Elementary

Chapter Nine

I put my hands on my knees, slightly squatting, and breathing hard. I see Meliza, Hunter, and Abdalla here with me. There are low, green branches hanging just above us, and more green grass. This continues to make a long path, leading to something far, far away. Hunter locks the door. Looking up at Meliza, I stare at her. All anxiety to look away and do something else leaves me, and instead I have all the patience in the world to stare at her. To stare at the most evil, truculent, awful traitor I have ever seen. She stares at me back, only she is wearing her usual sarcastic demeanor. 

"Guys, what is... this?" I hear Abdalla's voice break the silence.

"Abdalla, is it any of your business?" Meliza responds. He backs up, surrendering.

She continues to stare at me, but I break the glare.

"You know what? I am pissed off at you." I yell. "I came back and saved you, and how do you repay me? You leave me on the ground, choking to death."

"Do you think I had a choice? We were being surrounded." 

"But I saved you!" I scream. Hunter inches forward slowly. 

"Hey guys?" He says quietly. "There's an axe in the door." We all flip around to see a shiny, silver blade lodged in the wood. It slowly gets taken out of the door from the other side, until a loud crash rumbles the wood again. 

"We should go." I whimper. In agreement, all of us turn around and start to run in the other direction, along the path. I run slower than everyone else. They all have light footsteps, but the arches under my feet are flat, so it's hard for me to seem "light and jumpy." 

"Come on, London!" Hunter yells.

"I'm going as fast as I can!"

"Go faster!" Meliza yells. I scowl, and then keep running. Suddenly, I see a face in the distance- a cold, pale, bony face with dark bags underneath their eyes. I stop running for a second, but then it's gone. I keep going. I must have been imagining it. By now, Hunter, Meliza, and Abdalla are way in front of me. 

"Guys, I think it's safe!" I yell. In the distance, they stop, and turn around. Not one of them seemed to even break a sweat, except for Meliza, who hardly has any sweat at all on her forehead. Me, on the other hand...

"She's right. I don't think they're following us anymore." Says Abdalla. He starts walking toward me, followed by Hunter, and then finally, Meliza. 

"Yup." Hunter says. What is with Hunter, and the word "yup?"

Meliza walks forward. "Guys, are we going to stand around, waiting for someone to save Elementary? We have to be the ones to do it. We are the last irresent, and we have to keep the irresents alive."

"What's an irresent?" I ask.

"A crack in reality, London." She groans. "Anyway, I got a map." She reaches into her pocket, and pulls out a piece of paper.

"That is... good." Abdalla says affirmatively.

"We can take down Tempus. If we do that, then all of his minions would regain consciousness, and Elementary wouldn't be matched three to one. So, what do you say?"

Abdalla straightens his back. "I'll do it." 

"Me too." Hunter says. 

"Great. Let's defeat Tempus!" She says, smiling. 

"Guys, I can't." I complain. 

"Let's go." Says Meliza, walking by Abdalla. Hunter backs up next to me.

"So, do you want to practice your Potentia?" 

"Sure, fine." I say.

"Okay, try it- but away from Meliza and Abdalla." He guides my hands ninety degrees to the right of them. "Go for it." Thinking of fire, I push my hands out in front of me, trying to expect something to come out.

"Nope. That's not happening." I say. We keep walking. 

It seems like hours that we walk. Not talking, or doing anything, just walking. Occasionally, Meliza will make us turn a different way basing it off of the map, but other than that, nothing interesting happens except for my groaning about the pulling pain in the balls of my feet.

Meliza stops. 

"Guys, we have a problem." She says. I get ready to laugh at her. "We just got to the forest of outcasts, so don't antagonize anyone." I frown.

I begin walking with everyone, staring around in dreadful search of an outcast.

Soon enough, I see faces everywhere- all of them just like the face I saw earlier. All have dark bags under their eyes, pale, blue, and cold skin. They are all just like ghosts- transparent. I wasn't imagining it. I turn to Hunter, and tap on his arm after biting my nails. 

"Who are all of these people?"

"These are all people who either chose the wrong answers on their Element test, or did something so bad that they were exiled from Elementary. I heard that someone-" He clears his throat, and then starts talking quietly. "killed eighty elementeers, including the supreme four."

"Who are the supreme four?" I whisper back to him. He has a short breath, look as though he's going to say something, but then stops. He starts again.

"Nobody."

From then on, it's quiet. Neither of us say anything. I start kicking rocks as we walk, an outcast standing next to me, looking close up at my face. I look away, but he gets closer. Soon enough, his curious face is right next to mine, staring at my cheek. Hunter shakes his head.

"Fine. The supreme four are the four elements elementeers, if that makes sense. They are the most powerful, and the rest of the elementeers are just elements from the periodic table. I didn't want to tell you because every fire elementeer we've gotten has died in some gruesome way."

"Oh, well that makes me feel just great!" I yell. Meliza looks back at me, and then smirks, looking away. I push the face away.

"Stop it! Get off my face!" I yell. Suddenly, every single outcast stops what their doing, staring at me. It's uncomfortably quiet. Uh oh.

Meliza yells "Run!" And soon, they're after us, moving much faster than I thought they would be able to. Not looking ahead of me, I keep running, until I'm stopped by another ghost-like thing. It approaches me from the front, and I start walking back. There is one behind me, too. Hunter, Abdalla, and Meliza are nowhere in sight.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! He was just right in my face, and I was really frustrated at the moment!" They don't allay. Suddenly, I see Hunter on the side of me, and he pulls me to the right, and up a small hill, where suddenly, we're in a huge clearing. There are two tall towers with men in red suits, and the forest has ended.