It's Just Magic

The Girl At The Bus Stop

An ambulance soon arrived and took Boyd away. All the time he didn't wake up, didn't move. Dylan was crying quietly and Edendir sat away from everyone, blanking out the questions fired his way. He was in a state of shock, body still whilst his brain raced ahead.

Who hit Boyd like that? Why? And how did he have the supernatural strength that he had? Would he survive? All these things occupied Edendir's thoughts, the repeating rhythm only broken when Dylan finally managed to choke out a few words.

"I'm going to the hospital," he said, sniffling. "I need to find out if he's okay." Dylan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, swaying slightly on the spot. He looked distraught and had good reason to be. 

"I phoned Aunt Katy," he continued. "She's just arrived and is picking me up. You coming, Edendir?"

The elf shook his head and stood up from where he was leaning against the front of Perri's smoothie parlour. "I'll go in a bit," he replied. "I'll take the bus. You should see him first."

"But you saved him," someone in the crowd shouted. Edendir teleported quicker than the blink of an eye and grabbed the person under the chin, raising them off the floor one handed.

"It is not your business to meddle," he hissed, teeth going pointed and ears even narrower. "Neither is it mine to intrude. I gave a service, that service is over. Now quiet, human. Stop your struggles." He passed his free hand over the person's eyes and they slumped to the floor, dropping from Edendir's grip.

He nodded self-assuredly and walked away before any police could come. As he strode he could feel the stares, people wondering who this peculiar young boy was. His ears had stayed as pointed, true elf ears, and his teeth were sharp inside his mouth. His nails were claws and anger swirled around his brain, adrenaline powering through his veins. He could do anything, be anyone.

Whilst he waited for the bus to arrive - the timetable said one hour but the buses were completely unpredictable, so it was no use - Edendir tried to get a check on his emotions. He'd had a shock, he'd saved someone's life, he'd been faced with a mystery and one of his friends had been targeted. Everything had fallen apart within a matter of minutes.

A car drove by and splashed some oil on the road up at Edendir's face. He growled and the oil ignited, singing his eyebrows and then burning away to nothing, the smell of chemicals prominent in the air. People stood around him at the bus stop had long since moved, afraid of the crazy boy they were stood by.

Edendir sighed and brushed his hair back. It had grown longer and more sticking up and he hated it. He much preferred it when it was longer and ragged, reaching down to his collar. But the school didn't like it. 

Edendir frowned and raked his hair backwards, flattening it to his head. He didn't live by rules, that was exactly why he'd run away from Elfir. He wasn't born to be ruled. He was born to be a rule-breaker.

The elf smirked and looked up, making eye contact with a girl across the road. She was waiting for a bus too and smiled at him. Edendir's smile turned warm, less sarcastic. The girl looked away and her head bobbed up and down in time to her music. Orange headphones went over her head and Edendir used his elf senses to hear what she was listening too.

Recognising the song (despite it barely having started) he mouthed the words, attracting the girl's attention. 'This is gospel, for the fallen ones,' he said silently. She grinned and spoke in time, also silent.

'Locked away in permanent slumber," she countered.

'Assembling their philosophies from pieces of broken memories,' Edendir added. The girl laughed and drew some odd looks from people stood by her. She shrugged at them and stuck her tongue out at one person's back.