The Elementals [Watty Awards 2012 Action Winner]

Chapter 8

-------------------------->>>>> Pic of Max

Dedicated to Happy_Go_Lucky because you were so sweet to me and sharing my story with your friends! <3

Chapter eight:

How ironic was this visit home...?

I came home with the intention of relaxing and getting over this paranoia from the nightmare. Every night I’d have that same nightmare and every night I’d woken up in sweats wishing I’d never gone to sleep. Now here I am, safe in the security of home with my favourite people in the world when this ridiculous bomb of information slaps me in the face!

My dad was a Stinger.

My dad and mom were murdered.

I’m half Stinger.

There’s another Stinger somewhere out there who was forcing themselves into my head as I slept.

I shivered. That was the creepy part. It was almost like mind rape with no way to escape. I got flashes of Nightmare on Elm Street and realised this was almost the same. There was no escaping it. I mentally slapped myself, now here I was thinking my life was a horror movie!

The ding of a timer softly broke me out of my deep thoughts and I slipped on a pair of floral oven mitts to take out the soft triple chocolate cookies I’d been baking. With the mountain of issues I’d been going through lately I desperately was in need of a chocolate fix, plus baking helped take my mind off things. Well it used to.

I inhaled the warm, sickly sweet aroma of fresh cookies and quickly pinched one off the baking tray. Good God that was insanely hot! Why did I not think of that?! I threw it from one hand to the other letting it cool off while I juggled the delicious treat.

When it was just cool enough to hold without scalding my fingers I took a bite. My pearly teeth easily bit through the soft cookie and every chocolate chip melted in my mouth. Now this, this was what I needed. I baked another two trays of cookies before I sat on the bench stool and one after the other.

“Hey shrimp, it’s great to see you” Troy greeted me as he walked into the kitchen. He stole the unbitten cookie I was holding and took a bite.

“Hey Troy, I’m ok. How was work?”  Troy was a fire fighter, which was one of the many reasons why Serena fell for him, and due to that he always smelt faintly of ash.

“It’s ok. Slow, but that’s always a good thing” he replied with a half shrug. He joined me by the bench and ate cookies with me while we spoke about generic topics.

“So... Serena told me she told you the truth” Troy said nonchalantly staring at the wall.

“Yep” I replied popping the last bite of my cookie into my mouth. I didn’t need to ask what he was talking about. It was pretty obvious.

“I’m sorry Val, if you ever need someone to talk to, you know I’m always there for you” Troy voiced patting my shoulder. I nodded. And that was all we spoke about it. Troy didn’t dig into what I was thinking, how I was taking it, what I wanted to do about it because he knew me... and he knew I wouldn’t want to talk about it.

“Val honey did you want the rest of the cookies you baked?” Serena called out to me from the kitchen.

“Sure” I called back. I was packing my things again getting ready to go back to university. I didn’t get the completely relaxed time I wanted to achieve here but I’ll be damned if I go back without some cookies!

“Thanks for dropping by honey. Come back whenever you want ok?” Serena encouraged while Troy nodded. I hugged them both and brought the roof of my convertible down before waving and driving off towards university.