The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 17: Lightning

I aimlessly wandered the hallways, avoiding interns and doctors having the day off, looking for Skylar. The likely place to check was the physical combat wing, but neither Skylar or myself knew where it was, so I eventually headed over to to cloning department to see if she was there.

I found her sitting glumly on the floor, right outside the cloning department entrance. "Hey, Sky. You okay?"

I sat down next to her, and she put her head on my shoulder. "Am I crazy?" she asked me.

"Isn't everyone?"

She sighed. "I don't know what I was doing. I just heard that Jamie's clone could be here, and..." She trailed off. "But it's an awful lot of if's."

I nodded slowly. "Hottest blonde."

"What?" Irritation crept into Skylar's voice.

"Hottest blonde." I repeated. It was a game we had played since the seventh grade. Whenever one of us was feeling down, the other one would name a characteristic, and the upset one would answer with the first person that popped into our heads. It could be anybody, famous or someone we knew.

Skylar closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. "Alex Pettyfer." Then before I could ask another, she tossed one at me. "Hottest redhead."

"Kate Walsh."

Skylar wrinkled her nose. "Dude, she's like, 40."

"So? She's hot." I nudged her foot. "Besides, Johnny Depp is like, 50 and you still think he's the hottest brunette."

Skylar smiled at that. "Yeah. That's true."

"Best-"

"David," she interrupted me. "You don't have to do this."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Go hang out with Evie, or watch movies with the guys. Just tell everyone I'm okay, and go have fun. I'm probably gonna take a long nap, okay? I'll be fine."

Even though I had known Skylar for years, I could never tell when she was lying to me. It was something she had picked up on by the age of three, and perfected by the age of four and a half. There were only two people she could never sneak a lie past; her older brother, Zach, and of course, Harry.

So, I simply nodded, and helped her stand. She started walking down the hallway, but then she turned around to face me. "Oh, and David?"

"Yeah?"

"Johnny Depp may be the hottest brunette, but you're still my favorite." She gave me a small smile, and disappeared around the corner.

As soon as she was gone, I pulled out my cell phone. "Evie? Yeah, I found her. She's fine, I think. Listen, can you head back to your room and make sure she shows up? I don't want her doing something stupid, and you know her."

Evie agreed, and I hung up the phone. I turned to go the opposite way that Skylar headed in, and immediately ran into someone.

"Oh, sorry." The guy said quietly. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"No, it's my fault. I was talking on the phone. Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah. No." The guy ran his long fingers through his short hair.

"Did I hurt you?" I asked.

"What? No, some idiots were back there asking around for someone who died a while ago, and they were being really nosy and inconsiderate, considering he was my best friend, and uh, brother." The guy frowned. "I don't even think one of those guys spoke English as a first language, he had to be reminded to speak in English."

Derek and Tony? Maybe, who knows what those two idiots were up too. But if it was, then they were asking about Jamie. And if it was Jamie they were asking about, then apparently this guy was his brother.

He walked past me, but I called after him. "Hey, are you Jamie Shay's brother?"

He stopped walking and I immediately regretted my words. "Yes." He said with out turning around. "Why?"

"Because I know someone who might want to talk to you."

The guy turned around, and I noticed a huge scar cutting through his right eyebrow and eye. It was paler than the rest of his skin, which was pretty pale to begin with, and jagged. "Who wants to talk to me?"

"My friend, Addison." I used Skylar's fake name, seeing as this guy worked here.

"Why would I want to talk to her?" He asked irritably.

I hesitated. "Because she knew Jamie. She never got to say good-bye before he died, and she would like to get to know a little more about him. I'm guessing you could tell her."

The guy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I would be the person for that job. But the only way this girl could know who Jamie is, would be if she grew up at The Forces where we did, and then she would know pretty much everything about him, because she would have to have been in the same unit as he was, and she most certainly would have been able to say good-bye because the whole unit said good-bye before he left, and-" the guy stopped talking. "What did you say her name was?"

"Addison?" Did I get it wrong? No. Did I use the last name accidentally? No.

"That's the second time I heard that name today," he murmured. Then his eyes widened. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't."

"What is it?"

"David..." I was seriously confused.

The guy took a huge step backwards. "I have to go." he said quickly. He started quickly walking down the hallway, but I started after him.

"Hey, where are you going? Aren't you going to talk to Addison?"

"No, no, I can't let her see me."

"What? What are you talking about? You don't even know who she is!"

"Yeah, I do." The guy sped up, but I grabbed the back of his white shirt and smashed him against the wall. Seams popped and tore, and his shirt ripped clean down the middle.

"No, you don't. She never even knew Jamie had a brother! How could you possibly know her?!"

The guy shoved me away, and yanked off his torn shirt. My eyes flitted down to his stomach where there another was a nasty scar. "I just know her. And she knows me. She can't see me.

"How?!" I spat out, forcing myself to stare into his pale blue eyes. "How could she possibly know about you, Jamie's brother?!"

"Because I'm not Jamie's brother!" The guy exploded. I was so shocked by the sudden outburst, that when he walked away, I was rooted to the floor. The last thing I saw about him, was the tattoo on the back of his neck. It read; "J.S0284".

Hi, guys. Sorry for the long break between the updates, I've been working a lot and then I had writers block. But hopefully, I should start updating more often now... so anyway, out of curiosity, what do you guys think of/about Stacy? Who's your favorite character/couple?