Meeting Maia

Earth

"Hey! Get up!" I felt a prod and a shake and for a second, I thought it was Jonas. I opened my eyes and the darkness staring me in the face told me the truth. I'd really lost Maia and Klaus and I had really been captured by murderers to save them. My life had been more exciting and perilous in a week than anyone I'd ever met had risked in a lifetime.

The room was fairly dark but really resembled a jail cell. There were three walls and long iron bars where the fourth should have been. Two wooden beds with a blanket to the left and a toilet and make do shower on its right. The scariest thing of all though was the wide-eyed, messy-haired freak above me. He stared down with his huge green eyes. I jumped and stood up immediately.

"Who are you?" I asked, sharply.

"Woah, dude, calm down." He had a slow voice and reminded me of a surfer, hippy type person, or at least that's who he probably was before he came here. "I'm Kyle."

"Umm, Raphael, why are you so dirty? Is the shower broken?" I stated my name quickly. My eyes were adjusting to the dark now and he was caked in soot or mud or something.

"Well, yeah, but I'm just so dirty now that it don't quite get it all out,"

"Right. Well... wait a second, are you the guy who controls the earth?"

"I wish. They think I am but I'm not. They think I'm just holding back my powers but I'm not, dude!"

"Okay, okay, sorry!"

I needed to get out of here, I'd been here two minutes and I felt like my sanity was already wavering. Maia. She was my only light in this dark prison. I needed her, she needed me. It was mutual. Ugh, I missed her. I thought of our kiss. The heat and cold. Chills had spread across my body like a broken nerve. When I touched her, I felt like I could never be down again. Her beautiful hair, her eyes, her adventurousness, her perfection. It was amazing to even hold her hand in mine.

Suddenly, I burst into flames. They fluttered around me like dangerous butterflies. We lit up even the darkest corners of the room. Cobwebs littered our cell and grime coated each appliance. It was disgusting. Fire can melt metal. I wondered what temperature I was, it had to be possible that I could melt the iron bars.

My fists tightened on them. At first, I felt nothing, then it softened ever so slightly, like chocolate melting on your fingers.

"What's happening?" Cried Kyle. His eyes were watering from the light of my body. "You can't escape, getting through these bars, this is the easiest bit!"

I could hear his pained cries but my brain was barely processing it, it was like a very extreme adrenaline rush. The melted iron dripped through my fingers like melting butter. I slid my hands down, melting everything I touched. An alarm went off. I pressed my entire body to the bars and pressed. They melted beneath me and I fell to the floor.

"Come on!" I cried to Kyle, he shook his head in amazement and followed quickly behind me as I sprinted down winding hallways. Though Kyle had been here much longer than I had, he had even less clue as to where we going. I just kept running. Turning corner after corner. There were no doors, it was like a maze.

"We're being followed!" cried Kyle, tripping over his feet. He was thin so he should be agile but he's been stuck in that cage so long he'd lost all his physical ability. I launched myself into a random wall just round the next corner. The wall melted as I plunged into it. Just as it gave way, my body sizzled and the fire died. Kyle leapt through the hole, singing his clothes as he did so.

I lay there on the floor, wearing nothing but charred underwear and a shirt. I grinned.

"Dude, we have to keep going they're coming round that corner any second!" Kyle was panting but helped me out. We moved towards some forest-like area about 100 metres left of our hole into hell. We couldn't move very fast, Kyle was almost choking and I'd lost my adrenaline rush, leaving me the wimpy kid I am. We scaled the biggest tree not too far into the forest and hid in the leafy canopy. I heard shouts of anger and heavy footsteps. Then there was a crunch of leaves as unidentified feet crushed them. It got louder and Kyle and I tensed, barely breathing. They passed right by us, without a glance. We both sighed in relief and shot off further into the bushes.

"We have to find Maia." I said.

"Dude, I can't hang with you much longer!"

"Why not?"

"I can't do what you can! I'm just normal!"

"So what? You're on the run, we're on the run, what difference?"

"I'll be a distraction, a burden, dude! I'll help you find Maia and then I have to leave!"

"We'll make decisions when the time comes, okay?"

"I'm serious!"

"Okay! Let's just keep going!"

That's when I ran smack bang into a girl. I was tangled in her hair and a familiar face looked up at me.

"Raphie?"