Daughter of the Sky, Son of the Earth

Chapter Eight

Air

I didn't know what was wrong. I just could not push away the sensation that something big was about to happen. 

It didn't happen all at once. My suspicion grew with each weird event that passed. Like in the morning, in my dreams, Zeus hadn't been there to greet me in the cloud we always used to meet in. In fact, there hadn't even been a cloud in my dream. 

Instead, I had been thrown into a dark forest. I couldn't see any daylight coming from the outside. It was just black and... cold. Trying to push the discomfort away, I sighed and walked through the forest, but it was like I was just going in circles. I always ended up in the same spot. 

Frustration took a hold of me, and I tried hard to keep calm but my patience was running thin. That was something about me that most people found annoying and scary. I had very little patience. And if you were unlucky enough to see it run out, you would be faced with a very pissed-off girl. Really. My friends said they had been afraid to get close to me in the beginning. 

I couldn't blame them. I had met them once we started high school and that was when puberty kicked in for me. I had as much patience as a rabid dog. 

Anyway, back to the dream.

I had been walking through the forest and when I finally felt my patience break. I screamed out in frustration and a tornado howled around me as it spun everything away all around me. 

Soon, I was kneeling in the middle of a very empty forest. The trees had been stripped off all of their leaves and any sign of wildlife had gone as if it had never existed in the first place. But the darkness remained. And as I looked up at the sky, I didn't see a single star. Nor the moon.

Just the pitch-black void. 

A shiver ran down my spine and it intensified when I heard the voice of a stranger behind me. "Kalani," it whispered in the wind. The hairs at the back of my neck rose and I quickly got to my feet and looked around. 

But I was alone.

"Kalani," the voice repeated, and I felt my heart quicken as my breathing did too. 

"Who are you?! Show yourself!" I screamed out into the nothingness. 

I looked at my surroundings, wanting to find the source of the voice. 

It wasn't until a very distant figure appeared in front of me. It walked towards me. Its pace was both menacing and graceful as a feather. As if it were floating on air. 

My body instantly stiffened as I awaited the figure. 

Once it was close enough to see, my eyes widened, and a gasp got stuck in the back of my throat. This was impossible. 

"Hello Kalani," the very familiar girl said with a wide smile on her face. Her hollow eyes looked back at me, daring me to make a move against her. Her platinum-blonde hair seemed to shine in the darkness and her smile widened when she noticed the discomfort on my face. "Surprised?" She asked with a chuckle.

"Who are you?" I said in disbelief, hating the weak and surprised tone in my voice. 

The girl rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You know who I am, Kalani. I'm you. The dark side of you. You see, as Elementals, you're very... polar. Not like the gods. The gods are the ones who make up the good and monsters the bad and humans are just free-will creatures. But you, you're neither gods nor humans. And while humans can decide if what they do is for good or bad, you don't. You have two sides to your existence. Call it bipolarity if you must, but it is something you will have to deal with every day either until your death or until Zeus makes you a goddess.  Now isn't that fun?" Asked the mirror image of me as she grinned maliciously. 

I was already shaking my head and taking a couple of steps back. What this thing was saying, couldn't be true. Zeus would have told me. He would have explained everything as he had with other things. He would never lie to me. So that meant, whatever was standing in front of me, was a monster. And somehow, it had managed to get into my head, which meant, it knew who and what I was.

"I can see the wheels turning in your mind, questioning everything. I'll give you some time to digest but first, I'd like to answer your doubts. No, Zeus didn't lie to you, he just didn't tell you about this. It's kind of like a loophole. And no, I'm not a monster. Don't be silly, I'm you," the girl said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

My eyes widened as she answered the things that had been running through my mind just moments before. It could read my mind. 

Suddenly, I didn't know what to do or what to believe. Everything seemed too hazy. 

The girl in front of me nodded her head, "I can tell you're feeling a bit... overwhelmed. Don't worry, I get it. If I was in your shoes, I would be feeling the same way. So, I'll give you some space to process everything, to assimilate reality. Oh, but before I let you go, you should really use what little powers you have now." And before I knew it, the girl placed her finger on my forehead and the forest around me vanished. 

I was falling through a pitch-black hole, and I couldn't find my voice to scream.

...

I bolted upright as I gasped for air. I was sweating and my body felt feverish and sore. I looked around the room and the faint snores of my roommate made me relax. Slowly, my heartbeat returned to its normal rhythm and I was stuck staring up at the ceiling as the seconds passed. 

I tried to make sense of the strange dream, or nightmare, I had just experienced. It had left a lingering feeling in the back of my mind. An uneasy sensation crept throughout my body and the words my clone had spoken lingered. You should really use what little powers you have now.

Why? Was there a motive to her words? Was she trying to tell me something?

I sighed in frustration and turned in my bed. I had always loved my bed, but for some reason, I couldn't lie still. 

My eyes stared into the darkness as I laid on my side.

Suddenly, I thought I saw something move. A shadow. It was brief and almost unnoticeable, but it was there. 

My blood went cold, and I held my breath as I looked at what was hiding in the darkness. 

Slowly, a pair of bright yellow eyes appeared in front of me and I hitched my breath. I couldn't move nor speak; I had never seen anything like it. There was something dark and threatening about the way those eyes were staring into mine. As if it had come for me specifically. 

Slowly, I tried to sit up but a low growl made me stop in my tracks. Gulping, I took my hands out of the blankets and focused my energy on the creature in the shadows. My palms were wide open as a blinding white light appeared from it and a burst of wind filled the room. 

My blonde hair fell back and around me, objects were beginning to fly. I couldn't see what was happening, but I heard the creature's scared screech as my power hit him. 

I had never used my powers. Not intentionally at least. I knew that when Elementals were closer to their transformation age, they became more present and volatile, but I had always had control. Zeus had warned me of the consequences of using my powers in a place that wasn't safe. He warned me about the way that would trigger other nearby creatures and lead them to me. 

But at that moment I knew I didn't have a choice. I was sure this monster had come to kill me, regardless of if I was using my powers to fight back or sleeping peacefully in the night. I would deal with the consequences later. 

Adrenaline kept pumping through my body as I clenched my jaw together, straining as I tried to hold the creature in place. I still couldn't see it but I could feel its menacing presence getting nearer and nearer. 

Suddenly, the creature let out a high-pitched yell as it lunged at me with full force. I gasped as I felt its breath on my face. The smell of rotting flesh made my nose wrinkle in disgust, and I let out a yell as I used all the strength, I had left in me to send the creature back into the void it had come from. 

Without a warning, the lights in the room turned on and I could see Joan with her hair sprawled over her face as she watched me with wide eyes. Her eyes stared at me in disbelief as she noticed the small tornado that seemed to form around me and then they focused on the creature that was lying on the ground, motionless. 

Her face paled instantly, and I quickly set my hands down. The winds howling around me subsided as soon as my hands were back to their normal position. I was breathing heavily while Joan and I only stared at each other. 

My roommate was still in shock. Her eyebrows furred together like when she couldn't solve a very difficult math problem. Right now, I was that problem. 

"What- What just happened?" She asked slowly without moving. 

A yelp escaped her as the monster on the floor suddenly disintegrated into a pile of ashes. Joan's eyes were huge now as she tried to convince herself that whatever she was seeing had a logical explanation. 

"Joan, I think you should sit down," I whispered. My voice sounded hoarse to my ears and I was starting to feel dizzy as a pounding headache formed in my head. Trying to ignore it, I looked at my friend and motioned for her to come to sit down on the bed with me. 

Hesitantly, she eyed me before she slowly made her way towards me and sat down. We didn't say anything for a moment, and she was the first to speak a couple of seconds later. 

"What are you?" She asked and I flinched.

Out of all the things she could ask, she chose to go down the defensive path. In my mind, I sighed and tried to tell myself she didn't know what was going on, of course she was going to react this way. I just had to be extra patient.

"Joan there are a lot of things about the world that are best to leave unknown. I can tell you who I am but that could and possibly will, put your life at risk. I would prefer we just try to forget about this. Go to sleep and pretend it was just a dream. The last thing I want is for you to freak out more and for the others to find out about this. Whatever that thing was, it's gone. Let's just leave it like that," I said, trying to sound soothing.

Joan looked at me skeptically. Her eyebrows furred together, and she shook her head before getting to her feet. "I don't know if I'll be able to forget that,” she said tightly.

I sighed and nodded my head. "I know. But let's just pretend. As I said, if you were to know what happened here tonight, your life would be in danger. I care about you and I don't want anything to happen to you," I said more urgently now.

Joan pursed her lips and thought about my words for a moment. It wasn't until a couple of heartbeats later that she finally nodded her head and sighed. 

"You're right. I don't want to know. Your business if not mine. Your problem, not mine. Just try to keep all the freaky stuff to yourself, okay?" She retorted defensively and it took all in me not to snap at her and set her straight. Who did she think she was talking to me that way?

My roommate walked back to her bed on the other side of the room, and she got herself ready and placed an eye mask before falling asleep. 

Meanwhile, I stared at the ceiling. I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed and the last thing I wanted was to turn off the lights. After what had just happened, I didn't want to be left alone in the darkness. 

With a sigh, I got under the blankets and covered myself up to my face while my eyes landed on the pile of ashes on the ground. This was definitely going to be a very long night.