Flamed

Never Hope

“Who are you again?” I asked impatiently as we walked up a set of stairs. The building we entered was nothing like it seemed from the outside. From the exterior it seemed beat up and abandoned, but in the interior everything was decorated with fine touch, even the stairs were marble. I still can’t believe were following this complete stranger inside this building and we don’t even know her freaking name!

“My name is Luciana, I’m in charge of visitors.” She stopped briefly as if to think. “And before you ask, yes, we all have powers here, no, we aren’t in any way linked to the council, and yes, I can read minds. That’s my gift after all.” She said calmly with a thick Spanish accent.

We all stood there with our mouths hanging in shock. She seemed to take all of our doubts and put them into one big answer.

“Pablo is waiting for you inside” she led us up to a door, a white, carved door. “I hope you are to be no disturbance, but my words are just protocol, your mind waves do not show signs of malice.” She smile and held open the door.

Brian was the first to step in and we all followed with a noticeable hint of precaution. Inside the door was a room that didn’t at all fit with the house around it. The walls were lined with computer boards and cables hanging from all possible angles. It was noticeably dark inside and the only vague light was emitted by the computers. And the end of the long room was a guy leaned over a computer, he seemed to be almost eating it more than anything.

“Umm excuse me” Andrea spoke up, seemed like she was the only one wiling to interrupt the guys work.

“Are you sure were in the right place?” I whispered to Lizbeth.

“Positive” she answered back.

Suddenly the guy turned his chair around and crossed his arms around his chest.

“Please be as quick as possible, I have a lot of work to do and unless you’re here to help me do it I expect you to get right to the point” he said with a bored expression.

How can someone be so selfish, I never thought power could make someone so greedy.

“Jorge, right? I’m Lizbeth we talked on the phone. You said you could help us”

His expression changed immediately as he realized who he was talking to.

“Oh I’m sorry, your right. Nice to meet you. We can talk in the dining room if you would like” a Spanish accent just like Luciana’s rolled been of his tongue, as if he had been hiding it.

“Sure”

***

We quickly strolled off following him to a huge majestic room that was the dining room. We all sat down on a table that had been set for exactly six people. Weird.

“Are we going to eat?” asked Anthony, that wouldn’t miss the opportunity for food any day.

“Unfortunately, no. My cooks are en en otro lado, elsewhere.” His left eyebrow twitched just a little bit, and I’ve come to learn that that usually means someone’s not telling you something. He’s holding back. “Were just going to sit here I’m afraid.”

“That’s okay” I replied. “Let’s just get down to business. We recently discovered some controversial information about the council. They’ve been lying to everyone.”

“About what exactly?”

“Well, about other elementals, other abilities, secret clans, in general, just a bunch of stuff. And we just thought you could help us take down the council. And yes, I do know how stupid this all sounds, but our intensions are all good and we just think people like them should—“

Suddenly he burst out laughing, I looked around to see everyone with confused expressions.

“You realize this now? You can’t be serious.” he said still laughing. He looked at me and how confused I was. “You are serious…”

“Yes, I am”

“Look, this is dangerous stuff you want to deal with. The council doesn’t joke around. You could get killed. And you expect me to help you? This is the only safe heaven people like us have in this side of he world. If I’m dead this people have no leader. The council had been sending our kind’s ‘troubled ones’ for centuries. We have our side of this world, and you have yours. Why don’t you go back to it and leave this matter behind?”

The fire side of me lit with his words, I got up and put both hands on the table.

“How can you not see that this affects us both?! Don’t you want to go back to your home? If we at least help the council change their judgement and start allowing other kinds of elementals back to the lands we can make a difference. Don’t you fucking see that?!”

Lizbeth put an arm on my shoulder and whispered for me calm myself. Everyone else was quiet, I’ve said enough.

“Listen, I don’t have time for a bunch of hormonal teenagers who think they can magically change the world in the blink of an eye. There is nothing for you to do here, I only agreed to this meeting because I thought you were interested in staying here more than anything else. I have more important things to do. Buen viaje amigos. And good luck.”

He got up from his chair and walked out of the room. I can’t believe I actually let myself be fooled by this guy. We all thought he would be the one to help us, and we were very, very wrong.

Anthony spoke up. “Let’s get out of here. We don’t need any more trouble”

“Agreed” we all said at once.