Meeting Maia

The Journey

Maia played with the sleeve of my jacket as we walked, avoiding skin contact as we were never too sure when elemental particles may explode from our fingers because that was a quick, unsubtle way to let the, what Jonas calls, Catchers discover our position.

After recently finding my twin and sister, I was pretty content with wondering round the forest for a while. Jonas had admitted to Maia his earth manipulating powers and she laughed saying she knew it would be him, how could it not? I smiled too, now sharing more in common than our birthday.

Cleo was looking more beaten than the rest of us. Her mascara still ran in streaks down her cheeks and her hair had tangled and was hanging in greasy clumps around her face. Her cheeks looked sallow and there were blackening circles beneath her eyes. She'd glance in lakes and grimace at herself, knowing how rough she looked.

Maia, on the other hand, was looking quite vibrant. Her hair was knotted but still hung in lose ringlets that brushed her hoops. A few stay leaves and twigs were tangled into it. Her eyelashes were long and brushed her cheek bones when she looked down. Her eyes were glittering but she too had small circles forming beneath them. Her lips were pursed but she was smiling lightly. She was so perfect so it worried me that she might change her mind for Jonas, who was looking almost as good as Maia did.

Klaus had his straggly locks but strange luminous eyes and looked much the same as when we first found him and he saved mine and Maia's lives. He was dawdling along flicking his wrist quite a bit, blowing things out of his way as if he were the wind itself. Maia was manipulating the lake near us, it would ripple and then a huge wave would appear and crash but she would calm the waters as it did, making no havoc, though a canoe boat was being demolished to the left of it. I would walk along and click my fingers, shooting little fireballs from my hands to sizzle leaves and weeds. Jonas walked behind me, fixing them all as I killed them, one by one. We were quite a sight.

Up ahead, Cleo noticed a small cottage. The windows were smashed through and it was quite run down but it would suffice because we needed just one good sleep to revive us for the morning ahead. Klaus went to grab the door knob but as he did the door collapsed forwards. Jonas pulled it out of the way so we could enter and together we propped the door back up again.

Inside, there was a rather large fire place, full of slightly charred logs. A big table with six chairs littered around it. A full kitchen made from marble and a television sit opposite with a long leather sofa propped up in front. I walked up the small set of stairs.

"Three bedrooms, one bathroom," I called out. "I say that Cleo and Maia have one, Jonas and I have the other and Klaus gets his own room."  Everyone agreed with me since the for of us were practically related and Klaus had only met us about a week and a half ago! 

"There's tons of food in here! Mostly canned but we can cook it all anyway and take it with us," Klaus called out from the kitchen area.

"Cool, who has the most cooking experience?" Jonas asked.

"Not us," replied Cleo, "Last week we were rich living in a Manson and being driven to school in a limo!" I looked down in embarrassment as Klaus widened his eyes at us.

"Probably me, my uncle didn't cook much so I made most of or diners unless we got take out," Maia stepped forwards, noticing my embarrassment. She reopened the cupboards and began removing quite a few cans, arranging them in order of food. "Whatever needs to be warm we'll eat while we're here, the rest can go in my backpack for the journey.

"I don't mean to be 'that guy', but where exactly are we going?" Asked Jonas, looking around us. Surprisingly, Klaus jumped up.

"We're going to escape the Catchers but take them down as we do. Them we'll need to find Kyle before he finds and probably kills us. It may take a while but we'll never be able to line in peace until we do because neither if them will ever let us getaway alive." We started at Klaus for a bit as he settled into the sofa.

"Guess we should enjoy the peace then," Cleo said, trying to lighten the mood. She flicked the television set on and plopped herself down next to Klaus, crossing her long legs. Jonas announced his tiredness and headed upstairs to sleep and I turned to help Maia in the kitchen. Due to the way I'd been raised, the only help I was, was lighting the stove and providing fire. I could open some cans but Maia did everything else. An hour later we had creamy tomato soup. E shovelled it down like ravenous animals. I decided to go to bed too, taking a bowl of soup up for Jonas.

I set it down on the bedside table and swung round to the other side of the bed.

"Raph?" He asked, drowsily.

"Yeah, bro?"

"Do you love Maia?" That was the last thing I expected. I thought about her smile, her eyes, her laugh, her kindness, her ability to light me up.

"Yeah, I think I do."

"Me too though,"

"I think your just jealous but I don't have to be with her if it makes you uncomfortable. I can love her from a distance."

"No, bro, she loves you anyone can see that. Anyway, night night, bro."

"Yeah," I