STATIC; JR [2]

5.8

Jake rested on the ground again, stiff back leaning on the side of the dumpster a few meters from the back door to the kitchen. Felix was pacing when I stepped outside, thumb and forefinger grabbing and pulling at his bottom lip as he lost himself in his deep thoughts.

I'd walked out in the middle of their conversation and it was Sam's turn to push the conflict. "Felix, he is so heavy. We can't just carry him around while we try to figure out where to take him." The delicate tremor behind the weight of his tone heightened the intensity of the situation Andy's grandmother had tried explaining; Jake was in grave danger.

Felix looked up from the dirt, head snapping toward me when he heard the metal door slam shut. There was an expression of gratitude on his face, large eyes praying for refuge. "Good job thinking of Nai Nai." He said, offering a soft nod before returning to his previous state of consternation.

With Felix pacing, my sight of Jake was limited; when he stalked towards the building I could see him cringing beside Sam. "Where can we take him?" I asked, doing what I could to press down my emotions. This was absolutely no time to blow up, not again. I knew that no matter what happened with Jake today, I'd still have to deal with the consequences of my actions later on.

Felix didn't stop to talk, just kept going on. "We could take him to the lake, or my bathtub, even."

The suggestions were valid but not practical and it was written all over Sam's troubled face. "I already told you, Felix. We can't carry him!" His exclamations were loud and uninhibited, a difficult and unwise response.

The way Sam had spoken sent Felix over the edge; a curse of distress left his puffy lips and he turned around, kicking the nearest object with all his might. The wheelbarrow tipped over, clattering noisily to the rocky ground and scattering the contents into the walkway. Bricks crawled to the stretch of concrete in front of my shoes and scraped the pavement as Jake winced in pain.

It was like somebody had turned on a light inside each of our minds, and yet like that light was connected to the same, single brain. Before we even knew where to take him, Sam was trying to throw Jake into the wheelbarrow and drive him away.

"I don't understand what she meant in there." Felix told me, gesturing to the kitchen where Andy's grandmother was probably still working. "We did everything right, there couldn't have been a problem. The only thing that was different was..." He trailed off there, slow and sure like he was onto something insane.

He averted his gaze to Saskia who was squatted down beside Jake, then the confused stare of his orbs turned to a hard, glassy glower that made my stomach drop.

"It was her." Sam stated, deadpan and forceful. He had caught on to what Felix was implying and when I felt my head twitch from a spark in my neck I knew they were right.

This was all because of her.

Something else lined up within me and I jumped in, silencing them with the knowledge I'd perceived. "She's not a water element; that's what Nai Nai meant." Felix's eyes were wide with realisation and he clicked his fingers at me, pointing and shaking and knowing I was right.

"Shit, you're right." he was quieter at first, and then his voice boomed. "She's an earth element, and if Jake had an earth overdose then it's because there were two earth elements in the spell."

She stuttered below us and I'd never seen something look so pathetic. Her hair flew around as she turned to Jake for assistance and just as I was so convinced he was too weak to say anything, he piped up and it was jarring.

It was this definitive, gravelly mumble coming from his mouth. Dry and detached - stale like he needed water. Like he needed Andy. "This isn't Saskia's fault."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing - he was defending her.

"Wait, I'm confused." Sam interrupted, taking my attention away from the longing shared between them. "If she's Earth then why did the tracking spell work?"

I shook my head, fresh out of ideas for him to soak up. Felix was the same. "I don't know, but she can't come with us now." He ordered, slicing his right arm down through the air to accent that as his final word.

Jake coughed out a string of words, affliction changing his features. "I want her there." I had to turn back to him. The vacant call of his crippled voice spoke to me in an emotionally challenging way and it hurt - it hurt so bad. It felt worse than the anger residing beneath the hot, sticky skin of my palms.

He was panting on the ground, heart full of pain. Pain for her.

I noticed another little twinge inside me, felt it sting slightly beneath my ear and I quickly reached up touch it like something had bit me, but as I lifted my elbow I saw white. The glowing, pure energy inside the skin of my fingers.

I stared down at my hands, scrutinising every detail with a horrid disgust. I felt my chest contort and it grew difficult to breathe even though the chilly wind whipped across my face and through my hair and down my spine.

I heard Felix say my name before I saw him standing in front of me, pale hands cautiously lurking toward mine. Sam cried his name and it threw me back in, eyes blinking rapidly legs leaping so far back I fell right into Sam's arms.

I waited to hear him scream out in agony, but it never happened. When I raised my wrists again, there was nothing out of the ordinary, almost as if I was seemingly ordinary.

"There's no way she's coming." Felix spat, lips curled up in indignation. I feared I was a burden to him, that he might demand I leave them, but the solicitous twinkle among the pools of brown in his stare made me optimistic he'd never turn his back on me. "No way in hell."