The Elementals

Chapter 3

I step further into the second room, and I suddenly feel a cool sweat forming on the back of my neck. In the corner a fire is blazing, and a crew races to put it out. The fire extinguisher quickly eliminates the flickering flames, and as the smoke clears I see the body of a boy crumpled on the ground. His face is pinched together in agony, and even from here I can see the sweat glistening on his forehead. His feet and fingertips are charred an ugly black; the smell of burning flesh creeps up my nose causing me to gag. He screams out in pain as the crew places a wet towel across his legs. His body begins to convulse violently and he grips at the floor with his fingernails, causing them to chip away and bleed. Two men pins his arms down as a woman removes the towel. As she pulls back the cloth, pieces of blackened and raw skin come off with it. I shiver at the sight, and I fight the urge to throw up.

The boy is placed on a gurney and disappears into a room behind a door with a red cross. I try to swallow back my fears, but they get lodged in the back of my throat. The two men exit the room with the boy, and now only the woman remains. My instructor for the fire trial I assume.

“Sorry you had to see that.” She calls out while mindlessly scrubbing her hands. “Usually the trial is contained a lot better than that.” She grimaces, clearly picturing the boy.

The woman is dressed in all black; fiery red, orange, and yellow streaks course through her coal black hair. The combination makes me think of a grill with flames flickering between each of the charcoal coals.

“It’s n…not a pro…problem.” I stammer.

She twists her lips, and pulls her eyebrows together, “You know there’s no reason to be nervous right?”

I still have trouble finding my voice, and just nod my head.

She juts her hand out at me, “Name’s Blaze.”

I stare out her outstretched hand; I can’t help but think of the skin and blood that was once there. I slowly reach my hand out towards hers, and touch her hand as little as possible as I shake the tips of her fingers up and down. When we pull away from the very awkward handshake, she stares at her hand for a second and then just shrugs.

“Alright, well obviously we have a bit of a mess to clean up before we can administer your test.” She hooks her thumb over her shoulder towards where the boy was just a few minutes ago, “So, you’re more than welcome to just take a seat and relax while we prepare the testing area for you.”

I would prefer to not take the test at all, but a delay will have to suffice. I try to avoid letting my gaze wonder to where a janitor is now scrubbing the floor, and instead concentrate on how I was going to get out of this trial without ending up like the burnt crispy bits on my mother’s fried chicken.

I take a quick glance around the room while still avoiding…that area, and see nothing that gives me any clues as to what I am going to face. What could it be? I think. An image of the boy and his blackened skin pops into my mind. I shake it away instantly, and nervously begin to think what could have caused THAT. My eyes all of a sudden become heavy, and my mind begins to wander ~

***

The room goes pitch black, and a sudden feeling of being abandoned and alone washes over me. I get up from my chair, and stumble forward looking for a light switch or a door to escape through. I continue to push my way through the dark, and all of a sudden a light flicks on in the corner. The hair stands up on the back of my neck, and for some reason my body feels paralyzed. I take a small gulp and turn towards the newly lit area of the room.

I gasp when I see the boy from earlier today. He was completely healed, but he was tied to a wooden pole that ran from the floor to the ceiling. While he was completely fine, something felt very troubling about the scene. I walk towards him, and as I get closer I realize that he is sound asleep. I start to tug on knotted rope. The rope is drenched in a fowl smelling liquid, and my hands slip every time I dig at the tight knots. The boy all of a sudden jerks awake, and begins to panic and twist his head violently.