The Elementals: Raven's Fire

Chapter 1

Through the fog and darkness, the putrid smell of sulfur burns my nostrils as I run, fast and hard away from the dark mist chasing me. Sweating with tears running down my face, I am trying my best to get away from it. I can hear footsteps running towards me getting closer and closer. I sense a hand reaching out for me, long fingernails scratching down my back. I turn around to see what has me, then......

"Raven! Get up, it's time for school!" The sound of my mother's voice, rousing me from the last few remnants of the nightmare I was just having. Groaning, I shoved my head further under my blankets. There was absolutely no way I was going to school today. At least I didn't want to anyway. I had a huge test in science and did not study. I fell asleep watching a movie last night. Man, why couldn't I have just studied. I just didn't feel like failing another exam. I am absolutely horrible at school and if it was up to me, I would have quit a long time ago.

"Raven James! If you don't get your ass out of bed this instant, I am going to come up there and take everything you own and burn it!!!" Ah, my mother, so freaking dramatic...you see, Regina Cade was a no-nonsense attorney at one of the most prominent law firms downtown, Harrison & Stonewall.

Well, I suppose I should tell you where we live, that way the rest of this story makes sense. We live in New Orleans, Louisiana, that's right the big city of NOLA!! In a split-level house in a cul-de-sac not far from the garden district. I was born and raised here but my mother is from Salem, Massachusetts, not that I ever thought anything of that at all. Anyway, my mother has the belief that if you don't work as hard as you can, you will never amount to anything. I can proudly say that I am not her greatest accomplishment.

"I'm coming! Christ!" I screamed back down to her, as I sat up in bed, shaking my head. I swear that woman could raise the dead with that mouth of hers. Ugh, not everyone is as bright and shiny in the morning as she is. I absolutely hate mornings. I think they should have school at night for the kids who can't get up in the mornings.

I begrudgingly pull myself out of bed, throw on some black jeans and a black Metallica t-shirt, run my fingers through my waist length dyed black hair, another thing my mother despises, but oh well. I apply another layer of jet-black eyeliner, check myself out in the mirror, I am five foot ten inches tall, slender, and curvy in all the right places. I have naturally blonde hair which I hate, hence, the black hair now and gorgeous green eyes. Most people say I am quite a stunner, but I disagree.

'Meh' I say to my reflection one last time and head downstairs to the steel glare of my mother, if looks could kill, I would have been dead where I stood.

"What!" I said, rolling my eyes, as I looked at the utter disappointment on her face. I was not in the mood for another lecture from her this morning.

"Why do you insist upon looking like you just rolled out of bed every day? And what is with the 50 pounds of eyeliner? Oh, for fuck's sake RJ," RJ is what people call me to get my attention.

"Do you really not care what anyone thinks?" my mother questioned. as I stood there staring at her blankly eating my morning bagel. My mother has this so-called image to uphold, and I don't quite fit in with her idea of what being appropriately dressed is.

"Um nope, I really don't. Now, if you don't mind mom, I am going to be late for school." I snidely tell her as I reach for the keys to my 2020 Audi S8, one of the only nice things my father ever got me.

You see, I am the dirty little secret that my mother and my sorry excuse of a Father Dylan Stonewall have. That's right my oh so prim and proper mom had an affair with her boss and 9 months later out I came. She was just a law clerk at the time and now she's a junior partner in the firm, coincidence? I think not.