The Elementals (18 page)

           
They both ran forth, but Bryne shoved her backwards, his hand colliding with her shoulder shoving her roughly to the ground. "Stay here," he yelled, kicking in the door and disappearing into the curling fumes.

           
Her tail bone throbbed and there was contusion forming on her hit shoulder. She stood, every bit of her wanting to run in after him, but who could control fire better than fire? Then the old age saying came to mind: "can't fight fire with fire."

           
As she went to go in, Bryne came running out, Era slung over his shoulder, her arms over her head, her beautiful white hair waving. She was passed out. He set her gently on the grass.

           
"Where's Marissa?!"

           
"I couldn't find her, I'll go….Terra! STOP! DON'T, YOU IDIOT!"

           
She was sprinting inside, the smoke embracing her like a see-through cloak. The kitchen was in flames, the ceiling charred, the far part of the living room, the couch, and the television engulfed in orange and red. She rushed up the stairs.

           
"Marissa? Marissa?"

           
No one answered. She looked into her bedroom, but no one was there, and if her heart hadn't been beating hard enough it did twice the work now. She checked the bathroom, Era's room, her own bedroom. There was no sign of her, but she wasn't leaving. Not without her. Terra thought hard as to where Marissa could have went off to.

           
"Issa? Where are you?" Terra's keys jangled in her hand. She tossed them on the coffee table, and searched the small apartment they lived in. She peeked into the four extra rooms. "Issa, this isn't funny. Where are you at?"

           
"Here," her muted voice called.

           
She followed the sound to Marissa's bedroom where she saw an arm sticking out from under her bed. Terra got down on her stomach and shifted underneath, a few springs catching her hair, but she saw Marissa, her head buried in the underside of her elbow. A glimmer showed that she was crying.

           
"What's wrong?"

           
"I hate school."

           
"We can home school you if you like. Era can help teach you. We can set it up."

           
"I want friends, Terra, that's what I want. Why can't we be normal?"
           
"Because... This is our fate, I suppose."

           
"Can't we change?"

           
"I'm sorry, no." She put an arm over her, kissing her hair. "It'll be fine, you'll see. At least we have each other. Even if the rest of the world doesn't understand, your family does."

           
She nodded, sniffing.

           
"There, there."

           
She hurried back into Marissa's bedroom and crawled under the bed. She saw her there, coughing up a fit, her sunglasses crooked on her face. The creaking underneath them suggested that they didn't have long. Marissa's bedroom was directly over the charred ceiling below.

           
"Come here."

           
Marissa took her hand, slick with sweat, and the creaking was groaning, snapping, louder than before. Desperately she tugged off her Amber necklace, swinging it over her sisters head and tucking it in her shirt. "Hold tight to that," she ordered, trying to heave her out in time.

           
However, they ran out and the boards snapped from under them, and they fell. Terra grabbed her, holding her against her chest as they plummeted to the fires below. Marissa screamed into her ear and Terra hoped that the Amber would work, for she had never loaned it to anyone else.

           
They smashed against the wood, the flames tasting their flesh, but Terra pushed out and gold surrounded them. The fire did not hurt, it did not burn, and she worried. What if the Amber didn't work for Marissa as it had for her? What if her powers couldn't protect anyone else? She had never tried before...

           
Bryne had entered the inferno, taking Marissa from her arms. "Terra? Are you okay?"

           
She jerked her head in recognition and ran with him outside, Marissa coughing wildly into her fist. The cold air brushed against Terra, waking her to the event she had just experienced, to the reality that her home was crashing down. Literally.

           
Era was sitting up, the collar of her shirt over her nose as she watched the fire. When Marissa was laid next to her, their hands found one another's and held tightly. Era positioned the glasses better on her, shielding her from the setting sun.

           
Terra stood in the driveway, resentment filling her. She had a house she could call a home, and it was typical in her life for it to be taken away. It wasn't fair. Everyone said life wasn't so, but shouldn't some things be? What kind of life would they have, if they could not find peace and rest? Were they the heroes doomed to die so others could live? The humans wouldn't acknowledge that their existence had been saved.

           
It was all made so perfectly clear. Nothing would ever be the same again, not until they did what they had to do. The prophecy wasn't an old man's game; it wasn't a simple quest for power. For the first time, she saw what real danger to her family was. It wasn't a friend dying, it was hitting closer to home, to the people most precious to her that were inside. The cactus that was the one thing aside from her gemstone necklace that went from house to house with her, granted that it was only a couple things, it was a lot considering that nothing stayed around for long. That cactus had to be gone by then, ate by the flames.

           
“We have to get out of here,” Terra said, noting that Era was cupping her hands over her ears, a sign that the ambulance was coming.

           
“The school,” Marissa told them. “He's there. I can feel it.”

           
“And you couldn't feel him about to set the house on fire,” Bryne asked.

           
“I was asleep...” A blush sneaked over her cheeks.

           
"You couldn't
see
it?"

           
"It doesn't always work to my advantage!"

           
“We have to go now.” Terra interrupted and helped Era and Marissa to their feet, and they piled into the car. Far in the distance Terra saw the revolving red and white lights of the ambulance, the sound slowly dying. With Era still crying from the noise from the sirens, Terra sped up to get further away..

"Grandma," Bryne stole her attention. "We have to know what the prophet said. You need to tell us ALL of it."

           
The road flew fast, the houses and cows, and horses. By all rights, the night should have moved just as fast, but it dragged on.

           
"So you're a healer and protector?" Bryne seemed amused by that. "It explains why there's no burn on you. Hell, it'd explain simply why you're alive. No one should have survived that." There was a tad edge to his tone, and Terra knew that he was thinking of his family. "Sorry," he corrected, realizing his mistake.

           
"Don't be."

           
"I am glad you're alive."

           
Marissa took the necklace off handing it back to her. "Thank you."

           
"You're my sister," she grinned at her from the front seat. "It's my job."

           
"Where are we going," Era asked.

           
"To Bryne's apartment," Marissa answered. "The other one. He has one closer to the city. The house we were all at was the one he lived in by himself. We'll get to meet his grandmother tonight."

           
Bryne glared into the review mirror at her. "Now you're deciding to be a prophet too?"

           
She blushed. "Life is short."

           
"That'll get annoying," he mumbled to himself.

           
Era idly fiddled with her Green Aventurine pendant. "May I ask you a question, Bryne?"

           
"Shoot."

           
"If your grandmother is ill, who has been taking care of her?"

           
"A member of the Kin. His name is Erick. I'll tell him his services aren't necessary when we get there."

           
A memory, faded like a photograph came to Terra. She remembered a few Kin at her house when her mother passed on. It was the duty of the clan to take care of each other. It felt odd to her, misplaced. The Kin wasn't her family, no matter what Aunt Gwen said. All she wanted was to keep her sister close to her. They needed one another, no one else. That was, until they found Era and then finally Bryne.

           
They pulled over a bridge into lined and sectioned apartments. The buildings were white brick with a roof that was a dark reddish hue. They all looked the same, worse than the cookie cutter country houses that Terra was actually beginning to be fond of. Out of her window she saw a deep crevice and rushing water. A duck wadded in the water, kicking its orange feet to the surface. That brought Terra a small amount of joy.

           
Parked between a truck and old-school Volkswagen (including the dashboard yellow daisy), they exited. Bryne strolled right on in the door ahead of them without so much as knocking or fetching a key from his pocket. His plaid shirt flapping in the wind that blew past them with great force.

           
Inside it was half the size of their house; a pile of ashes and simmering wood. There was a counter sectioning off the kitchen from the living room. There was a fold out couch, a wrinkled and tossed blanket and pillows scattered on it. In the kitchen, cleaning the last dish was a tall skinny fellow, slicked back reddish brown hair, round glasses tipped to his elongated nose. He looked as though he'd be a feature on the Teach Geek magazine.

           
"Hey, Erick. Are you done here?"

           
"Sure. Been a while since I've seen you man. How's it going?" He gave a big smile to the girls. "Who's your fan club?"

           
"Terra, Era, Marissa," he waved to them dully.

           
"Terra and Era? Is that supposed to be a joke?"

           
"Are you," Bryne snapped in a defensive nature.

           
Erick held up his hands in surrender, the dish towel dripping in a steady cadence. "Sorry. Your grandmother is in the bedroom, think she's been waiting up for you, knew you'd be coming sometime soon. You're overdue."

           
"Thanks. You're dismissed."

           
"Don't need my help anymore? I can send….”

           
"You're dismissed."

           
He squeaked, all three of the girls heads turning in his direction, ceasing their inspection of their new home. He turned beat red and threw the towel on the flat gray counter before rushing out of there. Era sneezed in his passing.