(The New) Power of the 8 Elements: Part One

Chapter Fourteen: Argument

"Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder." - Rumi
PRESENT DAY
LUCIFER

I go home with a black eye and bruises around my forearms. I am not happy. My anger is only worsened when Mother makes her way downstairs holding a laundry basket. My plan at attempting to not be seen is a complete failure.

"What have you been doing all day? I told you to take Onyx to the park."

"Is Thrax still here?" I ask.

"That doesn't answer my question! Where the heck were you?"

I hear footsteps behind me which signifies that Father is walking past as we begin to fight. When Mother and I are arguing, he doesn't like to get involved. I think he's afraid of her. I hear the door to his study in the basement close. He's definitely afraid of her.

"I was at the library. You know I like being by myself."

"I guess..." She storms off to the laundry room without saying another word.

I know that this whole "library" facade won't last very long because what kid would spend all day, everyday in a library for the entire school year. I decide to take advantage of the time I have now and storm into Thrax's room.

"WHAT THE HECK, THRAX?!" I screech.

The virus is sitting on his bed, taking off his boots. He has one hand placed against a tissue on his nose and looks just as furious to see me as I am to see him.

"F*ck off, Lucifer, I have a killer headache."

"Serves you right, b*tch," I say, walking into his room anyway. "Are you really that helpless that you would go back to thievery again?"

"I need money now. I'm desperate."

"What do you need money for? It seems you're not going to college."

"Well, I need some form of cash to get away from this h*llhole. Besides, my grades were above average. I was valedictorian of my class in eighth grade."

"Doesn't matter! You were stealing with a child? You gave Terry a virus mark?! I thought you had a redemption. I thought you were 'sober'."

"Well, I don't drink. At least-"

"-I don't mean that. I mean I thought you would actually have a chance at getting a successful career. I thought you had stopped committing crimes for a reasonable amount of time."

"Oh, please, I'm a virus. It's in my nature."

"Does it have to be? As a dark one, do you expect me to kill people for the fun of it? I'm not like those people."

"You mean you're not like Karmarius. That was a dark one in the history books that I was able to remember."

"The cruelest, most sadistic dark one in history."

"How many kills?"

"Two million," we both recite from memory.

"But I don't want to kill two million people."

"You can live with me."

"And see your face everytime I wake up? Nein."

Thrax laughs a little. "Oh, come on! It would be fun."

"I might like to go back to Edinburgh."

"I thought you were from Germany."

"Well, I was mainly raised in Edinburgh."

"That place is too cold for my liking. Pentagram City is like a whole plane trip away, but tickets are becoming cheaper, y'know."

"You do realize that if you get a good college education and an actual job, you could make enough money to go to Pentagram City without being entirely broke."

"Ah-ah-that doesn't excuse the fact that you were hanging with a light one."

A loud gasp comes from the door. Onyx stands in the doorway. "Did you just say the l-word?"

"I thought the l-word was a loser?" I say.

"Lucifer?"

"Love?"

"Lame*ss?"

"Do you always have to curse?"

"Speak for yourself," Thrax says, playing with his hair.

"It's light one now," Onyx says. "So is it true, have you really been with a light one?"

"It's not like we're friends or anything-"

"-I thought you were in the library. I'm going to tell Mommy and Daddy that you're not in the library, and that you're with the l-word."

"Well, that would make you a snitch."

"Oh, my gosh! You just called me the s-word."

"I thought the s-word was sh-"

"Shut up," I snap at Thrax before he has the chance to finish speaking. I turn to Onyx. "Look, Thrax and I are having a very important, adult conversation-"

"I am an adult. I'm better than you could ever be."

"Nobody asked," Thrax says, crossing one leg over the other as he sits in the bed.

"Thrax, you've been stealing with a child!"

Onyx laughs, "REALLY?!"

"What the heck, Lucifer? Just go and expose all of my secrets."

"Thrax, I know I'm not your guardian."

"But you act like it."

"But your life is a mess."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is," Onyx says.

"You don't go to school."

"I can always go to college later in life," Thrax says.

"You're a criminal."

"A famous one."

"No one knows your name, and you barely make any money," Onyx says. "Mommy and Daddy are successful people."

Thrax's face falls, and he looks away from the two of us.

"Onyx, shut up, nobody asked you."

"You know, I'm going to tell Mommy that you've been mean to me."

"Sure thing, go ahead!" I say as she leaves the room. I know what she's going to do. She's going to over-exaggerate everything that happened and make it seem like we beat her half to death, and she "barely made it out alive".

"Thrax, you're a failure," I say.

He looks up at me.

"What's the point in getting paid if you're not going to do anything responsible? I just want you to spend your life doing something reasonable."

I leave the room and watch as Onyx runs down to the stairs to tell Mother everything that happened.