Water and Ghosts

Chapter 9

I hike the mountain for a good amount of time, weaving my way through trees. I’m exhausted and cold, but I’m determined. This might be the only chance I get to look for the Cactone.

Two hours into my trek, I get to a piece of flat land. Another meadow, in the middle of the mountains. More flowers grow here, but it’s obviously natural. There aren’t nearly as many flowers here as there were in the flower garden.

I run down to the flowers, my flashlight pointed at the ground. As soon as I reach them, I point them at the flowers.

At the cacti growing in the mountains, with lots of pink flowers on them. Except for one.

The purple flower is the only one not pink. It’s shape is different from all of the others.

A Cactone flower.

I can’t believe my luck. I actually found one.

I lean forward and pick it quickly. I lose my footing, and scream slightly as I try to regain my balance. Falling into a bunch of cacti would not feel good.

I stand up straight, my body going rigid as a twig snaps. A low snort sounds from behind me, and I can feel eyes on my back, not to mention the presence of something large.

I wheel around and find a beaver bear staring down at me. A brown and black spotted bear that is very territorial.

My heart starts galloping in my chest, and I try to remember if I ever learned anything about bears. I don’t think I ever have.

Someone’s hand rests on my shoulder, and the other wraps around me to cover my mouth. My eyes go wide and I swear my heart stops. My entire body is tense.

Panic chokes me.

“Don’t move,” the person whispers in my ear, and I immediately breathe a sigh of relief.

Glenden.

“And don’t scream either,” he whispers, and then he slowly pulls his hand away from my face only to rest it on my other shoulder. “Start backing up, Aqua.”

I do as he says and take small steps backwards, sticking the flower into my pocket. Somehow, I don’t trip on his feet.

We hear a small roar from behind us, and I spin around to see a cub glaring at us. The mama bear roars in fury.

We were following her cub.

“Crap,” I say, my voice embarrassingly high.

“Run,” Glenden says, not bothering to whisper. “Run, Aqua, go!” 

The bear roars again, louder, piercing the night, and Glenden roars with her. “Aqua, go!”

I turn and start sprinting into the forest, Glenden right behind me. My eyes dart from one tree to leaves to the ground to other trees, constantly looking for a way out of this situation.

Glenden grabs my hand and pulls me to the side, almost making me topple over. Somehow, I trip enough not to fall over and keep running. He stops at the base of a tree. I don’t say anything; I just jump and pull myself into the shadows the tree provides. I climb higher so that Glenden can pull himself high enough up, too.

I’m breathing heavily and loudly, so I focus all of my energy on slowing my pounding heart down. I lean my head back against a branch and blow out a breath.

The bear roars again, running right under us. It doesn’t stop, doesn’t look up, and has disappeared in seconds.

My eyes flutter from gut wrenching relief.

I open my eyes to find Glenden glaring at me.

“What,” he says, his voice deadly sharp, “the heck were you doing?”

I can’t tell him about my being an Elemental, but I need to tell him something. I latch on to the thing I came here to do.

Fear rams in the head, and I did my hand into my pocket. The Cactone is still there.

Thank goodness.

“I was looking for a flower,” I say quickly. “For your notebook. It’s a very rare one, but I don’t remember the name.”

Glenden looks furious. “Do something like this again and I will kill you. You don’t… do not put yourself in danger, especially not for a flower.” He huffs out an angry breath.

I’m surprised by the protectiveness in him. “I won’t do it again,” I promise.

“Good,” Glenden snaps. He sighs, making his voice softer. “Come on, let’s go back.”

I nod, agreeing. I climb down the tree and jump down after him. When I land, my legs crumble beneath me. I’m still shaky.

Glenden catches me, pulling me up and setting me on my feet. I take a deep breath and start to pull away, but he doesn’t let me. I look into his eyes, so much closer than I thought.

“You’re okay,” he says softly. “Just… take a moment. Regain that strength of yours.”

Heat creeps up my neck as I close my eyes and listen. I take a deep breath…

And exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

With every breath my heart rate slows, and I feel calmer. Glenden doesn’t say anything. He just holds me up until I can do it myself.

As soon as I’m steady, I back away. Glenden doesn’t protest, pulling his arms away and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“Why’d you follow me?” I ask as we start hiking. “And aren’t you afraid of heights?”

Glenden shoots a glare at me. “Don’t remind me,” he growls. “I heard you leaving and watched as you snuck off, without telling anybody, what you were up to. You’re not the only curious person, Aqua Evans.” He smirks at that.

“I know,” I blink. “I’m just the most curious person.”

At that Glenden chuckles quietly, and I smile.

My hand is still holding the Cactone in my pocket when we finally make it back to camp. Glenden tells me goodnight and not to go anywhere. We enter our separate tents, and I change into my pajamas.

I’m out not three seconds after I lay down and close my eyes

The next day, Glenden watches me like a hawk. He sticks by my side and tells me what we’re going to do.

“We are going to have breakfast,” he said, “and then we are going to talk about how to not be an i***t, and then we’ll have lunch, and then we’ll get to know each other better, and then we’ll have dinner, and then we’ll look at the stars, and then we’ll go to sleep and wake up tomorrow morning and go home, where you won’t be able to put yourself in danger.”

I tried interrupting multiple times, but he ignored me and kept on talking.

So we ate breakfast— canned foods, mostly— and then Glenden changed his mind.

“You know what?” He tells me. “We’re not going to talk about how dumb you were last night.” He gives me a look, but quickly moves on. A smile slowly spreads across his face. “Give me one second.”

Confused, I watch as he climbs into his tent. When he comes back out a minute later, he has a real camera wrapped around his neck, multiple pencils, and his sketchbook. “Instead,” he says, “you are going to repay me for saving your life by being my subject for photography.”

I stare at him. “What? No way. No.”

He crosses his arms and tries, so hard, not to smirk. “You don’t get a choice, buddy.”

“Of course I do!” I exclaim, turning away and stalking off. Glenden keeps up with me easily.

“Why?” I ask after a minute, snapping the word.

He doesn’t hesitate. “I did call you beautiful the day we met, if I remember correctly.”

“That doesn’t mean—” I sputter, but Glenden interrupts.

“And besides that, you are naturally still,” he says, not looking at me. He’s leading the way, I realize, towards the flower garden. “You’re very calm and natural with nature. You fit in with the outdoors. You make a connection to everything— mountains, flowers, and I’m willing to bet you have an even deeper connection to water. Sucks for me that we can’t get to the ocean easily.”

My heart stops. He can’t possibly know that I’m an Elemental.

Right?

I don’t say anything, and Glenden takes my silence as agreement. “And besides, it gives us something to do.”

I roll my eyes. “True,” I grumble, and Glenden laughs.

“You sound annoyed.”

“Probably because I am.”

“And why is that?”

“Because you’re a jerk.”

Glenden laughs outright at that. “At least I’m a fun jerk.”

I can’t help it— I smile along with him, and the anger dissipates. He’s only complimenting me, after all.

We arrive at the flower garden, and Glenden holds up his camera. “Okay. I want you to make a bouquet.”

For a second I just stand there. Then, with a shrug, I plunge into the sea of blossoms.

I ignore the camera as it clicks and gather violets, alliums, white roses, a couple of foxgloves, and a single petunia to go in the middle. I make my way back over to Glenden and hold them out.

“Can you hold them, with both hands?” He asks softly. I do so, letting him take pictures from above and the sides. 

“I’ve got another idea,” I say. I put the plucked flowers on the ground and turn back. This time, I grab all warm colored flowers. Red roses, sunflowers, orange tulips, little blades of grass. Then I grab a stem filled with blue forget-me-nots and place them in the middle.

Glenden takes more pictures. I pick the petals off of all of the flowers and hold them in my hand.

“Ready?” I ask, my voice daring. He grins, nodding. So I throw all of the petals up into the air.

His camera snaps and clicks, the shutter closing and opening as he takes multiple pictures of the falling petals.

The rest of the day goes kind of like that. I’m instructed to do things, and I offer no protest. It’s better than being bored, I guess. And the day doesn’t turn out to be horrible. Time passes quickly, and it’s almost a shock when I realize I’m lying in the grass, next to a boy, looking up at the stars.

“There’s Orion,” I say, pointing.

“And Ursa Major,” Glenden points.

We continue going back forth, finding the constellations. Some of the other students talk in the background, surrounding the fire, but most have gone to bed. We’re getting up early tomorrow to go home.

“You know,” Glenden says, “I’m going to request that you give me one day of the week to do homework with you.”

I start to explain that I can’t, but Glenden interrupts me. “I know you spend every night with Nigel.” His lip curls at the name. “But don’t you think it's fair if I get one night? That way we can focus on the classes that we have, but that he doesn’t.”

I turn my head, looking into his eyes. “Why me?” I ask quietly, searching him for the answer I so desperately wonder.

He looks troubled. “Some things are unexplainable.” His voice is soft.

I continue to looking into his green eyes for a second longer. Then I nod, turning my gaze back to the stars. “You get Wednesdays.”

“Thank you,” he says, surprising me.

“You’re welcome.”

He chuckles in the darkness, his voice trailing off. We lay in silence for a while.

“Why is your hair blue?” He asks suddenly, as if he’s been holding the question in for a long time. I look at him in surprise.

No one has ever cared before.

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “I was born with it blue. It’s part of why my name is perfect. Aqua Lynn— blue water.” I snort. 

“Your name means blue water?” Glenden asks, grinning. I nod, laughing at myself.

“What does your name mean?” I ask once the laughter fades. My smile never does, though.

“I don’t know. ‘Glen’, maybe.”

“That would make sense,” I muse, giggling.

“I did want to ask…” Gleden trails off, unsure.

“What?”

“About your parents? What were they like?” He’s hesitant, and I can tell he’s not asking to hurt me. 

And maybe talking about it will help me.

“I moved to Harbor Village because they both died,” I say, but I don’t look at him. “My mom died when I was five years old. I don’t have many memories of her, but the ones I do I treasure. Except for one.”

I take a deep breath.

“You see, I watched her burn to death.”

“What?” Glenden breathes. “At five years old?”

I nod, swallowing back the tears. “The house caught fire in an instant. My dad had taken me to the beach to find seashells for one of his projects. He started running, telling me to stay on the hill. Even when I was younger, I was curious. I followed him. I saw the house burning and immediately knew that my mom was in there. Screeching all the way down, I ran as fast as I could to the house. I would have gone inside had my dad not grabbed me and picked me up.

“She was right there, in the foyer,” I whisper. “Her face was twisted in agony as flames consumed her. Her screams… her face, and the last time I saw her blue eyes… It gave me nightmares for years. I won’t ever be able to forget it.”

Glenden is silent. I continue with my tragic tale.

“My dad rebuilt the house and placed more protections over it. He raised me alone. And he died a month before I moved here.”

“No,” Gleden whispers in horror. I nod.

“He suffocated. I walked out to the beach to make sure he was okay, and I saw him on his knees, choking, trying to breathe. He was surrounded by a perfect ring of fire.” Anger and sorrow fill me. “Cyra killed them both.”

Glenden is shocked. “How do you know?”

“I saw her standing over my dad, controlling the flames. He had just enough air to shout ‘go’ before he died. I knew who Cyra was. I ran.”

Tears stream down my face as I close my eyes. Looking back on it, I wish I had stayed. “And I heard Dad whisper, when he was holding a kicking and screaming five year old me, ‘I will never forgive you for this, Cyra.’ He knew it was her. Apparently they had history… and I don’t think it was a good one. He never told me the details.”

Glenden’s fingers gently force me to turn to face him. “I am so sorry,” he says, and I can tell he means it. “That… that’s awful.”

“I know. That’s why I’m going to get my own revenge one day.”

His eyes go wide. “No.”

“Yes.”

“But she’s an Elemental!”

“But I’m smarter, and I’ll wait for the right moment. You’re never going to be able to talk me out of this, Glenden. It’s been decided since I watched my mother burn.”