Think Three Times

Escape is Possible

Eric was sure of two things: one) he had to escape two) Hailey could help him. He didn't know how, but Hailey knew something. Something useful. That's why when he spotted her going into the Rock Elementists training area, he followed. She went around the elementists in the middle, who were apparently playing a game that involved one making a rock structure while the other tried to blow it up, and approached Ellie in the corner, Eric following.
Hailey grabbed Ellie's arm.
"Ells, I need to talk to you."
"Oh, hi there Hailey. What do you want?"
"Look, there's a lot to it, but for now you need to stop using your elementist powers if you ever want to leave."
Ellie looked surprised.
"Why would I ever want to leave? I have these amazing powers, the food is good, and the room are nice."
Hailey turned and began to leave the room, looking worried.
"Oh, and Hailey!" She stopped and turned.
"Don't try to leave. Remember, they said they would kill me and mom and dad."
"It doesn't matter what I do, remember what happened to Leah?! That'll be you if you stay!"
But Ellie wasn't listening any more. Hailey left, and Eric followed, thinking.
Hailey and Ellie had to be sisters. But what happened to Leah, and why would that happen to Ellie?
Leah had become all people were talking about, so his mind wasn't allowed to stray as he followed Hailey and heard snibits of conversations.
"Yeah. It was like..."
"....Why did that..."
"..Leah..."
"Is Leah hurt...."
"....her name is Leah..."
"I hear she died earlier, around...."
"... This is intense, dude..."
He caught up to Hailey as she pulled back an unmarked door.
"Hailey," he said. She turned.
"I'll ask again, what do you know that I don't?" Eric was startled by his own flat tone, like he wasn't asking a question.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I don't wanna stick around here much longer."
"Fine. I'll tell you this much: you are an elementist. You are perfectly capable of leaving."
"But my family isn't. I'll make you a deal: you give me information, I'll convince Ellie to leave."
Eric expected her to be skeptical, but he also expected her to be slightly hopeful. However, no such luck.
"And how are you going to do that?"
"Any way I can."
"Give me an example."
"Well, I could just be so clingy and annoying she wants to leave, I could be augmentative, I could blow up her room, I could talk to her, I could just be generally annoying, I could-"
"Ok! I get the gist,"
That was good, because he was out of ideas.
"Ok, I'll tell you this: they don't keep records of families or names of the non-elementists."
"How is that helpful?!"
"Think about it. That means they can't kill your family if you leave, because they won't know who your family is."
Woah. That was really good.
"Anything else? What do you know about what happened to Leah?"
Hailey stiffened.
"She died."
And then she walked away.
They won't harm my family if I leave-well other than being slaves, but that stays the same regardless of whether or not I'm here. He smiled. Escape is possible.