Awaken the Elements (Elemental Trilogy) (34 page)

              “I will get you next time, Bwa-ha-ha-ha!” Jaime said.

             
She stuck her tongue out at him. “I don’t think so.”

             
She saw Rowan and Kimberly from the corner of her eye. Stefan and Jaime got stuck on the other side, yelling at each other because their cars wouldn’t move.  She saw Kimberly kiss Rowan. She stepped on the break too quickly, and it jerked her forward, hard. She watched them kiss again as Jaime bumped into her, laughing. She undid the harness, and her elbow hit the horn. It honked loudly, echoing through the room. River was beside her. He had seen the kiss too.

             
“Really!” River said and hopped out of the car.

             
“River!” Autumn shouted, getting out of the car.

****

             
Rowan pushed Kimberly away, wide-eyed with alarm as he noticed River stalking toward them. “Really?!” River said to him.

             
“She kissed me. I didn’t kiss her!” Rowan shouted, his hands out.

             
“Is this what I am going to have to worry about each time someone new comes in?” he said.

             
“River,” Autumn said, “Please come with me.” She grabbed his arm.

             
He glared at her. “Aren’t you mad?”

             
“I am,” she said. “But now is not the time.” She motioned to the people behind her.

             
“What do you think this is all about?” Jaime whispered to Linden who shrugged.

             
“River, she kissed me. I wasn’t prepared for it.”

             
River rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. You sure looked like you enjoyed it.”

             
Rowan looked at the two people who meant the world to him. He looked at the confused crowd and the arrogant smile on Kimberly’s face. He shrugged and in two big steps filled the gap between him and River.

             
“I love you, River,” he said, grabbing him and planting a big kiss on his lips. Softly at first, but when River melted against him, the kiss turned savage.

             
“Well that explains a lot,” Jaime said as he eyed everyone with their wide eyes and open mouths. Autumn looked around too.

             
The kiss ended. “Now let’s go get something to eat,” Rowan said, putting his hand out for Autumn. She took his hand, and then took River’s.

             
“I don’t get it,” Linden said.

             
“What’s not to get?” Stefan asked.

             
“I saw Autumn kissing River.”

             
Anatha ran after them. “Hey,” she said, and the three turned around.

             
“Yeah?” Autumn said.

             
“I’m sorry,” she said.  Relief filled her, and when she looked down at her scars, they were gone.

             
“It’s okay,” Rowan said. “Sorry.” He looked at River.

             
“It was going to come out eventually.”

             
That evening, they lay naked in bed talking. Autumn, warm and comfortable, started to fall asleep. “Did you really mean what you said?” River whispered.

             
“I do,” Rowan whispered.

             
“Trying to sleep here,” Autumn said.

             
“I love both of you,” Rowan said.

             
“I love both of you too,” River said.  Autumn pulled a pillow over her head, and they got quiet, but she could feel the weight of their stares.

             
She peeked out. “Of course I love you jerks. Now sleep, please.” They laughed and settled in to sleep.

             
Inside Lears, Anatha was looking at her skin in the mirror. “It’s all gone,” she said to Angel.

             
He nodded. “You did what you were supposed to.”

             
She turned, looking at the snake. “But I still have feelings for Jaime.”

             
“Anatha, did you think that opening yourself to him would not cause you to have feelings for him?”

             
She looked away. “I will admit, I felt things with him I’ve never let myself feel with anyone else. But it was needed in the spell.”

             
“I say you go with it and see what happens. Who knows, you two might be good for each other.”

             
“Anatha?” Jaime asked, his voice coming from somewhere in Lears. She went to grab her bathrobe to cover her naked self, but her burgundy eyes strayed to Angel who twitched his head.

             
“Over here, Jaime,” she purred.

             
He came over to her sleeping area, and his eyes grew, seeing her standing there naked. “You want me to come back later?”

             
She made a come here gesture. “No, I have other plans for you.”

             
The next day they sat around planning out a Halloween party. River and Rowan sat with Autumn between them. Jaime and Anatha sat next to each other. Maybe it was the infection, but Anatha felt happy as she looked at Jaime. Hazel sat at Frank’s feet, and Autumn said something making them all laugh.

****

             
“The guys are going to love the baggage,” Angel told Adair.

             
The monkey nodded. “Well it’s not like they are angels either.” They shared a laugh and watched their people plan out their party. They had one more year in the mall; the familiars, Adair and Angel, looked down at them sadly.

             
“It breaks my heart that they have no idea what Autumn and Anatha have planned for them,” Adair said.

             
“I wisssh I could train Anatha better,” Angel said.

             
“They will get plenty of practice soon enough.”

Chapter 15

              Christmas number three began with Bean the Happy Dragon. How did it start?  Autumn lay in bed wide awake but didn’t feel like getting up. Rowan and River had gone to do some guy things with Stefan and Linden. She had started living with them. Now that everyone thought the guys were an item, no one thought anything about what she did with them.

             
Lily ran in out of breath and excited, her pudgy cheeks aglow as she coughed for air. She shook Autumn, who hid under her covers.

             
“What?” she said finally. She pulled down the cover enough, so only her eyes showed.

             
“Bean the Happy Dragon is on TV,” Lily said, still out of breath.

             
Autumn sat up. “What are you talking about?”

             
“Come look at the new stuff on TV.” She grabbed her arm, tugging on it. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

             
Autumn threw off the cover, getting out of bed, although she didn’t want to. She followed Lily to the closest electronics department, and turned on some of the TVs. Bean the Happy Dragon came on the screen. The first year, they had nothing but news of the infection, last year all the channels were dead air, and now something was back on. That something was Bean the Happy Dragon. She stared at the kid’s program. She stared at the dancing dinosaur, her eyes darting from screen to screen.

             
“See? New stuff,” Lily said, pointing.

              “This is not new stuff,” she said, unable to take her eyes from the TVs.

             
“I don’t get it,” Stefan said. She turned watching him walk into the store. “We get nothing, and now this.”

             
“No power before.”

             
He nodded. “And now finally we get TV, but of all things, Bean the Happy Dragon. Someone is messing with us.”

             
She turned her attention back to Bean. He was ending the program. “It is now time to say goodbye, kiddies. You know the song, so let’s sing. A big goodbye full of hugs and one farewell full of kisses as well. We say goodbye as we...” She looked away from Bean and to her little sister who was singing along with the song.

             
“Act your age,” she said.

             
Lily stuck out her tongue. “I’ll go watch it with the others upstairs.”

             
“Good, go,” Autumn said, still watching the TVs.

             
“So what do you think?” Stefan asked after Lily left.

             
“We’re in hell,” Adair said. He was sitting at her feet, his eyes glued to the TV too.

             
She hadn’t noticed Adair, and jumped when he spoke. “Someone’s messing with us,” she said, rubbing her sleep-filled eyes.

             
Stefan scratched his head. “If that’s true, it’s one sick, sad pathetic person.” She nodded, frowning, while they continued to watch Bean for a while longer.

****

             
Moorgun sat meditating. The dead man she had taken to bed lay beside her, a gash ran from his heart to his groin. She sat on her knees watching the darkness in her eyelids. She felt the blood she wore like a second skin. She killed only to be closer to her God. She had killed many men the way she had killed the dead man. The only true way to sacrifice was the way that God wished it to be done, and hers came only for a blood sacrifice.

              Arawen finally came to her. His hair shined like ebony, and the very sight of him made her chest hurt. He was the vision of all her lust, all she had ever wanted. But she noticed the bruise that covered his arm. He also limped, disturbing his perfect composure.

             
“I have found the witches, Moorgun,” he said as his eyes glittered with anger.

             
“Where are they, My Lord?” A follower paused at the door, listening to his mistress speak to air. Quietly, he stood there listening as she went on.

             
He shook his head. “I know the area but not where they are exactly. You have done my bidding?”

             
She nodded. “I have the program playing as we speak.”

             
He nodded. “You are close to them, my love. I have seen the element of Earth. But when she visited, she was not alone.”

             
“Her cousin?” But she knew it wasn’t the other girl who made him so angry.

             
“A force like the witch, but he was male and had great power. The power of Water.”

             
She gasped, “But, Dark Lord, they are to give birth to the other elements.”

             
He gave her a stern look. “Maybe we were mistaken. Maybe the other elements live. Twins.”

             
“Twins. My vision,” she whispered in awe. “The four lights; if it was true, all elements are equal now. We have little time if they are all on Earth.”

             
Arawen’s anger bit at her naked body like small, red hot pokers. “To gain all the elements, you must capture two.”

             
“This is going to be more difficult than we had planned.”

              He entered her body. The impact bowed her spine as she screamed with pleasure that rippled over her aged flesh. “I believe you will do my bidding.” Her nails scratched furrows into the dead body.

             
He left her lying on her stomach, panting. “I will, My Lord,” she exhaled as his dark glow faded from her body.

****

             
Another Christmas.  Autumn was thrilled.  She sat on a chair, her feet tucked under her while she watched people give out presents. We have everything; what can we give now, our souls? She watched Lily give Rowan a present, another drawing. He looked at Autumn, and she shrugged. The older adults were still passed out above, probably dreaming of drunken sugarplums. No mouse could disturb them, not even an atom bomb.

             
Autumn looked down at the story she was writing. The letters formed words, the words formed sentences, the sentences formed paragraphs, but she couldn’t make sense of any of it. She watched the words slowly appear, making some sense. Although now they started to give her a headache as she reread what she had scribbled. She threw down her book, frustrated.  Sitting was beginning to bug her as well.

             
She stood, her feet apart, and hands on hips. She looked at the fake Christmas tree. That thing’s going down, she thought. She walked over to it quietly. She didn’t want the tree to know she knew what it was. And she did know what it was. An alien. Those were the only things that were green. Trees don’t grow in malls. She had this awful idea that aliens started the infection, and now they wanted to get rid of all the humans. The result of an overactive imagination meets cabin fever. She was not going down without a fight.

             
“Are you looking at me?” The tree asked her.

              She looked right then left, but the others were happily talking, paying her no attention. She looked back at the tree.

             
“Are you looking at me?” It asked her again.

             
“Are you talking to me?” She spoke to the tree in a whisper.

             
“You seem to be the only other human.”
Human?
It was an alien after all. “The only other human looking at me.” The tree moved a little.

             
She remembered the story she was writing. Her main character had been covered in blood from the fight. She looked down at her hands and noticed they were smeared red. She looked back at her book and pen on the ground. A small puddle of red ink had formed around it. It had leaked all over her hands, and she hadn’t noticed as she wrote. Her character, covered in blood, screaming at the sky. She felt like screaming. She had more sense than to scream, but the tree had to go.

             
“I ain’t afraid of you, but you should be afraid of me,” the tree said tauntingly.

             
She kicked the tree over. “Threaten me, will you? Take that!” It hit the floor with a thud, and some of the Christmas bulbs shattered. I beat it. No fake alien tree takeovers in my mall. She briefly noticed everyone was staring at her. She knew what they were thinking. They were thinking: Autumn is the champion. Oh yes I am. I finally beat the tree. She walked to her room singing
We Are the Champions
to herself.

             
She walked over to Lears to talk to Anatha but found her sleeping. She slept covered completely with blankets and her head covered with a pillow. It was a good way to suffocate. She tilted her head just a little, and then shook it, deciding to go back to sleep herself.

****

             
Later that evening, Rowan, River, Jaime, Stefan, and Anatha watched Autumn pace in front of them. Rowan noticed she hadn’t been herself since she toppled the Christmas tree earlier. She was going on about something.  He couldn’t concentrate that well, but he watched her anyway. Anatha was fearful watching her cousin rave in front of her like a mad woman. She was talking gibberish. River kept doing his damn human beat box thing every so often, annoying the hell out of her. She wished she had a dog to chase him with, or a pig. Her mind wandered. Jaime made irritating noises with his mouth, clicking his tongue and things like that which was getting under everyone’s skin.

             
Ivy Lee and Envy sat away from the others, writing poems. Envy stood up. “I think I’ve finished,” she said. Only Ivy Lee looked the least bit interested in her announcement.

             
Autumn noticed they weren’t paying attention to her and frowned. “Listen to me, dammit!” Three sets of eyes darted to her.

             
“Away from the sun, troubled by the moon,” Envy started to read her poem.

             
“Now listen. I was talking about Autumn’s Guide to Surviving Scary Movies, or actually, Surviving Halloween.” She continued to pace.

             
“Can’t sleep right, left, but maybe south,” Envy said a little louder.

              “Number one.” Autumn held up her finger. “If someone offers you a million dollars to stay in a real haunted house, buy a lottery ticket. You’ll have a better chance.” Stefan chuckled as he tossed up his football.

             
“I can’t feel my hands. As I look at them they melt.” Drake listened respectfully to Envy.

             
“Number two.” Autumn went on. “Don’t read out loud from a demon book.”

             
“I see green men. No you can’t bite my ear.” Jaime was torn; both were entertaining enough.

              “Number three. The worst things you can do are screech girlishly and throw your arms up over your face in front of anything evil. That’s the equivalent of offering them a turkey leg.”

             
“Melting world wishes you good night, while Bean dances happily across your eyes,” Envy said, staring at her sister, annoyed.

             
“Number four. If you hear any freaky sounds, leave.” Autumn stopped pacing and thought for a minute.

             
“I grow horns at night when I sleep and run around with a fork.” Envy used her sister’s pause and spoke louder.

             
“Number five. Don’t visit certain evil areas.  Elm Street, anywhere in Maine, avoid those in-breeders down in Texas who fancy chainsaws, and so on.”

             
“I plan on poking you till you pass out, or until my fork breaks,” Envy said, finishing and sat down. Ivy Lee clapped.

             
“Number six. When you drop a monster, never poke it to see if it’s dead. Usually it isn’t, and it’ll just pop up and eat you,” Autumn said, continuing since no one else was talking. “Number seven. If it's dead and lying still, kill it again. One can never be too sure about these things, and monsters are notorious ankle biters. Number eight. If your child starts doing odd things or speaking in another person’s voice, put the kid out of its misery. You’ll save yourself tons of grief in the long run. Number nine. Klatuu Barada Nicto. Learn it. Know it. Use it properly. And number ten. This is by far the easiest because we already know about it. It's all in their heads. It seems to be a universal truth that you can drop a zombie by scrambling their eggs for them. Become Little Bunny Foo Foo, and live.”

             
“Oh, Autumn,” Linden said, rolling his eyes.

              “Ha-Ha!” Stefan said as he tossed his football in the air again.

             
“That was pretty good,” Jaime said.