Elements

Chapter Twenty-Two

Ashley

I wake just as the sun climbs over the horizon. I'm confused at first. Why am I outside? Then I remember. The elves, the journey, the ultimate power... killing Jodie. Why did I do that? I'm not a bad person; I just get angry easily. Too easily.

I break down into tears. I killed someone. I killed a friend.

Her last words told me not to go to the power. That's a point. They never told us anything about the power. But I'm curious and greedy; I wipe my eyes and clamber to my feet. I look out towards the volcano. My feet do the thinking for me and stride off down the path.

Brooke

"We should start in the shallow water," Megan says. "It'll get you used to the idea of swimming in the ocean and more comfortable about having to go properly out."

I swallow. Even thinking about the ocean makes me nervous. "Okay."

"I think the best place would be the far side of the beach." Megan tells me. "Walking will calm you down, and it looks like one of the shallowest parts.

I nod anxiously. Megan nods too, but more as a clarification. She begins to walk down. I bite my lip and follow.

Ashley

I press the "return" button on the empty plate. It shakes, then shrinks back into the device. I've never had lemon chicken for breakfast before, and it was actually quite a nice meal to wake up to.

I stretch. The sun is fully up now; it's nine o clock according to the device. The path ahead appears to continue for miles. I've never been one to exercise much, so the journey ahead looks like hell.

Don't go to the power, I was told. I can't stop the scene replaying in my head, guilt eating away at my insides. What can I tell the HAVEN? The HAVEN don't care. She's just one ANGEL among hundreds. With that, I sigh and I get up. If they don't care about Jodie, then they shouldn't care about whatever the power does to me.

Skye

The wind is already cold and bites at my face like a hundred tiny dogs. Snow is falling thick and fast; I can barely see my hand in front of my face.

Me and Emma try to walk as close together as possible, so as not to lose each other. Emma's long hair is drenched from the snow, and keeps hitting me in the face. It reminds me of a month or so ago, when Ash's hair kept whacking Charlie at the fair, before everything was turned on its head. I sigh. So much has happened since then, and it hasn't been that long. How can so much massive stuff change for someone in such a short space of time?

And then I remember. Ashley's birthday! She's fourteen next week. Maybe most people wouldn't call that big, but me and Ash are practically best friends. Every birthday is important for us.

And then my birthday, only eight weeks after Ashley's. I've been desperate to be a teen for as long as I can remember, and I'm probably going to miss actually reaching that point.

Emma grabs my arm and steers me off somewhere out of the snow. I look into the emeralds she sees out of. She looks back, concerned. "If we can trust the elves, why've they sent you somewhere so dangerous?"

"It's to collect this power thingy. I'm not sure what it does." I reply.

"Power?" Emma's eyes widen with worry. "What sort of power?"

"They didn't say." I look at her, confused. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know much about the ultimate power," she says, slowly. "But... I think it kills you."