Elements

Chapter 47

"We have to go back." I whipped around in mid air.

Anita reached out to stop me. "You can't, it's too late now. Remember what Mr. Estel- sorry, the Puppeteer said? You can't come back in unless you use the portal once you leave."

"Then we'll use the portal!" I argued.

"Ella, stop and think for a moment. We need to keep going towards the mainland before we both run out of power." I took a shaky breath, then nodded and kept propelling us forward while Anita spoke. "If we go back, we have to use the portal, and the Puppeteer knows that. Odds are, he knows we left Ben and is counting on us coming back for him. That said, it's probably a trap if we use the portal to get us back in."

"So what, we just leave him there?" I retorted. I couldn't let someone else get hurt. I wouldn't allow it.

"Yes." She held up a finger before I could protest. "It's the smartest move we can make. He can handle himself, and the Puppeteer won't hit him if he can use Ben against you. Besides, the rest of the school has no idea what's happened. To them, a random wall of ice trapped their teacher in the gym, and the two of us went missing. I covered our escape, remember? No one but the two of us and the Puppeteer understand the whole situation. If Ben doesn't know anything, he's probably a lot safer than we are right now."

I sighed. I knew she was right- they were all great points. "You're right. I don't like it, but you're right."

"I'm glad you realize that. Now let's both just focus on getting us to land in one piece, and we can figure out what to do next from there.

🌜🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌛

The sky was the color gray, and dawn was breaking as the two of us finally landed on a sandy shore. I instantly collapsed into the sand.

"Wake me up if someone's coming." I told Anita before closing my eyes.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me upright. "Sorry Ells, but someone's coming already."

I sat up in the sand, dizzy with exhaustion, and scanned our surroundings. A dark haired girl was staring at us- or rather, at the space around us. "I made us invisible as soon as we landed, but she may have seen us before." Anita whispered to me.

The girl couldn't have been older than fourteen, and her dark brown hair fell down to her waist. She massaged her temples and said aloud to herself, "I really am going crazy." She sat down in the sand and rested her head on her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs. Sand stuck to her dark jeans and her gray sweatshirt.

"We can't just let her think she's imagining things. She thinks she's crazy," Anita whispered to me.

I grimaced, then nodded to her. Anita let her illusion drop, and I stood and walked over to the girl.

"Excuse me, I started, touching her shoulder, but I didn't get any further.

Her head snapped up, and suddenly she was on her feet, backing away from me. "Oh god, oh god I wasn't imagining things. Who the hell are you people?" She raised her hands out in front of her, defensively.

"It's okay! It's okay, we're not going to hurt you," Anita tried to calm her down. The girls brown eyes were wide with fear. "We're just normal girls, just like you, I swear."

"Right, because flying and invisibility are normal?" She asked, still clearly freaking out. However, she stopped backing away.

"Look, please just let us explain before you alert the world that you've discovered aliens." I reasoned with her. She stood there a moment, considering, then dropped her hands.