Short Stories

Tearing The Pages

His tattoo burned.

It wasn't the most urgent problem right now, but it pressed to the front of his mind. He tried to refocus on the current situation.

The situation where Queen Cyra Celestia Valerian was choking him, cutting off his airflow. He couldn't breathe, and her quickly warming, pyrokinetic hands weren't helping.

"Aedan. My dear Aedan... I thought I could trust you," she said gently.

Her voice had an underlying tone of anger, and before he could react, she had let go and thrust out her hand, sending him flying and crashing into a wall. If he had been ready, he would have cushioned his fall with his own aerokinesis. But he was focused on his scorching tattoo.

"Aedan!" she screamed in anger. "How could you? I thought you loved me; I thought for once, you really cared!"

He managed to choke out, "You betrayed the Elemental Order to take the throne of Valeria! I won't betray my friends; this is my duty!"

"Your duty is to poison the Queen of Valeria?" she spat. "That is treason!"

"You aren't the rightful Queen! You haven't even completed your training! You can't even control the last element yet!"

"It's good enough!" Flames burst from her hands, enveloping him in fire. "I'll show you- I'll show all of Valeria!" A strong wind coursed throughout the room, knocking furniture over and fueling the growing fire around Aedan. He could only barely use his hydrokinesis to extinguish the flames around him with a small trickle of water.

She walked toward him. "Show me your tattoo."

"No, I can't! I cannot betray-"

"Show me your tattoo!" An invisible force pulled Aedan forward. The wall behind him crackled with fire and fell away, leaving the tower with a gaping hole. Aedan knew they couldn't survive forever; the lack of oxygen outside would kill them.

She grabbed his wrist.

"No!" he cried, gasping for breath. Flames licked at the hem of her gown as she read the inscription on his wrist.

The first line glowed green – signifying his geokinesis, and the second line glowed blue, showing his hydrokinetic ability. The third line glowed white, to show his aerokinesis, but she ignored all of those and read the last line, written in black ink.

It read: Kill The Queen.

That was what Aedan had to do to gain his pyrokinetic abilities; to control fire. He had tried; but he had failed.

The Elemental Order had assigned him this duty, and upon completion, his last tattoo would turn to red, he would receive his pyrokinetic abilities, and he would become one of the Elite.

She'd had her tattoo removed long ago, terrified of her assigned tasks.

Bending down, she stared into his exhausted eyes. The blazing hem of her dress swept over his tunic, setting it afire.

"Aedan, you will never be able to kill me."

And with one last wave of her hand, she sent the teenage boy on fire flying out of the gaping hole in the tower.

He fell towards the ground, barely conscious. Before he passed out, he swore he could see all of Valeria staring out of their towers as he fell and set the purple sky aflame with light.

__________________________________________________________________

She closed the book.

It was her second night in hospital, and she still couldn't remember her name. All she could remember was everything about her favourite book series.

It was 3:27 a.m, and she couldn't sleep. Aedan's gotten himself into trouble this time, she thought. How typical. She smiled.

A knock sounded at the door.

She knew it wasn't her nurse – she was too polite to disturb her sleep; not that she was getting any anyways. Maybe it was a wandering patient from the psychiatric ward?

She walked to the door and turned the doorknob silently.

In the dark doorway stood a teenage boy. His light auburn hair was disheveled, and he was gasping for breath, as if he had been running. "Can I come in?" he asked. "It's urgent."

"Sure," she stuttered. She was still getting used to her voice, and plus, it wasn't exactly normal for a cute boy to be rushing into her room in the middle of the night. Blushing, she asked, "Who are you?"

"That's not important. What's important is that I know how it ends, and I need to change it."

"What?" Confused, she began to think that maybe he actually was from the psychiatric ward.

"You're the main character of my favourite book, and you're going to die. I need to change that."

Definitely from the psychiatric ward, she thought.

He carefully pulled out a disheveled paperback titled "Amnesia: Book Four".

And it had her picture on the front.

Staring into his gunmetal-gray eyes in disbelief, she noticed a mischievous look on his face.

He passed the book to her. She caught a glimpse of coloured ink on the underside of his wrist, and pointed to it. "What's that?" she asked.

"My tattoo," he murmured, turning over his hand so she could see. There were four lines of poetry; each written in a different colour. She smiled, not really reading it, but then the last line caught her eye. It read: Kill The Queen.

"Have you read this book?" she asked, pointing to the one on her nightstand, assuming he must be a huge fan in order to have the tattoo written on his own wrist. He shook his head, but a playful smile crept onto his face.

"Aedan?" she gasped.

He nodded. "I need you to help me. I couldn't bear to lose my favourite character, Miss Elysia."

Suddenly, she remembered everything.

Author's Note: I might end up continuing this story; please comment and let me know if that's something you'd like to see :)