The Fifth Element

Sleep, dark and dreamless. I was awakened by someone’s hand on my shoulder, lightly shaking me. Ugh, I was really beginning to believe that as long as I stayed here at this school, I wasn’t ever going to get a decent amount of sleep.

I rolled over on my side expecting to find Henry there or maybe ghost girl Lacy, but instead there stood a girl, around my age, with big brown eyes and straight brown hair pulled up into a ponytail. She was tall, even without the heels she was sporting, and slender, with even fewer curves than me. She wasn’t wearing a school uniform. Instead, she had on a pair of royal blue pants, a matching jacket, with a white blouse underneath it, and a pair of black heels.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her and struggled into a sitting position at the edge of the bed. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place exactly where I knew her.

The girl smiled sweetly at me. “I’m Amber, Henry’s sister, he’s busy right now, so I’m going to take you to the school heads.”

“Okay that fine, but could you give me a second to get ready. I don’t think I should go to meet the people deciding my fate looking like this,” I said and let my eyes fall to my grimy outfit and back up to her if I looked half as gross as I felt I wanted at least a change of clothes.

Amber glanced down at her wrist, and I noticed she had a gold watch identical to the one Henry had on. “You have enough time to take a shower if you take one now. Did Henry show you where the bathroom was?”

I shook my head, and Amber rolled her eyes. “That’s typical. Here I’ll show you.”

She walked to the wall opposite my bed, her high heels clicking loudly on the stone floor. She pushed on a brick with a perfect spiral design on it. The wall around the brick slid to the side, revealing a door and beyond that, a bathroom, lit by a bobbing glowing crystal ball floating up near the ceiling.

She nodded, “All yours,” she said and walked away from the entrance.

I almost cried tears of joy when I stuck my head into the new room and saw the little white shower. I couldn’t remember the last time I had taken one, and I loved my showers. I shut the door and stripped out of my dirty blood red uniform, pulled back the shower curtain, and stepped inside.

The warm streams of water felt amazing on my sore muscles. I grabbed a bottle of shampoo from one of the shelves on the inside of the shower and squirted some out into my hand. I took it and massaged it into my hair and rinsed it out. I used a shaving amulet, which I also found on one of the shower shelves, to shave my out of control leg and armpit hair.

By the time I stepped out of the shower, I smelled like kiwi, and I was ready for what the world had to throw at me. I grabbed a fluffy white towel from where it hung on a towel rack and wrapped it around my middle and quickly used the toilet.

I didn’t bother looking at the tattoo again. I was in a good mood, now that I had my long overdue shower, and I didn’t want to ruin it.

When I walked out of the bathroom, Amber was gone, but a clean uniform was lying on the bed. I quickly changed into it, and then sat at the end of the bed towel drying my long black hair.

I looked towards the wall when I heard a slight sizzling sound; the sound that let me know someone was passing through the wall. In walked Amber holding something in her hand, when she got closer I saw it was a purple amulet on a silver chain.

I stopped what I was doing and looked at her suspiciously. “What do you got there?” I asked, pointing at the amulet in her hands. I didn’t trust anything or anyone here anymore, especially after waking up with a killer tattoo.

She looked down at the amulet and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure, but it used to belong to you.” She walked over to the bed and held it out for me to take. I looked up at Amber, before hesitantly reaching out for the necklace.

The second my fingers brushed against its oval shaped dark purple surface. My unruly black waves turned into straight, smooth, silky strands. I gasped, delighted by my hair’s sudden transformation, and grabbed the amulet from her hand.

I tilted the amulet back and forth in my hand, noting how it sparkled in the light that the small lamp on the desk provided. I walked into the bathroom and over to the small square mirror above the tiny sink, and admired my image

“I wish I could say this is mine, but I don’t think it is. I would definitely remember if I owned something this awesome,” I called to her from the bathroom. But just for fun I undid the clasp and put it on. For some reason seeing the amulet around my neck made me feel sad, and I took it off quickly.

“Are you alright?” Amber said, sticking her head into the bathroom.

I gave her a small smile and slipped the amulet into the pocket of my uniform. I had a feeling that it was indeed mine. “Yeah.”

She looked at me skeptically and drew away from the bathroom, and over to the wall. She opened up a hole and waited patiently for me to join her at its entrance.

A short time later we were in the massive room with the blood red pillars and the intricate paintings on the ceiling. Amber led us over to the stone mermaid squirting water out of her mouth. She removed her high heels and then handed them to me.

“Hold these for a second please.”

“Sure,” I said, looking down at the shoes in my hands slightly confused.

She mumbled a spell under her breath and stepped out onto the pool of water surrounding the mermaid.

Instead of sinking to the bottom of the shallow pond, she stayed perfectly on its surface. The water only rippled slightly under her feet, while she walked towards the mermaid statue. Once there she scaled the blue crystal pedestal, on which the mermaid rested, and reached for one of the mermaid’s outstretched hands. She grabbed its right wrist and twisted it to the side. There came a rumbling sound from behind us seconds later.

My head snapped around, to see what could possibly make that noise. I looked just in time to see the giant staircase split in half, and either of its sides slid to opposite ends of the room. In the space, they had vacated a pair of doors made entirely out of yellow crystals.

“Wow,” I said, staring at the doors in awe. Amber came up beside me and took her shoes back. After slipping them back onto her feet, she began walking towards the two crystal doors, and I followed behind her. When we reached the doors, they opened all by themselves. A gold metal cage greeted us from beyond. Amber clapped her hands, and the door to the golden cage opened. She stepped inside. I followed suit. The crystal doors closed just as Amber closed the door to the cage, cutting us off from the light and plunging us into darkness.

“Elum,” We both said at the same time, and two orbs of light appeared in front of us. But the ball of light I summoned looked different from the ones I had summoned before or had seen anyone else muster. Instead of the standard white light, mine had a purplish tint to it. If Amber thought this was as strange as I did she didn’t let on.

My mind wasn’t preoccupied with the ball for long as the cage began to sink. I looked around the cage frantically, but then I noticed how calm Amber was, and I relaxed. After a couple more seconds of shaking the cage began to descend.

We stood side by side in silence for a couple of moments. I was the first one to break the silence.

“Are you and Henry brother and sister? No offense, I would take it as a compliment personally, but you two don’t look alike at all.”

“No, we’re brother and sister but don’t worry, we get that all the time. I looked like my dad, and Henry takes after my mom. They were both special fire elementals too,” she replied.

“Oh, I see,” I said, processing that information. “Wait, the first time I saw you, I thought you looked familiar, and now I know why. You used to sit behind me in magic history class, and you saved me from those creatures by using lightning didn’t you?”

Amber looked at me startled. “You remembered that?”

I nodded my head. “Of course, you saved my life, but I’m still kind of mad at you for knocking me out,” I smiled at her to let her know I was joking.

“Sorry about that,” she said, she smiled sheepishly at me. “It was orders given to me by Greta based on Henry’s vision, and I guess you know how that is I think. When Greta tells you to do something, you do it. So how did you come to live with Greta?” She looked at me as she waited for an answer.

“Well, I’m not exactly sure, four years ago I woke up and Greta was sitting beside my bed. I didn’t know who I was, or where I came from, but Greta took me in, cared for me, and raised me like her own daughter, and how did I repay her? I refused to go to this school, and ran away from home.” I felt tears begin to pool at my eyes, and I quickly swiped them away.

“I see,” Amber said quietly. We lapsed into another awkward silence

“Do your parents work here?” I said breaking the silence once again.

“They both use to, but a couple of years ago there was an accident, and my mom died, and so did my dad.”

I put my hand over my mouth. “I am so sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine.” A sad smile touched her lips. “It happened a really long time ago, and I barely remember them, but Henry does. He blames himself for what happened.”

The cage came to a stop, and we both got out. The room that greeted us was about half the size of the room we came from, but just as grand. Five silver pillars embedded with gems in a rainbow of colors supported the ceiling above. They sparkled in the light given off by a giant blue spear shaped crystal hovering in the center of the room. The floors here were white and black checkered marble, in contrast to the black marble with swirls of gold in it, that made up most of the floors and walls here.

Across the room, thirteen people in robes sat behind a long wooden desk, with intricate pictures of magical creatures carved into its golden wood. They all had black robes on, and their hoods were drawn, so their faces were hidden. Behind them, I spotted Lacy hovering in the air. She waved at me, but I didn’t wave back for obvious reasons.

Without hesitation, Amber crossed the room and stopped in front of the cloaked figures. She curtsied slightly. “I have brought Violet Ellen Silver upon your request,” she announced, and then returned to my side. She shoved me forward gently. I stumbled a little, caught myself, and came to stand in front of the intimidating group.

There was a stirring along the hooded figures, and then one by one they removed their hoods. I was shocked to see who was part of the school board. Miss B and my wind and water element teachers were among the hooded figures.

Miss B was the first one to speak. “Violet, we have been watching you carefully for the last couple days, some of us have even worked with you, and now it comes down to the final question. On behalf of the Big Four, I will also be presiding over your case, along with the school board. I am their most junior member of the Big Four, Bevivian Bat, and represent Earth.”

My jaw almost dropped to the floor. The big four were only the four most powerful wizards on their given element in the country. Every year there was a torment held were verified challengers came to try to take their position. If they succeeded, they overthrew the current title holder, and they look the title of one of the Big Four. If they lost, they slinked home with their tails between their legs. The members of the Big Four rarely were ever defeated. Someone usually had to retire, or one of them died of natural causes before a spot opened up. I just happened to have no interest in watching the torment. So I had no idea what their names were, or what they looked like, just that it was impressive to be one of them.

“The question is whether you should live or die. We have finally come to an answer to this issue.”

“And what is your answer?” I asked, trying to show how scared I was in the tone of my voice.

“Unfortunately Violet, most of us think you should not continue to live.”