The Elementalists

MARK

"Wh-what the heck?!" John yells. Angel, whose hand is curled into a fist to hold back the shadow as if it were a tangible object, yanks John back towards us. John falls onto his butt, but doesn't seem to care. He just looks up at Angel and repeats, "What the heck?!"

"Since when could you...?" I ask, trailing off before I finish my sentence.

Angel shrugs. "Some people consider shadows types of spirits. I don't myself, but it's the power given to the Spirit Elementalist, so I accept it. But I don't use it much."

"Why not?" John asks, his mouth hanging open in awe. "That power is awesome!"

Angel shrugs again and replies, "I don't like...touching the shadows. They're like the dark side of a person, and whenever I touch them, my whole body becomes cold and...and all I feel is hatred." He stares down at the ground, mumbling, "Then all of these scary thoughts come to mind, and I remember fire...and Xander and Mother... It's like the shadows are from a different dimension...one that only knows pain and suffering and...I don't like it."

Wow, I think, this kid... He's very descriptive...and obviously very observant... But how can he know all of that from just touching a shadow? How can he feel all of that and be able to describe it after touching just one shadow? How does he not go insane or become unstable if he feels all of those emotions and all of that suffering at once?

"Wow...," John mumbles. "I...I actually don't know what to say..." His face changes back to its normal expression—clueless and happy—and he blurts, "Oh! Oh, yeah! It's creepy, that's what I was going to say!" John beams, and I resist the urge to hit him.

"John," I sigh, "just...just be quiet. If they hear us because of you, I'm going to punch you so hard..."

"Shh," Angel whispers, "I hear someone talking..."

I bet it's John, I think as I laugh at my own joke. Ha, I'm so funny...

I feel John tug on my arm, and I look over at him. He's standing beside me, pointing at something. I look in the direction that he's pointing, and I see two government agents talking to one another. They're pulling boxes out of a van that wasn't there earlier, and I wonder how we didn't notice that it had pulled up. They continue to unload the truck, and I look at the labels on the boxes, which read, Danger! Follow instructions on bottom before opening!

John tugs on my arm again, and I turn to face him once more. He points at Angel, who's motioning for us to walk over to him. We do so, and Angel whispers, "Stay here, and on my signal, run over and help out however you see fit. Understand?"

John and I both nod, and then Angel takes off. All I see is a white blur as he dashes through the foliage. I hear a thud, and I see one of the government agents fall down. As the other agent reach for his gun and walkie-talkie to call for back-up, Angel punches him in the jaw, and he collapses to the ground next to his partner.

Angel motions for us to walk over to him, and we do so. As soon as we're standing next to him, I ask, "Not good at close combat? Liar."

Angel shrugs and mumbles, "Daemon's better. If Daemon were here then they'd never wake up." He turns to face the two unconscious agents, leaving me a little creeped out over the fact that he could talk about Daemon killing people so calmly. John and I wait for Angel to find what he needs, and we soon see him pull a wallet out of one of the agent's pants pocket. He opens the wallet and pulls out a white card with a scan code on it, and then he holds it up in the air for us to see. "Let's go."

John and I both nod, and then we follow Angel over to the entrance. Next to the steel door is a card scanner; Angel swipes the card that he stole from one of the agents, and the light on the scanner flashes green. He walks over to the door and pulls it open, motioning for us to go inside. As we walk past him, I hear him mumble, "We should've brought Miss Emma... She could use an invisibility force field so that we wouldn't be seen..."