Argent Eye

30

When I woke, I wondered if I'd had a heavy night of drinking and couldn't remember what happened. The pain that shot through my head was like nothing I'd ever felt, and for a moment all I could hear was a monotone ringing in my ears. Then, the previous night came flooding back to me. Haydn. His plans. The water.

I finally found the strength to open my eyes, and I noticed that I was laying on my bed, under the covers. I reached up to rub my hair out of my face, but stopped when I realised how filthy they were.

"Hey, sleepy." A familiar voice said, and I peered over to see Ronan sitting on my swivel chair playing solitaire.

"Jesus Christ." I groaned, although it barely came out. My throat was so dry, it felt like I'd swallowed sand. I felt my hair, and it felt disgusting. I then peered under my duvet, and I was only wearing my pants and the dirty top from yesterday. My trousers and hoodie, I noticed, were on the floor in a dirty pile. "I stink." I said. My duvet was now dirty, as were my sheet and pillows.

"Sorry, I didn't really know what else to do." Ronan said. "You were completely unconscious." He then handed me a cool bottle of water, which I guzzled so quickly it was gone in under three seconds.

I threw the duvet off me, not really bothered about Ronan seeing me in my knickers. I mean, he'd been the one to strip my trousers off, so I guess he'd already seen me half naked. He also didn't seem too bothered, not reacting at all. I guess Ronan was too old to even have things like that affect him.

"Thanks." I said. "I'm gonna have a shower." And with that, I got into the bathroom, took all my clothes off, and stood in front of the mirror. I looked absolutely awful, with a jagged red cut making its way from the corner of my eyebrow right down to the tip of my cheekbone. My elbow was red raw, where I'd hit and grazed it on the pavement. Blood surrounded a couple of fingernails, and I had a few other scratches and bruises over my arms and legs without knowing where they came from. Probably when Haydn threw me against the railings, before chucking me in the water.

Speaking of water...

How had I got out? I remembered the moment when I realised Haydn had gone, and somehow I'd been shot up out of the water.

I ran the tap, curious, and placed my hands underneath the steady stream of water. And then I felt it- an instant connection. I cupped the water in my hand, and taking hold of that connection I was able to make it float an inch above my skin and form a not so perfect sphere. But, with the knowledge Haydn had given me, I didn't feel that rush of excitement from manifesting a new element. In fact, it was the complete opposite. I felt dread. Defeat. Like everything was destined to get even worse than it already was.

I stepped into the shower, allowing the boiling water to wash away all the dirt coating my skin. I washed my hair, and realised then that before, the darkness was a constant presence, but it felt so much weaker now. I knew I only had one more element to manifest before the darkness wouldn't be able to hold onto me any longer, so I guess it was only hanging on by a thread. It was being drowned by six other elements, which were attempting to force it away. I knew it was weaker when I'd hit Haydn earlier- although it stopped him getting Sanita, it only knocked him over. It felt harder to reach, too, and when I'd been in the water, I was unable to reach it at all.

When I stepped out the shower, I dried myself off and put on some jogging bottoms and a baggy t-shirt before peering back in the mirror. I tried so hard to reach for the light to heal the cut that was giving me a headache, however it only stretched as far as to heal the scratches and bruises on my arms and legs. It also managed to cover the purple rings that circled my eyes, making me feel a little more awake but no more optimistic about the whole situation. It did ease the ache in my head, but failed to stitch together the gruesome cut there.

When I stepped out the bathroom, I noticed all my bed was stripped, and Ronan was sitting there. "I put your bedding in the washing machine downstairs." He said.

I tried my best to smile. "Thanks." I said, and slumped down next to him. "We've fucked up big time, Ronan."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"He wanted this all along. He was waiting for me to manifest all the elements. He can't get the darkness any other way, so we've basically just handed it to him on a silver platter."

Ronan pursed his lips together, and I looked up at him. He then looked at the cut on my head, and frowned. "Can't you heal that?"

I shook my head. "I've got six elements inside me, so the darkness and light are pretty weak now. Not strong enough to heal my head, anyway."

"I'm sorry." He said.

"Why are you sorry?" I asked. "You haven't done anything."

"Well, I brought you into this mess."

"You couldn't have known what would happen. Haydn has been planning this for years, probably decades. And I fucked it up for him. So, it's probably my fault more than anyone's."

"It's only Haydn's fault."

"Yeah, and now I have absolutely zero chance of beating him. He's too strong." I sighed. "He made his own deal with the darkness, and once he gets hold of it, that'll be it."

"You still need to manifest metal." Ronan said, trying to sound a little optimistic. "If we can hold that off-"

"I don't think it will work." I said, cutting in. "Haydn already seemed to know exactly what to do with the fire, air and water-"

"Wait." Ronan said. "So it was him who gave you the fire?"

I sighed again. "Yeah. I actually remember it now- I was walking to uni going back and I felt this scorching pain up my arm. I realised now that it was him. He did it. He strangled me, not intending to kill but to awaken the air. And now he's awakened the water. I have no doubt that he knows exactly how to get the metal."

Ronan didn't have anything more to say, and so whilst we waited for my washing to wash and dry, I made us both a cup of tea and for once we avoided the subject of Haydn. We spoke about hobbies and my time at school before this, and just had a good, honest conversation.

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