approaching. He leaned on the doorframe, watching Paula and me.

  "Nope, not at all," he said. "But it's got to be something important."

  "Should I ask my brother about it?" I sighed. "Or better, compile a list of questions I have for him?"

  "Does your boyfriend know anything about decrypting?" Michael said, spitting out the word boyfriend like it was the most disgusting thing in the world.

  "Who?" I said, looking back at the screen so he wouldn't see the expression on my face. I couldn't really say Adrian was my boyfriend because we had never spoken about it in all the mess. Did it even matter if we were officially dating? Probably not. "You mean Adrian? No, I don't think he knows anything about that." I had never seen him near a computer and there wasn't one in his room, not even a laptop.

  "Then you should contact your brother," Michael said.

  "I don't think he trusts me." I clicked on the file, checking out the properties, but it was all written in weird, incomprehensible letters.

  "I wonder why," Michael mumbled under his breath.

  "Did anyone see anything interesting on the news?" I opened the web browser, typing my father's name into the search box that appeared on the screen.

 
; "No, not really," Paula said. "But I haven't been paying too much attention."

  "I haven't watched TV at all," Michael said.

  "Good." I checked out The Element Daily, but didn't find anything related to my father except the old news about his promotion and his shocking goals. "No one is looking for Adrian and me."

  "Perfect! Then we can dedicate our time to other things." Paula beamed. "Can you describe what happened in the lab after you used your elements? And I want all the details."

  "Sure." I went on to tell her everything, but left out the part what Adrian and I had been doing right before the explosion.

  "Wait, are you telling me you exchanged your elements?" Paula gaped at me, and Michael came to stand next to her, looking intrigued.

  "Yeah."

  "But how is that even possible?" Paula breathed.

  "Are you sure that's what happened? You didn't imagine it or something?" Michael crossed his arms, furrowing his brow.

  "We're sure," Adrian said as he came into the room. "I had her element and she had mine. That's why everything went wrong and our elements sort of exploded around us."

  "But how?" Paula grabbed a book and flipped through it, searching for God knows what.

  "Our emotions were all over the place since we thought we were going to die," I said, hoping that Adrian would keep his mouth shut.

  "Is it possible that you had only a part of the element? That the disease somehow tried to take the other element and failed?" Paula dropped the book on the table.

  "No, it was as if we lost our own elements completely," Adrian said, sitting down on the table. "But it all went back to normal a moment later."

  "Maybe that's what happens when magic disease carrier tries to take an element, but doesn't get to kill the person, so the element goes back." Paula was going through her third or fourth book. "I think I saw something about that somewhere. You know, the reason why magic disease carriers have to kill and can't just suck in someone's element into themselves without that person dying."