The Fifth Element

It was official. I was the most interesting girl in the entire school. Let me rephrase that, the most interesting girl in the entire school for the day and thank the gods for that.

It seemed that my fainting incident had been the two scoops of vanilla ice cream, and me airing out Conner and Bridget’s dirty laundry for everyone to see had been the cherry on top. Bridget and Glenith’s throw down later that day at lunch well that was the sprinkles and all the other toppings. Now all that was left to do was eat my ice cream sundae, and wait for the heat wave to pass, and by that, I mean something more interesting to come along.

By the end of the day, I had ten notes passed to me during class, and at least fifteen people that I’ve never said a word to in my entire life trying to start a conversation with me.

I had never been happier in my entire life to see Emily’s little yellow house, my home away from home. When we walked in, the house was a complete mess, like usual, but that was how I liked homes to be, lived in.

I could see her family in every unmade bed, and each article of clothing strewn all over the place.

Within all this mess and disorder lived my happiest memories, and also something else I’ve been craving, normalcy. It was normal for me to come over on a Friday after school, and not leave until Sunday night.

It had become sort of a tradition after Emily’s mom found out how my mom liked to have adult sleepovers on the weekend. Don’t ask me how she knew, but she did.

Anyways she told my mom nicely that I shouldn’t be exposed to that sort of thing, and offered to let me stay at their house. Well, at least that’s the story, via Emily’s oldest sister Kami.

When we entered Emily’s room the first thing we did was to strip out of our uniforms and into some of Emily’s “slob clothes,” because what we had planned was sure to ruin any cute clothes.

My outfit consisted of a pumpkin orange sweater with a hole on the side and a pair of sweat pants with little white bunnies on it. Emily’s outfit was a faded blue sweatshirt and a pair of paint stained black leggings.

By the time we had finished, it was dark outside. Emily’s mom was in their kitchen when we came out of Emily’s room. She shook her head in disapproval when she saw us heading for the front door.

“Girls where are you going?” she called out to us from the kitchen. The air was thick with the delicious smell of dinner.

“Unicorn hunting,” Emily said and gave her mom a wicked smile. “Don’t bother waiting for us for dinner. We will just heat up the leftovers when we get back.”

This only made Emily’s mother shake her head even more in disapproval.

“It can wait until tomorrow morning.”

“Mom unicorns are more active at night, the chances us seeing one is like less than one percent during the day!”

“Emily, there are no unicorns around here anymore anyways.” her mom said clearly starting to get annoyed.

“Not true, Violet saw one.”

Emily’s mom looked to me, and I validated Emily’s claim with a nod of my head. I didn’t mention how I saw it in the morning because that would drive Emily’s mom point home that we should wait until tomorrow morning, and that would just get Emily mad at me.

“It’s too dark and...” Her mom trailed off.

“Mom I’m sixteen, and if something happens, which nothing is going to happen, I can defend Violet and I. Dad taught me how.”

“Emily, no,” she said firmly, and that was the end of the argument. No amount of whining from Emily could get her to say any more on the topic. Four kids have given her the ability to pretty much tune out anything.

Dinner was not as fun as it usually was. Emily didn’t talk, and that made me feel like I couldn’t talk, so we sat in silence while the rest of the family chatted away.

Emily asked to be excused after barely even touching her food, and dragged me with her into her room. She locked her door and ran over to the window. She cracked it open just enough for someone our size to squeeze through, before sticking one leg out into the night.

“Em, what are you doing?” I asked, but of course, I knew without having to ask.

“Sneaking out, duh.”

“Em, most girls sneak out for a boy, you sneak out for a unicorn.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and swung the rest of her body out the window.

“You can see a boy any day, but a unicorn in the wild once in a lifetime.”

I sighed knowing I had lost the battle I hadn’t even bother starting and followed her out the window.

The moon was just a sliver in the sky and provided no light for us while we stumbled our way across Emily’s back yard.

Tree branches and rocks seemed to materialize out of nowhere in front of our feet and trip us, and it didn’t help that Emily wouldn’t let me conjure a ball of light to help guide us. She was paranoid about someone seeing it from her house.

It wasn’t until we were a good ten feet into the woods that I finally had enough and cast the spell, so I could see where the hell I was going. That still didn’t stop me from tripping over a stick and getting a nice rip up the side of my bunny pants.

The first place we headed was the place I had spotted the unicorn earlier that morning. Much to Emily’s disappointment and my expectations, it wasn’t there. Next. We tried the old mill, and the ruins of an old house, but with absolutely no luck.

I sat down on a stump and pulled my sweater down until it covered my knees. “Emily, can we go now? I’m cold.” I chattered my teeth together harder so she could hear it.

Emily, who had been on her hands and knees looking under a bush, stood and turned to me. “Alright, but can we check one more place. Please!?”

“No,” I said without hesitation.

“Please, if you love me you will.”

“No,” I said again.

“I’ll cry all night because you shattered my dreams.”

“I’ll wear ear plugs.”

“Violet...” she pleaded.

“Fine....”

“Yay!”

Just then we heard a rustle in the bushes. We both stopped and listened. It sounded like it could be a small animal, say the size of a unicorn.

Without saying a word, Emily took off running in the direction of the sound.

“Emily, wait!” I called, and I crashed through the bushes after her. I soon lost sight of her, and began to panic, when I could no longer hear her either. A thick fog had started creeping in, and I was worthless when it came to direction, Emily had been our navigator.

It seemed like everything had disappeared under a thick white blanket about five minutes after I had lost track of Emily. And I was pretty sure that I had just passed that tree with the creepy face for the third time.

Then, just as quickly as the fog appeared it disappeared, and I found myself standing in a clearing in front of a cemetery surrounded by a pointy black fence, peachy.

The full moon cast the tombstones in an eerie white light and made the cemetery look unreal. Curiously I began walking towards the fence when something made me stop. Wrapped around the fence posts was a leafy green vine sporting black flowers.

“No, not again,” I said out loud and turned to make a break for it.

“Lost?” A man’s voice asked from the darkness behind me.

I stopped and turned around slowly, praying that I wouldn’t see anything scary. Much to my relief, it was only an old man leaning against a rake, at one of the far corners of the fence.

He was wearing a green cap, and his white hair stuck out widely from beneath it. The rest of him was black, from his shoes to his shirt. Even his skin was a rich dark color.

He smiled at me, and his teeth stood out shockingly white against his skin. “I saw you were admiring the flowers,” he said gazing down at the vines.

“Yeah, that’s why I was just turning around to get the hell out of there,” I thought, but kept it to myself.

Apparently, he took my silence as an invitation to keep talking.

“Do you know what they are called?”

I shook my head no.

“Death’s Lily, and do you know what you can do if you find a purple one?”

I stood still, now frozen to the spot.

“They say you can use it to bring back the dead.” He smiled at me again, but this time, I saw his teeth were pointy.

I must have screamed because a scream ripped through the air, and I turned and ran. The full moon provided plenty of light as I reached the forest, my ball of light had gone out at this point. Then, with a sickening thought. I realized the moon hadn’t been full when I had left Emily’s house.

I spared a quick glance behind me. The cemetery was gone, and a thick cloud of mist was rolling towards me like it was chasing after me. This only made me run faster, but there was no escaping it. It soon swallowed me in its white haze.

When the fog cleared I standing in a clearing again for the second time that night, but this time instead of a cemetery, I was standing on a high rock ledge.

I placed my hands on my knees and took deep breaths, trying to catch my breath without much success. Some rocks fell from above, and I looked up. My eyes were adjusted enough to the dark to see a figure standing at the edge, a little too close to the edge. It swayed back and forth like it was dancing to a song it could only hear.

“I’m the king of the world!” it shouted.

I cupped my hands and yelled up. “Get away from the edge! It’s too dangerous!”

“Who’s down there?” The figure yelled back and leaned forward, too forward, lost its balance and fell from the rocks. It landed with a sickening thud below.

“Oh, my gods!!!” I screamed and raced over to the spot it had landed.

There on the ground laid Danny Feather with a pool of blood forming under him. He wasn’t breathing, and I couldn’t find a pulse.

I placed my hands on his chest, now on my hands and knees. “No,” I sobbed and let my head fall on his warm, but growing cold skin.

This had been my fault, hadn’t it!? If I hadn’t called out to him he would probably still be alive.

“Please!” I whimper. “Live!”

From under my fingers, I felt something before I heard it. It was soft, like the flutter of bird wings but unmistakable, a heartbeat.