Argent Eye

31

"What happened to your head?" Tom, my flat mate who I hadn't seen in a while, asked, as I buttered the bread for my sandwich. Andy walked in then, with Jake in tow, and they both stopped.

"Your head?!" Andy exclaimed. "What happened?"

I looked at Jake. "I fell over and hit it on a wall." I said.

Jake narrowed his eyes, and I nodded to his look as if to say, I'll explain later.

"Well, that is unfortunate." Tom said. "It looks nasty."

"Stings like a bitch." I said honestly.

"Jesus, you probably should have got that checked out." Andy said. "I reckon you could have had a few stitches in that."

I shrugged. "It'll be alright. It's already started healing."

Andy and Tom both started heading for the door. "Andy and I are going exploring, but Jake is being boring and won't come. You wanna join?" Tom asked.

I frowned. "I think I'll give it a miss this time."

"Suit yourself." Tom shrugged, as him and Andy left the flat, leaving just Jake and I.

"So." Jake said, taking a seat at the table. "Are you gonna tell me how you really got that cut on your head?"

I sighed, and sat opposite him with my finished cheese sandwich. "Did I ever tell you about a guy named Haydn?"

"Aidan?" He asked.

"Haydn." I repeated, emphasising the 'H'.

Jake thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "Don't think so."

"Okay, well, he's bad news. You remember when I told you about me having the darkness because some other deal with another guy went wrong?"

Jake nodded. "Let me guess- this Haydn dude, he's the other guy?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Ronan and I had a plan that if I manifested all seven elements, the darkness would be driven out of me so that Haydn couldn't get hold of it. However, what we didn't realise is that the only way Haydn can get hold of the darkness is when I've manifested all seven elements. So, all this time we thought we were ahead of him, he was playing his own game. He was the one who's been trying to get me to manifest, waiting all this time until I did. So, last night I had two elements left- water and metal. Now, I only have metal."

Jake looked at me. "How did you manage the others? Last time I spoke to you, you had loads to get." He paused. "Wait, is this the guy who strangled you?"

"Yeah." I said. "That's the one."

I remembered when I told Jake about all this before the air situation, I'd only manifested ice, fire and lightning. "Well, I went home and my vicar, who is an earth Heir, managed to awaken the earth inside me. Then, last night, Haydn practically drowned me to get the water."

Jake sat there for a moment, staring at me, as if waiting for me to burst out laughing. When I didn't do anything, he frowned. "Wait- you're serious?" He asked. "You're actually serious? Like, you nearly died fifty times?"

I chuckled. "Not quite fifty. But yeah, I'm serious."

Jake dragged his hand down over his mouth. "You nearly drowned. That's fucking mental."

I sighed again, something I seemed to be doing an awful lot of recently. "Tell me about it. But I think it was the water that saved me. It must have somehow forced me up out of the river once I manifested, but in the process it kinda threw me onto the ground. That's when I hit my head."