Authors: Annalynne Thorne
“She's asleep,” Era said nearly twenty minutes later.
“Issa, you should go to bed too.”
Marissa peered at them closely. “What are you going to do?”
She looked to Era. “Bryne doesn't know what we're going to throw at him, but he'll be expecting something. He knows of his talent and who we are, so he knows we won't give up that easily. What he won't be expecting is us going to him at night. His guard will be down. It's perfect.”
"I don't know, that's risky. We'll be in his territory.
We don't have his address and we can't knock on every door until he answers..." Era sighed.
Enthused Terra jumped up. On the wrap of the pie that
Bryan
gave them was a yellow post-it note written in shaky but large and clear writing. "Nina Brown," she read to herself. On the refrigerator was the paper that was tacked to the front door earlier. Most of them had addresses on it and right there in the same handwriting was Nina Brown's address.
She placed it in front of Era. "You have to love small towns."
Marissa bent halfway over the table to glimpse at the address reading it upside down. "I want to go."
"No Marissa," Terra denied instantly. She did not like the thought of her sister going with them. They didn't know what Bryne's powers were, but he was fire and the school had to be rebuilt probably because of him. It wasn't safe, not until they assessed the situation. Marissa was young, though only a few years younger than herself, like a mother would, Terra still saw her as a young child, one to be protected.
"Why not? This involves me too."
"Forget it, Issa."
"That's not fair!"
"Shhh," Terra hushed. "Go to bed."
"Please….”
"No."
Era squeezed her hand. "Go on, we'll tell you everything in the morning. We'll wake you up when we come home if you like."
"But... I don't want to be left out."
"You're not being left out; you have a part to play. You need your education and you need to sleep."
She sighed, a tear spilling down her cheek the sign of her yielding. "Fine."
As Marissa dragged herself up the staircase Terra was grabbing the keys from the hook by the jackets. She got her green hooded sweatshirt and threw Era's knitted shawl to her. Like they were racing daybreak they hurried outside and into the car, flipping their hoods over their heads.
The rain poured, sheets building into a windy slant that blurred their vision but they had no trouble seeing through it, and ducking into their car. They were soaked at that point, their feet slipping on the floorboard, and Terra's feet over the gas and brake pedals. The tires screeched out of the driveway in complaint to the wet concrete and movement of haste they moved in.
Era released the paper from under her shirt and smoothed out the wet spots. "Why are we in such a hurry," she asked as if it was not of anything of importance.
Terra didn't answer. She didn't have one. There was no reason they were moving like bats out of Hades. There was something in the way that Aunt Gwen warned them of this peril.
They lived all of their lives without any of the so called danger. When Terra thought about it, it didn't seem right. When they have been separated as long as they have, why hasn't there been anything to threaten them? They were in peace, but was Bryne?
“It doesn't seem right, for us to be safe all of our lives and be warned that it could be gone. Where has this danger been?” Terra questioned.
“We move a lot,” Era mentioned smartly. “That's what Aunt Gwen told us, it was part of the reason. The more we moved the harder it would be to track us.”
“Maybe it wasn't tracking us at all.”
“Are you thinking that Bryne's been in trouble this whole time?”
“I don't know, but I plan to find out.” Terra replied. Though they were moving too fast, the threat of them hydroplaning was very possible, she pushed on the gas a little more anyway. Time suddenly was the most vital; it worked against them and mostly against Bryne.
She didn't know the fire spirit, she knew nothing but of his name and that he had a severe attitude problem. But he was alone, and had been alone all those years. While Terra had her sisters, he was set off to defend himself. It seemed unfair how it worked out that way.
It was like asking who made the stars, the sun and the moon. Was it as simple as that, or was there something they weren't seeing? Was there more to the story than they were told? Who separated them and why would they be so cruel to one boy? Why?
"Right there." Era pointed to a small house, weeds covering the overgrown grass, drowning in the storm.
Terra pulled over on the far side of the road and shut off the engine. You could hear the pattering of the rain louder and more pure. A human wouldn't have been able to see the details of the house at their distance, the weather a band between them, but they could see. She saw the roughly shaped concrete dogs on the crumbling porch steps, the missing pieces of the gray roof. Compared to the neighbors of freshly mowed lawns of nicely kept houses it looked like it belonged in a poor district.
"Are we going to wait out here all night?" Era Inquired.
Terra shook her head. As if preparing for a war, she took a velvet band from around her wrist and tied her hair at the base of her neck. "We're going to go on in, I just wanted to…”
"Stake the place out," Era finished with a giggle at the end of her sentence.
"Don't make it sound like we're stalkers or the FBI. We're trying to help."
"And help ourselves out in the process."
"Come on. Now is better than never."
They reemerged into the rain, it falling more softly now. Standing in front of the door they could smell cigarette smoke, as if it was ingrained in the wood. Being biased from the looks, it appeared that it wouldn't be too far of a fetch to assume that it indeed was. She didn't want to know what the scent was like on a hot summer's day, the sun warming the wood and causing the aroma to be ten times worse.
Terra knocked once, then twice when she knew that the first could not be heard, even by the bat that flapped over their heads. For good measure she curled her hand into a fist and pounded. Era grabbed her wrist pulling lightly.
"Sorry," Terra muttered. "Nervous."
It was frightening working without a plan, approaching the door to a boy that hated them. They didn't know what they were in for, and they were very much alone, Terra comforted herself by silently assuring herself that anyone else would be scared as mice in a snake’s lair, but it had to be done. They had no other choice.
"He's one of us," Era stated calmly, "this has to end well."
Did it? The prophet didn't see how their story would end, their final chapters had not been written, the pen was flowing, the ink drying, the bottle spilled and they had to wing the rest. What if they couldn't write a happily ever after? Was there any such thing? After all, all of the original fairy tales were tragedies. The remakes told lies.
They waited and waited, but no one answered. She leaned over the porch railing to see through the window, but it was so thick with grime that it was impossible.
"Do you hear anything?" Terra asked.
"Rain hitting the pavement, the grass…"
"Inside, Era. Do you hear anything inside?"
"Heavy metal music blaring out from old speakers." She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "One heartbeat and breath. It's all very fast. I wonder if he has a condition."
She straightened, and with a failed attempt to wipe the streak of dirt off of her blouse she turned the knob and said, "Then let’s ask."
"Terra! We can't go barging into someone's house! It's not polite!"
"It's unlocked," Terra justified weakly.
"That doesn't mean anything."
Terra relinquished her hold but not because she was having second thoughts. All she could think about was their destiny, what they had to do. She thought of what would become of them, more importantly her sisters, if they didn't do everything they could, while they could. They wouldn't get another chance to make right. Bryne would surely ignore them and their quest and a direct approach was the only way. Couldn't Era see that?
"I won't allow anything to happen to this family."
Era sighed, her breath of fresh mint. "I don't want that either. I lived alone for far too long, but... He'll come around; he'll see we're what he needs. Let’s go, Terra. This isn't right. You know it isn't. We should meet him on fair turf."
Terra knew Era was right. "Why am I acting this way? I'm more logical than this."
"You're tired of being uprooted; you're scared of what you may lose. You're not an element, Terra, you're human. I believe our powers are the elements, not us. I believe the Kin has it wrong. We all did. Do you know you sing in the shower? When it's a good day you dance while you brush your hair. You get angry when Marissa is hurt; you get emotional when we move. We encompass all of the elements. It's our powers, not us.
"Don't feel that you have to be anyone but yourself."
Terra smiled. "Makes sense..." She looped an arm around Era’s waist leading the way off the porch and towards their car. "Let’s go home to Issa."
Era fell to her knees, her hands cupping her ears as she cried, tears rolling down her cheeks. Marissa held her arm tightly, clutching her to her side descending with her.
It would forever stand out in her mind as one of the worst feelings she ever had. The fear engulfed her into an abyss that she couldn't swim out of, that she was drowning in. Her lungs were pulling in air, her heart was beating, but the world had screeched to a halt, tipping off its axis. It was for sheer moments in time and it was not really the world that had stopped, but it was too long and it was Terra's world.
Leaving drops of water like breadcrumbs they went into their clean house but only made it as far as the kitchen table when Era froze. She cocked her head as she tended to do when she was trying to listen. It was not a common occurrence for she never had to
try
.