The Freaks: Chapter 8 - Elina and I

James and Elina share a bit of their past with each other while James becomes more familiar with his powers.

Chapter 8

Elina and I

 

 

 

 

 

 

James

 

 

 

 

 

Several trees, rocks, sticks, and branches dashed towards me through the air. I stood there, on the opened door at the back of the jet, which was still flying over dense forests and rolling hills, charging my powers.

 

Isaac had finally decided it was time to train me into using my abilities. Or retrain me as he had said. Apparently I had been trained before, along with all the other Freaks. Isaac said that retraining would be easier than my first training, since I knew how use my powers, I just couldn't remember it. And he was right. It was easy. Almost natural.

 

Before the trees, rocks, and other objects even got close to the jet, I shot several bolts of blue lightning from my palms. The lightning bolts struck each object, shattering it, deflecting it, burning it, or completely disintegrating it. Not a single twig was left remaining in the air.

 

"Nice," Isaac said from behind me. Elina looked at me, a little disheartened that she could not get one of the objects she had control over to survive my attack.

 

She wore one of the armored outfits we'd all gotten earlier. Her outfit had purple lines running down the length of the arms and legs. She had washed up well while in the bathroom. The grime scrubbed clean from her skin, her blond hair combed - (and I had no idea where she would have found anything to comb with) - perfectly. Not even one bar of soap and a sink could stop a girl from cleaning herself like her life depended on it.

 

I, however, had tried washing up myself, but I was no where as clean as Elina. The one bar of soap had been nearly used completely up by the time I got in there. The rag that was left for me to use was torn in several places. But enough of that. I was as clean as I cared for being.

 

The armored outfit wasn't as uncomfortable as I had expected. It fit nicely and actually felt pretty good. I had chosen to wear the outfit with the blue lines running down the arms and legs. I figured it fit my blue lightning bolts.

 

"Again," Isaac told Elina. She looked over the side of the ramp, found a couple of objects to use her telekinesis on, and snatched them from the ground and into the air with a wave of her hands. Trees were uprooted, more this time, and several boulders shot upwards like missiles.

 

"I won't hold back this time," she told me.

 

I grinned and nodded. "Didn't you say that last time?" She smirked and pulled her hands back. The dozens of objects flew towards us at a very high speed. The jet was flying, on auto-pilot, easily over a hundred miles per hour, and the objects Elina was controlling were catching up with us. I spread my legs shoulder's width and tensed my muscles.

 

Breathe in.

 

Make eye contact with each target. Charge electricity within me, as I had done so many times before, even though I couldn't remember. Instinctively. Like breathing. It just happened. No commands. It just came.

 

Thrust hands out, shooting twenty or thirty bolts of blinding lightning bolts from my palms. Explosions ring through the air, each target being obliterated. Shrapnels from the destroyed objects fell to the ground hundreds of feet below.

Breathe out.

 

"Let me guess," I said to Elina as we both watched the debris fall from the sky, "You were holding back?" I looked over at her and jokingly smiled. I couldn't help but feel open and wonderful when we were together. It was like she was my best friend. Maybe she was. I just couldn't remember. Whatever the reason, my brain knew her very well. But that knowledge was buried deep inside an abyss in my lost mind.

 

"Yes," she said with no tone of a joke in her voice. "Actually I was."

 

"Well done, James," Isaac said, patting me on the shoulder. "I knew it would come natural to you since you've done this plenty of times before."

 

"Thanks. It was fairly easy actually." Isaac nodded and patted me on the back once again.

 

"Yes, well," Isaac began, "I better go make sure Mike and the others aren't killing each other." He grinned and made his way up the opening ramp and into the interior of the jet. Elina and I both watched him go.

 

I couldn't help but wonder: "So...are we like...friends?" She raised an eyebrow and looked at me with eyes that were curious.

 

"You mean before you lost your memory?"

 

"Yes." Obviously. She swayed on her feet and looked around, as if the answer were floating in the air and she was trying to read it.

 

"Yes. I guess you could say we were." She glanced up at me and gave a slight grin. No emotion in the grin. Just a grin.

 

I nodded and replied: "Well then, I'll pretend like we're still friends." She smiled.

 

Before she could reply, I blurted out something I'd been wanting to say for hours.

 

"Tell me what you know about me." She sighed, clearly not wanting to go into the subject but decided to answer anyway.

 

"Your name is James Connor. You never told me your middle name. You're seventeen years old. You grew up in a small town in Ohio, I believe you said." She paused for a second and then continued: "You're an orphan."

 

I had spent much of the spare time I had to think thinking about who my parents were. It was odd, not knowing your family. Who were they? What were they like? Did they love me? Did I love them? Then Elina told me I was an orphan and it was all crushed. A dream shattered by the buzzing of an alarm clock.

 

But I did not feel sorrow or grief. The lack of emotions is what caught my attention most. No sadness filled me. I felt nothing. But then again, why should I feel sad? It would be like someone crying over the death of their parents when their parents died when they were too young to even remember them. I could not feel despair for something...someone...I could not even remember.

 

"They were killed in a car accident," Elina interrupted my thoughts. She looked at me, most likely thinking I was being torn apart by the news.

 

I assurred her I was not getting depressed with a smile. A very half-hearted smile.

 

"Did I ever say anything about them?" I asked. We began walking back into the inside of the jet side by side. Isaac must have known we were entering for the ramp behind us began to slowly close.

 

"No," Elina said. "You said they died when you were just an infant. Too young to remember them." That somehow made me feel better. Even if I hadn't lost my memory I still would not have remembered my parents.

 

I could tell Elina was a bit uncomfortable telling me this information, so I changed the subject: "What about you?"

 

The ramp behind us closed shut. Instead of walking further down and into the chaos of Peter, Mike, and Hector, we stopped walking and faced each other.

 

"What about me?" she asked, her arms crossed.

 

"What's your 'life's story?'" I said, making air quotation marks with my fingers while saying "life's story."

 

She sighed, almost grinned, and said, "Average family. Not too rich, not too poor. On vacation to the beach and I got kidnapped. Met you on a ship. We were transformed. Sold to warlord. You were almost brain-washed. You know the rest." She then raised the corner of her lips into a slight grin and said,"By the way, I saved you from the brain-washing part."

 

"With help from Damion, right?" I said jokingly, spoiling her moment of heroism.

 

"Like he could actually help do anything."

 

"He took down the brick wall. He held back the Tornado guy. He fought off several of the soldiers." She bit her lip and slouched on one leg, her hip leaning out.

 

"Yeah," she said. "But I blocked the bullets. I...well, I..."

 

"You..?"

 

"Shut up," she said, faking aggrevation. I smiled and chuckled a bit.

 

"Well," I began, "I saved you from a guy about to put one of the crowns on your head."

 

She gazed at me, her eyes still sparkling like a million stars embedded within their ocean of blue, and took a deep breath.

 

"Whatever," she said, the slightest hint of a grin forming around the corners of her mouth.

 

Suddenly, a female voice, the type on GPS's and such, came on to the speaker and said:

 

"Destination arrival time: Approximately thirty minutes."

 

 

 

 

 

***

Elizabeth

 

 

 

 

 

I woke up, slowly, unsure of anything. It was dark, but I was conscious. Then came a dim light, seemingly miles away. It grew larger, brighter over the course of several minutes, which felt like hours. When the light became unbearably bright, surrounding me in a shroud of white, my surroundings came into view.

 

I was strapped down, unable to move a muscle. A large, white room with a dome ceiling surrounded me. The needle on the mechanical arm was pulling away from me, dripping blood. My mind was hazy. Foggy. Confused.

 

A man appeared before me. He was covered in shadows. His voice came out slow and grudgingly. I was not all there, I knew.

 

"Who is your master?" the man asked. His voice was slow and deep. It was just my mind playing tricks on me.

 

"What have they done to me?" I thought.

 

Then something strange happened. I answered the man without trying to.

 

"Professor Uklaime Berrand." My voice escaped me unwillingly, startling me. I couldn't control it.

 

"Yes. Good," the man said. His voice became quicker and not as deep. The fog in my head was beginning to clear. The man continued: "And what is your life's purpose?"

 

"Saving all humanity." I didn't mean to say it. I wanted to cry and scream out, hoping I could atleast control my emotions. But I couldn't. I was trapped in my own body, unable to do anything but hear myself speak words I was not intentionally saying.

 

"And how will you do that?" the man asked.

 

"Destruction." The man seemed to smile and nod. He began unstrapping me.

 

No, not me. My body. I was locked away, imprisoned within my own mind and body. I was being controlled by someone...something.

 

I sat up without trying. I stood without meaning to.

 

I smiled with no happiness within me whatsoever.

Author's Note

Bit more of James' past, some of Elina's, and a new beginning for Elizabeth.
Review?

Reviews

[BabyBluee]

wow I loove the ending "I smiled with no happiness in me" this is such a unique story line Im amazed with every chapter u truely have a gift for writing Blake : )

[CHRIS ANDES]

alot of questions in my head, you done well!!..

[halflives]

Holy shizzle. That was, like, awesome.

I loved the "I stood without meaning to" part. Especially the last line. Great work.

More. Now.

[~Lizzy♬]

Oh my! Well, I wonder what will happen next. Well done! You're doing great!!! I love the plot line and the progression of it. The characters are extremely dynamic and I'm a fan of Elina. xD We've already discussed the characters Elina and James.

~Lizzy~