Four

Adara got up from her bed, a crack of light peering through her sheer blinds as she groaned. Everything felt like it was a daze, like it was a dream. She still had a bad feeling, but it was different. It was frightening. She wanted to know why. She shook her head and sighed sadly.

"I wonder what Maia is doing," she thought out loud. "I should call her." Even though she felt like complete shit, she felt a little better than she had the day before.

She picked up her phone, her head pounding from crying. 1 new message. 5 new messages- No, 16 missed calls? Adara furrowed her eyebrows and called the unknown number, pacing back and forth.

"About time you picked up!" the all-too-familiar voice said. Adara went stiff, her breath slowing.

"Gabe? Why are you texting me from an unknown phone? What's going on?" When a loud chuckle erupted from Gabe's lips, she was taken aback. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"I know that you started that fire, Adara! You're a freak. And you know what? I have little miss Maia here. I want you to turn yourself into me. Then I'll let your precious little friend go."

Adara was frozen. Her fingers were so slippery that her phone crashed onto the floor. She dropped to her knees, her heart sinking into her stomach. Why, she thought as she dry heaved, why did I set that fire? How did I even manage to do it? She ran her fingers through her frizzy hair in her panic, the sun shining on her face. It was annoying her and hurting her eyes. She felt tired. She wanted to growl at the sun, yet the its heat comforted her. She felt digusting and horrified. She was a monster, a freak of nature. No, not nature. She wasn't natural.

"...you have a month. Or I'm killing her. Isn't that right Maia?" Adara heard her lover's voice say as she put the phone on speaker. Then, a muffled scream startled her. Her head started to pound. She screamed in frustration, confused about what to do. Why was this decision so hard for her? She wanted Maia safe, but what did that mean for her own safety?

Would she be the one to die, or Maia?

Adara heard a tap on the phone. Gabe thought he hung up. She could hear a smirk playing on his lips as he spoke to Maia. His bait. "Don't worry, Maia. As soon as I get Adara, you guys can be together in heaven. Or hell."

She heard Maia growl faintly, and Adara could just imagine the tears from her beautiful amber eyes running down her puffy, red face. A light padding through the speaker told her that Gabe was pacing around the room, probably hoping to get an idea for something. He had always known something was off with her. She saw it in the way he looked at her. Adara had heard him say it to a friend before.

"That bitch has a secret."

Well, he figured it out now. She thought as she listened to Gabe's knees crack. His dead giveaway. She always knew if it was him coming to her dorm because his knee always cracked on the step outside her room. He was most likely crouched down to the girl in the room.

"Maia, did you know that slut was an Element? Do you know how much money you could've gotten?" he said to Maia, his words stinging Adara. "You know, you're the cute one. Adara is just horrifying to look at. Just wanted a good fuck, and I couldn't even get that."

Adara's eyes widened as he laughed at his own confession. She wanted to get out of the house, she wanted to kill him. She needed to help Maia. "Fuck, say something ple- oh wait, your mouth is covered. Here you go-" Adara could only listen as Gabe ripped the tape off of Maia's lips. Maia screamed in agony. Adara felt every inch of that tape ripping off as if it were happening to her.

"Speak, bitch." Gabe said, his grin clearly audible. The corner of her lip curled. There was a faint spitting sound. Oh, she did not do that.

Adara knew from personal experience that it was a bad idea. A couple seconds of silence ensued, and the resonating slap that followed made her gasp. She heard the whisper of a breath coming from Maia.

"You digusting little- DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"

Gabe screamed, anger boiling over as Maia said, "When Adara comes, I hope you burn in hell, quite literally!"

He was pacing again. "Adara will come," he promised Maia. Like hell she would. "And she will go to the government. I will turn her in for my two and a half million dollars. Or she can give it to me herself."

There was scraping from the other end of the line. Maia was thrashing. Begging for help. Instead of telling her to be quiet like Adara thought he would, he simply laughed. "No one, Maia. No one can help you."

Adara couldn't listen anymore. She hung up. Following Gabe's lead, she paced, and paced, and paced. She didn't know what to do, how to function. That disgusting pig. Anger bubbled up inside her and she wanted to scream bloody murder.

But she had to learn to control that. She didn't want what happened to happen again. It was a weird feeling, and her birthmark always felt hot. In that exact moment, it was burning. Glowing even. She wondered why, how, she got that power.

But that wasn't important, Gabe had Maia. Maia was the only thing that mattered.

As time ticked by, Adara got antsy. She tried calling Gabe by his main phone, but there was no reply. Thank god it's the weekend, Adara thought as she tried to figure out what to do. She hated that feeling. The feeling of not knowing what to do. She felt hopeless, lost, useless, but worst of all, lonely. Lonelier than ever. It made her sick to think that she was with Gabe. That she was a monster. What was wrong with her?

She looked at the clock in her room and went numb. She fell and landed harshly on her bed, her head hiting the wall. "Damn it!"

Then a realization hit her hard, something she hoped would work.

He didn't know that Adara had heard Maia! She could accuse him of lying, find another way out.

She looked for her phone and then swiped through her phone, a sheen of sweat covering her forehead.

She couldn't wait to hear his voice again, no matter how much she hated him in that moment. She still loved him. But she was going to call the police on Gabe and he was going to die for taking Maia.

No matter how much she loved him, she loved Maia more.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang. Voicemail. Adara tried it again and again until she almost screamed. She was wrong. She wouldn't even be able to contact him.

For the first time in a long time, Adara realized that she was completely useless.