Where Tears Fall Like Snow

16

-Oli-

"What's that noise?!" I shout over the painfully loud screech. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard but amplified more then five million times.
"It's a kind of distress call!" Yammy says, "It's released by someone when they're in unbearable amounts of pain."
"Can you figure out where it's coming from?!" Shelby asks
"Probably!" Yammy says. She says something that none of us can hear and looks around.
"This way!" She shouts. We follow her to a doorway where Ari, Ash and Skye stand. Ari slams herself into the door.
"What's happening?!" Joel runs over to us.
"Alex is in there!" Ari shouts. Yammy says something, a glowing key appears in her hand. She unlocks the door and we step in. Ari takes her hands off her ears and covers them again, stumbling backwards.
"ALEX!" She shouts. Alex looks at us and says something. The noise gets louder.
"ALEX, YOU HAVE TO CALM DOWN!" Ari shouts. He looks at us again. Ari closes her eyes, her cheeks start glowing. Slowly, she takes her hands off her ears.
"ALEX!" She says loudly, "ALEX, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"
"ALEX!" Skye and Ash join, "ALEX, CAN YOU HEAR US?!"
"HELP!" He shouts
"How?" Ari asks
"HELP!" He repeats
"I DON'T KNOW HOW!" Ari says
"HELP!" Ari opens her eyes and runs over to him. Her two fingers glow as she motions something repeatedly. Everything around us stops.
"Ari, you're gonna get yourself killed!" Ash says. She keeps going, slowing down every once and a while but never stopping.
"Yammy, you can freeze time, right?" Ash asks
"For a little." She says
"Good, do that." She says. Ash's hand glows red. She stands next to Ari and mouths something. Skye stares at the ground, her hand out in front of her. Giant wings appear on her back and a glowing, light yellow, ball appears above her head.
"They're drawing energy from the universe itself." I say, "Which is crazy because they don't have nearly enough energy to do it themselves."
"Shut it." Ash says. Skye gets knocked backwards, the glowing ball shatters.
"Skye!" Shelby runs over to her.
"Daemonium-"
"You can't heal her." I say, "You have to let her regenerate energy on her own." Ash gets pushed back, the fiery ball that was forming over her head bursts.
"I can't stop it any longer." Yammy says, times unfreezes.
"Ari, you can't do it if time isn't frozen." Ash says, "Stop, there's no point putting you life at risk for no outcome." Ari holds her other hand out to her side. The lights flicker and she starts breathing heavily.
"Ari stop it!" Ash says. The lights start flashing faster.
"Ari stop!" Ash says, "This isn't gonna do anything." The lights go out and Ari gets knocked backwards. As the ball explodes the lights come back on.
"Is she ok?" Ash asks nodding at Skye.
"I think." Shelby says. She puts her finger on Skye's wrist, "She's fine." Ash walks over to Ari.
"Idiot." She says

-Yammy-

We walk down the hallway to the main office.
"How my I help you?" The girl at the desk asks. Ash clears her throat. The girls looks at us, then at Skye and Ari. She sighs.
"What happened?" She asks
"They're energy got drained." Ash says
"How old is the little one?" She points to Skye.
"Eleven." Shelby says
"Did you give her extra oxygen?" She asks, "Those younger then thirteen can have trouble breathing and regaining energy and need to be given extra oxygen." She says
"No." Ash says
"Follow me." She says. We follow her into a completely white room.
"Put the little one on that one and her on this one." Ash puts Ari down on one of the beds and Shelby puts Skye down on the other. She hands Ash a small pill.
"To restore your energy." She says, "You lost quite a lot." Ash pops it into her mouth.
"Are they going to be ok?" She asks
"The little one, definitely. The older one, probably." She says. She puts an oxygen mask on Skye.
"While we're here, do you have any news on Scott Major?" Ash asks
"Do you have a pass?" She asks
"It's under my friend's name." Ash says, "Arianna Miller."
"He's stable, but still unconscious." She says, "He should be fine." Ari's hand glows, it travels up her arm and shoulder.
"What the-" The girl looks at the screen, "That's not good."
"What?" Ash asks
"When you take energy from the universe, the universe takes energy from you." She says, "Which is why they're low on energy. She's completely drained of energy but she isn't dead because the universe still needs more."
"So she's slowly dying?" Ash asks
"That's one way you could put it." She says, "She drew amazingly high amounts of energy. Technically, it is possible but your body would disintegrate almost immediately. I don't know how she's not dead yet." Skye sits up and starts coughing, purple blood spills out of her mouth.
"Take deep breaths." The doctor instructs. She inhales and exhales slowly.
"While you were unconscious, I couldn't help but notice your arms and legs have a lot of scar tissue, there's a couple patches of skin that appear to be burned or were once burnt and not treated properly." The doctor says, "And you left eye fascinates me. It doesn't move, it's unable to produce tears, the iris is faded and even a little cracked. Can you see out of it?"
"No." Skye says quietly.
"I'm curious as to what happened to it." The doctor says
"It got scratched." Skye says. The doctor looks at it.
"It looks like more then a scratch, did it happen recently?" She asks
"Maybe, like, a month ago." Skye says, "I don't really know."
"You're a pure-race, correct?"
"Yeah." She says
"Do you know what kind of casters your parents were?"
"My mom was a sky caster." She says
"And your father?"
"I don't know." She says, "There's a possibility he was a hunter but he never said anything about casting."
"And they both have died?"
"No." She says, "Only my mom."
"Who is you legal guardian?" Skye looks at Ash.
"Legally, her father." Ash says, "We're still working on some things."
"Wait, actually?" Skye asks, "I thought you guys just said that for stuff."
"Rain was seeing what she could do."