Caloric

“Phoenyx! Wake up!” It was Sebastian’s voice.

Phoenyx snapped awake. She tried to sit up but there was a firm leather strap secured snugly over her chest. She lifted her arms to loosen it only to find that her wrists were bound, and so were her ankles. Oh God! Oh no! She woke in that nightmarish ritual room and was on one of those hospital stretchers. No, no, no!

“Sebastian!” she yelled out.

“You’re awake!” he yelled.

She lifted her head as much as she could to look for him. She saw that the room was filled with hooded figures in maroon robes. Sebastian was on the gurney to her left, but as they were placed perpendicular to each other, all she could see of him was from his chest down.

“Sebastian, I’m so sorry!” she yelled. “I thought I got away! I was so close! Lily, Skylar!” She looked to the stretcher on her right and saw Skylar’s torso and feet sticking out. But she couldn’t see Lily. Lily must be on the stretcher right behind her.

“They’re both still out from the drugs,” Sebastian said.

Just then, one of the hooded figures approached Phoenyx with one of those creepy silver metal helmets with all the wires sticking out.

“No! Get away from me,” she shrieked, struggling like hell to get loose, but it was no use.

“Fuck you, you crazy bastard!” Sebastian spat at the person approaching him.

The figure roughly placed the helmet on Phoenyx’s head, despite her squirming and buckled the straps under her chin. She threw her head up and bit down on the person’s hand as hard as she could. A female voice cried out as the hand jerked away, dripping blood onto Phoenyx’s shirt. The coppery, warm taste of blood filled Phoenyx’s mouth, so she wadded it up with her tongue and spat it at the woman. The woman didn’t react any further than the initial cry. She kept fiddling with the wires on the helmet, then walked away.

Then chanting began. All around them, the figures formed a giant circle and started singing words Phoenyx didn’t understand. Probably some weird Celtic crap.

This is it. We lost. I’m going to die. Will my soul stay attached to Fire? When they steal Fire from my body and put it inside their lunatic leader, will my soul be trapped inside of him, too? I hope not! If I’m going to die, at least I can look forward to one thing—that I will be with my dad again.

One familiar male voice rang out above the others. She looked in that direction, craning her neck and barely seeing his face beneath the stupid clumsy helmet on her head. Dexter, the man from the bar—the leader of this cult. He wore the same maroon colored robe as the others with his hood back to show his face. He stepped up to the altar to give a speech to his followers.

“My brothers and sisters,” he announced. “The time has finally come for us to correct the mistake our forefathers made all those centuries ago. No longer will the elements belong to the Bound Ones. No longer will we have to search for the power that is rightfully ours. Today, we take that power back. From this day forward, the power of the elements will forever be bound to the Four Corners!”

With that, he pulled down the large lever. An agonizing, uncontrollable pain surged through Phoenyx’s body. Her muscles twitched, twisted, and contorted painfully. The more she fought it, the more it hurt. It was like having the worst Charlie horse in every single muscle in her entire body at the same time.

She heard Sebastian groaning beside her, muffled by the constant and terrifying buzz of the electricity traveling through the wires and into her head. Then just under that, she barely heard Dexter’s voice speaking in that same language. How strange how beautiful it was, even as she was being electrocuted. Something inside her responded to it, lifting up inside her. It was a feeling similar to that feeling in your stomach at the highest peak of a rollercoaster ride when you’re thrown upward.

She couldn’t be sure at first, but it felt like the ground beneath her was rumbling and quaking. She thought it was just the beginning of her soul being ripped apart, but she opened her eyes enough to see the faces of those in front of her. They were faces filled with trepidation, looking around at the ceiling and at each other in questioning dismay. Dust was shaken free and falling from the ceiling. The people in front of her were losing their balance. The earth really was shaking. Is this an earthquake?

“Fear not, my brothers and sisters,” Dexter said. “This is only Earth’s feeble attempt at rebellion. It will be over soon.”

Earth? Lily is doing this?

“Lily!” Phoenyx shouted as loud as she could. If Lily woke and realized what she was doing with this power against them, she could stop all this right now—even if that meant killing the four of them in the process. All this time, Lily had the power of the entire Earth inside her. She just might be the most powerful one of them all.

As the rumbling calmed, a breeze picked up, lifting and brushing the material of the robes all around. Soon the breeze turned into a wind, faster and stronger, whipping all around the room. That had to be Skylar, unconsciously fighting back with his element as well.

Sebastian groaned then and the walls shook once more. Again, frightened gasps escaped the hooded crowd. Inside the walls, cracking and banging sounded, and then water streamed through the cracks in between the bricks. A small part of Phoenyx’s mind understood that this was Sebastian. He desperately tried to pull all the water around them to his aide and the sounds and shaking of the walls was the force of the water bursting through the pipes inside the walls. The water trickled and streamed slowly, gathering into puddles in places and lifting into the air as it swirled itself into perfectly round balls. The musical sound of the water moving was peaceful as a forest stream but what followed was far from peace. Once elevated, the balls hurled themselves at the hooded figures, swirling around their heads. They gurgled horribly and struggled to free themselves until they drowned and fell dead to the floor.

As the chanting continued and Sebastian’s groaning grew louder and more pain-filled, the balls of water lost their vitality and burst like water balloons in loud, defeated splashes. Puddles bubbled up in feeble arms, convulsing in unrecognizable shapes as they tried to form into something useful but their attempts were fruitless.

“It’s no use,” Sebastian shouted to Phoenyx through gritted teeth. “I can’t do it. It has to be you!”

She couldn’t feel the fear resulting from his words, because she was already terrified of dying and of all the pain she felt. It had to be her.

“You can do it,” Sebastian wailed. The pain was clear in his voice. Phoenyx couldn’t bear the sound, or to know that he suffered too. “Don’t be afraid!” Sebastian yelled.

Her father’s voice rang in her head. “You can’t be afraid. Your friends need you.”

But she was afraid. She couldn’t push away the very real fear of dying, and she couldn’t think around the petrifying pain seizing every fiber of her being. She felt her soul lifting out of her body, responding to the ancient words beckoning it from Dexter’s mouth.

It wasn’t just her life, her soul. It was Lily, Skylar, and Sebastian too. They were all about to die. Sweet Lily, witty Skylar, wonderful Sebastian. She loved them all more than she ever loved anyone who wasn’t related to her by blood. They were the first real friends she ever had. In this week together she had grown closer to them than she had ever done with anyone.

Her soul cried out. She saw the very real and bright energy of her essence lifting out of her body. This was it. This was the end. She was going to die.

A sound more heartbreaking than any she had ever known cut through the air. She knew what it was without having to look. But look she did, in Sebastian’s direction, to see the magnificent and shimmering teal of his soul pulling unwillingly out of his body. A blue tendril lifted from within his bound arm and stretched out in her direction. With her own soul, she reached out to touch him.

“I love you, Phoenyx,” she heard without hearing.

A memory, hidden deep within her soul, burst to life, pulling her out of the present and into the far, far past.

Suddenly, she was sitting in a sunflower-filled meadow. The lazy afternoon sun bathed her in light and warmth with birds chirping all around. She was wearing a simple gown of white fox fur which was itchy and uncomfortable. But she couldn’t scratch. She was not in control of her actions but merely watching through her eyes.

“Adara,” a voice she knew called from across the meadow.

She looked up. Sebastian, handsome as ever and adorned in a very primitive tunic of bear skin that was just long enough to cover the important parts, happily waved and approached her.

“Fin!” she said excitedly, jumping to her feet and running into his arms. He caught her and kissed her.

“The elders have made their decision,” Fin said, still holding her. “We’ve been chosen for the ritual!”

“We have?” she exclaimed. “That’s amazing! Oh, this is so wonderful!”

“I know! We will be the most respected people in the entire village, and we can finally get married—despite what your father says!”

“Oh, Fin; I love you!” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

“The ritual will take place tonight,” he said. “We have to get back so we can get ready. First, I have something for us.” He held out a golden colored apple.

“A quince?” she asked.

“Do you know what is special about this fruit?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“It is said that, if a couple shares this fruit on their wedding night, their love will be eternal.” He took a crude-looking blade from a strap on his tunic and sliced the fruit in half. “I know we are not yet wed but, in case the ritual goes wrong tonight, I want to make sure I will see you in the afterlife.”

She smiled and took one half of the quince from him. “As far as I’m concerned, our love is already eternal.”

They bit into the fruit and did not get up until they had finished both halves. Then they hurried back to the village.

Everyone was atwitter, bustling about their huts and chatting excitedly about the ritual. When Adara and Fin passed by, all eyes were on them and filled with reverence. What an honor this was! She would be host to one of the great elements.

She did not understand the elders’ need to contain the elements, though. The elements, in all their power, made the world they live in—through both destruction and creation, death and life. It was a cycle and she understood that. Perhaps by allowing one of the elements to enter her, she could give it a sort of new life and a balance. She hoped she would be able to do justice to whichever element she was bonded with.

“Adara, come,” an aged but still fair woman beckoned. “We must get you ready for the ritual.”

“Yes, Mother,” she said obediently, leaving Fin and following her mother back to their hut. There, her mother and sister cleaned her thoroughly by scrubbing every inch of her. Then they clothed her in the finest cloth and covered her with sweet smelling flower wreaths. They brushed and braided her hair and stuck flowers all through it. She had never been so pampered in all her life.

“You are ready, my daughter,” her mother said, cupping her face.

“You look beautiful,” her sister said adoringly.

“I will honor you, Mother—and Father, too,” she said.

By the time they left their hut it was night and the bright and full moon was making its way up from the horizon. The moon was so very large tonight which was the only reason the ritual would be allowed to work. They met everyone else at the center of the village, where all were gathered in a circle. The crowd spread to allow her to enter the circle where Fin and the two other chosen candidates were being prepared by elders. Fin knelt next to a giant oblong stone that had been hollowed out and filled with water. Skylar’s ancient doppelganger knelt next to a tall structure built out of wood that Phoenyx would now recognize as a gallows, with a noose hanging from it. Lily’s ancient counterpart knelt next to a burial pit about her size.

All of these things frightened Adara. She didn’t look forward to what awaited her.

“This way, child,” one of the lady elders said, taking her arm and guiding her to the fourth corner where a pile of kindling sat, begging to be burned.

Adara understood. Each of the four chosen ones were matched with an element, and it appeared they would have to be harmed by their element in some way during the ritual. The hanging rope made that obvious. The blond boy would be hung and she assumed that he would be bound to Air. When hung, he would be surrounded by only air, and the inability to breath would be air doing harm to him, however inadvertently. The pretty brunette girl would be buried alive, therefore being hurt by Earth. It frightened her terribly that Fin would be held under that water in the hollowed stone and drowned. That left Fire for her. Will I be burned alive? Adara thought. How will any of us survive these horrors?

The lady elder brought by a torch and lit the kindling before Adara.

“On this night,” the most powerful of the village sorcerers began, “we will free ourselves from the tyranny of the elements. No longer will earth deny us our crops. No longer will the seas deny us sail. No longer will wind dishevel our homes. No longer will the fire hold sway over our lives.” He gave a nod to the elders standing by each of the four volunteers.

At the elders’ bequest, Fin climbed into the stone tub, the blond boy fastened the rope around his neck, and the brown haired girl carefully lowered herself into the burial pit with bleeding hands, bringing a cloth with which to cover her pretty face. Then the elder next to Adara handed her a rather blunt blade.

“When the ritual begins and you hear the chanting, cut your hand and drip the blood into the fire,” the elder woman said.

Adara took the blade, feeling like she got off easier than everyone else. The other three were actually putting their lives in danger, whereas all she had to do was bleed a little. That was the catch, wasn’t it. All three of the other elements could harm a person without causing permanent or lethal damage; but fire doesn’t just harm, it destroys completely. This was the only way fire could hurt her without causing her serious damage. She whispered a silent prayer for Fin’s safety before the elder leader started the ritual.

Doing as she was told, Adara sliced the dull blade deep into her open palm, biting her lip against the throbbing pain of it, then held it out over the burning fire in front of her. All around them, the village chanted words she had not yet learned, the language of the ancient runes. As she held out her bleeding hand, she watched in anxious fear as the blond boy’s face turned red while the rope pulled him upwards off his feet by the neck. The elder to her right piled dirt into the burial pit on top of the brown haired girl. Her beloved Fin struggled against the arms that held him under the water, drowning him.

She made to go to him but the elder woman at her side stopped her. “You mustn’t, child. The ritual is not complete. Concentrate on your hand, concentrate on the fire. Let it fill you.”

Taking one last stricken and longing look at Fin’s flailing hands, she put all her focus on her hand and the fire and prayed that this would end soon.

The chanting around her caused a stir in the air. The earth rumbled. She heard the distant shores clashing with waves. The fire in front of her spun in an unusual fashion. It mesmerized her, drowning out all other sounds and sights, and she watched the flames dance and flicker and reach up to lick at her dripping blood. The chanting grew louder and faster, and the fire grew taller and brighter. She quivered and felt as though the fire tugged at her soul.

Then suddenly, in the loudest silence, the chanting came to a rude halt. The air went still, the water hushed, the earth calmed, and the fire drew itself up into her hand before snuffing itself out and stealing all the light with it.

Drawing in a deep breath as if fighting suffocation, she felt the heat of the fire enter the cut in her hand and burn up her arm and into her chest and all through her body. However, it wasn’t a sweltering, blistering, or even uncomfortable heat—just merely warm and relaxing, the way the heat of the sun soaks into your muscles on a hot summer day. She felt triumphant but also deeply sad. She felt reborn.

Something sparked inside of Phoenyx suddenly as the memory faded and she snapped back to the present—something that stabbed through the pain and the fear. It started as an ember in her stomach and grew and grew. Anger. Rage. Hatred. These people think they can do whatever they want because of their heritage. They had the arrogance, the hubris centuries ago to trap the elements so that they could control them and become masters of the world they lived in and depended on. Because of them, Phoenyx’s element, Fire, had to live time and time again, never allowed to rest, never allowed to be free. Life after life, death after death, forced to repeat over and over again. It wasn’t just her anger and hatred for what these people had done to her and her friends that she was feeling, it was Fire’s anger and hatred for what these people had done to it and the other elements long ago and what they were trying to do yet again.

In that moment, she and Fire were of one mind. Fire refused to be ripped from the body it made its home. It refused to belong to its enslavers. It would not stand for this any longer. After all this time, Fire was going to have its revenge.

In an eruption of hatred and retaliation, Phoenyx screamed at the top of her lungs, letting Fire take over. She felt the heat inside her body reach out like magma spewing from the mouth of a volcano and scorching all her enemies. Even with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, she saw all the hooded figures being lit aflame from within, burning rapidly as they screamed short-lived screams, blackening and charring, and then falling to the floor in ashes.

She opened her eyes and looked at the straps that bound her. Without even having to voice the thought in her head, flames sparked and ate away at them, freeing her arms to remove the wretched electrifying helmet.

Dexter was the only figure left still standing and he was gawking at Phoenyx in horror like a deer in the headlights. She stepped over to the altar and pulled the lever back up, cutting off the electricity, and Dexter ran for the nearest door. Phoenyx brought up tall flames to block the door, then the others that Dexter ran for, and so on until the entire room was encircled by a wall of fire. Dexter had nowhere to go.

She waved her hand at the stretchers in an order for the others’ straps to singe away. As soon as Sebastian was free, Phoenyx heard him kick his stretcher angrily and go to the aide of Skylar and Lily.

Phoenyx approached Dexter and grabbed his arm, digging in her nails into his flesh.

“Please, Fire, kill me quickly,” he begged, closing his eyes in preparation of death.

“No,” she said. “You don’t get off that easy. You don’t deserve a quick death. You deserve to suffer.” She let her will flow through her hand and into him, and said, “You will never speak again. You will never move again. You will see nothing and you will hear nothing for the rest of your life. You will be a shell of your despicable self and you will have to suffer for the rest of your days with the shame and guilt of what a terrible person you are until it eats you alive.”

She let go and his eyes did not follow her. He was a statue, just as the guard had been when she’d frozen him by accident, only Dexter was going to stay this way forever. With a flick of her wrist, she pushed her index and middle fingers against his chest, and he fell straight backward till he slammed harshly to the floor, stiff as a board.

“Come on buddy, wake up,” she heard Sebastian urging Skylar, followed by the sound of slaps on cheeks.

Phoenyx took a moment to let her anger fade and to remember herself, letting Fire return to its den deep within her soul to savor its vengeance. Then she turned and joined Sebastian in recuperating their friends.

“Honey, wake up,” she said, shaking Lily’s shoulders lightly. “Oh, duh,” she said to herself, remembering that she could make Lily wake up. “Wake up,” Phoenyx said, compelling Lily.

Lily’s pretty green eyes opened. Her face brightened when she saw Phoenyx’s face hanging over hers.

“You came back,” she said to Phoenyx.

“Of course, I did,” Phoenyx said.

“Hey, Phoenyx, could you work your magic on Skylar, too?” Sebastian asked.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, going to awaken Skylar.

“Oh, my God, what happened?” Lily gasped as she looked around at all the ash covered robes and the wall of flames around them.

“You don’t remember anything?” Phoenyx asked as Skylar stirred.

“I don’t either,” Skylar grumbled. “All I know is I have the biggest headache of my—holy hell!” He cut himself off when he opened his eyes.

“Long story short, they caught us all, nearly electrocuted us to death. Phoenyx scorched all their asses,” Sebastian said. “If I hadn’t been seizuring at the time and my spirit wasn’t being torn from my body, it would have been the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. See, Phoenyx, I knew you could do it. You saved us.”

Phoenyx felt Skylar reading her mind. Odd, she

was never aware of it before. He was looking for scenes of what happened.

“Whoa, you’re one scary bitch, you know that,” he said to Phoenyx. “Don’t ever change.”

She smiled, then took note of how weak her body was despite how strong she felt. Her knees were weak, her legs were shaky, and her stomach felt like she’d be throwing up right now if she had anything to throw up.

“So…it’s over?” Lily asked. “We’re free?”

“Yes, we’re free,” Sebastian said, helping Lily to her feet.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Phoenyx said.

“First things first, we all need a shower,” Sebastian said. “Some of us more than others.” He pointed at Skylar. It was amazing that he could resort right back to humor after being almost killed.

As the boys argued, Phoenyx let the flame wall die down. They all headed slowly out of the room and to the stairs. Her first thought was that they needed to go to the hospital but her stomach demanded priority, and a giant meal sounded way too good right now.

They walked out of the empty lodge, hand in hand, and into a fresh and beautiful late morning. This felt like the first day of a new life, and the possibilities were endless.