A Rift in Time

2. The Last Words

---Evelyn's POV---

A few weeks later...

"Okay but like, why are you even marrying him? He's weird."

"Because, Evelyn, I love him. I don't care about match lists and bad matches and good matches or the fact that he doesn't even have a special ability, we're in love." Jolie retorted, picking up a sparkly white dress and shoving it to one side of her wardrobe. Evelyn was perched on the side of her bed, gazing out of the crystal window at the pastures and Grady trying to feed Verdi.

"But Jo, you haven't even had any Winnowing Galas yet! What about your reputation! What about the name of this family?!" Evelyn protested. For weeks now, Evelyn had been trying to put Jolie off of the marriage, claiming it would drive a rift between two sisters. But Jolie refused to budge.

"The reputation of this family? I hate this family. And I hate you, Evelyn. You always put your needs before those of other people. You don't even care about this family! I'm leaving and I'm never coming back." And with that, Jolie stormed out of the room, crashed down the stairs and ran towards the leapmaster. Evelyn crashed upstairs and ran out onto her balcony to watch Jolie go. Tears filled her eyes.

"Jolie, wait! " She called.

"Evelyn? What's going on darling?" Called Edaline from downstairs.

"Nothing mum!" Evelyn shouted back, trying to hide the quiver in her voice.

"Okay, well me and your father are moving some boxes, so your room will be blocked for a while, okay?" Evelyn told her it was okay. She didn't bother asking why her mum didn't just use her conjuring, instead, she decided she had to go after Jolie. Brant was unstable. She couldn't just stand by and watch her get roped into a bad match. Sure, both Evelyn nor Brant had a special ability, but the difference was that Brant was way past manifesting age, and Evelyn was only nine. So, she swung her self over the balcony railing, and gulped when she saw the long drop.

For Jolie. The words seemed to race around her head as she swung herself onto the tree and shuffled down its trunk. Once down, she raced towards the leapmaster and shouted the name of Brant's house. It was a bit of a walk from where his leapmaster was, so she had to run it.

She heard shouts, and frowned. As she turned the corner, orange flames licked at the surrounding rocks. And there was Brant, shouting to a massive wall of fire. Jolie was nowhere to be seen.

"BRANT!" Evelyn screamed. He looked at her with a wild look in his eyes, but they faltered when they met hers. He was scared of her.

"W-where's Jolie?" She asked, quieter. Brant turned back towards the flames, tears spilling down his face. Evelyn felt anger budding inside of her, growing into a massive ball of rage. She stormed towards Brant, shoving him hard onto the ground. Blood trickled out of the side of his mouth as she screamed at him.

"HOW COULD YOU LET THAT HAPPEN? HOW COULD YOU, BRANT? HOW- HOW COULD YOU?" Tears streamed down her face and lightning crashed down around them. The fire still raged, and she could no longer hear Jolie's screams. Brant scrambled backwards as Evelyn dropped to her knees, lightning still flashing. The anger still bulged inside of her, and she turned back towards him. All of a sudden, lightning struck Brant, inches away from her face. He screamed and writhed and covered his face in pain. The anger faded. Evelyn ran towards the flames.

"MAKE IT STOP!" She yelled at Brant. Through his tears, he managed to tell her he couldn't. But the flames died down anyway. Low enough for Evelyn to jump over the ring of fire. She saw Jolie, lying on the ground, unmoving. Burns covered every inch of her body. Evelyn fell to her knees beside her, and fished around for her imparter. She hailed Edaline.

"Evelyn? What's wrong? You didn't need to climb down a tree you know, we could have moved things so you could get out, and- what's wrong?" She asked as she saw tears and dirt covering Evelyn's pretty face.

"J-Jolie. Brant." She managed through her tears. Edaline's face melted into one of confusion.

"What? Are you okay? What's going on? Where are you?" Edaline's worried voice came out.

"Brant's house. I- I think she's dead." Evelyn whispered.

"What?" Grady's face came into the frame.

"Jolie? What happened?" Both their eyes filled with tears. Evelyn shook her head and they clicked off the screen, promising to come soon. The fire burned at Evelyn's body, but she didn't care. She could handle pain. But her sister...was dead. The cold, harsh reality set in and Evelyn choked on tears. Freezing pellets of rain soaked her strawberry-blonde hair, washing the ground out. A storm raged, and lightning continued to flash around her. She knew it was her doing it, but she didn't care as much as she did about Jolie. And her last words...

"Evelyn? What happened?" Edaline choked up when she saw Jolie lying there. Grady fought back tears and rushed to her side. Evelyn stood up and hugged her mother, who hugged her back, stroking her hair soothingly.

"Brant!" Grady called he helped him up, inspecting his face. Brant stumbled away from Evelyn, scared.

"Sh-sh-she struck me with lightning!" He cried, before running into his house and slamming the door. Grady looked at Evelyn.

"I- I think I manifested." She whispered.