Run From The Darkness

Them Again?

I felt bad taking the crystal from Dominic, but this is the first time since he left home that I could get close enough to study him. Last time I saw him he locked me in a bookstore with a wall of ice. He didn't even give us a chance to explain ourselves. To be honest, I am surprised that he didn't recognize me. Then again the only time he has seen me, I was wearing a suit and tie and I had just shaved that morning. Now I was practically wearing rags and had at least a month's worth of gruff.  We didn't want to hurt him, we just had some questions. I mean, he almost killed his best friend for pete sake. If he had only tried to listen to us... It was his grandma that sent us after all. Here's what went down when we were hired.

"So let me get this straight. You want us to spy on him and his friends so you can know how powerful his element is?" said the tallest man in the group.

"You've asked me that three times already. Yes. His element is so strong That I can feel it. Eventually it will get so bad that he will kill himself. I need weekly reports on how he is handling his element." said the shadowy figure in the chair.

"Okay, first of all, why don't you just ask him to give you weekly reports? Second, why would his element kill him? It's not like he would lie." said the same man. The man had no expression on his face, yet he looked so confused. The two others with him were expressionless. They were identical. Not like twins, but exactly identical. Not a freckle out of place; not a scar away from identical.

"Please Mr. Manikin, put your puppets away. Your scare tactics don't work on me." The shady figure said as the two Identical henchmen disappeared into little wooden charms that "Mr. Manikin" caught.

"How did you know they were charms? I had my best work done on them. It took me weeks to perfect the scars and facial hair." said the only man in the room now.

"Well considering you are the only person who can make these charms and they gave off the same element as you, it wasn't hard to put two and two together. To answer your questions, I can't make contact with him. It would be too suspicious . 'there are too many secrets to be kept' they told me every time I tried to intervene. The reason I tried to intervene is that he has all the basic 4 elements and he has the element of dark, but no light to balance it out. If he uses the dark element too many times, it will take over his body. He will kill everyone, and then he will kill himself. That is why the kids of dark and light must stay together for life. They need balance." It was practically a lecture, but she finally finished and took a sip from her tea.

"I still don't understand why you want me, a businessman, to help you spy on someone." said the man again.

The lady stood up from the chair, Half of her face coming into the light. "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation Mr. Manikin. I have first hand experience with what will happen. If you can get one of your charms in his group, then you can get his trust. Trust is everything. You can never let him see you. Even in your best costume he could sniff you out." she said, all while glaring at the man.

"Fine, but I expect nothing less than we agreed to. I want to be able to go home to my wife and kids. I've been in exile for years. All I want is to live with my family again." he looked like he was about to cry.

"Here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna watch him from afar. I don't care how, but it's gotta be a secret. The easiest way to do it would be having a charm spy and collect the memories from the charm. Send me the memories however you can and I'll determine what you will do next. Then you wi..." She was cut off before she could finish talking.

"First of all, I'm not gonna have you telling me what to do every step of the way. Second, how am I supposed to get you the memories?" He said as she was in the middle of a sentence.

"Either listen or don't. But in all honesty you don't really have a choice." She said with a slight tilt in her lips.

"And why is that old woman?" He said confident in where he was taking himself.

"Because if you help me, you are out of exile and are to do what you wish. If not, you will never see your family again. It would be a shame if something were to happen to them and you weren't around to here about it." She said with more confidence than him; slowly watching his prideful look disappear. "Now. Do we have a deal, or should I go talk to the guards about the exiled one intruding in my home?" She chuckled at his new look of concern.

"You leave me with very few options, none of which sound like a fair deal. I guess since you're threatening my family and giving me a chance at freedom, I will take this job and do what you ask." he said, looking at his feet the whole time.

"As I was saying before, you will wait for my instructions. be sure to use a charm that can blend in well with his surroundings. If the charm you are using gets caught, simply let him go and start using a new one. I can infuse the charm with element if you wish." she said really fast so he couldn't interrupt.

"Okay great, so how am I supposed to get you the memories?" he said again, this time with a look of defeat.

She sat back down in her chair and thought for a couple minutes. After she was in that chair for five minutes, her face got a bit brighter as if she had an idea. " can you make those twins you carved share a head? not literally, but share the same mind." She asked with a grin that made shivers run up the man's spine.

"I...I suppose so. I don't see how that would help" he said. He stood there for a moment and thought. Then a look of recognition. His eyes became as big as an owl's. "If I leave one here and project his memories, then set up the other twin at my camp and you can see everything that is happening. Now that is a clever idea." he finished talking, and started setting up the first twin. once he was done he put another charm out that the woman had never seen. It was a black teenager that looked like he worked out every day for hours. "This is the first charm I will use. his name is Hunter. Can you infuse him with air element so he can blend in?" he said, displaying Hunter like a new toy to a child.

"Give him here... in charm form." she said. The big black man turned into a piece of wood and fell into the business man's hand. He slowly handed the masterpiece to the old woman. She put him face up on the table and started looking at her hands. A ball of element slowly built up in each hand. One Orb a blinding light, the other a hole of darkness. She pushed the two orbs together to make another larger orb with these two substances flowing against each other, but never mixing. Next she dropped the charm into the orb. What she did next was surprising, but it made so much sense. She blew on it.

The light and dark elements disappeared and left was the charm of this young man Hunter. On his arm was a little blue swirl that represents wind. He had this aroma that none of the man's charms had ever had. This charm was special. "I will be able to use him with the element now? Because if not, then that was pointless." he said with a look of questioning.

"Of course you can use the wind element. It will wear off eventually, but until then you should be fine." She said this and then there was a long pause. "Once you get eyes on my boy, set up shop. It doesn't matter where. It just has to be discreet."

That is what happened with the old lady months ago. I still don't fully understand what's going on, but I can tell you one thing, I wanna go back home again.