The Fifth Element

“Come on, press your hands up against the wall and feel the life within,” Lacy said again, very unenthusiastically.

I gritted my teeth together and slapped my hands against the wall. I felt something stir within its stones, just like it had the first, second, and one-hundredth time.

Minutes ticked by and still, nothing happened. I felt my resolve crumble then dissolve altogether. I fell to my knees and slumped forward in defeat. I was so done with this whole stupid wall business thing like I’m never trying this again, even if you hold my toes over an open fire, done. I had been at this for almost four hours now with absolutely no progress, and even worse, during that stretch of the time, nobody had come to check on me.

That made me extremely paranoid. What if the school had some special way to view me from some hidden place? I wasn’t entirely sure that they knew I could see and talk to dead people yet, so what if they found out through observing me?

Or maybe they were trying to starve me to death!? I had begun having stomach pains several hours ago, and I could have killed for a glass of water right about now. Why hadn’t I eaten anything back at that camp? I was going to have dreams about that big platter of untouched food.

“Hey, land to ditz with no tits. Are you listening to me!? I said get off the floor, or you aren’t sleeping tonight!” Lacy screamed into my ear.

I raised my head and looked at her dully. Her face was mere inches away, and her hollow eye sockets stared angrily into my face. I turned my head away and stood. I walked over to the bed on the other side of the room and flopped down on it. I buried my face into its sole pillow.

“Go ahead, try and keep me awake tonight, I’m a power sleeper! I’m tired, thirsty, hungry, and words can’t express how frustrated I am now!” I mumbled angrily into my pillow.

Another pang of hunger hit me, and I curled myself up into a tight ball. How long had I been out if I was this hungry, I wondered.

I heard Lacy groan for somewhere in the air above my head, “Fine, lay down and feel pity for yourself! I’ll be back when you’re not such a whiner.” She mocked. “Boy, am I glad I’m not alive anymore. I forget how annoying the living can be! Toodles. ” A cold breeze swept through the room, and she was gone. I was alone again. Thank god!

I must have been laying there for only a half hour when I heard the distinct sound of a hole being opened up in the wall. I didn’t even bother lifting up my face to see who was coming in. It really didn’t matter to me at this point, they just better of brought food.

“Hey, why the hell has nobody been checking on her? I thought I ordered a check on her every hour?”

My ears perked up at the sound of a familiar voice. No, it couldn’t be him, but it sounded so much like him. I lifted my head from the pillow slowly and met Henry’s electric blue eyes with wide eyes. What was going on? Why was he here?

He held my gaze for a second longer before looking behind him at someone I couldn’t see. “See, she’s already awake. Bring her some food now. She hasn’t eaten anything for at least four days.”

“You traitor!” I growled and pointed an accusing finger at him. Henry’s head snapped towards me, and his eyes a little wide, before darting to the opening behind him. He looked almost panicked, which kind of confused me. Why would he be panicked, unless he didn’t intend for me to find out that he had betrayed me just yet?

“You promised that you would help us, so why the hell does it sound like your giving orders?” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

Henry dropped the panicked look and smirked at me. He glanced back at whoever was behind him, “Do you hear those words coming out of her mouth!? She actually thinks I would betray the very organization that raised me! It’s pathetic really. I always knew she wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bun, but I didn’t think she was a total dim wit, until now,” he began to laugh.

“But I thought they had your sist-”

Henry was in front of me in a blink of an eye, and something hit the side of my face. It hit with such force that my head snapped to the side, and I instinctually brought my hand up to the side of my face that had just been struck. I looked back up at Henry, in somewhat of a daze. He had slapped me, hadn’t he? That had actually just happened.

How could he? I thought.

“Stop talking, the sound of your voice is starting to annoy me!” he barked.

I cringed slightly, but I did not let myself cry. Even though I knew he hated it when people cry, I refused too. I was done with that. I was also done with cowering in fear and letting others protect me, I decided at that moment.

Henry looked back towards the hole, “That was quick,” he said, and made a motioned to whoever was out there, to come in.

Two identical looking boys stepped out of the shadows from behind him, they were both wearing blood red uniforms, and both sported buzzed haircuts. They had absolutely no expressions on their faces, and their eyes were dead. In their hands, they each held a spear, which swirled with a pale greenish light.

Standing in-between the scary twins was a girl with champagne colored hair. In her hands, she held a tray piled high with food, along with a big wooden cup filled with a clear liquid.

I recognized her almost immediately. It was Shirley, the girl from back at the camp they had brought me too, right after they had captured me. I even still had on the clothes she had given me back at the camp.

But even more importantly, she had food! Lots and lots of food! Delicious looking food!

“Hi honey how are you doing?” she said, walking over to the bed. She brushed past Henry and bent over to set the food down on the bed. When it was safely on the bed, she stood abruptly, and wound her fist back, and then punched Henry square in the jaw.

Henry stumbled back a couple of steps, clutching his jaw. It was more from being caught off guard then the actual blow, but still, it was extremely satisfying to watch.

I also felt somewhat jealous. I wanted to give him a good sock in the face too. How could he have betrayed me like this? My cheek was still stinging from his slap.

“You don’t hit girls unless they are trying to kill you?! Ever heard of something called chivalry? Now leave, before I decide your smirk would look a whole lot nicer with a fat lip!”

Henry glared at her for a second, before shifting his eyes to me. I quickly averted mine to the stone floor.

“You better watch yourself Shirley, or I’ll report you to Greta!” he threatened.

“For what!? Giving you a good smack for hitting a little girl,” Shirley scoffed.

I heard him muttered something nasty under his breath. “Alright I’m going now Violet,” he said like I would care anymore. What a creep!

He lingered in the room a little longer before exiting it, and I found myself alone with Shirley.

When I was sure Henry wasn’t coming back, I grabbed the wooden cup off the tray and brought it to my lips. I drained the cups in couple big gulps, before putting it down and going straight for the food. I greedily stuffed ham, cheese, and fruits into my mouth like a squirrel. I couldn’t eat it all fast enough.

It wasn’t until I had cleared my plate, which I noticed Shirley had taken a seat on the bed beside me.

I looked over at her and cleared my throat, embarrassed that my pig out had just been the witness, “Um thank you for... you know..”

“For hitting him, no problem honey. I’ve been itching to hit him ever since I first saw him. That was just the perfect excuse. He just has one of those hittable faces, like they should make a whole line of punching bags with his face on them. Do you know what I mean?”

I nodded, even though I didn’t.

“So I didn’t actually come here just to bring you food, I came here to ask you a couple of question? Like what was that presence back there at the camp? I know you know because you caused it.”

My heart began to speed up in my chest

“I don’t know what you are talking about. What presence?” I said, avoiding direct eye contact with her.

“A strong presence, an evil presence. It followed you here, didn’t it? I can feel it right now.”

Was she talking about Danny? He was a little scary sometimes, but I wouldn’t consider him a quote on quote “evil presence.” Then again, he hadn’t come at me with a killing intent before.

“That’s not all,” she continued, “back in the tent when you touched that channeling weapon I saw a black mist begin to swirl around it. I’ve never seen something like that happen before. What was that?”

“I-I...” I looked her dead in the eye, no pun intended. “I’m a fifth element user. I control the element of death. In other words, I’m a necromancer.”

Shirley’s eyes lit up, and she grinned widely at me, “I always sensed that there was something very unsettling about you! You always gave me the goose bumps!”

Jeez, thanks... I thought

“Why don’t you show what you can do?” The little voice hissed in my head. I felt a shiver go down my spine, there it was again, that little voice inside my head, just when I had forgotten about it.

“And that presence? Don’t lie to me! ”

“I don’t know.” It wasn’t a total lie. How could I be totally certain that she was talking about Danny? The answer was that I couldn’t, though I hoped some unknown evil presence wasn’t following me around.

Shirley frowned at me, “I’m sure you don’t know for sure what the presence I’m talking about is, but I’m also sure you have a very good idea about what or who it is. But if you have any way of contacting it, tell it should go rescue Vivian Bat and your father. They’re going to be executed later today.