Marvelous: Salvation

Marvelous

BOOK ONE: SALVATION

 sal·va·tion

salˈvāSH(ə)n/

-Preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.

Oregon, 2008

"This is so sweet! It's like you're the avatar or something! Or one of the avengers!"

Hope nodded silently, looking down at her hands in front of her. Somehow, this seemed a lot more serious than a Nickelodeon cartoon. In one hand, she was holding a gentle orb of water, floating slightly above her palm. Her right hand was encased in flames.

"Do the wind thing again!" I shouted over-eagerly to my twin sister. She smirked, letting the water fall to the ground and putting the fire out. Closing her eyes and raising her arms, a large gust of wind began swirling around her, raising Hope off of the ground and making my shaggy hair flow around my head. She hovered and turned back to me, beaming.

"Eric, this feels crazy. I wish I could show you." She said, returning to the ground. I grabbed her hand, pulling her into a hug, then let go, staring intently. 

"Hope, is there anything else you can do? We know you got all the elements. But the avatar on that show could do the spirit thing, too. Can you do that?" I stepped back a few steps again, eyes wide. "Try it. Try to feel a spirit or something."

She could feel me probing gently into her mind, and she pushed me back out. "Stop! I can't do it with you listening in like that!"

I grinned mischeviously. "Sorry, just curious!" She rolled her eyes, then closed them, focusing. I wathched intently, looking for any sign that it was working.

Suddenly, the wind picked up again. Ignoring her protests from earlier, I pushed back into her mind, feeling her mind search through the area around us. My mind went down the same path, poking into corners that she missed.

Then her eyes snapped open, and I felt a tremor go thorugh her mind. The sky around us grew dark, and the ground began shaking.

"Eric! Get out!" She shouted above the howling wind. "I can't control it!"

I tried to pull out, but was halted. Something was holding me in there. "Let go!" I told her, fighting to get out. Instead, I saw her eyes and mouth fly open, a glowing light pouring out of them. A deep sound resonated from all around, including inside my own head. I dropped to my knees, gasping for breath. The pain was beginning to hurt--badly.

"Hope! Let go!" I screamed. My fingers began tearing at the skin on my head, as I couldn't bear the pain anymore.

"You're not permitted to leave." A voice said inside my head. I raised my tear-filled eyes, looking to my sister, hovering slightly above the ground. Eyes aglow, she raised a finger to point at me.

Again, the voice spoke inside my head. "I require your abilities to make my voice heard. Come, join together."

A searing pain flashed through my head. I heard a scream, not knowing whose it was, and I was blinded.

Slowly, the pain subsided, and I dropped face-first onto the ground, everything fading around me.

The last thing I heard was my sister's voice, very close to me, sobbing, "Eric, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

I'm so sorry.