IceShine

V

I gasp and flinch awake. I start trembling. Pfft... another nightmare. I look at the clock of my phone and it says 7:00. At least I slept the whole night.

I look around me and see I'm not in my original room. And then, I remember what happened yesterday.

I sigh and fall against the bed again and close my eyes, enjoying the piece and quiet.

"Miranda, you're dead!"

There goes my peace and quiet. That voice... I'm sure it was John. But why would he want to kill his sister? Oh, yeah... Miranda said last night that he was gonna pay for not hearing when she was "talking"...

I stand up and open my door to see what's happening. But before I could look outside, Miranda comes barging in and closes the door.

"What exactly are you doing first thing in the morning?"

I ask her and she tries to calm her breathing. She smiles at me innocently and gives me a hug. Why is she always hugging me like she'll not see me again in this lifetime?

"Good morning, Lila!"

"Yes, good morning. Now tell me, what did you do?"

I take her arms from around my neck, and bring them down. She looks at me, shocked.

"What do you mean?"

Then someone bangs on my door.

"Miranda, come out this instant!"

Okay... That's John's voice... and he's REALLY mad! I turn to Miranda and ask her menacingly.

"What. Did. You. Do?"

She cowers when she sees my expression and says.

"Look... I was mad, okay? It's not like I get inside everyone's room at dawn and hide until they're awake so I can jump and scare the s**t out of them..."

I continue looking at her with my harsh glare. I’m sure she is not telling me everything.

"Okay! I put sponges with soap on the floor so that he would slip... And..."

I'm starting to lose my patience here.... and because of the banging on the door, I'm not the only one.

"And?"

"And when he slipped and fell on his butt, I poured a bag full of pink and silver glitter glue on him."

And that's when John finally loses all the patience to respect the fact that the room is mine, and comes barging in. And I think I'm hearing songs and voices in my head! He's wearing only pijama pants and his well-toned torso is n***d.

And then I see it. The glitter... his head and his upper back are full of glitter. His expression is that of pure anger... an expression that I didn't think I'll see in his face ever, given how calm he acted yesterday.

"You are SO dead!"

He says and starts running after Miranda. That's what makes the spell on me break and I look as John tries to catch Miranda. But Miranda had in her hands a bottle of water with soap and, in her hurry to leave, she let it fall in the ground and open.

John slips and before I have time to process what is happening, we both fall flat on the floor, he on top of me.

"Ouch!"

Huh, that hurts like a b***h! But the position we're in, seems to wake him up. When he sees me under him, he opens his eyes wide. Suddenly, all of his anger seems to fade away, and his face relaxes.

"Are you all right?"

The voice in which he said that was so small, that I barely heard him.

"Yes, I'm fine..."

I think I'm blushing... like really hard.

"Are you sure? You seem really red to me."

He says seriously, and puts his palm on my forehead to check my temperature.

"You are a little warm..."

"No, I'm fine... just a bit surprised about my first morning here...."

He laughs. Oh my... I didn't know that a person's laugh could make a music composer feel embarrassment... Oh, Lila! Get a hold of yourself!

John stands up and helps me stand too.

"Oh, crap! I hope I can get it off me before we leave for school, or else Miranda is dead!"

I give him a sarcastic smile.

"Well, glitter boy, do you want any help getting all that glitter off of you?"

He looks at me scowling... I think he didn't like my little nickname! He smiles ironically at me.

"No princess... I wouldn't want to make your hands dirty with all this glitter!"

He says laughing and goes out of my room. I stand there for a while and sigh. What is wrong with me? Oh God! I must get a hang of myself!

…

Walking to school, John is brooding. In the end, Fiona made Miranda help John take off all the glitter. But because we had to leave, they couldn't take it ALL off, and he still has some on his back and shoulders.

"So, tell us... what is it like to have powers?"

Oh... I thought she was gonna ask sooner!

"Well, it is strange at first, but the more you use them the more you get used to it."

"And how did you notice?"

"Well, I didn't exactly notice... My father told me, and I could use them for as long as I remember."

"And how can we learn what Element we can use?"

"You can not know until your powers emerge from you. And that's something that should happen soon... pretty soon. Actually I'm amazed that they haven't already... You should be able to control them by 14."

"Maybe it has to do something with what Dad did... I mean not talking to us, and us continuing living like normal humans."

Says John from behind us. I look at my side...

"Maybe..."

By this time, we are already in front of our school. And by the shocked expressions from everyone, I'm already the center of attention... Oh, boy... This is gonna be a hell of a long day!

…

Finally, school ends and I start walking towards the exit with Miranda. There we meet John, who had gym as the last class of the day.

The day was tiring. Yes... that's the right word to describe it. Aside from my new friends who followed me everywhere (I'm really not used to having someone to talk to...), the snide remarks from all the girls who had their eyes on John and I'm in the way, as it seems, we also had a date with the principal and his niece... At least that ended well in my favor. And by well, I mean he got detention for 2 weeks. Yippy... I won't have him in my neck for 2 weeks.

As we walk towards my old home, I hear something. I put my hand on Miranda's mouth, who was laughing with the girls at school, so that I can hear better.

"What is wrong?"

John says this while looking at me with a worried look. I put my finger on his mouth to shush him. Then I hear it again. Oh, great.

"You two go to your house. Another one appeared..."

They both looked at me worried.

"We won't leave you here!"

Miranda took my arm while saying that, and stopped me from following the sound.

"Miranda, please listen to me. You can't help me at this point. You'll only endanger yourselves. Anyway, I can feel it's power and it's not that strong. You'll only hold me back."

She looks at me and I see the conflict in her eyes. In the end, she lets go of my arm and lowers her head.

"Both of you stay here. I'll be back in a minute."

I say and run towards the direction of the sound. There I find it in a back street, ready to crawl upwards. I take my stance against it. I take a deep breath and focus on the air around me. I feel it lifting me while my grey eye glows, and when I open my eyes I look straight at the monster who's looking at me with its red eyes menacingly.

It growls to intimidate me, but I ignore it. I rush through the air and get near it. I freeze up my arm and make it sharp like a knife. I try to pierce through it with my frozen arm.

I do it but before I could do another attack, it tries to snap me, forcing me to step back. I land gracefully with the help of the wind on the ground a few meters away from it. It lifts his arm and tries to strike me but I manage to avoid it and froze my leg just in time to cut his arm with it. It lifts its cut arm and before I can blink it grew another arm, from where I cut it. And he brings it down with force towards me.

"LILA!"

What!? I manage to escape again just in time to see John and Miranda running towards me.

"Why are you here? I told you to stay put!"

"We called our father and he's on his way to help you... can you hold out?"

Miranda says and John hides her behind his back. I escape an attack and turn to them.

"I believe so... it's stronger than I thought! So, please this time stay put!"

Then I turn towards the monster and concentrate on it. I take a deep breath and start running towards it. I make ice knives in my fingers and threw them at it while running. But they did absolutely nothing. Guh, I don't want to use that here... it will make huge damage to the surrounding houses. So, I can only try to restrain it to stop it from moving and then push through the portal... It's worth a try!

By the time that I stopped thinking about how I'll do what I'll do, the monster had come near me enough to capture me with his arm. I gasp and try to break free, only for it to tighten his grip on me.

"Lila!"

"John! Stay where you are! Don't you dare come nearer! Aagh!"

I'm starting to lose my breath as its grip is becoming more and more tight. Suddenly, I feel his grip on me become light and I start to fall with the arm! What happened? I break free from the arm, and turn to see Miranda looking at her arm shocked.

"John! What happened?"

I turn and run to him. But he seems lost looking at his arm. And that's when I see it... the monster is being held by three branches that come right out of John's arm, while the hand that held me has been burnt to ashes.