The Missing Students
Tavan, was sick. He had slept outside and got a cold. The only thing that occupied his hearing now was his sniffles.
His phone had begun ringing and when he picked it up, Cody on the other line began explaining.
"So, from the old couple's calls, Shirley and the rest of the kids are currently in a safe location. They are in the old couple's cabin in the forest, and so I will send the location------now." Cody hangs up and Tavan inputs the location into his phone's GPS and jumped into his car.
He was mainly grateful that Shirley was okay and safe, but couldn't shake the strange feeling he had about the tornado. It was classified as a "Natural Disaster" back in Mirium in 2019, but in 2036? How could the same disaster happen twice? Especially a tornado that pulls up entire houses and basements with it, making many people vanish. Tavan couldn't think of any answers, and so he turned on his radio to avoid his thoughts. Shirley was safe and that was that.
***
Once arriving, he could see Shirley socializing with a bunch of kids in her grade, showing her popularity. Tavan got out of his car, and she walked up to him slowly, soon giving him a hug and almost crying.
"I'm sorry dad... I tried to contact you. I don't understand why it wouldn't go through!"
Tavan smiled and assured her that it was okay, and that he was just worried for her safety.
Tavan had to answer some questions of the concerned parents, but had kept silent about a tornado, it seems that Hexcorp had already gotten to the kids and made sure they kept quiet about it as well. Tavan would have rather not known how though.
***
He was finally able to leave after people became violent for answers.
On the ride home, Shirley was watching the scenery pass by.
Fields, dirt and plants passed by as she soon reached her house in the middle of nowhere. It was impossible to go anywhere, even by walking, so cars seemed to be essential for living out here.
Shirley was pretty happy to be home, despite having to see her brother Cal again. Who seemed to be a little twerp in her eyes who couldn't mind his own business.
"Now now. Be nice to your younger brother." Her mother would always say, but it was simply impossible to be nice to someone who wouldn't be nice in return or even try to be kind.
***
"Ready to go inside? Your mother has missed you as well." Tavan said, smiling at his daughter, who had been smiling as well.
Shirley ran inside and hugged her mom who was happy to see she was okay.
When Shirley went to hug Cal however, he backed away and laughed at her.
Tavan called her away and began speaking.
"The bus crash wasn't an accident. Someone was targeting Amora." Tavan said, not even noticing Shirley's look of terror.
***
Amora crawled out of her bed and fell to the floor with a loud plopping sound.
"Crap!" She yelled, holding her leg that slammed against the floor.
It took her a moment to get out of bed, but eventually she had. The previous day in the cities was quite tiresome for Amora though, so she had accidentally slept in a couple extra hours.
She walked into the kitchen and made some cereal for herself and sat on the couch.
As she finished eating, Cody came into the room and picked up a newspaper from today, starting on the first page, he began reading.
Amora didn't really want to talk due to how tired she had been, so she stayed silent, as did he.
Amora opened the front door to walk around outside, but the skies had been dark and gloomy, showering their tears around. Amora sighed and returned inside, about to sit down.
"There are some raincoats in that closet over there." Cody said, pointing in the direction of the closet without even looking.
"Thank you so much." Amora said, feeling grateful that he was there to help. She slipped the jacket on and headed outside. She could hear the large raindrops landing on her hood and felt happy to know she would remain dry. The sky may have been gloomy and rainy, but in the forested area around the house, the trees protected Amora from the rain, and so she removed the coat and continued walking, finding a place under a tree to sit down.
In the distance, lightning flashed up and thunder could be heard clapping its way toward Amora. Amora sighed, feeling a bit worried, as she always had been with storms.
.
.
.
"It's okay, even if lightning struck the house, it wouldn't get you. I promise." Darkness said, which brought no comfort to 8-year-old Amora. Darkness then changed his form to a cat, his slimy substance becoming fur. He was now a black cat that ran around meowing. He began chasing a little tennis ball around and when lightning brought the thunder, he jumped up and raised his fur, becoming stiff as a statue, which pleased Amora so much she began laughing. Darkness climbed up next to her and lay on her lap, purring gently until Amora was sound asleep. Calm and quiet; peaceful and adorable.
.
.
.
Amora continued deeper into the forest, eventually entering an opening between trees, where rain was around her. She felt her body shiver and heat up. She began screaming at the sudden pain, the sky rumbled, and she was struck by lightning, which channeled around her, spinning and vanishing.
Amora had fallen over from the shock of lightning coursing through her body. She remained there until the pain subsided, and she seemed to have healed. Upon standing up her hands tingled and sent out electricity, which connected with rain droplets falling at high speeds, sending the electricity into the clouds, sending another gigantic lighting bolt to come down and hit around Amora.
Upon calming herself down, she raised her hand thinking of electricity, which then bolted from her hand and onto a tree, which created a small black mark from the shock and burning. She then moved her hand, and fire came out, and then a puff of cool air came out.
Amora could easily tell that she had three elements at this point. While Leon and Reyon only knew of her fire.
Her air and electricity would need to stay hidden for a small bit of time now. Amora inspected her hand that shot out electricity and could see a dark mark left by the bolt, which really stung her.
At the pond, she washed off her hand until it was just red from the burns, the black mark was gone. Andrew soon trotted among the trees and greeted Amora, to which she showed him the burn marks instinctively.
"Woah! How did this happen?!" He said, trying to help cover her wound, to which Amora told him exactly what happened, and even her consideration of telling Leon and Reyon about what happened as well. He then disagreed and convinced her not to tell them.
"Can you show me it quickly? I'd love to try to train you somehow, helping you learn how to use it. I may not have electricity, but I know how to help someone control it." Andrew was cheerful, and trying to be kind, so she showed him, shooting at another tree.
Andrew brought up the possibility of Amora having the ability to absorb elements like Leon could, but Amora had remembered that the only people to have Electricity were Shirley, Cal, and their father Tavan. Amora had remembered a time when she was sleeping over at Shirley's house and eventually passed out, upon waking up she could taste blood and saw a scab on Shirley's wrist, but that had to have been a coincidence... right?
"Leon never told the world how he can get elements, but to be realistic, it'd need to enter his body. Something would and I assume it would have to be blood. I also assume that the person would need to drink that blood to gain an element." Andrew concluded, smiling, as if he solved a big puzzle.
Amora considered the possibility and agreed with his theory. It only made sense, how else could someone receive elements? Through spit? That would just be disgusting!
"We better get back, we can explain the air element to them, but keep the Electricity a secret. I'll help you with learning how to use it and all." Andrew said, walking with Amora back to the house. The sound of crickets and water flowing was so prominent that it was beautiful. The fresh air invaded their lungs and all was good.
Things would look up, but eventually... there is a plunge... into dark agony.