by Jamie Gray
"Who are you?" she whispered curiously.
"Who-who am I?" he replied vexedly. "I'm someone who's going to be in big trouble." He took a few more steps back as he rubbed the back of his neck. He leaned his back against the wall across from her, holding the sides of his head as he slid down to sit on the concrete.
He wasn't watching her anymore. His gaze was glued to the ground. She wondered if he would still try to stop her if she ran at this point. It was like he had collapsed and shriveled into a ball of sadness right before her. She looked down at him, her back still pressed up against the wall. She couldn't help but feel bad. This guy had some serious problems. But the things he was saying, how he reacted to her. She'd be lying if she said a part of her didn't want to dive in deeper. She took a deep breath and cautiously slid up to her feet, watching him with a hawk's eye as she slowly stepped closer. After some time, she stood about a foot in front of him. He hadn't moved. Not even a twitch as she approached. Although, she couldn't decide if it was because he hadn't noticed, or if he just didn't care. None of what he was saying made any sense to her. It was like speaking to a crazy person, but there was something about this guy. Whether it was his mannerisms or the anguished look in his eye, there was something that reflected a version of herself that she had never seen before, and that she had yet to understand. She took in another deep breath, and extended her hand down to him. "I'm Lexi Danvers."
He slowly raised his chin and leaned his head back to meet her eyes. With an audible exhale, he replied, "Daymian Void." He sighed as he extended back his covered hand, protected by the black leather glove as his grip wrapped around hers.
She half expected to feel that same shock wave that she experienced on the sidewalk, but there was nothing. She yanked her arm back with all her strength, pulling him up to his feet in a swift motion.
She nodded to him, taking a deep breath in and out. "So we can touch if one of us is wearing gloves." It hadn't taken much for her to catch on. This was all very strange, but perhaps if she played along for a little while, it would all start to make some sense.
His stare was blank, drained of energy. "The shock only occurs if we touch bare skin."
"But why?"
He paused, squeezing his mouth shut as he looked to consider his words before answering. After a short moment, he let out a long sigh. "You know this isn't what I expected to be doing tonight."
"Me either," she shrugged.
"I never expected I'd meet someone like you."
She paused. "Someone like me."
"A Light Element."
"A what?" she coughed out, trying not to snicker at its ridiculousness.
"Right," he nodded bitterly. "You're different from anyone else in this world.”
"This world?"
"You have Elemental based abilities.”
"Elemental based abilities?"
"Is there an echo in here?" he snapped, sighing irritatedly.
She rested her hands on her hips, allowing herself to smile as she held her laugh at bay. "Well, it does make you sound like a serious crackpot," she replied bluntly, shrugging her shoulders at him.
He crossed his arms, unamused.
She sighed, readjusting her stance as she forced herself to listen.
He huffed and groaned quietly, appearing to have already grown to regret his decision to discuss this with her. "That pendant your parents gave you is part of a sacred ritual that is given to newborn babies to help them hone their Elemental power."
"So, I'm like a superhero?" she chirped smirkingly.
"What? No?" he grimaced, wildly shaking his head. "This was all done in another world called Arespea. Not on this pitiful excuse of a planet.” He spoke as if such words left a repulsive taste in his mouth.
"Alien then," she replied, her smile widening.
He groaned loudly, fisting his hands. "No! Not another planet. Another world. Dimension, so to say."
She couldn’t hold it in any longer, as she broke out in a loud jagged laugh. She couldn't stop herself. It was all too ridiculous to take seriously. "All right, that's enough," she coughed out, wiping the tears from her face as she tried to gain back control over her giggly laughter.
He looked at her like she was insane. "What?"
"I'm tired, man," she sighed, breathing heavily after her outburst. "Just give me back my necklace, and you can cut this little show you're doing right now," she chuckled out, still unable to take any of it seriously as she held out her palm to him.
"What show?" he asked, merely glancing down at her open hand. "I don't have your Docio pendant."
"Where is it?" she barked, her blood beginning to boil.
"It shattered when I touched it."
"What?"
"Well, I had to make sure it was real. It's a sacred item given to newborn babies that helps them learn to hone their abilities.” He crossed his arms. “And to be honest, I figured I'd be doing you a favour. It's like seeing a grown woman riding around with training wheels. It's sad to watch." He gave her a judgmental stare as he looked her up and down. "That's probably why you never realized you even had abilities.” He had a spike of energy, looking down at her as if he had just put the pieces together. “You never took your pendant off, and therefore, it must have held all of your Elemental power at bay for your entire life.”
Her face burned red as bulging blue veins started to press against her forehead. With her hands fisted aggressively at her sides, she was about ready to punch this guy straight across his stupid face. Maybe knock him out if she was lucky. "That was the only thing I had from my birth parents!" she screamed at him, her anger building dangerously fast. "Are you being serious right now?"
He nodded promptly, appearing to be much more conscious of himself as if trying his best not to feed her flaming anger by disagreeing.
"You freak!" she shouted, practically spitting on him as she went to walk down the alley towards the street. "Get the hell away from me,"
"No, wait!" he grabbed her forearm with his gloved hand, firmly holding her in place.
Her heart dropped as she pulled away, trying to rip her hand free, but was unsuccessful. It was like his hand was made of stone, and she would never get her hand free unless she was willing to slice it off. "Let me go!"
"Please just calm down."
"No! Get the hell off me." She pulled harder, bruising all around her wrist, but made no progress in getting loose.
"Please. You need to relax.”
Her lungs erupted into an ear-piercing scream as she leaned back on her heels, trying to yank her arm free as she cried for help. As he let go, she began to sprint down the alleyway, trying to get back to civilization and away from this guy as quickly as she could.
She had nearly reached the end of the dark alley when he suddenly emerged from the dark pool of shadows along the ground directly in front of her. She shrieked as she tumbled back onto her butt, kicking him away while trying to scoot back into the alleyway.
He held his hands out for her to see as he took wary steps towards her. "Lexi-"
"Get the hell away from me!" she screamed, throwing her arms in front of her as she squeezed her eyes shut. An aggressive wave of energy erupted from her, sending heavy vibrations all around her as all of her built up emotion released. Less than a moment later, a blinding light exploded from her body, filling her vision. She felt herself release all of the built up emotion and tension she’d been holding onto in a single instance. She had never felt anything like it before. It felt good, like she had scraped against the center of her core. She felt at peace. She felt powerful. The sound of shouts and a blaring horn thundered against her ears, sending a shuddering shock of fear into her as she collapsed down to her knees with her face in her hands, shaking. After the world around her simmered to a hush, she dropped her hands and blinked open her eyes, darting her gaze around in search for Daymian.
She remembered a beautiful bright light filling her vision before she shut her eyes, and felt something release fro
m inside her. Then she heard him, the car horn sound, and her fear had taken over again.
Her gaze landed on him as he sat calmly on the curb across the street from her. He looked drained, and she could hear his heavy breaths as she watched his chest raise up and down. She stared at him for a brief moment. She didn’t understand. She hadn’t moved, and yet there he was, across the street, breathing as though he had seen his life flash before him. What had happened? Had she done something? Perhaps there was more to what he was saying in the alley than she initially thought. She wanted to learn more, dig deeper. She began to walk across the street, planning to bombard him with questions, but then he raised his hand. He appeared to be waving at her, but then she felt her entire body drop as if the pavement below her had suddenly vanished. Her vision was consumed by darkness as she fell into an endless abyss.
Chapter 3
Lexi awoke, and her chest shot up, nearly smashing her forehead against her sister's bunk. Her breaths were heavy as her eyes darted around the room like ping pong balls. She was back in her room. She whipped her hand to her chest, feeling for her necklace, and to her own terror, it was bare. She threw her sheets off her bed, searching wildly as she ripped her bed apart. She was hyperventilating as she stood before her and Brookes bunk.
Had it indeed been a dream? "It was all so insane. Surely it couldn't have been. But if it was real-No. It wasn't," she whispered to herself. "People don't just emerge from the pavement. People don't have magical powers, and light doesn't just explode out of people. This is crazy. I'm crazy. Not having my necklace is doing this to me. It's stopping me from thinking straight, causing me to have nightmares. Yeah, that's it." The necklace, she figured. Not having it was stressing her out, causing her subconscious lash out and grasp onto anything to help her cope with it all. Sure, that was it. It had to be. She must have been a little more spooked about that guy she met on the street than she thought.
She tried not to overthink it, but more questions kept popping up. She feared what might happen the next time she fell asleep. It couldn't have been a coincidence that on the night she lost her parent's necklace, she endured such nightmarish dreams. They were both still so vivid… so real. The thought of it made her bones freeze over. She felt she had no control, like she was a puppet on a string. It was something she never wanted to experience again. It was only now that she realized that the sun had risen, with its golden rays bathing her and Brooke's bedroom in morning light. As she looked to the top bunk, she saw that Brooke was gone, surely having woken up and gone down stairs while she was still dreaming. She debated telling her sister about her dream, but she worried about how Brooke would react. If she would suddenly look at her like she was as much of a nutcase as that guy, or if she would feel spooked out by it all. Brooke would ask a list of questions, that she knew for sure. Questions that she didn't know how to answer. She just wanted to get her mind off it all, even if that meant she'd need to go to school.
She could practically taste the eggs and toast from downstairs. Her mom was an amazing cook, and she always made them breakfast before they left for school. She had no idea how long she had slept in past her alarm, but she figured that as long as she could smell the good tasting food, she had enough time to eat it.
She threw on one of her white tops, and a cream coloured skirt. Without so much as brushing her long white hair, she sped down the stairs. When she finally stepped into the kitchen, she saw her family sitting around the table eating. Her mom and dad greeted her from the far side of the table, while Brooke sat on the other, turning in her seat to smile a hello. In that moment, she decided not to tell Brooke about her dream. Seeing her sister's innocently joyous expression, made her realize that she couldn’t risk taking such a thing away from her. She would simply tell Brooke that she lost her necklace on their run home. She didn’t want to worry her with the needless fears of a vivid dream.
Beside Brooke was an open seat, the spot where she sat every morning, and on the table was a display of four large plates. One had been filled with brilliantly yellow scrambled eggs. Another with a small pile of sliced grilled cheese sandwiches. The third still had two pieces of toast on it, and the other had a tiny stack of leftover pancakes. Her mother had always gone above and beyond with meals. She wanted to make everything as much of an experience as possible, something her and their dad had in common.
“Sleep past your alarm again?” their dad chuckled, stuffing another slice of grilled cheese in his mouth.
“Yeah,” Lexi smiled back, sitting down in the empty chair next to Brooke.
“Rough night?” her mom asked as she cut a slice of her pancake.
Lexi hesitated, looking down at the plates of food to avoid eye contact. “Um… yeah.”
“Anything we can do to help?”
Lexi cleared her throat, squinting at the displayed eggs and sandwiches as if to appear busy. “Oh, no. Just had a lot on my mind, I think,” she mumbled, nodding her head. She didn’t want to talk about her night, even if it was all a dream. She wanted to forget about it.
She could feel Brooke leaning up against her side, watching her as she picked food from the displays. “What are you having?” she asked, following Lexi’s hands as she grabbed one of everything.
“Some eggs, grilled cheese, toast, a pancake… and ketchup!” Lexi leapt from her chair and pulled a ketchup bottle from inside the fridge.
“Oooh, maybe I’ll put ketchup on mine too!”
After Lexi had squirted a pile of ketchup over her food, she handed the bottle to Brooke, who similarly covered her plate with the red sauce, but didn’t put on as much as her sister did. When Brooke placed the bottle on the table, Lexi quickly snached it up again, squirting even more on her growing mountain of ketchup.
“Woah, woah, slow down there firecracker,” her dad laughed. “You think you got enough eggs with your ketchup?”
Lexi smirked as she squirted a drop of ketchup onto her dads plate.
“Ah! My meal has been contaminated!” he yelled jokingly, bursting from his chair as he reached across the table and wrapped his arms around her head. “Get down, before the ketchup fumes infect us all!” he cried, pulling her down onto the floor as they started to wrestle. Brooke laughed as she jumped on top of them both.
“Come on guys, breakfast is getting cold,” their mom called, shaking her head at them all as if she now possessed a third child.
They all paused. Lexi and Brooke looked to their dad, waiting to see if he would make them get back up. “Alright, come on. Listen to your mother,” he nodded, tapping them both to let go of him.
Brooke was the first to let go, shifting up to her knees, when both Lexi and their dad leaped up at her, tickling her as they tackled her back to the floor. The room erupted into a collection of laughs again as the wrestling resumed. Both girls were laughing so loud that it was a wonder either of them were still able to breathe.
“David,” their mom angrily called again.
Their dad froze, looking up at his wife as though he knew he was only getting himself into more trouble by continuing to wrestle. “Oh, right,” he coughed, briskly standing up off the floor. “Yeah, come on girls. Come sit.”
The three of them got back into their seats, waiting anxiously for what would come next. Lexi knew that she and Brooke were surely in trouble for something. She could see the nervousness on her sister's face. She was definitely thinking the same thing. Even their dad looked a little uncomfortable. The tone in the room had drastically changed, as their parents looked as though they had been planning to have a serious conversation with them that morning.
“Um… your mother and I wanted to talk to you about something,” their dad began, but looked to their mom as though he didn’t know where to go from there.
Their mom sighed, turning her head to look at them both. “Look, girls, the exploring needs to stop.”
Lexi threw her hands questioningly. “But we weren’t-”
“Do not lie to me,” their mom snapped. “We
want it to stop now.”
“But mom-”
“It’s too dangerous. One of you could get hurt.”
“We’re careful,” Lexi argued further. “And nothing’s going to happen. Besides, Kadence and Ad-”
“Kadence and Adrian are still doing this too?” Their mom was fuming, her face red with rage.
Lexi tried to sink into her chair, realizing her mistake as she avoided eye contact with her parents.
Her mom exhaled angrily. Lexi could still feel her stare drilling into her skull. “No. No. Girls, how would you feel if you got Kadence or Adrian hurt in some way? How would you feel if you got each other hurt while doing your little stunts? Please, tell me.” She paused, allowing the question to linger painfully.
“Really bad,” Brooke finally admitted, her arms hugged around her stomach.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Lexi?”
“Well, of course I’d feel bad,” she blurted, finally looking back at her mom as she sat back up in her chair. “But we know what we’re doing.”
“I don’t want to hear another word about it, Lexi.”
Their argument was interrupted when a knock at the door brought the table to a hush.
As their mom stood to answer it, she added quietly, “I will let the matter go, and I won't call Stephanie and Joseph about Kadence and Adrian, but only as long as you both stop the exploring for good.”
Brooke nodded, but Lexi didn’t. She merely darted her eyes away as her mom went to answer the door.
“Hey, you two!” she heard her mom cheer from the door. She turned back to see who it was. It was Kadence and Adrian. They both rarely came to their house, but there were the few exceptions here and there. She figured they came to offer her and Brooke a ride to school. “Would you like to come in? We aren’t quite finished with breakfast. There may be some left.”
“You had me at breakfast,” Adrian cheered, rushing in with his backpack still on.
Kadence hesitated, her feet still on the outside edge of the door frame. “I think I’ll just wait out here,” she insisted, taking a step back from the entrance.
