Mitch's P.O.V.
I smiled as the vines crawled along the leafy ground towards my outstretched arms, twining themselves around my fingers and sneaking up my forearm. I would never get over the fact that life could bend to my will, that I could control anything that had life running through it.
I would never forget the times I lost control, the times I lost it and instead of controlling life, I ended it. I knew that while I was life, I could also be death.
Jerome watched from where he was sitting, few metres above me in a tree. He was phasing in and out of my view as he manipulated the shadows around him until he completely disappeared from sight, the only hint that he was there was a slight wavering of the air, like the air about the road when it's too hot.
"You ready to keep moving Mitch?" Jerome asked, fading back into view. I nodded and dropped the vines reluctantly. I didn't want to keep moving, I didn't want to be on the move, I wanted to settle down somewhere where I was safe. But I couldn't.
You see, both Jerome and I were wanted fugitives, not because of anything we had done, but who we were. You see both Jerome and I were elementals, who occurred in about 1 in 1000 humans, who all had control over a certain element.
Some elements were rarer than others, the most common ones were the ones you heard about all the time, air, water, fire, earth, those sorts of things and the rarest were life and death. I was life.
Because of that I had been aggressively hunted ever since the government found out about my power, there had only been 5 known people with life powers so I knew they wanted to study me, harvest my powers for their own agenda.
Jerome was a shadow, one of the rarer elements, he could manipulate the way people saw the light and could completely hide himself, others or objects from view. His power was similar to light, but where light could create large blasts of white light for defense, he could completely blind people permanently by filling their eyes with shadows. His actions could only be reversed by himself.
Because of our powers we couldn't live in normal society, not when our faces were plastered all over wanted posters in every village, wanted for murder even though we had never killed anyone. It was just a tactic to get everyone scared of us because almost no one knew about elementals, we were the best kept secret by the government other than the killings of hundreds of us because we were a 'threat' to society.
"I guess." I muttered, standing up from the ground. Jerome landed with a thud beside me, reaching out his arms in the offer of a hug. I took it and he squeezed me tightly, whispering comfortingly into my ear.
"I know you don't want to keep going Mitch but we have to, we're almost to the border and if we cross it hopefully we'll be able to start anew, where people don't know who we are." I sighed but nodded, rubbing my eyes tiredly.
There was nowhere in the world where we could be completely safe, every single place that we knew of hunted any elementals down, but if there was a place where we weren't known then maybe we could start over.
"We'll get there one day, I promise, just like a promised you when we were 10." He brushed some of the hair out of my eyes. "We're so close Mitch, just hang on."
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Jerome's hand brushed mine, a symbol of reassurance as we desperately waited for a moment to sneak across the border. It was heavily guarded, armed patrols going by every 10 minutes or so, but the biggest problem was there was no cover at all on the other side.
There was cover on our side, thick layers of undergrowth and trees that was perfect cover for our dark clothes and dirt stained skin. We would have to wait for night, the darkness would give us cover and I was too exhausted to make the dash.
We would have to sprint several hundred metres, climb an 8 foot high wall and then sprint for even longer to the forest probably a kilometre away on the other side of the border, our only chance of escape. It was only midday, we had arrived earlier than expected, so Jerome pulled me close.
"Sleep for a little bit Mitch, I'll wake you in a few hours." I nodded and settled down with my head on his back, his arm securely around my waist, ready for when he woke me.
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Time dragged on slowly and Jerome got a quick cat nap in while the sun set. I noticed that the patrols become more sparse as night fell and told Jerome when he woke up, they went from one every 10 minutes to one every half hour and then, as darkness completely took over, they spread out to one every hour.
Around 11, we didn't have an exact time, Jerome tugged on my hand, pulling me out of the undergrowth just as a patrol disappeared from our sight. I reckoned we had about half an hour to be out of sight, but we had to run at least a kilometres and climb the wall, which had barbed wire on top.
"Run Mitch!" He hissed. "Run!"
We scrambled the hundred metres to the wall, my legs weak from the hours I had spent lying on the ground. At the wall I desperately scrabbled for something to grab onto but there was nothing, nothing to pull myself up with.
"Boost me up Mitch, I'll pull you up afterwards." I did as he asked, giving him a leg up until he was standing on the top of the wall, his legs either side of the barbed wire.
He leaned down and took my hands, pulling me up while I tired to help in any way possible. At the top he jumped off the other side, gesturing for me to jump with no words, all the while holding his arms out to tell me that he'd catch me if I fell.
I landed right in his arms and he took my hand again, setting off at a running pace, our goal in the distance. This was the scariest part, where we were most likely to get caught, where we were most exposed.
My heart was pounding in my chest and my breathing was heavy and hard, panicked, as was Jerome's. We were only fifty metres away from the wall when Jerome stopped.
"I can-" He puffed, "I can manipulate the shadows but if we run... if we run I won't be able to hold it for long and it'll be obvious, the air will ripple." I nodded, panting. "If we walk it'll be easier, but if someone looks twice then we're screwed."
"Easier- if we run, get further away faster." I panted, not wanting to stop.
"Go then." He urged me on, the air rippling around us as he struggled to hold it up while we moved so much. Slowly the forest came closer and closer until I could almost touch it and then both of us dived into the cover, scrambling into the undergrowth so we were hidden.
We both lay on our backs, panting and gasping for air, relishing in the fact that we had made it across the border.
"We did it." Jerome gasped. "We really did it. We're safe."
He leaned over and kissed me, his lips chapped and dry but full of relief and love.
"Thank God." I mumbled. "We made it."
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I splashed the cool river water into my face, grinning as Jerome flicked a fist full at me. I was clean and warm for once in my life, living comfortably in a small cottage in the middle of the woods where we could live in peace.
We had set up a small business in a town far away from the border, saying we had come from a border town but had fled because of violence after people began asking about our accents.
Jerome sold firewood and became a carpenter and I found odd jobs from the townspeople, becoming a sort of travelling healer after they found out about my knowledge of herbs and plants. It meant a lot of people were in debt to us because of my knowledge, which would be useful if they ever found out about our powers.
"Jerome!" I shrieked as the cold water went down my neck and he laughed at me. "You asshole!"
He just laughed at me, flicking some more water at me. I grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the water, but this meant I pulled him on top of me and he grinned at me. His hands were rough and callous as he pulled me into a sitting position, practically sitting on my lap to stop me from moving.
"Am I an asshole?" He raised an eyebrow. "Am I really?"
He was teasing me and I knew it, so I shoved his chest.
"Yes! You are an asshole!" All that did was got him to start tickling me, his fingers digging into my ribs and his lips blowing raspberries into my neck. I shrieked and he tackled me back onto the ground, planting kisses on my neck and on my face.
"Am I an asshole now?" He teased, pinning my arms up above my head.
"Yes you are!" I tried to fight my way out but because he was so much stronger and that little bit heavier than me I eventually gave up, pouting at him until he let me go.
He leaned down and kissed me, his elbows either side of my head, capturing my lips in a long and passionate kiss. I kissed back fiercely, my arms reaching up to wrap around the back of his neck and my back arched a little.
When we pulled back both of us were bright red, from my ears all the way to the tip of my nose and Jerome was much the same, but he was still grinning at my embarrassment. He kissed my nose before helping me up into a sitting position.
"You're still an asshole." I muttered, leaning up against him. He squeezed my waist, pressing the light kiss to my cheek.
"I know." He smiled, smirking a little. "But you love me."
"Yeah." I sighed. "I do."
"Good, cause I love you too." I leaned back and listening to the gurgling of the river while I played with some flowers that were growing by the riverbank, making them grow up to tickle Jerome's feet. He grinned, plucking one up, a brilliant blue one, and pushing it behind my ear.
"I hope we won't have to live life in the shadows anymore." I said.
"We won't Mitch, I promised all those years ago that we'd live free and I don't plan on breaking that promise. I'll be with you through everything, no matter what." I smiled.
"And I'll always be here too."