Flamed

The Newcomer

Picture of the Flamed cast ↑

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"Paige...?"

"Anthony... what are you doing...?" I asked in total awkwardness with his face so close to mine.

He stumbled back and sighed with relief.

"Glad you're okay, gave us one hell of a scare. What happened?"

What did happen? I don't think even I know, well I guess I do. But still... it's hard to explain.

"Paige, what the hell happened to you?! One minute I was talking and the other you were passing out. Like he said, you gave us quite the scare" Lizbeth said literally pushing Anthony out of the way to get a look at me.

I got to a sitting position, still a little dizzy, and looked around. What I saw was ultimately creepy. Everyone around was frozen, like someone had hit the pause button on the world. The cars passing by were stopped. The cashier was stuck counting bills. A couple a few booths from ours were frozen just in the middle of their kiss. Everything and everyone were paused, everyone except the waitress. Who kept eyeing us from the window in the kitchen.

"What the-"

"When you started to pass out, we met her. Turns out she's an elemental with a rather extraordinary ability" Brian pointed to the waitress.

"She can stop time?" I said awed.

"Yes"

"B-but how?"

"It's like I said before, there are many different abilities out there. The council just doesn't say anything about them" Anthony held his hand out to help me stand. I grabbed it and stood up with a quick jump.

After all this can't believe the waitress is an elemental. She looks normal, and she acts normal. How come she didn't say anything, she clearly knew what we were.

"Then let's talk to her, she could be a great asset to our mission"

"Go then, she's still waiting for our signal so she can start time again." Anthony said.

I turned and walked to the kitchen where the girl was slicing a tomato with accurate speed.

"Umm, hi" I said shyly.

She seemed to jump I'm surprise as soon as she heard my voice.

"Oh! Hi! Glad you're okay! You had me nervous. Thought I was gonna need to call an ambulance." She seemed like the kind of person who talks too much when nervous.

"We'll I'm fine thanks. It's pretty cool what you did out there. Hey, so what other things can you do with your... um powers?"

"Well, that" she motioned to the frozen diner. "Is pretty much all I have learned to do. You see found out fairly recently that I had this powers"

"You never knew?"

"No"

"And your parents never told you?"

"My parents weren't like me, they were normal"

I felt actual pity for her now, being without your element for so much time. It had to have had an effect on her.

"Well Andrea, you just earned my trust. I have a proposition for you, were on this mission to save elementals, you in?" well that's brief, I actually did explain to her what we were doing and all the details.

"If it's for people like me, I'm in"

***

"Are you sure about this?" I asked eyeing the structures around me. The street looked abandoned, the concrete buildings with paint peeling. There was just something that didn't feel right about this place.

"Positive" Lizbeth chirped back. "Do you really think I'd put you in danger?"

I decided to not answer that question, and the others seemed to share my silence.

Suddenly Brian halted to a stop "Wait" he said motioning us to stop. "Do you hear that?"

"What?" I asked

"Shhh! Listen" there was a faint clicking in the distance, like heels.

Everyone, as if on cue, raised their hands to their sides ready to use our powers if necessary.

A low rumbling sounded from the clouds above, obviously Anthony conjuring up some sort of storm. The ground vibrated just a little, seemed like the earth was receiving Brian's motions. Lizbeth had had her eyes closed concentrating on gathering as much water molecules as possible. And Andrea, just stayed there, looking around for signs of trouble, it was very clear that she was new at this.

I, on the other hand, was far more worried about the place than the clicking. One person we could handle, but one person hidden out of sight was far worse.

And just as the thought came, it was gone. A tall women, maybe in her 40's, came out of the building in front of us. She was dressed in a black and white dress, with a pair of black heels.

"What is your business here?" she asked.

Lizbeth moved to the front, still with her hands ready to attack, and spoke.

"We are looking for Pablo, Pablo Santiago. He told us to meet him here" she took a cautious step forward. "And whom might you be?"

The older woman smiled, and seemed to relax.

"We've been expecting you" she turned, and slightly motioned us. "Come on in"