by Jamie Gray
Kadence gasped as her expression filled with horror.
“You were taken when you were eleven years of age. Your doctor, Mr. Tafoya believed you to have some kind of unnamed mental disorder.”
“It wasn’t a mental disorder,” she grumbled.
“Yes, we know dear.” Mara cocked her head. “But so did Tafoya.”
Daymian supposed that part of the story was left out of the file.
“You were his little science project, huh.”
Kadence spat in her face.
She blinked, re-straightening her pasture as she continued. “The file also read that you would experience nightmares on a nightly basis, I can only assume that still hasn’t gone away.” She paused, waiting for Kadence to respond, continuing as no objection came. “You apparently were very attached to a certain book, an encyclopedia, I believed they called it. That, I assume, is where you memorized all of your Earth statistics, and the true meat of it all, was an article regarding Mr. Tafoya himself. Care to explain what you believe that article said?”
Kadence still didn’t respond, averting her eyes to look towards the corner of the room.
Adrian was panicking, pulling against his restraints to look back at her. “What article? Kadence, what’s she talking about?”
Still no answer.
“Well, if I had to guess, I would say Mr. Tafoya didn’t realize what he was getting himself into, and through an array of tests and trials, your friend here was able to build her skills to a point where she could control minds. An ability that is outlawed in Arespea for good reason, as through controlling Tafoya's mind into releasing her, she caused him to go mad.” She looked both Kadence and Adrian up and down. It was obvious that she was trying to assess their reactions before continuing. She held her chin high as she revealed, “The article was about an asylum doctor named Tobias Tafoya who lost his mind, and killed himself on a date that was a mere months after your friend's release.”
The room fell silent.
“Kadence,” Adrian finally whispered, his voice trembling. “How could you-”
“I didn’t know what would happen!” she cried.
The room descended into silence again. Mara was the next one to talk, finishing the story. “Once you came back, your only friend had moved on, and still, no one wanted to buy you from that orphanage. And so, you were pitied upon, Adrian having to convince his owners to purchase you as well.”
Daymian was surprised that Adrian kept silent. He supposed his shame had finally gotten the best of him. Even with their undeniable drive, Kadence and Adrian could hardly stand up to someone who knew what it took to tear them down. His sister was a master manipulator and she knew how to tap into someone's inner demons, or make them tap into it theirselves. She took her time staring down at Kadence and Adrian, waiting to see if they would be daring enough to respond.
Neither Kadence or Adrian looked back up at her. Kadence appeared unable to breathe as she stared only at her lap, most probably recalling terribly traumatic memories from her past. It wouldn’t have been surprising to hear that she had blocked most of it from her mind up until then, and that Mara speaking about it, reminding her of her distraught feelings, must have brought it all rushing back. Adrian, on the other hand, tried to hide his expression by turning his head away completely.
Mara was right. They were no more free to be themselves or do as they wish on Earth than they were in Arespea. Adrian looked down too, still turned away in hopes of shielding his misery.
Kadences nervousness and anxiety practically radiated off of her. Her body somehow seemed to shake in it’s restrained state as it was clear her mind had been flooded with past feelings and memories, probably ripping away at her as she tried to push them down. Her lower lip began to quiver, but she bit down on it. Kadences resistance was stronger than most, but it would only prolong the inevitable.
Mara bent down to better meet her face, leaning closer to her cheek as Kadence held her head frozen in place. She spoke quietly, just below a whisper. "I know that it's all very confusing for you. You're young. You act on instinct. I understand.” Her voice sounded oddly soft-soothing. “I understand that you're going through a lot right now… that you've been through a lot." She spoke just loud enough to tempt Adrian to listen too.
Kadence pulled her head away, cueing Mara to straighten back up. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means you've been through a lot," she replied bluntly. "Everyone has."
Adrian turned his head. "Do you know something we don't?"
"Oh, I'm sure you are quite unaware," she nodded, walking back to stand between them.
Adrian to whip his head around to try and look at her. "Wait, what? Tell me! What's going on?"
Mara shifted to place her hands on her hips, looking down at them like they were naive children. "Perhaps you should ask your friend here to read my mind because I'm certainly not going to tell you. It would be far too inappropriate for me to do such a thing."
Kadences face turned bright red as she pressed her lips together and glanced up at the ceiling, as if praying for help. She swallowed hard, her head beginning to shake as her gaze fell back to her lap.
Mara turned back to Adrian, impassive as she simply shrugged her shoulders. "I apologize, but it seems the only way you will know is if she decides to tell you herself."
Adrian pleaded for Kadence to say something. He could only imagine the worst at this point. His face said it all. It was clear that Adrian would never be able to think of another thing, or sleep a wink, until he heard what was being hidden from him. "Kadence, you're the most important person in my life. We've been through thick and thin together. We've faced death and survived. And whatever you have been keeping inside, we can get through it too." Adrian's words were kind, but wobbly as he sounded on the edge of bursting into tears.
A fresh wave of tears rushed down Kadences cheeks as her face turned bright red. After a moment, she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself before speaking. "There's a part you forgot to mention," she admitted quietly, her tone sharp as she looked down at her legs.
"What?"
"We used to…" Kadence stopped. She pressed her lips tight together as drops of tears began dripping down onto her jeans. She swallowed again, obviously trying to brace herself to try again.
"What?"
"I still love you," Kadence blurted, the words barely making it out of her mouth. Tears drenched her face as her entire body slumped against the restraints that still held her upright.
A cold silence filled the room. Daymian took a cautious step back as the situation grew uncomfortable. He felt as though his and Maras being there was some kind of violation, but his sister barely blinked. She surely would have known, or at least had a hunch after collecting all this data and information on Kadence.
Adrian spun his head back around, swallowing as he stared at the wall in front of him stunned. He opened and closed his mouth. "K-" He stopped himself and took in a deep breath. "Kadence," he whispered, but stopped as though he hadn’t planned what to say after that.
"Shut up," Kadence snapped at him, her voice shaky as she practically begged him not to continue. She wept softly, trying desperately to bury her cries deep inside, but the more she tried, the heavier her tears flowed. "I know you've changed and that you have moved on, but I haven't," she sobbed, as if Mara and Daymian weren’t there listening.
"Kadence-"
"You didn't do anything," she interrupted, shaking her head as she breathed snot back into her nose. "In the orphanage, they were taking me away, and you just stood there."
Adrian shook his head wildly. "What else was I supposed to do?"
"Help me!” Kadence yelled. “Tell them that they were wrong, that I was innocent, that it was all a misunderstanding. You had options!”
“I was a little kid, watching my best friend get dragged away to a place I couldn't even begin to understand,” he replied, her anger beginning to seep into him. “Sorry if I was experiencing a
little bit of shock."
Kadence and shook her head as her tears started to run down her neck and dampened the collar of her purple knit sweater. "We weren't best friends,” she replied, her lip quivering as her gaze shifted to the wall in front of her. “We were more, and you know it."
Adrian blinked rapidly, as if trying to properly process her professed feelings. "Okay, so we had a thing, but we were kids. The most we ever did was hold hands. It was hardly a relationship."
“No, we were more than that!” she cried back. “I remember kissing you when-”
“Kadence, we never kissed.”
Kadence looked up at the ceiling, breathed heavily as she shut her eyes. Daymian supposed she was trying to rail back her tears. "Adrian, the thought of returning to that relationship was the only thing that got me through those years. Without it… well, I'm not entirely sure what I would have done." She drew quiet for a long moment, taking a long silent breath in and out before reopening her eyes, and straightening her head back up. "The point is, the thought of being with you again was the only thing that kept me going. So you can imagine how it felt to come back, and see that you've moved on as though I never even existed,” she added bitterly, speaking closer to her regular tone after she had a moment to begin collecting herself.
"Am I supposed to apologize for getting adopted, and going on to live my own life?" he questioned, scrunching her face together as if he expected Kadence to reply by saying ‘no, you misheard me’, and go on to say that she meant something else, but she said nothing. He was infuriated, his cheeks turning red. "From my perspective, you were gone. For all I knew, you could've been dead. I could've just drowned myself in grief, but no. I lived on because I thought it was what you would've wanted for me.” He paused, waiting for a reply that never came. “But I guess in reality, you wanted me to destroy myself over the thought of what could've been."
Kadence scoffed, speaking in a harsh tone as she finally replied, "Well, forgive me for thinking that it would take a little longer than that to completely forget about me."
"Now who's being dramatic?"
"Alright, that's enough," Mara's clam voice echoed like a roaring scream, silencing both of them in an instant. “Adrian.”
“Tell me, why is it that you want to go back to Arespea so bad?”
Her cold voice made Adrian shiver, causing his skin to turn pale, as goosebumps ran down his exposed arms and stomach. “Like hell, I’m telling you,” he grunted, keeping his head turned.
“But I am oh so curious,” she replied with a sharpening stare, stabbing into the back of Adrians head until he answered.
He didn’t move, refusing to reply.
Mara appeared to ponder, glancing at Kadence for a moment. Kadence had turned her head back to look at the wall, probably avoiding eye contact just as much as Adrian. She clasped her hands behind her back as she slowly approached the pair. “Oh, I see now. I apologize. I’ve created a distraction for you.” In the blink of an eye, she had whipped off her silver belt, whipped it to click into sword form, and pressed the sharpened edge to Kadences throat.
Daymian jerked, stepping to the side as he straightened his stance. In truth, he should have expected her to take such action when refused an answer, but seeing it made his skin run cold every time. He knew better than to step in. It would only insult her, infuriating her more. Not to mention he was trying to get back on her good side, and so, he reached around his back and pulled his personal dagger from it’s concealed place beneath his leather jacket. The huilt was covered in silver scales, and the black blade ignited upon him touching it. It was nothing special by any means, just something he carried around for mostly defensive purposes. He had no plans on using it to harm either Kadence or Adrian, but as his sister pulled her weapon, it was only respectable that he did the same.
Adrian began whipping his head back and forth, trying to look back any way he could to see what she was doing to Kadence. After a short moment, she started to press the sword into Kadences neck, causing her to scream as heavy tears flowed down her cheeks.
“Stop, stop!” Adrian shrieked as he again tried pulling against the restraints, but he still remained bound in place, forced to listen to his friends cries.
Mara paused her cutting, glancing back at him with a neutral expression. “Was your anger towards her not the distraction keeping you from answering my question?”
Adrian was breathing heavily, his chest straining to lift against the metal bar holding him against the chair. His face burned red as he mumbled, “Umbien barbarian.”
With an expeditious motion, Mara swung her blade across Kadences face, slashing her left eyes as Kadences vocal cords lit up with an array of screams of pain. As the room erupted into high pitched echoes, Daymian whipped his dagger behind his back again, and sprinted to the corner of the room where the gauze had been left on a wooden chair. Upon grabbing as much as he could hold, he sped back over to Kadence where he pressed the white clean gauze up against her eye to slow the bleeding. He received no resistance from Kadence as he was sure she was in too much shock to think of pushing him away. He was somehow both shocked and unsurprised by his sister's actions. It wasn’t unlike her to take such measures, especially when insulted as she was, but seeing her attack Kadence as she did, made his heart drop. Reminding him that that could have easily been Lexi should the circumstances be different.
She moved to step in front of Adrian, her expression like stone as she stared down at him. “Now give me my answer.”
“Kadence!” Adrian cried, but his voice was swallowed by Kadences continuous screams. There was no way she could hear him. His eyes flew up for a moment, but darted away as her sharpening gaze pierced straight through him, causing him to shatter into pieces. “What did you do!” he sobbed, tears flowing down his cheeks like waterfalls.
“I suggest you answer my question, unless you want her to lose another eye,” she replied in a dark tone. It really was his own fault for insulting her. Such words ran deep for Dark Elements after they were banished to live as outsiders for over a century, before finally rising back to power through raids and wars.
His lip began to quiver as he submissively stared down at her black boots. “I left my family behind,” he admitted weakly. “When my village in Letaava was attacked by Dark Elements, my father told me to run, and I did. I left my step mother, my sister-”
“Letaava?” Mara interrupted, her brows furrowed together confusedly. “Letaava is the Lava kingdom. You’re an Electricity Element. What were you doing living in Letaava?” she asked, as a genuine question.
It was off putting at first, but Adrian went on the answer without much of a hesitation. “When my mother left, my father and I were shunned and disgraced, forcing us to leave Flumellt,” he explained with a wobbling voice as he continued to cry and weep. “Instead we decided that perhaps our sister kingdom Letaava would be more welcoming. It was. My father married a woman from there and later had my sister.”
“Your sister?” she interrupted again, trailing off. She glanced back at Daymian with a knowing look.
Daymian questioned if he really knew what she was thinking, unsure if it was possible for two different Elements to mate together. It was forbidden across Arespea, commonly known as taboo, and often frowned upon. There had been rumors throughout the years of Elements mating together to create something of interest, but those cases were more or less viewed as nothing more than legend and myth. He didn’t want to believe it.
“Yes,” Adrian began again, not noticing Mara's shocked reaction as he held his gaze at her boots. “I want to go back to Arespea so that I can find her. Say ‘I’m sorry for running, for leaving her’.” He paused, breathing in another snot. “Kadence was right, I’m not a hero.” He slowly lifted his head to look up at her. She had shielded her shock with a scowl. “Are you happy now?”
She took her time looking Adrian up and down, and then Kadence. Daymian was still pressing the gauze against her eye as he wrapped it. She had p
assed out, bringing the room to an eerie hush once again. After glancing over the open floor, she promptly turned on her heels, walking around Adrian to face Daymian directly. "I think I have everything I need, for now." she told him confidently, giving him a single nod before she walked back through the black curtain of shadows.
Chapter 16
With Lanie sitting in the front seat, Lexi drove her parent's car like she was trying to win a race, weaving in and between passing cars like a maniac. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she kept her focus stapled to the road ahead. With the sun completely down, and thick clouds dimming the light of the moon, she had to rely on street lights, and the lights of the cars around her for sight. Though, unfortunately, the closer she drove towards the warehouse, the further they got from society. Other cars became scarce and street lights were vacant from the dirt roads.
With her feet unable to reach the floor of the car, Lanie held her seatbelt like her life depended on it, squeezing and bending it either which way as she continued to breathe slowly. Lexi had retightened the blanket around her shoulder to stop the blood from seeping out, but Lanie's face had become pale. The only thing keeping her awake being Lexi’s insane driving.
"Okay, what's going on! Where are Kadence and Adrian?" she shouted, trying not to fall from her seat as the car turned.
"You described the place as somewhere deserted. Somewhere that has a lot of open fields,” she began, speaking rapidly. “Well, the abandoned warehouse that Kadence, Adrian, Brooke and I explored the other day was completely surrounded by nothing but forest and open field. Not another building was in sight for miles. It's why we went there in the first place, we figured we wouldn't get caught. I figure, that's what Mara thought too," she explained, holding the steering wheel with all her might as she pressed harder and harder on the gas pedal.
