Julia Lelieveld and the battle with the underworld

~11~

And before I looked up I knew who it was. The bad feeling in my stomach told me that. It was Lucas. I looked at him, his gaze was unfathomable. I didn't know what had happened yesterday. Perhaps his father had been right that he was changing. Yet somehow my fighting spirit came out when I was with him. The hatred I had against him.

The elevator started moving, but before we were even one floor up, the lights flashed and the elevator shook for a moment.

My instincts were on edge, what happened? But before I could answer that myself, the elevator stopped and the lights and the wrong music went out. The emergency lighting shone a gloomy light in the elevator. Shit, this sucked.

There I was, stuck in the elevator. That precisely the power went out while Lucas and I were in the elevator.

Lucas walked to the control panel and pressed the yellow button with a bell on it.

Nothing.

This one didn't even work. Then it would be a major power outage. Lucas slammed the control panel hard, perhaps hoping it would suddenly work. But alas, the lights stayed off. I saw him look annoyed. He reached into his pockets and sat against the back wall of the elevator.

I took out my cell phone to see if I had coverage, I was afraid of that. No network.

I followed Lucas' lead and sat down. Because of the small space our feet almost touched. I moved a little to the side so that I would be as far away from him as possible. Not that it mattered much, there was barely a foot between us.

I looked at Lucas, he was staring straight ahead. He seemed very concentrated.

I wondered what was on his mind.

I still couldn't understand how bad he was. How it had flipped so terribly the moment I could control the fifth element.

We clicked before then. I had even felt good with him at times. Especially when Eva had had her practice match and I was left alone in the gym, after a day full of events and emotions. One day Sandra confronted me with Mom's death and Dad's work. That Officer Jerry told me about the gangs and that I had a fight with Dad. When Lucas had comforted me in the empty gym and at that moment it felt so damn good. I still didn't understand. Now all I felt was disgust for him. He had unceremoniously pushed me off the roof. He enjoyed someone else's misery and pain.

And now I was locked in the elevator with him. I felt the anger begin to grow in my chest again. How my heart started beating faster and my breathing became heavier. Unconsciously I tightened my jaw. My hands clenched into fists.

I tried to look at my lap to calm down. I still found it hard to have these hateful feelings, but I couldn't stop them.

"I won't hurt you," Lucas said through clenched teeth.

I looked at him vigorously and said, "I'm not afraid you'll do something, I'm afraid I want to hurt you."

He looked at me inquiringly.

"How ironic, then you know how I always feel when I'm around you. And since that is very often..." And he shrugged.

"Why are you making it so hard on yourself? You really don't have to be around me that often," I said irritatedly.

He let out a sarcastic laugh. "As if it were that easy."

I looked at him uncomprehendingly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that my feelings are very intense, despite my feeling of wanting to destroy you, I can't stay away from you. You are like a magnet, I am drawn to you and when I am not around you I somehow feel incomplete. Some sick side effect of an e-warrior not allowed to destroy his prey, which is ordered by the Evil of Evil."