The fear in me

Jason

At the breakfast table Gabriel and Lukas are busy discussing. They are enthusiastic that my powers are developing so quickly here. Rafael is not present and I'm somehow relieved. Is he right now working on his powers?

Again and again ad infinitum Gabriel and Lukas are talking about the water that I made boil. They can't grasp that it's supposed to have happened in seconds without much effort. I didn't tell them how the smashed beaker put itself back together in a magical manner. Instead I asked, "I concentrated in the same way earlier on having the water fly around my head, but it didn't do that; but the word 'hot' was in itself enough to make it boil. How's that possible?"

"Well, getting water to fly needs two elements at the same time," Gabriel explains. "Water by itself can't move through the atmosphere, it needs the element air as well to do that; if you could link the two together you could, for example, order one of them to convert itself into ice cubes and the other to reconstruct those ice cubes as an igloo, but that's really impossible. None of us have ever succeeded with that. Not that we could influence several elements. Till now only Rafael could do that, I mean, before he lost his powers. Mastering one element is already hard enough, isn't it, Lukas?"

Lukas nods in confirmation. "You as a healing angel must have had big powers because influencing the elements is something great and it's simply come back to you," says Lukas in recognition.

"Yes, Rafael had enormous powers before your father and you limited them, but to make the beaker boil in seconds, that he couldn't do," Gabriel adds his twopence worth. Since he keeps harping on what my father did I'm now convinced that he absolutely hates him.

"Who knows, perhaps your powers in combination are even stronger. That'd be brilliant," I hear him say happily.

I nod and pretend to be enthusiastic. If Rafael and I are on a par, how am I going to destroy him? I simply hope he doesn't collect his powers as quickly as I've done with mine.

After morning tea I go back to my room to train. I want to know if I'm capable of combining the elements. And I have to do it alone because I don't want the angels of death to know what I'm doing. I told Lukas and Gabriel that I want to take a shower and rest for a while because I didn't sleep much, and they were in full agreement. Lukas and Gabriel are not at all like Rafael. I wonder why those fully-grown men feel so linked to him although they now have far more strength. Then it occurs to me: which powers do the others have? I've never asked. Maybe at lunch ... Yes! I really should find that out.

I first of all run water into the washbasin and test once more how long it needs to boil. I imagine the water boiling, and a few seconds later the water in the basin is already bubbling. After that I concentrate on ice in the washbasin, and surprisingly that takes not much longer. Although the water a moment ago was boiling it's now an ice surface as smooth as a mirror. Okay: I've clearly got the element water under my mastery.

Air will be harder. I think for a moment, then I go resolutely to the window and open it. A cold breeze comes wafting in. I hate cold, and think of a warm storm. For a short time a sandstorm flashes in me, and before I can wish it away again, sand flies from outside through the open window into the bathroom. Quickly I shut it again and try to look around. It doesn't work.

"Oha!" I cry, and my mouth fills up with grains of sand. It whips around my body and strips my skin till it is painful. In desperation I think that the air has to go away. Suddenly the grains of sand pause and hover in the air. Air? I notice that there's no more. No more air ... not for me either. I gasp. But I can no longer breathe. And since I can no longer breathe, suddenly I can't think any more. Shit! I just stand there and pant like a fish on dry land. It won't take long, then everything will be over ... then I'll be suffocated! But before that can happen the bathroom door opens and Lukas enters. With eyes gaping wide he stands there, mutters something incomprehensible, and the last thing I see is sandgrains falling onto the floor. Then everything goes black.