I close my eyes, and focus all of my inner being on this one task. I must become one with the blanket, or flesh-eating zombie grass will devour me in my sleep.
Or so Cooper tells me.
We'd found out his element was plants not long after we'd discovered my own. He'd tripped over his own feet, but been saved from a face-plant in dirt when a tree root grabbed him by the ankle.
"Hurry up!" Cooper yells. "We don't have much time!"
"I'm hurrying!" I yell. "This is harder than it looks, y'know!"
"Try harder!" Cooper yells.
"I'm trying harder!" I yell back. I squeeze my eyes shut, and Cooper uses a feather to tickles my nose. I sneeze and fly about ten feet up in the air, but the blanket doesn't move.
Cooper looks at his watch. "Well, you have about thirty seconds before the flesh-eating zombie grass devours you in your sleep," he says with a sigh.
"No!" I yell. "I shall never sleep!"
"I'll knock you out," Cooper offers.
"Never!" I yell, and I stick out my tongue. When I open my eyes, all I see is a blade of grass in front of my face. I scream and run away, and it follows me, growing taller with every step I take. It grows to about fifteen feet before collapsing on top of me, and I scream even louder.
"Strike three, you're out," Cooper says. He laughs and helps me to my feet. "Ready to try again? Remember, this time it's flesh-eating zombie cactus."
"No!" I yell. "Not the cactus!"
Cooper laughs. "Yep," he says, "the cactus. With thorns."
"Not thorns!" I yell. Cooper laughs and a cactus rises out of the ground. I scream and begin to run away, but a thorn pokes my side and I scream. I run over to the blanket and stand on it, but it doesn't budge.
I scream as the cactus descends upon me, waiting for the thorns to sink into my body, but no pain comes. I open my eyes and look up at the now-wilted cactus.
"What just happened?" Cooper asks, confused. "It just... died."
I tilt my head. "Maybe my awesomeness killed it," I suggest.
"I don't think—," Cooper begins, but another voice interrupts his own.
"Where is Robin Green?"
I turn towards the sound of the voice, but see no one. "Who's there?" I ask. "Show yourself!" Then I quickly add, "But don't attack! Please don't attack!"
The person laughs. The laugh sends shivers down my spine—it's dark and, well, it just sounds evil. Like the laugh of a sociopathic killer. (Sorry, John.)
"Answer my question," the voice repeats, and all of a sudden I feel a hand grip my neck. Tightly.
"What the heck!" Cooper yells. "Who are you? Who do you think you are? Let him go!"
"Answer," the voice growls, tightening the hold on my neck, "my question!"
"No!" Cooper yells. "It's none of your business! We aren't selling out our friend!" Angered, he quickly points at a nearby tree and sends it flying at the source of the voice.
I gasp as it withers away and dies immediately, right before my very own eyes.
Cooper's mouth drops open. "Oh, crap." He looks over at me and says, "This isn't good, Jamal. I think this guy's dangerous."
"Ya don't say?" I squeak. I realize that Cooper called him a guy, and add, "I mean, he is choking me right now!"
I feel the boy/man/male tighten his grip on my neck, and I gasp for air. "This is your last chance," he says. "Otherwise, this kid dies."
Cooper looks at me for help, but of course, I have none. So he just sighs and says, "Robin was taken by the government men."
The hand around my neck releases its grip, and I run over to Cooper. I turn around to see a boy of seventeen or eighteen years of age glaring at us. He wears a leather jacket and black jeans. On the leather jacket's left breast pocket is embroidered a small skull.
"Why no crossbones?" I ask, pointing at the skull. "Why just a skull?"
"Death is a strange thing," the boy murmurs, ignoring me. "To enter it, it's like a snap of your fingers. To exit, another must die for you. A life for a life."
"I didn't know that you could exit death," I say, confused.
The boy smiles. "It's easier to just avoid it," he says simply. The he adds, "Although, I am tired of only bringing destruction and sorrow." He looks into my eyes and I almost scream; his eyes are pitch-black, glazed over, and have no pupils. Or would it be no irises? He laughs at my reaction, and then runs his fingers through his shaggy, filthy black hair.
"You look like you came back from the dead yourself," Cooper mumbles. "Why the heck do you want to know where Robin is, anyways?" he asks.
"When you die, your elements are absorbed into the earth," the boy says, ignoring Cooper's question. "Then, that same day you die, the exact second after you die, another person is born that controls the fallen element." He asks me, "How many Light Elements are there?"
I think before replying with, "Six."
The boy nods. "Good," he says, "and how many Dark Elements?"
I tilt my head. "Dark Elements?" I ask. "Robin said that there were only six elements, though."
The boy cackles. "There's only six Light Elements," he tells me. "The good elements that bring health, technology, light, love, and joy." He grins, and then he says, "Then there are the Dark Elements. There are two: Necromancy, and Spirits. Can you guess which I am?"
I think before answering, and then I reply with, "Necromancy. You drained the plant's life force."
The boy nods. "Good," he says. "Except, Robin can control all of the Light Elements, correct?"
"Yeah," I reply.
"Well, I'm like a dark Robin," he explains, "because I can control all of the Dark Elements." Then he looks off into the distance and says, "I have to go, a child just died."
"What?" I ask. "How do you know that?"
The boy ignores me and says, "I will be back; I can't let them kill Robin. She's going to stay with me." He begins to run off, and adds ominously, "I'm not going to live alone for another century. She will die and stay with me. She's the closest thing to family that I have left."
As he runs off, Cooper whistles. "He's a creep," he says, clearing everything up with those three words. Then a big, girly smile crosses his face as he says, "But he's a hot creep."
I laugh. "I knew you were gay, Cooper!" I say, patting him on the back.
Cooper grins. "Now," he says, "back to the cactus."
I moan. "Not the cactus again," I beg.
Cooper laughs. "Yep," he says. "Now, make that blanket fly, or suffer thorny pain."
"No thorny pain!" I yell. "I'll make it fly! I will! I will!"
"You can do it!" Cooper yells.
"I can do it!" I yell at the top of my lungs.
I run full speed at the blanket, giving my all...
...and trip over a root, face-planting into a cactus.
"Damn you, Cooper!"
The sound of Cooper's hysterical laughter fills the air. He points at the blanket and says, "Well, it worked."
I look to my left to see the blanket hovering inches off of the ground.
"Well," I sigh, "at least that's a start."
Cooper smiles. "Ready?" he asks.
"Oh, no," I moan. "Here we go again."