The 5 Experiments- An Experiment with the Elements

Chapter 1- Who needs parents?

I have never been so glad to wake up early in the morning.

Looking round the room, I saw that thankfully Flame was still asleep. All was quiet. I lay in bed for a moment, thinking about the dream. I had the same dream almost every night. The lab, my brother as a baby, the kick and the failed escape....I hated that dream.

I got up as quietly as I could and went into the boy's bedroom. Hurricane (or Kane for short) and Monsoon were still asleep, but one little boy was missing...

...Grim...

I walked across the corridor and into the living room. We had a rather nice house, it was a tree house set in a lovely forest. We had all escaped from the lab and fled into the forest to hide. We had been experimented on, and that had a big impact, let me tell you.

The living room was an open plan room with the kitchen attached. And in the living room area was Grim. He was sitting with his legs crossed and his eyes closed, muttering something to himself. "You're up early" I said. He didn't move. I went over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He snapped himself out of whatever trace he was in and stared at me with those chestnut eyes that were exactly the same as my own. "I saaaaaaid, you're up early" I repeated. Grim smiled. "Sorry," he said "I woke up during the night and couldn't get back to sleep again. So I decided to talk to the spirits." Oh yeah, that's the wonderful thing about my little brother...

....he can speak to the dead.

I left Grim to continue his conversation with dead people and went to the kitchen to make some breakfast. Then I remembered something: "Grim," I asked, turning to him " What did you do to my jacket after you took it off me yesterday?" Grim thought for a moment "Ummmmm... I think I put it in the washing machine" he replied "Why?" I let out a deep groan "Oh nooooooo" I cried. "What?" asked Grim, standing up "What have I done?" I let out another deep groan "I had a ten pound note inside one of my pockets. It was our last £10 note!" I said, hurrying over to the washing machine. I ripped the door open and pulled my jacket out. Water ran down my arms as I fumbled around inside all of my pockets. Then I found the note. All  it was a soggy sludge of white and mush. All of a sudden Grim cried out "Washing machines live lon-ger with Calgon!" "Ten pound notes don't" I said." But oh well, we can just "borrow" some more money can't we?" (By "borrow", I actually meant "steal", but still...)

I put some bread into the toaster and turned on the TV. The news flashed up, showing the newsreader sitting behind the desk. She was smiling at the camera the whole time; even when she was talking about people being killed and wars and all that jazz. I flicked through the channels, but there wasn't anything worth watching. "Why is TV so boring nowadays?" I said to myself.

PING!

That was the toaster. I shuffled over and took the toast out. Suddenly, a rough pair of hands grabbed me by the forearms and span me around...