The Elementals: The Rise of the Deviants

Chapter 3

Chapter three

As sun crept slowly over the tree tops the tangerine beams of sunlight burst through the windows to lighten up my room. I’d barely slept at all. The excitement of finally getting somewhere kept my mind so busy that by the time I closed my eyes to sleep I was awake again and two hours had passed. The ticking of the clock seemed louder as it filled the silence between Blake’s snores and soon enough I was too anxious to just lie down.

I jumped out of bed and began getting ready, glancing over at the clock to see it was barely five o’clock. Last night, after explaining my idea and plan to the rest of the Elementals, I’d asked everyone to meet by the lake at six to capture the shadow in the forest; Helena and Bree were a little sceptical. I could still remember the looks of doubt colouring their face when I finished explaining everything.

‘And you think it would just help us...?’

‘It might not even be in the forest....’

I grumbled. I already knew there was a high chance that the shadow mightn’t even be in the forest... and if it was, I had no idea what we could to make it help us... but what I did know what was it was the best tie to Malum and it was our best chance. Dressed in my usual jeans and black t-shirt I stared out the balcony and gazed over at the horizon. I knew that Val was alive. Somehow, I just knew it. Cara... well, I couldn’t be too sure anymore because now I was almost certain that I was basing everything on gut instinct instead of my Stinger abilities.

I glanced at the clock and saw that half an hour passed. Leaning against the door frame of the bedroom I faced my hand at Blake’s bed and wriggled my fingers gently. Slowly, smoke began to rise from Blake’s bed and small flames grew from the plain white sheets beneath him leaving black burn marks. A grin pulled at the corner of my lips and in a matter of seconds Blake’s eyes shot opened just as quickly he did jumped out from his bed shouting obscenities at me.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” He shouted, his eyes still unfocused from sleep and spit flying from his mouth.

My grin grew, “We’re meeting everyone in fifteen minutes” Turning, I didn’t bother to suppress my snort of laughter and grabbed my leather jacket from the sofa before slamming the door shut just when the door knob froze.

I had been first arrive at the lake and only had to wait five minutes before Helena, Sophia and Bree arrived, followed shortly by a still sullen Cameron and cantankerous Blake. The sun was a little stronger now but not too overly bright and the wind whistled quietly around us as we began to walk towards the edge of the forest.

“I still don’t know about this idea...” Blake mumbled under his breath. “The Control is after him... uh, her... them? Ugh, the shadow! And why do your plans always end up with us going into the forest?! Your ideas are never original”

“No one is forcing you to come along Ice Prick!” I snapped back. Blake threw me a dirty look but stayed silent this time, mostly due to Helena touching his shoulder.

“So” Cameron spoke up stretching out the ‘O’, “What’s the plan exactly? Walk straight in and shout ‘Here Shadow, Shadow, Shadow!’?”

I stretched out my neck out from side and side before looking over to him. “Yeah, something like that”

I strolled through first, my eyes darting to all the shadows that the sun cast to the ground, as well as the hollows in the thicker trees. I could still remember how the shadow was able to dart from any sort of crack, shadow and hollow and I knew that if the shadow wasn’t looking for us again this was just a waste of time. If this plan failed then the only other choice I had was to run blindly into the two Stinger hideouts without any idea of what to expect.