The Elements

Chapter Four

Walden's was as quiet as I had seen it yet. Wandering the halls almost creeped me out by how silent everywhere was. The bonfire had started almost an hour ago and I must have underestimated how popular it was because I did not think everyone would attend.

I was supposed to stay in my room because of my decision to skip out on the hoopla, but I was curious and couldn't help but explore. The training floors were all very similar with the same white walls and dark wood floors, but after looking around long enough I could see the slight differences.

The hydrokinetics' floor, the fifth floor not including the lobby, was the most obvious difference with what looked like built-in marble kiddie pools spaced out across the area. Next to each pool of water was a rack full of towels for what I was guessing were accidents. The next floor up was practically empty, other than multiple rolling carts which differed in sized rocks from pebbles to actual boulders. How someone got the boulders into the cart was something I wanted to see because I knew with what I could do, anything was possible. It was most likely there wasn't much here because the terrakinetics could just go outside and use anywhere as their training area, but there was always the chance of rain, I guessed.

The seventh floor held two large tubes that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and looked as if they could easily hold a person, but I still did not know what they were for. There were also many object strewn around like exercise balls and weights. I did not know which training room that was until I got to the eighth floor and knew I had finally made it to my floor.

Rather than wood, the floor consisted of white tile. Against one of the walls was a table which held multiple lighters, candles, and fire extinguishers. Like how the hydrokinesis floor held pools of water, my floor had at least six pits spaced out with charred wood filling all of them. At the far end of the space, I could see what looked like a clothing rack full of what had to be flame retardant jackets and pants.

I eyed the room before eventually convincing myself to walk all the way inside and ended up sitting cross legged at the nearest pit. Being so close, I was able to see little imprints of ash surrounding the pit from mishaps. Just sitting close to the charred wood had my blood flowing and my breathing hitched.

"You shouldn't be sneaking around on your own. Especially because if I was with you, you wouldn't get into as much trouble."

My breath got caught in my throat as I twisted my neck to see Kale standing beside the elevator doors with his arms crossed in amused disapproval. "I'm not sneaking around," I quickly shot back. I really did not need to get in trouble when I just got to Walden's. Especially because I hadn't even attended my first lesson yet and I would be sent back home with the same amount of knowledge about myself as before.

Kale raised his large hands in the air as a sign of surrender as he began walking towards me. "Whatever you say, but you have to admit, sitting alone in the training room when everyone else is outside looks a lot like sneaking around."

I narrowed my eyes at Kale's satisfied smirk, but to my annoyance he did not see my annoyance and sat down right next to me. "Finn never showed me around inside so I decided to take my own tour. How did you find me?"

Finn's name created a murky storm in Kale's warm brown eyes. His eyes moved to his grey hoodie and running shorts before he admitted, "I was going to go for a run and wanted to invite you but there was no answer when I knocked on your door, so I went searching." The murkiness still had not vanished from Kale's eyes and they seemed to darken into a shade similar to his lengthy hair. He reached out an ink-covered arm to grasp one of the charred logs and it automatically lit with flames. Only after holding the log for a bit to allow the flames to spread did Kale retract his arm and lean back on his hands. I could feel the heat emanating from his palm as he had positioned it right beside my hip. Seeing the fire take hold and feeling the warmth from Kale's palm had my blood rushing and the familiar feelings of uncontrolled power began pushing its way through me.