The Fifth Element

“Danny, Danny!?” I cried, leaning my face closer to his. “Can you hear me?”

Danny let out a loud moan. It was one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard in my life because A, it meant he was definitely alive and B he was semi-conscious.

“Daaannnyyy!” a girl’s voice called from above us scaring the crap out of me and making me lose my balance and topple onto Danny. Our foreheads smacked off each other with a loud thunk.

“Ow,” he mumbled, his eyes beginning to flicker open. He looked at me with green eyes clouded with confusion and pain.

“Hold on, I’ll get help,” I told him and took off running, but before I got more than ten feet away help came in the form of Bridget Heavenly.

The sound of rocks being forced into a different shape echoed through the forest.

I ducked behind a tree and watched from behind its trunk, while steps magically appeared in front of Bridget along the side of the rock ledge. Her ball of light floated a couple feet in front of her.

“How the hell did you get down here so fast?” she said and giggled. She reached the ground and walked to where Danny was lying.

I noticed that her steps weren’t exactly steady, apparently, someone had a little too much to drink.

“Hey, are you sleeping? Come on get...” Her voice trailed off when she sensed something was off. She flicked her fingers, and the ball of light floated over to hover above Danny.

I heard her take a quick intake of breath. She ran the last couple of feet to Danny and knelt beside him. “Rockatope!” she yelled and clapped her hands over her head.

A stone rectangle formed under them and began rising out of the earth until it was a couple of inches high. Then with a sound that could only be compared to the sound that giant chalk would make if pressed too hard on a giant chalkboard, it slid across the ground for a couple seconds, before taking off into the air.

I came out from behind the tree, once they were gone, and walked to where they had been.

There was a little rectangular indent in the earth, but besides that it was like they hadn’t even been there.

“Violet!” Emily’s voice called from within the forest. She sounded frantic.

I took a big gulp of air. “I’m over here,” I called back.

“Where is here?” another girl’s voice answered.

“Wait, I see her!” twelve years old little boy’s voice shouted and I heard the sound of bushes rustling, and out came Emily’s youngest brother, Carson.

“What are you doing out here?” I asked the twelve-year-old in confusion.

“Looking for you, Emily couldn’t find you, so she came back to the house for help.” He smiled at me smugly. “Mom is really mad.”

Just then Emily came running into the clearing. She barreled straight into me and threw her arms around me. We both went toppling over as our feet tangled.

“Violet!” she bawled. “I’m so sorry!” I felt tears on her cheeks as she pressed her face against mine. “I thought you were behind me, and then I turned around and you were gone.”

“It’s alright,” I said and dropped my voice to a whisper. “But why did you go back to your house and get your family? We were only separated for about 30 minutes at the most.”

She pulled back from me and looked at me stunned. “Violet,” She said slowly, “you’ve been missing for hours.”

“That can’t be right!” I looked at her shocked.

“It’s almost morning,” she said.

I looked up at the sky and noticed it was beginning to turn a light shade of gray.

I studied the sky for a moment and frowned. “I’ll tell you everything,” I said meeting her gaze. “Everything that I’ve been keeping from you.”

She looked at me and nodded, a look of relief spreading across her face.

“Guys!” Kami, Emily’s older sister yelled. She charged into the clearing and joined the three of us. She was panting from running hard. “We need to go back to the house now, someone’s been hurt!”

All of our heads snapped up and we looked at her. Emily let go of me and we both stood.

Kami held out a little mirror, which glowed softly under the graying sky. Emily’s mom’s voice floated out of it. “Carson, girls, a boy, and a girl showed up at the house about a minute ago, the boy is hurt pretty badly. I need you to come back and help me and dad.” There was a pause. “Did you find Violet yet?”

“They did,” I answered. I heard Emily’s mom exhale in relief. “Good, I was a second away from scribing your mother.”

“You’re not going to tell her about this, right?” I looked at the tiny mirror hopefully.

Another pause,“You know I can’t do that, Violet.”

“I understand Mrs. H,” I said reluctantly.

Kami brought the mirror back to her face, the light coming from it making it look ghostly. “We are on our way,” she said and waved her hand over the mirror and the wind whisper flew into the forest. The light coming from the mirror flickered before going out. She looked up at us. “Emily, you grab Violet, I’ll grab Carson.”

Emily grabbed my hand, and we were in a column of air speeding through the sky. We touched down in front of her house a few moments later. Kami and Carson touched down a second after us, a strong breeze announcing their arrival.

When we walked in, loud sobs could be heard coming from the direction of the kitchen, and so was Emily’s mom’s soothing voice. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but it sounded like she was comforting whoever was crying. The four of us crossed the living room and crowded into the doorway of the kitchen.

I can’t say that I was totally surprised to see who was in there. It was Danny and Bridget. Danny was lying on the kitchen table on his back; Bridget sat in one of the chairs beside him holding his hand, Emily’s mom had an arm wrapped around her shoulder. Black rivers were streaming down her face as she looked up as we entered. Her bleach blonde hair was a mess.

Emily gasped when she recognized who they were. “Holy cow, what happened to Danny?” Emily said taking a step into the kitchen.

I could answer that question. I watched Emily’s dad push his way through his three blonde kids to get to Danny. He held a pair of scissors in his hand. He used them to cut Danny’s shirt, before removing it and throwing it onto the ground.

Sweat glistened on Danny’s bare pale chest as he took shaky breaths in and out. His light brown hair was also soaked in sweat and so was his face.

“Emily get my bag, Carson get me a bowl of water, Kami contact the doctor,” Emily’s dad commanded. All of them nodded and went to do their tasks, leaving me standing there at the kitchen door alone.

Emily’s dad saw me just standing there and motioned for me to come over. I hesitated and then crossed the room in five steps to stand next to him.

“Talk to him,” he said, motioning to Danny.

“What?” I looked at him confused.

“It’ll help him take his mind off the pain and keep him with us,” he explained. “It seems like you and Emily know him.”

I nodded my head.

“Good, now talk to him.”

I went to stand beside Danny’s head. I looked down at him, unsure what to say. I looked over at Emily’s dad, and he gave me a smile of reassurance. I turned back to Danny.

“Hi, it’s me, Violet.” I stammered out. Danny’s eyes snapped open and frantically looked around the room until he found my face. His green eyes looked into my dark purple ones, and he smiled dreamily.

“It’s the angel!” he whispered and he reached out to me. I took an involuntary step back. He frowned when he found only air.

“So, nice weather we’re having.” I blurted out. I faced palmed. Really, the weather!?

“Come here.” Danny beckoned me with his hand. I took a step forward, and his hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. He yanked me forward, and I bumped into the table. He winced as it shook, but soon got that dreamy smile on his face again. “You’re so beautiful.” He purred. I felt my cheeks begin to burn.

I looked across the table at Emily’s mom and Bridget. Bridget had stopped crying and was giving me a cold stare.

“Umm, thanks, I guess,” I said nervously.

“You’re welcome, my angel.” He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it. I pulled it away, my cheeks beginning to burn even more. He frowned again and opened his mouth to say something, but just then Emily appeared.

She came running into the room carrying a bowl of water. She set it down on one of the vacant chairs beside her father.

“How’s he doing, dad?” she asked him, looking at his face hopefully.

“I’ll find out in a second, he replied.” He waved his hand over the water, and it floated out of the dish. He spun it through the air, until it looked like a snake, and plugged it into Danny’s mouth.

Danny let out a moan of pain and grimaced. Emily’s dad closed his eyes as he concentrated on what he was doing.

“Violet!” Danny cried out and reached his hand out blindly. “My angel,” he whimpered. I reached out and took his hand. He squeezed it hard before his hand went limp in mine as he passed out from the pain.

Emily’s dad pulled the water out through Danny’s mouth and set it back into the bowl. He looked up when Carson came into the kitchen holding a black bag. Carson handed him the bag.

He took out a pain amulet from it and placed it around Danny’s neck. I watched as Danny’s face relaxed, and he let out a sigh of relief in his sleep, the amulet glowed a bright green on his chest.

“Is he going to be okay?” Emily was practically bouncing up and down, nothing made her more nervous than suspense.

Emily’s dad looked over at his youngest daughter. “He has a few broken ribs, but luckily none of them are too close to his lungs. What I am worried about is his head; we will have to wait for the doctor to examine him.”

Kami walked into the kitchen at that moment. She held a mirror at her side. “He said that he will be here in about ten minutes, and not to move his head,” she informed us.

Sure enough ten minutes, later there was a knock at the front door. Emily’s dad answered it, and a moment later Dr. Nightingale came shuffling into the kitchen. He was dragging his own black bag behind him, but it was twice the size of Emily’s dad’s.

He dropped it on the ground at his feet and leaned over Danny’s sleeping body.

“Did anyone see the accident?” he asked and studied all of our faces.

“I found him,” Bridget said. It was the first time I heard her say anything since we got here.

“What were you doing leading up to your discovery?” he questioned. He looked at Bridget expectantly as he waited for her answer.

She blushed and chewed her lip nervously. “Umm, we were at a party,” a

she stammered.

The doctor let out a huff of air. “Until four in the morning?” he raised an eyebrow at her.

She looked at him sheepishly. “It was a fun party,” She offered weakly.

Dr. Nightingale shook his head at her disapprovingly. “Were you two drinking?” he asked.

The color drained from Bridget’s face, but she remained silent.

“I’ll be able to tell in just a second. It’ll be better if you come clean now, instead of me finding out,” he warned.

Bridget’s shoulders sagged. “Yeah,” She looked at the floor.

The doctor shook his head at her again. “So explain to me how this young man got hurt.”

“Well,” Bridget began, “a bunch of us were just sitting around a fire talking, and I noticed that Danny was gone...”

“So you went looking for him,” he finished for her.

She nodded her head. “Then I heard him yelling something, and I followed the sound of his voice. I saw him like lying at the bottom of this huge boulder I shouted his name, but he didn’t answer me, so I came down to check on him. I saw blood and like freaked out. I cast a spell and went to get help. I saw this house, so I like knocked on the door and they answered it.”

“How high was the boulder?” He scratched at his beard as he waited for her reply.

“About twenty feet high, but I’m not sure.” She looked up at him. “Is he going to be alright?” she murmured

All of us were silent. The doctor smiled weakly at her. “I’ll do what I can for him, I have to ask you all to leave the room now so I can treat him.”

...................................................

We sat huddled in Emily’s living room. Carson was asleep with his head resting on Emily’s mom’s lap. The morning light was streaming through the windows.

We all stood when Dr. Nightingale came in. He cleared his throat. Carson grumbled as he lost his pillow, and rubbed his eyes in an attempt to drive sleep out of them

“I’ve seen many miracles in my life as a doctor, but I’ve never seen anything quite as amazing as this. When you told me how far he fell I had my doubts if he could make a full recovery, or if he would even survive, but the boy is perfectly fine. I can’t even find the wound that all that blood around his head came out of.”

The room was silent and then Emily began to cheer, and the rest of the Howl family soon joined her, even Bridget joined in. I remained silent.

“You can bring the dead back to life,” I thought I heard a voice echoed in the back of my head. But it was probably just my tired mind playing tricks on me.