Finding Winter

Chapter 10

Life had gotten a bit complicated.

A horde of shadows would arrive and attack Manitou, Colorado in three weeks. Assassins from a rebel, religious cult were out to spill blood, particularly mine, my sister's, and Sarah's. And to top the chaos with a cherry, we were chosen as hosts for the seasons.

Together, all four hosts would join as an unstoppable force to conjure enough energy to seal the tear in our dimension. If we did our job right, it would prevent the swarm of shadows materializing to wreck havoc on humanity.

That was, however, if we were together.

There had to be four of us, and, currently, there were only three: winter, summer, and fall. Spring was still missing, and so far there was no sign of them.

Mandell was still speaking; Sarah and Autumn seemed to pay close attention to his every word, but I still couldn't comprehend it. Mentally, I was stuck processing that I was one of the four people that were handed the responsibility of protecting humanity.

Me. Out of all the millions and billions in existence, the fate of humanity, or at least a small portion of it, lay in my hands. 

No, I wanted no part of this. There are more responsible people out there that could actually get what they needed to get done- people who were willing to step up to the plate and think about the greater good. I am the type of guy that would rather place my life in the hands of another and hope that I would come out through the ashes of destruction alright.

If not, oh well. I would rather be a nameless corpse lying in the scattered heaps of others, rotting in the scorching hot sun, to be put aside as a plus one on the body count.

Being a part of the dead than be the one handed such responsibility sounded better to me. A person like me could not live up to this responsibility. Failure was always a part of my succession- one of the things that I have always done best.

This was all a mistake. I swallowed hard and stared at the carpet until I got lost in the details and stains. This had to be a mistake.

Matthew, do you understand?

Still retaining my gaze on the ground, I swallowed hard and shook my head. "Yeah." I lied.

I missed at least a good ten-minute chunk of information.

Excellent. Now, as you may have noticed, no one can notice your powers or see the things you currently associated with Ethel. Which means the portals we open, the shadows, and even the light from your powers are invisible to the rest of the world. For the time being.

The aftermath, however, will be detectable to other humans. If you decided to burn something down, they will see the fire. But they will not see the flames stream out from your fingers. To them, the object had spontaneously combusted.

Sarah's eyes glimmered at the idea of randomly making objects combust without any of it leading back to her- formulating the perfect crime. I honestly wanted to know who authorized the idea of giving fire abilities to an arsonist and psychopath. If this girl ever had free reign to do what she wished, I'm sure she would start striking away at her hit list.

"Will using our abilities come at a price?" Sarah asked with most unnatural calm intrigue, leaning forward and resting her head on her fingers- no doubt picturing the endless possibilities of arson.

Yes. Without the four of you gathered in the same place working together, your powers would wear on your physical body greatly. You must use Ethel sparingly, not only for your own personal health but to keep your identity secret. The assassins from the Eyes of the Chosen do not know who you are yet, but if they ever catch you utilizing Ethel they will know and kill you.