The Elementals: The Rise of the Deviants

Chapter 12

Chapter twelve

The rain pounded, as did my heart. Were all their efforts to save me and Cara all for nothing? My mind was on over drive and I couldn’t think properly, it kept jumping from one thing to another rendering me useless to making a rational decision. We were all frozen where we stood, knowing we were unable to outrun Malum’s Elementals, and I wasn’t sure but it felt as though the atmosphere became heavier. It felt like the dread we were all feeling was physically weighing down on us and we had no way to stopping it.

Behind me, the shadow girls began howling loudly. Their airy howls grew louder and louder that I couldn’t even hear the thunder rumbling overhead anymore. Everyone turned to stare at the shadow to see it had begun to multiply. One shadow, then two, and then more and more until they all surrounded us like a translucent black wall and I felt my heart fall... were they falling back under the control of Malum? Were they trapping us, readying us to be brought back to the castle?

I felt Derrek grab me and pull me swiftly against him as he held me tight. The shadows began to move, swirling around us like a giant wheel until they were nothing but a blur and I tucked my head into Derrek’s chest while the shadow’s swirling drew up a wind so strong my hair and clothes were flapping wildly around me.

Suddenly the feeling of weightlessness grew all around me, while it felt as though I’d been dropped into a lake of liquid fire. My throat burned and behind my eyelids, so did my eyes. The pain was excruciating and yet no matter what I did I couldn’t escape the pain. The liquid fire seeped up into my nose and down my throat burning the inside of my body. Even my bones felt as though they were being melted, and just when I thought I would explode... it all stopped.

I gasped for breath and wrenched my eyes open only to find out that I, and everyone else, were no longer in the forest outside of the broken down Stinger hideout but scattered around in the forest I recognised as the one outside Abled University.

“What. The. Hell!!! What the hell?!” Blake started shouting in confusion. “What the hell just happened?!”

Mixed versions of ‘what the hell’ started emanating around the forest as everyone else realised that we weren’t about to be captured by Malum’s Elementals. Through the mix of confused exclamations a shrill scream pierced the air and I swivelled quickly to see that Helena was completely soaked through with blood!

“Helena! What happened?!” I cried out, running over to her.

“My- my arm!!!” Helena was growing pale and I realised she was going into shock. “Th-the mantis Elemental... c-cut my...-”

Helena couldn’t talk properly anymore but I looked down to her left arm and saw that from the elbow downwards her arm was missing. Instead it lay down in her lap. “Oh God...!” My breathing grew shallow and I spun around to find Derrek. “Derrek! Derrek you have to stop her from bleeding! Quick!”

Both Blake and Derrek came barrelling towards and me, both their expressions full of worry. Blake bent down and began trying to keep Helena conscious while Derrek pumped his hand sharply against the stump of Helena’s arm to seal the wound off.

“What happened to Helena?!” Cameron asked wide eyed.

“She said something about the mantis Elemental cutting her arm... it must’ve happened just when we...” I trailed off and suddenly looked around for the shadow. It took a few seconds but I finally spotted it when it flew out into the sunlight that speared through the branches. “What the hell did you do? How did we get here?!”

The shadows swirled and rippled and instantly split down the middle to the two girls and they raised an eyebrow. “You should be thanking us” Evanesce said before Chimera spoke.