Elements School

Chapter 12

AVERY'S POV

I bolted upright in the bed, and breathe. I don't know what I just felt, but I know that something is wrong.

"Baby, what's wrong?" David says in a slightly groggy voice.

"I-I don't know- I just." I say, but there's no way I could ever finish that sentence. I don't know why, and I don't like that or the feeling. It was so... unnatural. It hurt my heart and brain.

**A FEW MONTHS TO A YEAR AGO**

LAVENDER'S POV

"Avery! Come downstairs for dinner!" mom yells up the stairs. Of course she has to yell to get Avery, she almost always had her music blaring, or she just wasn't in her room at all. She would just jump from her window and somehow land gracefully and safely on the ground. She was sly, I'll give her that.

But this time Avery came down the stairs, looking as evil as ever in my opinion. Her bright blue eyes scanned over the room, and for some reason her eyes looked different. It wasn't like they were a different color, they just didn't look like there was Avery behind them. Like it would be someone that looked just like her, but it wasn't actually her.

"I'm here." she said and say down across from me, which wasn't normal. Usually she takes the head of the table, but no one commented on it. Mom and dad probably didn't even notice. She looked up at me and I knew that something was different about her. I wasn't stupid, so I kept an eye on her the whole time.

Dad came in next from the basement. He makes clocks down there and sells them for hundreds of dollars they're that good. That's not what he does for a career since he was a doctor, but it was more like a hobby that he made a lot of money off of.

"How were my darlings today?" dad boomed as he sat at the other head of the table then where Avery usually sits.

"Fine." Avery said, which was strange yet again. Usually she didn't say anything because it's usually things that would get her in major trouble.

"Lav? How's Sammy? He hasn't come over in a few days now." dad asked me.

"Yeah, he has sports now, so it's not as easy." I say and pick up my phone to see that he texted me like he always does right after he gets out of practice. I text him back a heart and take a picture of my dinner to show him what I'm doing.

"Oh, well tell him to get himself down here when he doesn't have sports." dad says as mom take the tops off of all of the food and I almost start drooling. She had the whole day off today, which isn't often, and when she does during the week she always goes overboard with the dinner. Not that I would ever complain about that, I'm practically always hungry.

We all dug in and for the whole time all you could hear was people eating. She was always a fantastic cook, and I could tell even she was surprised everything came out as well as it did.

Avery was the first to be done since she ate like a bird, and she just took her plate, looked sideways at me before swiftly walking upstairs. Mom sighed, probably trying to wonder what went wrong with her, why Avery was like she was. But, that will probably never be fully figured out.

"I'll go check on her." I say and text Sam back as I head upstairs. "Avery?" I ask and softly knock before opening the door with a creak. She was sitting on her bed with her laptop, but closed it when I sat by her.

"What?" she asked, her voice harder and more crisp then usual.

"What is wrong with you?" I whisper and look as deep as I could into her pale eyes. They definitely not her eyes, but she looked exactly the same.

"Nothing." she smirked. "Can I show you something though?" she asked, and took my hand with her unusually hot ones. As she did, something hot started in my hands, and at first it was uncomfortable, but it steadily turned hotter and hotter.

"Wh-what are you doing?" I asked as a wind sped up, feeding my hands to get hotter and hotter.

"Don't worry." she whispered and laughed as I sat in complete shock and horror as a fire leapt from my hands and spread out from them and onto her bed. I jumped up and tried to pat the small fire away, but my hands were still on fire, which was freaking the fuck out of me, and only helped the fire spread.

Avery wasn't doing anything but laughing like the psycho that she was. "HELP!" I screamed to her, but she wasn't doing anything. The wind was picking up, and it was spreading all over her room.

"Lavender! Avery!" dad yelled and tried to pat out the fire, but it was well over fixable, and I could feel myself getting more and more light headed as the smoke entered my lungs. Everyone was coughing, and mom fell to the ground coughing. I tried to help her up, but ended up burning her even more.

I squealed out and coughed and slowly suffocated as I too fell to the floor with mom and now dad. I did see Avery, and she was still hazy but she too fell. I could hear distant sirens, but I knew they couldn't help much since we were upstairs and the fire was huge by now.

"Lav?! Lav?!" I heard a man that sounded just like Sam's voice, but I knew that couldn't be possible. He wasn't here.

"Sam?" I asked, voice cracked and ugly sounding.

I couldn't believe it as his face came before me and I smiled, wondering if I was in heaven yet. I was sure that I was in heaven as I couldn't hear anything and I felt myself being lifted up and a bright light appeared in front of my eyes. The sirens were still there, and I was set down on something squishy and white, like a cloud.

"Sir! Sir it's extremely dangerous in there! You can't go in!" I heard another voice yell.

"I promised her parents that I would do anything to protect them." Sam's voice rung out again and I heard heavy footsteps as someone ran.

I heard what sounded like a body hit the ground beside me and heard a girl moan. I managed to get my eyes open just as a white sheet was spread over Sam's face. I didn't scream because I couldn't talk, but tears burst and burned my own wounds on my face with the salt.