The Four - Book 1

Chapter 13

Lana

We keep running.

Each movement makes my body scream. My arms pumping makes the aching increase.

I'm so tired.

I'm so done.

And Paytah almost made us fucking start over. Just the thought of going through all that hell again, with possibly a worse person than Paytah makes me feel sick.

But why were they going to kill Paytah?

"I can see the door." Juris mumbles, clearly out of breath. Man, if only Aira could just blow us up with air again we'd be unstoppable. But we all slow down and I grab and twist the handle. It opens freely, more white walls surrounding us. We all walk in tentative.

"Aira?"

I hear a voice, not familiar to me, but Aira gasps. I quick shoot a glance at Paytah, who also looks confused. I move my eyes to the shadow in front of us.

"M-mom!" Aira starts running to the woman, but Paytah acts quickly, running to her and grabbing her waist. Aira grunts, air gushing back as Paytah flies backwards into the wall. The next thing I see are vines trapping Aira's arms, holding her back from reaching the woman.

"Aira, I don't think that's actually your mom," Paytah says, his body slouched on the wall, but he slowly pushes himself up. Blood still flows from his gun shot wound, but he doesn't notice.

"Let me go! Let me go! Mom!" Aira yells, trying to get untangled from the vines, but Juris won't let her go. I step  towards the woman, who's emotion hasn't changed.

"She isn't real." I say, seeing a flashback. When that girl attacked Paytah at that hotel. She looked so real.

She wasn't.

"Aira, it's a robot." I say, and Paytah nods while we all look at Aira, who looks like a mess.

"But-it's, her." She cries.

"They want you to think that. It's just another test," Paytah sighs, "we didn't escape. We walked right into the fucking trap."

"But this is specifically for Aira." Juris says.

"And we probably have ones for us too." I say. Juris untangles Aira from the vines, and we walk slowly to the door across the room. The woman stays put, still not moving. I open the door, and it leads outside.

But it's snowing.

I immediately cross my arms, trying to block out the cold breeze. We are all in short sleeves and pants, and clearly not prepared for this weather.

And that's when Aira collapses.

She drops herself into the snow and sobs, covering her head with her hands.

"I can't. I can't." She cries, her frizzy blonde hair all over. Paytah sighs, sitting down next to her. Juris and I sit too and watch as Paytah creates a fire.

"What else do they want?" Aira sits up,
her eyes puffy. "What do they want us to-to do?"

"To work together." Juris says.

"We h-have been." Aira cries.

"Support each other." Paytah mumbles. We all look at him strangely. "They make this tough to make someone break down. And we have to help them, like we're helping Aira." He explains, "because, when it comes down to it, we're humans."

"Doesn't matter what element." Juris says.

"But why are they trying to change it anyway?" I ask.

"Maybe if all the elements were together, we could make the world better." Juris says, but I laugh.

"Yeah, and us four are going to change everyone's perspective."

"Wouldn't be surprised. We're the governments project. People listen to the government," Paytah says.

"Can they hurry up, then?" Aira asks.

"Why, you sick of us?" I ask, and that makes her smile a little.

"No-I think we're a good team."

"Well, we would've had a new team if Paytah was killed ten minutes ago." I say. "What was that about?"

Paytah tenses, his jaw line even sharper, if that was possible. The tint of red in his eyes stand out.

"They thought I knew too much about their tests."

"That's it?" I ask.

"He said something about your childhood," Aira says, and Paytah's nose twitches. He glances up, his face immediately pale. We all look up, and I see something falling from the sky.

"What is that?" Juris asks.

"Run." Aira whispers, and with that we all jump up, but the large black shadow is even closer. We sprint as fast as we can for cover, but the shadow is covering more and more as it falls.

"Bomb!" Aira shrieks as we run. I look up at it again, but the next thing I know my whole body skims the ground.

"Wait!" I scream, trying to pull myself up. Paytah turns around, looking up and then at me. I try getting up, but my shoe is stuck.

Shit.

I'm going to die.

I cry out of helplessness, but I watch as Paytah runs over, quick grabbing my arm and dragging me up. I run, my legs weak and mind ragged.

And that's when my ears explode.

We all fly forward, sparks and fire everywhere. I again hit the snowy ground, making the burns feel like ice.

"Oh my god." Is all I can say.

"Lana! Paytah!" I hear Juris and Aira. I slowly get up, my vision blurry for just a minute. I see Paytah next to me, starting to get up. Burns cover his face, which seems strange cause he is the fire element. Juris lends me a hand as I get up, looking back at the bomb. Smoke flies everywhere, right where we were sitting before.

"You saved my life." I say, looking at Paytah.

He shrugs. "Watching someone getting blown up was something I didn't want to see." He says. I smile, staring at his red orange eyes.

I'm always mean to him.

But I think I just like him.

And I can't help it.

I reach for him and press my lips on his. He's frozen for a minute, but then steps back, pulling his lips away. He looks at me with wide eyes, first confused. But then I see the anger in him.

"Are you fucking serious?" He says, his voice harsh. He turns the other way and walks, and I'm left in utter confusion.

But most of all, with a pain in my heart.

••••••

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