Elemental Odds

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Dylan

I freeze, petrified in terror. How had he possibly known? I sniff my arm. I think I smell normal. I mean I don’t smell good, having not showered for days. But I don’t think I smell like ‘vegetation and deep earth’.

Omnia just stands in the center of the room, an amused expression on his brutal face. “You seriously thought you could just waltz into my throne room unnoticed, grab your friend and hurry on home? I am the invincible Omnia. Who are you? Dylan Leer, a nobody with a bit of uncontrolled power.”  His voice brings all my weaknesses to light, confirming my worst fears, bringing images to mind that have no right to belong anywhere but a nightmare.

I realize that it’s not just that Omnia has supreme control over the Elements, it’s his voice.

Finally I find my voice and blurt out the first question that comes to mind; “Why are you so fat?”

Instantly his alabaster white face turns an ugly shade of puce.

“How dare you!?” He spits furiously. “I am… well-built.”

I shake my head. Stupid question. Then I remember Thalia, and what I should be asking.

“What have you done to her?” I gesture to Thalia, spazzing out and flopping about in her prison.

His face brightens as if I’d brought up a topic he’s been wanting to talk about.

“Ah, yes. Let me explain. An Elemental as powerful as myself has special abilities. I can control air, and oxygen, and when I reduce the air flow to certain parts of the brain, it has different… effects.”

“What kind of effects…?” I ask warily.

“Well for example, before, when you and Thalia were having your little, ah, episodes, that was because I reduced flowage to the frontal lobes of your brain. You could not decipher what was socially acceptable to say. And before, your friend Zack coated half the island in lava, destroying my wonderful pets,” he gestures to the ferrum homiones. “Well, I couldn’t just let him do so without getting my revenge, now, could I?” A maniacal twinkle glints in his multicolored eyes. “I blocked oxygen from his occipital lobe, causing visual hallucinations. He relived the worst moments in his past. He doesn’t know this, of course. Being the merciful lord that I am I eventually relented.”

It’s as if someone had switched on a light in my brain. “That’s what’s happening to her isn’t it?” I realize despairingly.

Omnia grins at me wickedly. “Of course. Really, Dylan, you aren’t as dumb as I anticipated, helping me capture your friend and all.”His words are like knives, puncturing my confidence with every syllable. “You’re halfway right. Yes, she’s having visual hallucinations, but no, not quite like Zack’s. Hers are ten times worse.” He gives a deep satisfied sigh as if this is all in good fun to him. “He was reliving what he already knows and saw. She is seeing terrifying things that are entirely new.” He smirks. “Why don’t you take a look?”

Before I have the chance to say something really smart like ‘no thanks’ I am ripped from reality and plunged into a surreal world of fear.

I seem to be seeing things from Thalia’s point of view.

Its starts out exactly like my dream I had the other day. We’re fighting. The only differences are: the setting. Instead of being in some Sacramento street back in California, we’re on Omnia’s island; the fact that I’m fighting instead of being the mediator; and the fact that we’re all maliciously fighting… with intent to kill.

I engage in battle with Thalia the same moment Willow and Zack begin to fight. It’s intense; harder than any battle I’ve ever fought. Thalia’s tough; we start out in a battle of wills. I totally forget that I’m just hallucinating. It’s so vivid I think it’s one hundred percent real; a matter of life or death and I’m thinking only of myself.

I promptly take offense, launching volleys of mud, rock, and metal, but Thalia immediately washes it away with torrents of water. She starts throwing jets of ice at me and I break out my spear. I deflect the ice, but it freezes the shaft and my favorite spear shatters.

I try to encase her in a mountain but it turns into a geyser and explodes with the force of water pressure. Bits of rock pelt me but I throw up a metal shield—gold, I think— and I just have time to turn to see an entire glacier sliding my way. It’s coming at me with unnatural speed and I can’t dodge it as it’s just so huge. Instead, of dodging, I see a notch in the ice; a foothold.

I leap on the moving glacier and I use the momentum to launch myself over the ice. Thalia made sure it was wide but it’s really not long, as I’m sure she never thought I would jump it in a million years. I’m fifteen feet in the air and falling—fast. I turn the impact of the oncoming ground into a somersault and come up standing. I immediately encase Thalia in an oak; a nice thick tree that is thicker than I am tall. She tries to wash it away with water but it’s just too thick. She’s totally coated in bark up to her torso. I pull out my knife and stab her just above her navel. Thinking I’ve won, I turn to watch Zack and Willow fight.

Zack obviously seems to be winning. He has Willow pinned with his knees, holding his sword at her throat. He slits her across her chest and turns his back to her, about to walk away. She’s still breathing, though, and the gash on her chest does not seem to be instantly fatal. I realize she still has a knife in her hand. Apparently Zack pinned her but did not disarm her.

He barely has time to turn when the knife sticks him in the small of his back. He falls, dying, and I’m just thinking that I’m the strongest of the Elementals; that I’ve won, when I hear a thud.

It’s the sound of an arrow finding its mark. I see the point of the arrow sticking out of my stomach. Evidently Thalia had had just enough strength to notch an arrow and make sure that killing her is that last thing I’ll ever do.

The last thing I can think is we’ve killed each other when an explosion rips me from the hallucination.