Element Chronicles: Chapter 1

“My old life ended when I heard that sound. It happened in the dead of night, in a house that was usually so quiet. Nothing exciting had ever happened there before and nobody could have predicted the events that had followed. For the first time in my life, the silent house was loud.”

I wake up in the middle of the night to a sharp, deafening sound. I groan, head throbbing. I had been fighting the flu for almost a week now. I push my blanket to the side, knocking over all the crumpled tissues. That’s weird, my parents never get up at this hour. What could possibly be happening right now? I strain to listen for the sound again, nothing. Just when I pick up a piece of my blanket, the sound pierces my ears again.

I groan. “That’s it, I’m storming down there and giving you hell for waking me up.”

The room spins as I slowly stand up, trying not to lose my balance. After a moment of letting the room settle, I carefully walk down the stairs, still half asleep.

“What’s going on down there anyway?” As I step down the last step and walk into what I expected to be an empty living room. Instead, my mom is standing in the middle of the living room with her hands up.

Her eyes widen when she sees me, and she whispers “Skylar, run.”

I give her a confused look, wondering what all the commotion is.

Then, I see him. A tall slim man in a black hoodie, pointing a gun at my mom and two bullet marks on the wall. My heart quickens and despite every inch of my mind telling me to run, I freeze right there.

The man shifts his focus to me and points the gun at my head.

“Tell me where you keep your jewelry, or she gets it.” He says, raising his voice.

My mom obeys. “Upstairs, in my room, on my dresser.” The man glares at her.

“Mind showing me where your room is? You too, statue.” He says, glaring at me.

My mom nods and turns to go upstairs, I slowly follow. If all he wants is our jewelry, hopefully it’ll be enough to get him to leave. I say in my head, trying to convince myself to calm down.

We all enter my parents’ room.

The man dumps my mom’s jewelry box and rummages through the jewelry. After a moment, he flips the jewelry box and glares at my mom.

“Where is it? Where did you put it?” He says now yelling at my mom.

“Put what? All my jewelry is there.”

“No.” He says shaking his head. “One of your necklaces are missing from this box, and if you don’t tell me where it is right now, I’ll kill you.”

“I told you everything is there. I don’t know wha—”

The sound rings in my ears again, as a single bullet pierces my mom’s heart. In this single, petrifying moment it’s like time stopped for me, for that single moment.

“NOOOO!” I scream as my mom falls to the ground with a thunk, blood spilling out. I rush over to her and put my hands on her wound, a desperate attempt to stop the blood.

“I love you so, so much.” Mom says with a shaky breath.

“I can get help, I can call 911, you’ll be fine. You have to be, right?” I say tears stinging my eyes.

“No, they won't get there in time, listen to me carefully.”

"There's got to be something we can do, you can't just-"

She leans closer into my ear. “Find the secrets of the underground ivory tree using the flowerbed of imagination and words.”

“What are you talking about? What does that mean?”

“I love you.” She says with her final breath.

“No, don’t go, come back. You can’t—you can’t just leave me, here on my own.” I say shaking her. “Come back!” “Come back.” I say this time barely a whisper.

Then I hear a click.

I turn over, to see the gun face me.

“Tell me where the necklace is, or I’ll kill you too.”

“It’s under the bed” I say, voice shaking.

The man puts down his gun and lies down, facing the bed. I quickly grab his gun and run downstairs, and into the nearest room, my room. I quickly shimmy under the bed, still holding the gun.

I hear footsteps slowly getting louder and louder, then quieter. I hear him speak.

“I know you’re here, kid. Come out, come out wherever you are.”

My body trembles, my heart pounds. Why won’t he just go away?

Then, his footsteps get louder and louder again, until finally stopping at my door.

Don’t make a noise, don’t make a noise, don’t make a noise.

The door creaks, and his feet get so close to the bed. Then, something drops. He walks toward my closet and rips my closet door open. He growls, at the empty sight.

Then, a wrapped up present I had received earlier for my birthday, jiggles. I recognized it as the one I received from my mom. I had meant to open it before bed, but I forgot to. The man slowly picked up the present.

Tears stream down my face, as I remember what happened just a moment ago.

“What do we have here?”

I won’t ever see her again. I won’t see her smile, taste her cooking, hear her kind words, or feel her warm touch ever again.

Maybe it was the feeling of hopelessness, the inevitability of my death that would give me the idea to do such a thing. Or maybe it was the idea of what I would have to go through the following day. Whatever the reason, I had finally mustered up the courage to face the man.

I snatch the gun and awkwardly crawl out from under the bed. I stand up and point the gun at the man who murdered my mother.

“Don’t move, if you take one more step, I’ll kill you, I swear.” I say, with a small voice.

The man only glances up for a moment and then turns back to my present. He rips the wrapping paper open and pulls out a small necklace with a white crystal attached then proceeds to dumps the rest of its contents onto my floor.

Did he not hear me?

The gun shakes. “I said I’ll kill—”

The necklace glows brightly, and flies out of his hands towards me, despite his best efforts to contain it.

The necklace’s clasp opens and latches onto my neck, causing me to drop the gun.

“What the fuck!”

He sneers at me.

“I can’t believe you. That’s my necklace, give it back.”

I glance over at the gun.

“Well, you can kill me and take the necklace off my dead body, come on. Do it.” I say wiping my tears.

He chuckles. “I expected you guys to play dumb, but you are taking it a little too far.”

I slide the gun towards me with my foot, never loosing eye contact.

“You killed my mother. I doubt a ruthless guy like you, is going to leave any witnesses behind, so just get it over with.”

“Wait, you aren’t faking, are you? I felt like something was off and I realize what it is now. This is a house full of pathetic humans.”

Why is he acting like he's a different species?

He laughs. “Then you truly are a clueless and insignificant little girl.”

I freeze. “Am I really that useless?” Crap, I said that out loud.

“Let me ask you something. What have you done for this world? What have you done to deserve special treatment? If you ask me, people these days treat everyone special whether they deserve it or not.”

I quickly pick up the gun and once again point it at him.

“I may have not done anything huge, but I can rid the world of one crazed murderer.”

He just stands there, as if the gun isn’t there. “Come on, you expect me to believe that you have the guts to kill me? Just a few minutes ago you were hiding under the bed. Your hands are shaking, and you expect me to believe you are actually going to fire that shot?”

“Don’t test me.” I say, trying to sound confident.

“Go ahead, I dare you to shoot.”

I hold the gun up and aim at his head, only to hesitate for a moment. But a moment was all he needed.

He clenches his right hand into a fist and then quickly opens it, revealing a fire engulfing his hand.

How did he do that? I only have a second to wonder, before he takes action. He faces his hand at me and the fire leaps out of his hand, then transforms into a ball of fire. I can feel the heat warming my face as it gets closer.

I close my eyes and instinctively hold my arms up in an x shape. I brace myself for the fire, but it doesn't come. I open my eyes, slowly and notice the man now against the wall. He lets out a groan. I feel something vibrate against my chest. Looking down, I notice the necklace, is now glowing.

Did I do that? That's impossible. I close my eyes and open them, expecting the scene to disappear. But sure enough, he's still on the ground.

I walk over to him and crouch to get a better look at him. He doesn't seem very strong. How did he do that just now? I didn't see him light his hand on fire and it wasn't wet with any fuel. It should be impossible, but I felt the heat on my face. Did I imagine it?

He gets up, recovering from his injury. His face is now inches from mine. He glares at me.

"That necklace is not yours to keep human scum." He says, spitting in my face.

"Human scum? But you're human!" I argue.

"I am nothing of the sort. I am a part of the master race. I can do things beyond your imagination, something you would never understand. Just as you don't understand the true power of that crystal you aren't fit to possess."

Suddenly the whole scene sinks in.

“You broke into my house, killed my mother, and robbed my home, for this?” I say pointing at the necklace now on my neck.

"Give it to me!" He raises his voice.

At that moment, I realized there was a way out of this hell.

"Will you leave my house, and never come back if I give you this?" I say.

“What?” He says, confused.

“Will you leave my house and never come back, if I give you the necklace?”

“The only reason I am here is for that.” He says pointing at the necklace.

“WILL YOU LEAVE AND NEVER COME BACK IF I GIVE YOU THIS?”

“Yes! Just give it to me, and I’ll never come back.”

Satisfied with my answer, I turn the necklace backwards and try to open the clasp. Except, it doesn't open. The lever on the clasp, won't budge. I fumble with it for a minute, but nothing happens. The young man starts growing really impatient.

"I don't have all day."

"It's not coming off." I say, still trying to get it open. My heart beats faster from the pressure.

"What? It's not that hard. Haven't you ever owned jewelry before?"

"I'm not kidding, the clasp won't open." He sighs. Frustrated, he walks over to me and fumbles with my necklace. Like me, he struggles.

"What the hell?" He tugs hard at the crystal, trying to snap it off. It vibrates and an invisible force pushes him backwards, bumping into my wall yet again. He gets up, growling.

"Great, just great. Now I have an angsty teen to take with me." He mumbles.

The moment I realize what those words mean, I try to run, but his reflexes are too fast. He tugs the necklace, tripping me backward a few feet. The leather cord, digging into my neck.

I gasp, trying to take in more air and get away, but his grip hold in place.

"Let me go! I didn't do anything to you!"

"I don’t care, you have something I want, and I’ll take it with or without you attached.”

He grabs my left arm roughly, still holding the necklace.

I kick and wrangle, but his grip only tightens, making me wince as his fingernails dig into my arm.

"Let me go, please!" I plead, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Not gonna happen." He says, yanking me out the door, and pulls me to the front yard of my house. I scream at the top of my lungs, kicking and screaming harder.

He pulls me toward a black truck, grip tightening every second.

"LET ME GO!!!" A huge gust of wind blows in my face, blurring my vision. The man tightens his grip, for a moment, then it loosens. I hear him hit something. I turn my head to the sound, but my eyes can’t focus, and my surroundings are all a blur. Then, everything goes black.