The Man In The Midnight Blue Suit

Chapter Thirty

It is a blur in my memory, what happens next. I come to with the sun shining on my face. Everyone around me is lying on the ground as if they've simply dropped down for an afternoon nap. The Elites are still, like broken statues. Death-like. But not Jonathan. He rises with me. We turn to look at each other, and it is like looking in a mirror. We look different, but inside we are the same.

Our friends stir next. They rise, shaky and unsure. And soon, they smile with triumph. They look around, hardly daring to believe it'to believe it'id for an away.

lames are white. Tte flame, untill all that'\out to be the paths we crossed. The onldy died, ins real. But it is. For once, I know it's real.

We send the Elites off in a pyre of many fires: Pink, yellow, green, brown, lime, and white. Lucian may have admired the grandeur. I doubt he'd have like the unison our fires represented.

For Hale, I create a single burst of bright white flame. We cover the space where he had lain with stones, although I doubt anyone will ever see it. No one but us will remember him. Unfortunately, he'd never have been satisfied by that. He was arrogant, rude, and spiteful, but his soul was destroyed, dragged out of him before his body died. No one deserves what he went through. His body died with the Elites – their hold on it the only thing keeping it alive.

We got the stones to cover Hale's body from the ruins. We carried them over to him, using only our bodies' strength. The arena turned out to be just that: ruins. The barracks, the courtyard, even the crystal arena. All of it was crumbling stone and broken glass, covered with moss and weeds, structures slightly resembling those we'd come to know. All that beauty, the feats of architecture, had been an illusion. Products of their imagination. It was like a final punch in the gut. I walked through the space that we thought was a well-kept, illustrious courtyard, the only thing we had to ourselves. Although, as it turns out, it was never our own. It was all wild trees, messy ponds. The only thing that resembled the courtyard I'd seen was the statues. Two tall, ominous statues. The original Elites. The woman's light purple flame and the man's sunset orange still burns. Perhaps spitefully, I smother them in my own bright white fire, until all the flames are a bright, powerful white. They stay like when I walk away.

On the other side of the arena, opposite to where our apartments were, are six grand villas, one for each Elite. These are not ruins: they look as beautiful as when they were first built. Jonathan tells me this is where he was, hidden away in a lavish basement beneath the house. He broke out at the final challenge. "I knew something was going to happen," he told me, tired and wary from the events of only a few hours, "I should have guessed you had planned something crazy. It's just like you." He looks at the house where Lucian stayed: huge and beautiful, but nowhere near that of the mansion.
"I'm glad you took the risk," He adds after a moment.

Together, we burn Lucian's villa, until all that is left of it is ash, floating in the wind. A twist of white and lime green flames, licking up the tall structure. Powerful. United.

Lucian may have trained me, may have revealed a side of myself I never knew existed. But he never got my power. He overlooked the simple miracle that is my brother and I. I'm not entirely sure what we did. I know that to have a brother, who shares these abilities, is a rare thing. It enabled us to create something that saved our lives, and our souls.

Together, the six of us make our way away from the arena, the competition and the Elites. We do not know what will happen now: too much has changed to ever go back to whatever normal is. Civilisation may never know our story. But that is ok. Because as we turn our backs on the events that have changed us so dramatically, we are together. A united force. A new race of Elites.

We face the ruins of the arena. The last thing tying us to the competition. Together, a bonfire of white, pink, green, brown, yellow, and lime flames engulfs the structure.

Something shifts in the air as the competition burns. Something in my reality cracks. There is a hush, a sudden silence. It is not ours. The world around begins to twist and warp. The fire pulls away from me. My friends become distorted. Jonathan slips away. Something is wrong. This is not right. The world pulses, twists, and is sucked away from me.

I am standing on the ground, in an alleyway lined with trash. It is day: clouds roll over the sky. I look around. There are people on the city streets, walking hurriedly. I look down. A scrap of midnight blue fabric is blown by the wind to lie at my feet. I stand alone.

Innocent lives continue on without me.