Fourth Generation

XXI: Harmony Comes in Many Forms

My head drums as the pressure of blood beats against my ears. I wince and grip my head as my body shivers with power. I've been working on this for the past two and a half hours, and before that, four weeks. Nothing has changed. I'm still unable to control my powers. Every time I try to preserve life, I absorb it. I damage and kill it.

"You're doing good, Elysia." Leila encourages. "Remember, your powers are triggered by anxiety and fear. So you need to remain calm and trust yourself when you are trying to target something."

The three plants in a row are brown and brittle from death. I am supposed to target the two exterior plants and leave the middle one unharmed. But each time, they all die.

"I am done!" I yell and grab one of the plants. I grip the burnt stem and crumble it in the palm of my hand. When I open my hand, the dead leaves have flaked into a fine dust.

"If you give up, you put everyone's life on the line, Elysia." Leila soothes over the intercom as she scribbles in her notebook. She stares at me through the glass and sets her pen down, "Again. Focus on one plant. Clear your mind, have faith, control your energy."

"I'm tired, Leila-"

"Than try again."

My forlorn stare sweeps over her body as I watch her raise an eyebrow. Sighing in defeat I stand up, and grab three more plants from the box before putting the lid back on them.

"Grab another three," Leila writes in her journal quickly, "I want to observe how far your power extends."

I sigh and do as I'm told, taking three plants and placing them progressively further away. I saunter back to the other plants and sit in front of them. I take a deep breath and target the two outlying plants, trying to draw the energy from them. The tingles travel down my spine as all three plants begin to wilt and darken.

"Control your energy, Elysia!" Leila raises her voice.

I grit my teeth and frown as I try to ignore the middle plant's existence. Each plant collapses and dies instantly, their jade leaves char into the black I am so familiar with as they collapse.

"It's been weeks..." Leila sighs and sets her journal down before walking around the table to face me. "You have to believe in yourself of you want to make significant progress. You have to control-"

"Control my energy, right?!" I shout, storming up to the plexiglass which separates us. "I am trying!"

"We need to work harder than," Leila picks up the journal. "Again."

"STOP!" I drag my hands through my hair and shake my head. "I said I'm done. I am leaving."

"You can't give up."

"I'm not giving up. I am taking a break."

"One more time."

"Are you serious?" I yell and slam my fists into the glass as it vibrates and bounces back to place. "I. Am. Done."

"I'm trying to help you."

"You think your helping?" I twist away and mop up my tears with my sleeve, "I am drowning, and you are standing three feet away yelling 'learn how to swim!'" I turn back around and press my palms to the glass, "I'M NOT LEARNING!"

I collapse to the ground and clench my fists. I scream out in frustration as loud as I can. My ears ring, and my throat burns as my voice rips out of my throat. Suddenly I stop as a terrifyingly familiar tingle travels down my spine. I face Leila, who stands in shock, her journal slipping from her hand and flopping onto the ground in front of me on the other side of the glass. She picks it up from the ground and scribbles in it as she stares at something behind me. I turn to find the plants lined further away from me are all dead. But what concerned me more is that Leila wasn't looking at those plants. I stand up and stare into the closed box where the rest of the plants are kept for safekeeping, where they should have been safe from any outbursts, but they weren't. My lips part as I stare through the transparent lid poorly hiding the extent of my wrath. The box filled of completely shrivelled plants. Their leaves and stems are charred with death as leaves fall from their frail corpse.