The Fifth Element

My father took a seat on the mossy ground, I picked a place to stand behind him, and Miss B stood in front of us. The air around was thick with tension, so thick that not even the birds dared to chirp. After my father had arrived, the forest around us had steadily grown darker, until everything was pitch black. In fact, this particular night was so dark, that you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face.

“So daughter,” he said taking his eyes off Miss B for a second and looking back at me, “is this a woman who threatens the life which I had a part in creating?”

I frowned, “No I don’t think so but be careful. She is part of the Big Four, and I have to go with her to report Greta. I turned to Vivian I didn’t have time to mention this but Greta has Henry’s sister, and there’s a secret room with something awful behind it. I didn’t see it before, but it has a lot of energy.”

“This Greta woman you speak of,” Neeva spoke up suddenly. “It appears that she is now is now the ruler of this country now,” My father pushed the cloak he had been wearing back to reveal he had a removed a piece of paper folded that had been tucked in the lining of his pants. He removed it and leaned forward. He held it out to Vivian.

Vivian bent down reached out and took it, before standing upright again “She opened it up and begin to read. When she was done she looked up her eyes wide, “Where did you get this?” she asked.

“They are in flight all over the air. They are looking for people deliver themselves too.”

“This isn’t real. It said the members of the Big Four went crazy and killed everyone while the magic council was meeting. And it appears that Greta has stepped in to take over during this time of emergency. She was the one that was able to kill them and end the bloodshed. And they are looking for the immediate arrest of its fourth member who appears to be the mastermind behind the attack,” She looked up from the letter, and her eyes shifted back and forth between us, “I didn’t have anything to do with this with this. I was on my way to this meeting when I saw Henry’s dragon..”

“I know of this,” my father replied and held out his hand for the paper, which Miss B reluctantly hand to him back to him. He tucked it back in his pant’s waist while he continued “This is the attack of a sixth element user who has gathered enough energy from others to do what she pleases. I’ve encountered them before, but I thought they were extinct. They were hunted relentlessly, even more so than the fifth.”

“If Greta did this, she has to be destroyed!” Vivian’s voice shook with anger and grief. Her brown eyes shined with unshed tears, “This country will fall under her control if this is how she took power, ” She looked at Neeva, “I don’t care about the cost, you have to help! You were the most feared Element user of all time!”

Neeva jaw clenched. He turned his head away. The tone of his voice was cold. “And what if this country deserved to fall? If you only knew what this country had done-”

“I know what it has done,” I said, cutting him off abruptly. “I dreamed about you and your mother, how they hunted you with dogs. You were only an innocent little boy when they did that to you, but you still saved this country years later, despite that fact. Even after that, this country still calls you a monster, even though you are a hero. I think the fact that you are even sitting here, listening to us, proves that you don’t believe this country should fall completely.”

My father looked back up at me, “That’s where you’re wrong.”

My mouth dropped open, “So you aren’t-”

“No, I’m not saying that I made my decision yet,” he turned and looked directly at Miss B, “I desire utmost to see this country cave in on its rotten core one day, and I will see that day very soon. It doesn’t matter what anyone does. It will happen.”

Miss B’s mouth tightened into a firm line, and I could tell she was trying her best to keep her silence. She wasn’t trying her best to hide how royally ticked she was, though.

“But if you prove to me something great can rise from this, I will help you” he finished.

“Neeva!” I exploded, “I don’t care how bad off you think this country is, it can’t be worse than Greta!”

He stood and walked over to me and place a hand on either side of my shoulder and peered into my face”Daughter, I’m afraid you don’t see the full story here quite yet. If this current country’s system would perform the same acts Greta did to you in order to control you, they wouldn’t hesitate for a second,” he said, a little bit of anger creeping into his voice. ” Remember that curse they put on your stomach? It’s just another form of violation like mind manipulation. Isn’t that correct, Miss Bat?” he removed his hands and stepped back from me.

Miss B grimaced, and then nod. “But I hope you know not all of us with power who live here are bad. Some people care about those living here above all else, and not just about power. People that have that aren’t dead, and they could rule this country justly, but could only step in once Greta is gone!”

“Yes, there are,” my father agreed, “including you. That’s why I didn’t kill you. So now I need to know what your plans are for making this country good again, and preventing it from going back to its old ways.”

“What’s so bad about how it is now?” I interrupted and then regretted doing so when both adults gave me annoyed looks. Wait, why should I regret asking? They were talking circles around me. I should be the one getting annoyed; I was as much a part of this as they were.

Vivian was the first one to look away, “Trust me, there are lots of things wrong with this government as it is now. How would you plan to fix it if you are given a position which is powerful?” my father asked.

“Well then, the first thing I’ll do is release all knowledge to the public we have on magic, that elemental magic isn’t the only type of magic, but of course excluding the stuff that could cause serious harm. Then, I would abolish the RIGF, and reveal the existence of the other elements. I’m afraid I’ll have to fake both of your deaths, to avoid your powers ever being abused. Then, I will start an investigation, into the recent activities of the government. I will make elections every three years, instead of six. There is so much more that I want to do, but those are the main things.”

“And are you planning to come forward and confess the sins you yourself has committed?”

“Yes,” Vivian said without hesitation.

“And not cover up things anymore? If you do it, how can I count on you as preventing others from doing so?”

“I promise you I won’t cover up anything else for as long as I live.”

“Then if you promise that, then you can’t keep hiding the involvement that your fiance’s hands held in the death of your family member, your sister who was your only family member,” my father said.

Fiance? That explained why she had been so protective of Hampton Blackwing.

Miss B’s brown eyes, which had been traveling back and forth between my father and me, were now solely focused only on my father’s face with such intensity, that it looked like she was trying to burn holes into him with her eyes,

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a tall shadowy shape materialized beside Neeva. I put a hand over my mouth to prevent myself from screaming, but a small noise still managed to escape my lips. The shadow turned and stared me down with a pair of glowing white eyes, before turning back to Neeva. It leaned its long body forward until its face was close to Neeva’s face.

I recognized the thing beside my father as being one of the creatures Amber had “saved” me from on the night of my birthday. That night felt like it had happened an eternity ago.

I looked over at Vivian, to see how she was reacting to the creature’s sudden appearance, but her expression remained relatively the same. The only difference was she was now looking at me, instead of my father. That’s when I realized she wasn’t seeing what I saw right now. She was staring at me because I had appeared to have screamed for no apparent reason.

The shadow began hissing into my Neeva’s ear, and my father cocked his head a little closer to the creature as if to hear what it was telling him better. He nodded after it was done, and the creature vanished.

“The dead tell tales Miss Bat,” my father said. Rising to his full height, which was still considerably shorter than Miss B’s. “Like the ghost of the mistress of Mr. Blackwing, your fiancé’. My spirits have found her vengeful soul.

She was going to tell you about them and ruin everything. He had to kill her. You were still useful for him to lose your pledge to him, so he strangled her and dumped her body in the middle of the woods. It seems like he doesn’t need you anymore, though, he has someone even better now, Greta. I think I forgot to mention more valuable information, but Mr. Blackwing has been working with Greta the entire time if the mistress’s ghost speaks the truth. So now, will you agree to my terms?”

He looked over at me, and when his dark purple eyes met mine, I realized what he had been doing the whole time. He had been helping me get both of the people responsible for Lacy’s death to pay for it, though I wasn’t sure how he knew about this. I bet he had planned on fighting against Greta this entire time no matter what.

I shot him a grateful look.

“I AGREE!” Vivian roared. I jumped, surprised by the intensity of the anger in her voice, but then again I wasn’t. Her mouth was pulled up into a snarl, and she shook with rage. “JUST AS LONG AS YOU ALLOW ME TO KILL HIM MYSELF!”