The Elementalists

MARK

                  
Daemon.

   I hear Agent Ralph speak the name, and a shiver runs down my spine. I have no idea who the kid is, but his name just sounds... wrong. It's like a bad vibe.

   Robin's reaction of, "Daemon? Oh, no...," doesn't give me any good feelings either.

   "Daemon?" I ask. "Who's Daemon?"

   "No one," Robin says quickly. "He's not anybody important, or I'd know him."

   "Day-mun," I say, sounding out the name. I whistle. "Creepy name—sounds like demon to me."

   Robin just nods. She must feel a lot better now that Agent Ralph gave her some numbing medicine for her shoulder, but she says that it still "hurts like heck".

   "I hope the others are okay," Robin whispers. I look over at her, and I'm surprised to see tears trickling down her cheeks.

   "Robin...," I trail off, unsure of what to say.

   Robin wipes the tears away from her face and smiles at me. "I won't let you die," she promises, "but I can't say the same for myself. If you get the chance to escape, Mark, do it. Forget me, I can survive on my own, but you're weaker, physically. But the fiery determination inside of you could—will—get you safely to the others. Promise me this, Mark. Promise me you'll do this for me and the others."

   I have no choice but to agree. "I promise," I whisper. I open my mouth to speak again, but a shooting pain explodes inside of my head. I scream, and images begin to flash through my mind.

   Robin's bursting open the cell door. I'm on fire, and I'm running after her and two others. The sound of a gun goes off—three bullets are shot. One barely misses Robin's head, while another hits the ground in front of John. All of a sudden, as if in slow motion, I see the third bullet heading on a direct path towards...me.

   And then there's a flash of white blocking its path.

  I blink, and then everything goes black.

"Mark?"

   I hear Robin's voice, but it's as if it's far, far away. I moan.

   "Mark, please don't die!" Robin pleads.

   "Not... dead...," I moan.

   I open my eyes to see a worried Robin leaning over me. I groan and ask, "What happened? Where are the others?"

   A confused look crosses Robin's face for a split-second, and then she says, "Your eyes rolled back into your head. Only the whites showed, and they were glowing. You began screaming, and I thought you were possessed. Since they were talking about Daemon, I thought...." She shakes her head and states, "No one else was here. What happened to you?"

   "I saw the others," I explain. "Someone was shooting at us. We were, like, breaking out of prison or something. They tried to shoot us, but something white--I don't know what--jumped in front of me, and then I passed out."

   "Oh, no," Robin whispers, "I think that you had a vision, Mark."

   "Is that good or bad?" I ask, confused.

   "Both," she says sadly, "but right now, it's bad. You could've just witnessed a death, Mark. This is not good."

   "A vision?" I ask. "Wait, so I just had a vision of some kid dying? Oh, no no no no." I stand up, forgetting that I'm in a van, and whack my head on the ceiling. I fall back to the ground with a thud, and look at Robin for help.

   "We have to leave," Robin says. "You have to get out now, Mark. We can't stop whoever's death you foresaw, but we have to try."

   "Why can't we?" I ask. "There has to be some way!"

   Robin opens her mouth, but then closes it. She shakes her head and turns away.

   "What were you going to say?" I ask, angry. "Stop hiding things from me, Robin! I deserve to know! I saw this kid die, who's willing to die for me, and I don't want him to die! Stop keeping secrets!"

   "A life for a life," Robin whispers, and tears fill her eyes. She blinks them back and turns to me. "If whoever that was dies, I have my ways," she tells me. Then she turns away and stares at the van's wall.

   "Robin," I ask, "who is Daemon?"

   Her voice cracks as she says, "He's an Elementalist. A Dark Elementalist—one of the only two Dark Elementalists that have ever existed."

   "What do you mean?" I ask. "What makes him so bad?"

   "A Dark Elementalist," Robin says, "is an Elementalist that is, well...."

   "Just spit it out!" I yell. "I deserve to know, Robin!"

   "He's immortal," Robin says. "He will never age past what he is now."

   My mouth drops open. "Okay," I say, "he's immortal. But what makes him so bad? Why aren't we immortal?"

   "We're good," I say. "When we die, we become our elements. Part of our souls will absorb into our elements on earth, while the other part of our soul will travel to the afterlife." She looks at me and says ominously, "Daemon's soul can't do that, because his element won't allow that."

   "What do you mean?" I ask, confused.

   "Daemon controls death," Robin says simply. "Daemon's the master of death and necromancy. He's undead, kind of."

   To be honest, I did not see that coming.

   At all.