The Elementals

The Elementals- Chapter 2

                The last thing I remember was his hands softly covering my eyes.  Then he was gone. 

                Fire everywhere.  I was tossing it from my hands and it was spitting off of my skin.  It was dark, but I knew that there were harmful things all around.  My eyes blazed with fury as the fire grew bigger and bigger. 

I screamed.

I sat up with a jolt.  My covers were on the floor and my hair was sticking out all over the place.  Another terrible dream. 

Ever since the incident in the science room, my mom decided to keep me home for awhile, not only because she was worried about my physical condition, but she was scared of the response I would get if I returned.  I can't say I was too excited about that, either.  The doctors said no burns, no lasting effects, no nothing.  I was a complete miracle case.  The more I thought about it, the more I believed  that maybe it wasn't a miracle.  Maybe it was something more.

                I stretched out across my bed to pet my cat.  I stared up at the ceiling. I

I just remembered. 

                Was that man real? 

That night in the hospital, sitting at my bedside.  I'd almost forgotten.  Who was he?  And more importantly, what did he want from me..?                                                              And how did he know me?

                I shook it out of my mind and walked down the stairs to grab a bagel.  It was no use thinking about a boy who I was either most likely never going to see again or was a complete figment of my imagination.  I took little bites of my bagel and continued to stare off into space.

                "Am.  How are you doing today, hun?" Mom walked in from the family room. "First day back at school today!" She reminded me.

                "I'm fine, I guess..." I replied groggily. "Just a little tired."  She patted me on the back and walked away into the kitchen.  I moaned.  She'd been treating me like I was insane ever since I came home from the hospital.  Or like she was scared of me.  I slammed my hand down on the table.

                A spark.

I picked up my hand only to find a faint imprint of it on the wooden table.  I wiped at it but it wouldn't seem to come off.  I felt it with my other hand, and found it was warm; warmer than it should be.  I covered it up with a placemat and stuffed the rest of the bagel in my mouth trying to rationalize everything.  I ran upstairs and got ready as quickly as I could.  Maybe when I saw Jackson again, he'd cheer me up.  Make sense of things for me, maybe.  I put on some makeup, brushed down my bright red hair, threw on a sweatshirt and I was off to be humiliated.

                "Hey Amber.  You ready?" Jackson asked me as I reluctantly climbed into the passenger seat of his jeep. 

                "Yeah.  I don't think I would be if I didn't have you to convince me that I'm sane and that everyone else is crazy" I gave him a small smile.

                "Well alright then.  Let's go meet your fate."  And with that, we drove off toward Middleton High.

                Jackson put his arm around my shoulders as we walked through the doors of the large school building.  He knew what the reaction would be when I came back for the first time.  No doubt people had been talking, speculating, making up stories...  I wonder what conclusion they had come to.  As I walked slowly and cautiously into the office, the usual rumbling noises of high school students came to a quiet, accusing whisper.