Four Elements Book 1 - Hidden Powers

Chapter 19 - Moving on - part 2

The wind had gotten stronger, and the weather was colder. Winter was definitely close, now, Andie thought as she climbed out of her car. It was early December. There were still a few signs of the recent Thanksgiving celebrations. There were a few people wandering the park, walking their dogs or playing with their children. Andie couldn't help but envy their innocence, their carefree happiness. She felt like it had been years since she'd felt that way. She began strolling along the path herself, looking for Isabelle. The park was quite large, and Isabelle hadn't specified a spot. She first tried the bridge, the clearing they usually trained in, and even the spot they'd been using more recently as a training ground. But so far, no sign of her. She checked her phone, but no messages or missed calls... after almost fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, Andie was getting slightly irritated. Why call her all the way out there and not even show up? She pulled out her phone and called Isabelle again. This time, it rang, and Isabelle answered quickly.

"Hey, Andie, what's up?"

"I'm at the park, where are you?" Andie asked, looking around.

There was a confused silence.

"... What? I'm at home..."

Andie could almost hear her frown.

"Andes, what in the world made you think I was going to be at the park?"

Now Andie was frowning.

"You send me a text asking you to meet you here fast," she told her.

"... Uh... no, I didn't..." Isabelle said, sounding more and more baffled.

"It definitely came from your phone..." Andie told her.

"... Really? Hold on..."

Isabelle was silent a moment.

"... Andes, I never sent that text."she said finally.

Andie sighed. Great. Now, what was she supposed to do?

"Okay... never mind." she said.

"Ugh! It's probably a prank from my sister, she was playing with it a while ago..." Isabelle sighed. "Trust me, she's going to have it..."

"No, it's okay. It's just a kid's joke..." Andie said. "Don't rip her head off over it."

"I'm so sorry, this is really embarrassing..." Isabelle sighed. "I keep telling her to keep her hands off my things... Honestly, I don't know what to say... d'you want me to come over? Or if you want, you can come over to my place, since you're almost right next door. What do you think?"

"... No, that's alright, thanks," Andie said, a little wearily. "I'll just go home..."

There was a pause.

"You sure?" Isabelle asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

There was a pause.

"I'm sorry..." Isabelle said. "Really..."

"Don't worry about it, it's no big deal..."

"But..." Isabelle began.

"No, it's fine, really." Andie said, fighting the weariness out of her voice.

"Alright, then... Thanks for being so nice about this... I'll see you at school, okay?" Isabelle asked.

"Yeah. Bye."

And she hung up before pocketing her phone with a sigh. It was just a silly prank. She had spoken to Isabelle just the night before, so her sister had probably just picked the first number they'd seen and sent the message. It was getting cold. She turned and meant to walk back to her car. But just as she took a few steps forward, a voice called her name from behind. Thinking it was someone else called Andie, she ignored it at first, but then, the voice called again.