Soul Walker: #ONC Finalist

Mission 1: The Elementalist

—-"Black Sabbath-"Iron Man"—-

"Come on Megan" A woman called to her daughter who was playing in a nearby puddle. Her crimson hair like a fiery sunset. The little girl ignored her mother and giggled as the muddy water continued to splash up onto her new dress.

"look mama!" She shouted as she spun faster and faster and then fell into the puddle giggling.

The woman looked upon her daughter fondly as her arm wound it's way tenderly around her husband Charlie.

The gentle beams of the summer sun warmed their faces as they laughed at their daughter's antics. Thick brown mud covered her frilly pink dress, and soaked through her never again white socks.

The anthem 'Ironman' by Black Sabbath erupted from Charlie's pocket. "Hold on Honey," he whispered to her kissing her lightly on the forehead. "I have to take this."

He stepped away from them and took one last look at his daughter chasing around after a group of ducklings that peeped jovially at her. He chuckled and pulled the phone to his ear. He moved away from them not wanting to disturb their Saturday afternoon, with work talk.

"Hey Joe," he spoke into the phone. He paused as he listened to the voice on the other end. "New tech?" He paused again and listened for a moment his smile growing bigger. "I can definitely make that happen."

Suddenly the ground below him began to shake. The pebbles bounced recklessly below his feet. Panic spread through his veins. He spun to look for his daughter and wife. The ground she had been playing on just moments ago was now a gaping hole. He saw a tiny hand gripping desperately to the road screaming "Papa!"

He bolted to the crevasse his baby girls fingers gradually slipping from the pavement. Her pitiful cries tearing at his heart as he scrambled past falling cars and pieces of buildings that came crashing to the ground around him. Just as her last finger began to slip he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. He cradled her and wept into the strands of her red satin hair. His relief was brief as another sinking feeling seared his heart and his veins.

His wife was missing. He glanced around looking for her everywhere. There were gaping holes in the ground as the earthquake seized the city. He saw her shoes on the side of one particularly large hole. He ran to it. Desperate to hear her voice. To see her deep amber eyes. To touch her hands artfully calloused by their work together.

Gripping his daughter tightly he leaned over the edge desperate to see any trace of his wife. He called to her. "Bellina!" Only the sound of more crumbling buildings answered him. A car flew behind him and burst into flames. He ignored it. "Bellina!" Again his ears pained themselves to hear her call.

His daughter screamed. He clutched her to him and ran from the scene. He spread his paranormal senses wide hoping to feel his wife's soul. To know her presence. He concentrated allowing a blue mist to cover his vision. He saw so many broken and mangled spirits crying over their own bodies and screaming to be heard by their loved ones. None of them were Bellina.

He kept running holding his daughter tight to his chest screaming for his wife. Calling for her in multiple planes of existence. He received many answers; but, none of them were her.

As he ran he heard the familiar rumble of the Elementalist's voice. A voice that had been aired many times on the local news for this disaster and the next. Every day he made an appearance and threatened the city. Today was different. Those were mostly idle threats of a maniac. Today already hundreds had died in the cataclysm. The city would be scarred forever.

Anger burned in in Charlie's veins. That horrible deep and scratchy voice emblazoned in his mind. That voice was responsible for the destruction of his beloved Bellina. His angered thoughts were interrupted by an ethereal chorus of wailing that filled his consciousness. Hundreds of his voices cried out in shock and anguish.