The Elementals

Stella

Author's note: Hola! Sorry for the wait, a bit of writer's block and you know, that torture called school. Anyhow, I managed, and really have no excuse for myself, but this chapter is dedicated to Atunna, because she's the amazing person who made that lovely cover you see on the right, and also she has spent the time to vote on every chapter and comment often. So thank you very much, hope you all enjoy, and have a nice...whatever time you read this. :)

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Stella stared at the worn mass of stone that sat behind the rusted fence in front of her. "This...this is where the light Elemental is said to be?"

"Yep, Roosevelt Asylum, Rockford, Illinois." Rian replied. Stella assumed that the reason her voice held no fear was that she had not looked up from her book yet.

Stella observed the multiple "No Trespassing" signs hung crookedly on the fence. The links were bent and twisted in some areas, showing that it had been tampered with before. Clearly, people did not know how to read. That or they had a death wish. She turned to the sound Elemental, Joseph.

It had been surprisingly easy to convince him to come. Stella was not complaining. He had been happy to leave the run down building he had been hiding out in, and Stella and Rian had been happy to take him from it.

"Maybe we can come back tomorrow?" Joseph suggested. "When it's light out?"

Stella nodded in agreement, even though she could see fine.

"C'mon guys, we can't hide the helicopter that long." Rian said, laughing. "What's the prob-?" she stopped talking as she looked up.

Just the sight of the asylum was petrifying. Cold stone walls loomed over Stella, even though it was a couple hundred feet away. The entire building was massive, and in bad need of repair. It held an empty feeling, just completely desolate. Ivy crept unevenly up the sides, making it appear as if the ground was trying to swallow the building into oblivion.

"Are you sure this is where the light Elemental is?" Joseph questioned dubiously, and with a hint of nervousness.

"Yes..." Rian confirmed reluctantly.

No one moved until Stella swallowed and swiftly climbed over the fence. After an aversive pause, Rian and Joseph followed. The thumps of their shoes against the ground were muted by the overgrowing shrubs, but somehow Stella felt that the noise had alerted something of their presence. She felt like she was trespassing, and not because of the signs.

The trio crept forward hesitantly, taking each uncertain step together so no one was first. Of course they had to come at night, when this place was a hundred times more forbidding.

"Wait," Joseph whispered, causing Stella to jump a bit. She observed him as he listened carefully. His left eye squinted a little in concentration and then he frowned. "Voices. There're people inside."

"You can hear from that far away?" Rian asked with awe.

Joseph nodded. "I can pick up the sound waves of speech pretty clearly." he explained modestly.

Stella was impressed. She herself could not hear much over the fast pounding of her heart. She never was one for horror, and this place looked like something out of a nightmare.

"Who is it?" Rian asked.

"Oh, just some teenagers." Joseph said, scoffing. He was only a teenager himself, at sixteen, one year younger than Stella. "Doing some stupid "initiation" for a club. Apparently this place is haunted."

Stella did not like the sound of that, but she walked forward in an attempt to seem brave. "It is probably the Elemental being mistook for a ghost or something. Come, let us go and find them."