The Fifth Element

When I got home, I walked straight to the kitchen and turned on the light. The room was instantly cast in a warm buttery glow. I sank into one of the three chairs surrounding our kitchen table. I buried my face in my hands and took a few deep breaths and did one of the few things that calmed me down, self-talk.

“It’s going to be okay. Everything is kind of okay,” I told the palm of my hands.

I exhaled and removed my hands from my eyes. A haggard white face with two gaping holes where their eyes should’ve been stared back at me from across the kitchen. It’s pale skeletal body was draped in a white flowing nightgown, and thin white hair clung to its scalp in patches.

I let out a scream and snapped my eyes closed.

What was that...that thing !? Had I actually just seen it!?

I heard ragged breathing and the rustling of fabric coming from across the room that steadily drew closer to me, but I was glued to my chair. My poor legs were frozen to the ground out of sheer terror.

Icy breath tickled my face, and I felt my body tremble with fear. I reached out and gripped the edge of the table hard. Okay, I was going to have to make a break for it, before this thing...whatever it was, decided it wasn’t satisfied with just breathing on me. I focused with all my might, but my feet wouldn’t budge.

An icy hand brushed my cheek, and I jerked. My legs came up, and my knees hit the bottom of the table hard.

“Ow,” I hissed under my breath. Well, at least my legs were no longer frozen...

“On the count of three, you’re going to make a run for it,” I said to myself inside my head, ” 1-2-3.”

I opened my eyes, and I sprang to my feet. The chair behind me scrapped hard again the wooden planks of the floor, and I was.... alone. I stumbled back on wobbly legs while my eyes darted around the empty room around me. It was gone but where did it go?

I slowly backed towards the hallway, all the while not taking my eyes off the room. When I reached it, I turned and fled. I sprinted to the end of the hallway and flung my bedroom door open and slammed it shut behind me. I pressed my back against the door and listened.

The empty house remained quiet, and I convinced myself whatever I had seen, real or not, was gone. I just had a feeling.

Still a little bit shaky, I walked over to my bed where I spotted something laying on my little circle blue and green woven rug in the middle of the room. It was my dream journal.

I bent down and picked it up. Something detached from it’s back and floated back down to the floor. I stared down at it in silent shock. It was a dark purple petal, so dark that it looked almost black.

I was sitting on my bed with my Element History book on my lap when the front door open and swung close. I heard footsteps echoing down my hallway and the door, my door open.

There stood my mom, in her waitressing uniform that did little to hide her many curves, which I hadn’t gotten. Her curly blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail on top of her head.

“Violet,” she said softly, “They sent me at a wind whisper at work today. Is everything okay? They told me you passed out at school!”

“Everything is fine,” I said, but my voice came out sounding tense, even to my ears. I looked down at the moving picture of a man with a long white beard doing battle with a giant red dragon. The dragon breathed fire onto him and which he blocked with his shield. He then shot water at it.

My mom crossed her arms and opened the door a little more, so more of her body was visible, “I know something is wrong, just tell me, and we can just save some time.”

“Mom I’m fine-”

“You’ve been having those dreams again, haven’t you?”

“No,” I lied.

Suddenly my mom’s eyes fixated on something in the room. I followed them and saw she was staring at my dream journal on my nightstand.

She took a step towards it, and I lunged for it and hugged it tightly to my chest.

She raised an eyebrow at me, “Violet let me see it.”

“No.”

“Violet..”

“No!” I shouted.

“Fine!” my mom barked, “But if something is wrong I’m going to be ticked!” she spun and slammed the door closed behind her. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at her. I swore my mom was more of a teenager than I was.

I laid down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling and watched the colors swirl in a never vortex of blue and greens. I felt my eyes drift close and I fell into a dreamless sleep.

I opened my eyes to the gray light outside. I quickly dressed and ran outside and down the path. I was halfway to the hill me and Emily met on when I heard the rustling coming from the path to my left. I stopped abruptly, my eyes drawn to the thick foliage. A small delicate head of a little horse with an equally small horn in the middle of its forehead poked out of the leaves, and I gasp. It looked at me with big chocolate eyes before its head disappeared again into the undergrowth.

“Holy crapapples!” I gasped and ran to the spot where it had been, but there was no sign of it.

Wait until I told Emily about this! She would have a cow! The excitement of it made me forget my other trouble. Well, almost.

I got to the spot where Emily and I met up for school and waited. I soon glimpsed Emily’s golden head bobbing down the path that leads from her house. When she saw me, she stopped walking and stared in my direction, before continuing.

“Holy cow Violet you’re early! I thought I was seeing things when I saw you standing there! ” she exclaimed when she reached me.

“Yeah I know right, can hardly believe it myself! I need to tell you something,” I blurted out.

Emily blinked, “Okay, go for it.”

I opened mouth and told her about the flower petal I had found, and when I finished her mouth hung ajar.

“So it looked like it came from the same flowers in your dream?” she asked, and I nodded. She closed her mouth and was silent for a minute.

“Is there anything else?” she asked, her golden eyes seemingly peering into my soul. Was I that transparent?

“No,” I lied again.

“Violet I just-”

“Why doesn’t anyone believe me when I say I’m fine! Just leave it alone! ” I exploded.

Emily stared at me, and I could see it in her eyes that she knew that I had just thrown up an iron curtain between us, that all the digging and pleading couldn’t penetrate.

We began to walk to elemental school in silence, a painful silence that stretched on and on between us. It was then I remembered that I had topic changing gold.

“I saw a unicorn today.”

Emily stopped and grabbed my arm unexpectedly and looked deep into my eyes, “Where, when, and how!” she said excitedly.

“On my way from my house, it poked it’s head out and...”

“Take me to the exact spot now!” Emily practically screamed and began to bounce up and down with my arm still in her grip. It felt like she was trying to rip my arm out socket.

“Emily I can’t! ”

“Why?!” Emily cried.

I laughed, “Because we have school.”

Emily gave me a dumbstruck look, “Oh right, I completely forgot about that,’” she said and smiled and began to laugh.

She blabbed the rest of the way about unicorns until we reached Elemental school, said our goodbyes and parted ways in the hallway.

“So you know you’re the hot topic of the school now,” someone purred in my ear. I spun around to come face to face with Conner Kingfisher.

“Leave me alone creep! I’m not interested.”

He wrinkled his nose, “Trust me. I’m not either freak,” he said.

I cringed at the word freak. That was the last thing I wanted to be known as.

“Leave her alone! “A quiet yet firm voice said from out of my range of sight. My eyes searched the busy crowd of other students until they found Peter. He was standing in the middle of the hallway in front with his hands crossed over his chest, trying his best to look intimidating. His glasses were pushed all the way up his nose.

Conner went to stand over him, “Step off fairy boy, or I’ll make sure that’s what they’ll call you for the rest of your life!” Conner said in a low voice.

“Leave her alone!” Peter said in a louder voice.

“Listen up you worthless worm-” he began I felt anger boil up inside of me. Peter didn’t have a good home life, and I knew for a fact his dad often called him that. He shouldn’t be called it there and he shouldn’t be called it here.

“If anyone is a worthless worm it’s you! At least he wouldn’t cheat on his girlfriend with Glenith!” I shouted in anger, then realized my mistake, and clamped my hand over my mouth.

The hallway that had been buzzing with some noise now fell silent. It was then I saw that the worst case scenario was standing at the end of the hallway right at the double doors that lead to the rest of the school.

There stood Bridget with Danny Feather’s standing right next to her. Her blue eyes were wide and her mouth was formed into an O shape. Without a word she turned and walked back through the doors. Danny looked at me, raised one bushy eyebrow, before following behind her.