The Elements

Chapter 11 - The Second Attack

Darkness. It surrounded me, engulfed me, wrapped me. Even as this continued, I knew it was not going to bring me back to the library. All I could do was hope for the best.

And anyways, where were all the weird floating-around colours? But I thought that too early. As I watched, the colours reappeared, and covered everything I could see. The next moment, the colours seemed to move around, then they formed a weird picture — or as close to a picture as it could get. I could almost feel some heat from the screen radiating onto me. I saw a blurry image of a toddler — or maybe not — who was walking — no, tripping — her way across the wooden-tiled floor. There was a door in front of her — wooden again — and she pushed it. Before I could see more, the screen started glitching again. She picked something up, and light filled the screen. I closed my eyes, and when I reopened them, I saw a blurry nothing. But I heard some background noises.

"Wait — "

"Stop — "

"Where is she?" Two voices rang. One female, one male. They sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place them. Then the screen crackled, and the colours disappeared. I felt something. There was a gust of air behind me, and then I got pushed out — like, literally, out. I felt like I was rolling out of a ball, and then the light, once again, blinded me.

I landed on a soft carpet. I quickly pushed myself up and dusted myself, then looked around. To my extreme relief, I was back in the library.

My footsteps echoed down a corridor of books. I tried to find the girls, but they refused to appear. As if they suddenly turned invisible or something.

"There you are!" Aura's voice came from behind me. I jumped and turned around, meeting air, which suddenly became Aura again. So they did turn invisible after all.

"I don't know what's happening," Aura said. To my surprise, she suddenly disappeared, then reappeared again. Then her eyes grew wide in shock. "Look!"

I whipped around, and saw a bookshelf in hungry flames. Smoke billowed through the air. The bookshelf dissolved into dust as if it was made of sand, and a naughty boy just destroyed it. "What — " Then Amber came out, shouting.

"What's happening? I thought it was only you, Aura..." Amber pointed at the fire. "I can't stop it, and I don't know how it started either!" Then below her feet, flames erupted again. Scared, I took a few steps backward — and knocked straight into Aura, who solidified right behind me.

"Guys, can you explain what's happenn — aah!" I felt something lift me out of the ground. What the — ? I looked down, and saw a thick stem. Then I realised I was sitting on flower petals — gigantic ones. Below me, I saw Emerald run over.

"Our powers are going haywire!" Emerald shouted. Well, at least mine weren't. I guess I had to jump off the flower. But before I could do anything, there was a sudden burst of light below me. I looked down, over the edges of the petals. The stem seemed to be cut in half, and I realised that half of it was in flames. The flower tilted over, and before I could do anything, flung me off. I mean, literally.

At least the fall wasn't bad. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, it was my turn. Water spurted out from my hands. It tumbled out, a big, strong wave. And I couldn't stop it. It was rushing straight out, towards us.

Well, at least it doused Amber's flames. But other than that, there was nothing good about it. A thousand questions buzzed in my mind. What was happening? But before the wave could hit us, something — both bad and good — happened.

The room was suddenly flooded with darkness. All of a sudden, I could see nothing. But I could make out the silvery outlines of the water, which seemed to have calmed down all of a sudden. The water reached my ankles, but didn't rise up or do anything. But still. Why — What — How — ?