Elementals

Chapter 1 - PRESENT DAY

January

My parents have always told me that I was special, I really underestimated how much those words would ring true. In my seventeen years of life, my parents have encouraged me to do more than my best. I can confidently say that I am proud of who I've become, yet saying that, I never knew how drastically my life would turn upside down, starting from one change; one moment. It was later when I discovered the full truth, hidden in the myths and stories taught to me whilst growing up, when I discovered my powers and the decisions I had to make regarding them.

Although my parents were warned that my powers would come to me earlier than most, they weren't expecting it so soon, they thought they'd have more time. The more powerful of the Elementals (what we like to call ourselves), gains control over their powers on their twenty second birthday, most blossom a little later but gain their powers before their twenty seventh birthday. So, you see, my powers starting to arise from beneath the surface just a few months before my eighteenth birthday was not something my parents imagined for their first-born child.

It was the end of the Christmas holidays, the first day back to school when the impossible happened. It had started off as it usually did. Mum driving me to school with the twins, Christopher and Cameron in their car seats, the sound of the twin's singing along to Sponge Bob Square Pants in the back of the car. Sponge Bob's laugh pulled me out of my unfocused state, shaking my head I zone back in, smiling at the familiarity of it all. I've always been told I have my mother's smile, my best feature other than my eyes, both of us having full lips and a perfect smile.

As the traffic light changes to green we continue on our journey to school, I turn to continue the conversation with my mum but after catching a movement in the corner of my eye I stop and snap my head towards the movement, I watch in horror as a car speeds past the red light towards us. "Watch out!" I scream as the car nears us. Everything is in slow motion; a rush passes through me; I close my eyes and wait for the car to crash against ours.

I hear the collision but feel no pain. Unable to understand whether it's shock or adrenaline that stops the agony, I wait five seconds, take five deep breaths before prying my eyes open.

A strange scene awaits me.

It's as if there was an invisible wall protecting us from the destructive force of the speeding car. A huge dent is evident on the front of the other car but ours, from what I can see, is without a scratch.

I turn to look at my mum and the twins, surprised written on all their faces but a flicker of another emotion in my mother's eyes catches my attention, though it's gone before I can figure out what it is. The sound of the twins crying shocks us both, I take down the licence plate on my phone before helping calm down the twins.

A sudden knock makes us jump, looking to the window a paramedic was smiling at us, wanting to make sure we were okay. Amidst the chaos, someone had called 999, looking past the paramedic, I see the others helping a man out the car and on to a stretcher. As he looked my way our eyes connected, he seemed angered by the fact that we seemed unscathed. There was something about him that made me shiver, something that made me think maybe he wanted us to get hurt, that it wasn't an untimely accident. I notice the scar above his left eye and what seems to be an intricate pattern tattooed under his blood stained shirt, he's taken out of view before I know for sure.

Looking at the time I realise that twenty minutes had passed, though it felt like twenty seconds. After another five we were able to continue on our journey, but even as we got closer to school my mind remained at the car crash.

The sound of the engine being turned off pulled me out of my daze. I turn to my mum, feeling comforted in the familiar features, almost an exact replica of my own. "Be safe Mija, let me know if you need to come home early," she says as she pulls me into a hug and kisses my forehead.