Elementals

3

Rani

My hands are trembling as I turn on my pager. I've only been waiting for two days, but it's felt like a lifetime. I got two messages while I was waiting in my motel in Wyoming two mornings ago—the motel that is several hundred miles away, because I'm in Idaho now. In a few hours, I will be in Oregon.

Dr. Jansen didn't ask me to go to Oregon. I decided to do that myself. The video stressed me out too much, so much that I wasn't able to read the file attachments he sent after it. I printed them using the motel's printer and then destroyed the printer, but I haven't looked at the pages themselves. I know what they say, the video told me, but it isn't until now that I gather enough courage to look.

I take the three files and spread them on the coffee table. The first thing I notice is that they each have some of his handwriting, and then I notice the faces. Three of them, staring back at me. Jude, Taylor, Lana. Before reading any of them, I load up the video he sent to my pager, and my finger hovers over the play button. I've seen it three times already. A fourth won't change anything, but I press play anyway.

Dr. Jansen's face lights up the screen. He looks so tired, and it makes me sad. In that one week he helped me recover, he was bright. He smiled and encouraged me and I realized that, even though I hadn't known him long, I trusted him with my life. I've been waiting for almost three months for my pager to beep with the signal that it's time, and instead, he sent me this out of the blue.

"Rani," he says solemnly, the audio crackling a bit. "Things have gone wrong. Taylor, the fire Elemental, has become...volatile. I don't understand what's happened, but he's angry." He pauses, looking over his shoulder and into his house. The house. The one that I, and all of us, recovered in.

"I think he's coming for me."

I've heard him say that three times before, but this fourth still sends a chill down my spine.

"He's coming for me," Dr. Jansen repeats. "I don't know what he intends to do, but...he'll come for you next. All of you. He's no longer fit to lead you. He's no longer fit to do anything but be locked up. Please, Rani—it's up to you now. You have to save the others, I've sent you their names. Don't let him hurt you. Please—"

A noise shatters the background.

"He's here," Dr. Jansen says.

His eyes haunt me. I see the fear, the disbelief. Tears prick my eyes.

Dr. Jansen swallows and looks directly into the camera. "I don't know what I've done," he whispers. "I've only ever wanted you to succeed. If the Elementals are to be three, then so be it. If they are not meant to happen at all, then so be it. But whatever you do, Rani—stop him first."

The video cuts off there.

Jude, Taylor, Lana.

Taylor's name, I first heard in the video. A hell of an intro, I would say. Jude and Lana, it's right now, after reading these files, that I learn their names. I've been fantasizing about us for weeks. Four people gifted with some strange power, coming together to do some good. I didn't expect perfection, didn't expect everything to go smoothly, but I also didn't expect one of us to go batshit crazy before we ever got a chance to meet.

I read through their files quickly. It's only basic information and the addresses that Dr. Jansen sent them to. Jude, who is the Earth elemental, according to a sticky note, is an army-brat who never had a home longer than a year, but at the time of his accident, he was in New York state. Taylor is from Vermont. Lana, the air Elemental, is from Colorado. But now, Jude is in Washington, and Lana is in Georgia. I'm supposed to be in Wyoming, and Taylor is supposed to be in Michigan, but I doubt he's there.