Chapter Five

Chapter Five

I let out a small gasp, my eyes fixed in wonder at the water surrounding me. A small, tingling feeling has filled my entire body. I must not have noticed it earlier… I reach out to touch the water, but right as I do, it collapses upon me and slinks back into the river. I lift my head slightly to see Vex, Maryn, and Leon staring right back at me.

“Oh my gosh,” Vex breathes out, “You’re a water elementalist.”

Maryn starts turning around to the door, “I’m going to find Dad.”

She runs to the door and starts bolting down the hallway, disappearing out of my view. I don’t have a chance to ask her who her dad is. My mouth doesn’t seem to work, my surprise seemingly plugging my throat. All I can think is: They weren’t lying or trying to trick me. Magical powers actually exist… How can this be real?

I look down at my hands, slight tingling still left in my body. It feels so… natural. Like I was born knowing how to do this and never knew my potential. I space out slightly, just having no thoughts.

“Now do you believe me?” Leon whispers, his voice shaking from surprise.

I don’t answer, still staring silently at the ground. If they’re telling the truth about the powers, were they telling the truth about the war?

“You do know how rare this is, right?” Vex asks.

I look up at him, confused, “What do you mean?”

“Controlling the elements… It’s only ever happened twice in our history. One was an air elementalist, another an earth elementalist,” he says with wonder, gazing at me, “And now, I guess, you are the third.”

I look at him, surprise and confusion still swirling in my head.

He shakes his head, “Whoa, I sound like my dad�" Look, your power just isn’t ever seen. You got your powers, that’s all. Nothing special. The same as anybody else.”

I sigh and say with difficulty, “Look, no offense, but I really don’t want to talk right now. So…”

“Oh, yeah, no worries,” he says with a smirk, “I’ll leave you with your brother then. That’ll be a lot better if you’re not wanting to talk with people.”

I feel as if he stabbed me in the heart. Leon… I never did think about how I would continue with him. And… Leon was right. And I was wrong… Realization pulses through me as I try to think things through. How do I say that to my younger brother? That the sister he depends on… isn’t always right. I can see him barely shuffling in front of me, clearly uncomfortable. I need to say… well, something.

I look down shamefully and whisper, “I’m so sorry, Leon… I just… don’t know what to do. I know I’m not always right, and it’s very obviously apparent right now, but you have to understand: I don’t know what I’m doing either. I don’t know how I can lead you… I just have to choose something and hope that I was right. I can’t tell the difference between right or wrong anymore… all I can hope is that I roll the dice right. It’s a gamble with every decision I make… and somehow we’ve made it out so far. I just…” I take a deep breath, “I just hope you can forgive me. Because I don’t even know how I’ll deal with this now,” I look down at my hands, rubbing them softly, “These new powers that I have… I don’t even know what to think about them. Are they a danger to everyone? Or a blessing? I have so many thoughts swirling around my head and I just can’t think for what we should do next. I know just how much I lead you, Lemon, but�"”

A massive hug crushes me as Leon buries his head into my neck. Surprise and shock burn my eyes until I can’t see through the tears as I sit there, stunned.

“You’re perfect, Rose,” Leon whispers, “I know you don’t know everything, but I’m here for you. You don’t have to be sorry… for anything. I’m your brother, and we’ll work things out… together.”

Pure pride emanates from me as I hug him tighter. He’s right: We will make it through this. And I can still lead us. I just need to keep my head above the water. I take a shaky breath as I finally let go of him.

“Thanks, Lemon,” I smile, “I really needed that. More than you can ever know.”

He innocently smiles back at me, his blue eyes now shining in the light. How could I have never noticed how happy he is here? Not just being here… but being here with me?

He sits down beside me, “So… you can control water… that’s so cool�"”

I smile back, “Yeah? Did you end up finding your powers?”

His smile fades slightly and he looks away. Immediate shame fills me as I gaze at him.

“Oh, Leon,” I say, “It’s alright, you’ll get your powers another day�"”

He shakes his head, “No, no… It’s not that,” he takes a deep breath, “I… can read minds, apparently. I’m a telepath.”

“Leon… that’s amazing!!” I say with excitement and pride.

“It’s… really not that good. Definitely not as good as yours or Vex’s or Maryn’s…” he mumbles to himself.

“Of course it is,” I say with confusion, “Why would you think it’s not good?”

“It’s just stupid, that’s all,” he says quickly, not looking at me.

I’m about to argue when I hear the doors open and someone panting. I resist the urge to get up and run away, because I know who it is: Larry. At this point, I make up my mind that even if I still go with what this organization stands for, I’ll still hate him. I think practically everyone hates him.

He claps his hands, “Aha!! An elementalist. This’ll be fantastic for the army!”

I want to puke.

“Well, Miss Hicks, let’s see these powers!” he says with a huge smile that spans cheek to cheek.

Maryn frowns, “Dad, she just discovered them. She probably doesn’t even know how she did it�"”

“Nonsense,” he says, still wearing a big smile, “She can do it, can’t you Miss Hicks?”

Fear and embarrassment fill my cheeks as I try to hide my hatred for him. I just got these powers, what does he expect me to do?

He smile turns to a suspicious frown, “You can do it, can’t you? Maryn never disturbs me, especially when I’m working. This isn’t one of your generations’�" oh what’s the word�" pranks, right?”

“Of course I can,” I snap unwillingly.

“Well, then show me what you can do!” he laughs.

I take a frustrating sigh in. I fricking hate this guy. I turn toward the river, anger still filling me as I try to calm it down. If I can just prove to him I can do it, perhaps he’ll leave me alone. But he promised that last time, how can I trust him? And what if I can’t do it? What will he do to me if he doesn’t believe that I can do it?

Shut up. Just… concentrate. I take a deep breath, then move my hand toward the water.

Author's Note

LOOK LOOK IK IK--

Yall are gonna get mad bc this is really short, like REALLY SHORT

Just shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-h

... okay?

I PROMISE ILL WRITE MORE DONT COME AFTER ME--