by Debbie Kump
“Are you okay?” I called, uncertain of how to help. Yet she showed no signs of pain, her face perfectly at ease. Her waves of hair flowed into the ropy lava that encircled her spot. She took a step toward me, the surface of lava instantly cooling to solid black rock when it contacted her sole.
“Who are you?” I dared to ask. My jaw crept toward the ground. I marveled at her astonishing ability to congeal a material as hot as lava.
Without a verbal reply, she took another step closer, the ground once again solidifying beneath her feet. Then she looked upward, extending one arm in a graceful sweep across the heavens, every movement of her body aligning with perfect choreography to a silent song. I followed the arc of her hand, stunned by the remarkable brilliance of the velvety night dotted in pinpricks of light. The sky outside Micah’s house never looked so clear, forever obscured in the polluted golden glow of nearby city lights.
The woman clapped once to command me to her attention, I assumed. Only her face showed little sign of irritation. Her clap playing an integral role in the dance, she fanned her arms away from her body. Her long, fluid fingers presented the land that hardened beneath her feet with every step she took closer to my perch.
I don’t get it. Why am I here? And where am I, for that matter? I spun my head, looking for some sort of visual clue, but met only an enveloping darkness, dimly lit by the sliver of a moon and punctuated by starlight and the molten lava that surrounded this mysterious woman. Off in the distance, I detected the crash of breaking ocean waves against a rocky shore. The warm breeze carried no recognizable scents beyond the briny smell of the sea, making me believe no plant or animal life currently existed in her newly created land.
Suddenly, I felt very confused. How did I leave the hospital without the help of fire? Surely this pervasive blackness couldn’t be all that remained for my soul after I passed from the earthly world. It seemed drastically different from the stories I’d heard of a promising afterlife. What about the fields of wildflowers that extended toward the horizon? The familiar faces of loved ones who departed before me? Or the choirs of angels that broke forth in jubilant song?
Unless I ended up below, doomed to everlasting punishment. I swallowed hard, terrified that my action of destroying Hydros had now condemned me to eternal damnation in the fiery recesses of Hell. An unsettling fear consumed me and I stared into the darkness, seeking answers.
The woman clapped again, snapping me from my dread. Her body swayed rhythmically, repeating her sweep of the heavens before presenting the ground by her feet. I watched blankly, as clueless as the first time. “Why the guessing game?” I asked. “Can’t you just tell me straight out? You said something before. I know that was your voice.”
The magnificent woman stood tall until she towered above me, her face flushed red. Directing her hand toward a section of rock behind her, she split the ground and sent a pillar of lava shooting high into the night sky. Globs of orange molten rock hurled through the air, momentarily suspended aloft before plummeting back to earth. I stumbled backward upon the refuge of my rocky outcrop, startled by her unpredicted fury.
With a pathetic glance at my cowering form, she turned on her heels, prepared to leave me alone in this chaotic world.
“No. Wait. You can’t go yet,” I begged. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me!” Mustering new resolve, I reached out to her, frantically grabbing at her wrist to halt her retreat. As she wheeled her head around, her dark eyes flashed like glowing coals against the black of night. In an instant, her skin beneath my palm grew painfully hot, like molten magma flowed just below its surface. I released my grip with an alarmed yelp, blowing on my hand in a futile effort to soothe the burn.
Was this how I looked when I revealed my powers to Sully in his sister’s car? No wonder he seemed so frightened as we fled Pacifica. I dropped my head, my eyes brimming with tears. I chastised myself for slighting someone who had once cared for me, regardless of the cost.
By the time I composed myself enough to look up again, her form had grown faint in the distance, leaving nothing in her wake but a dwindling spire of lava and a trail of cooled rock that parted the molten sea.
With a sigh of frustration, I sat alone in the blackness when her sharp voice rang clear in my ear—You’re still needed.
“For what?” I hollered, squinting into the dark night, searching for any trace of her presence. Aside from the distant roll of waves against the rocky shore and the dying eruption, I received no further reply. Not that it mattered. Deep inside, I knew she spoke the truth.
The blackness faded and I heard a different voice declare, “She’s coming to.” I flitted my eyelids, confused by the brilliance and the flurry of activity that surrounded my bedside. A cluster of nurses clad in white medical scrubs hastily monitored my vitals and injected fluids through a tube into the sunken vein of my arm. Surprisingly, I spotted Sully waiting just beyond the bustling nursing staff, the previous hurt and grief now missing from his face. He stuffed his hands deep into his pockets, a crooked smile spreading across his lips. I looked for Micah, but realized at that precise moment the reason for his absence—Cam must be okay. Better yet, I could tell in the way Sully looked at me that he forgave me for everything I put him through. He seemed genuinely glad to see me…alive.
“Welcome back,” Sully said over the clamor of nurses. His pale blue eyes warmed while his infectious grin widened.
Despite the uncertainty of the hellish realm within my dreamworld, suddenly I couldn’t keep myself from smiling in return.
END OF BOOK ONE OF THE ELEMENTALS TRILOGY
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After graduating from Cornell University with degrees in Biology and Education, Debbie Kump taught middle and high school science in Maui, Seattle, and the Twin Cities and worked as a marine naturalist aboard a whale watch and snorkel cruise. Debbie lives in Minnesota with her husband, two sons, and three Siberian huskies. She especially enjoys writing early each morning; teaching; coaching youth soccer, hockey, lacrosse, and baseball; and dogsledding her kids to school.
For more information, please visit her website: http://sites.google.com/site/debbiekumpbooks/
