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Chapter One
If I could change one thing about the past, it would be the choice I made when I was eleven, to take what my mother had given me. But then again, if I hadn’t, we all would probably be dead. Is death even worse, though? No, it’s worse. But only a little.
My name is Grey Mendoza. I’m 14 years old, and I have a question for you. Have you ever wished that people had magical powers? Have you ever had a dream in which you could fly, and woken to the grim reality of gravity? Have you ever read Greek mythology and wished you were Aphrodite or Hades or Athena? I haven’t. In fact, there have been thousands of times I’ve wished the exact opposite.
There are five main powers, or Elements. Water, Earth, Light, Air, and Darkness. There are a few people who have abilities related to those elements. You could call it magic. You could call it being special. Or you could call it a curse.
Most people have really basic abilities. Someone with basic water-based power would be able to manipulate water with their mind and hands. Someone with basic air-based power would be able to create a small wind or blow some hot air when they're really mad.
A very few of us have rarer abilities. A really rare light-based power is transmitting positive emotions by touch. An earth-based power so rare it’s practically non-existent is metal manipulation. And a super rare one for water is healing.
Each Element has one person, called a Guardian, who holds most of the power of that element. They basically watch over their element, make sure nothing explodes without permission, and keep the non-elemental humans from finding out about the elements. Each Guardian has a Stone, understandably named a Guardian Stone. It’s essentially a symbol of their power, a sign that they're the Guardian. The stone is actually their source of power. It’s passed down, generation to generation. When you become a Guardian, the stone attaches itself to your skin, about two inches higher than your heart. It’s unremovable until you say these words:
I (Insert name here) Guardian of (Inset Element), remove myself from the position of Guardian and pass down my Stone to (Insert name of whoever you’re passing it down to).
All the Guardians are descended from the original Guardians, who gave some of their power to a select few. It spread and spread, and now about one-eighth of the world’s population is Elemental.
When a Guardian is about to die, they have to pass on the Stone to their oldest child. Somehow, no one has run into the problem of people dying without children yet. They have run into the problem of a Guardian dying while their oldest child is still pretty young.
When I was eleven years old, my Mom died and I became a Guardian. Guardian of Darkness.
Darkness is a complicated Element. Each Element has little branches. You could compare it to a family tree. Coming off of Earth is sand-manipulation, coming off of Water is snow-manipulation, coming off of Light is memory-transmission. Coming off of Darkness is death.
No Element is evil. They are all good and they keep the world in balance. But if one of them could be evil, Darkness would.
There are very few with darkness-based power. And the few that do exist aren’t very powerful. All they can do is fill the light with shadows and transmit negative emotions accidentally. Except for me. I had always been more powerful. But I kept it under control. Light and Darkness are emotional Elements, and they’re triggered by strong emotions. I never really had very strong negative emotions before my Mom died, so I didn’t even know how powerful I was.
Now I do know, and I wish I didn’t.
I want to go back. It’s gotten worse. When my Mom died and I became Guardian, I was scared. My Dad wasn’t there for me, because he had divorced my Mom five years ago and done his best to forget the mistake that was me. I was alone. When they finally got my Dad to come and take me, I had to go live with him and his new wife and kid, who both knew nothing about Elementals.
I didn’t talk to anyone. My Dad left me alone and never discussed my Mom. And as I turned 12, things started to change.
Part of becoming a Guardian was that my already strong powers were amplified by… a lot. When I moved into my Dad’s house, I didn’t have anyone to talk to. My feelings built up inside of me, balling and massing. Then something would happen that would remind me of my Mom, of my life before, and it would burst out in the form of pure Darkness.
Once I almost killed my half-sister, Sasha, on accident. My step-Mom found out about Elementals then, and she hated me. She labeled me as ‘freak’ and ‘dangerous’ and avoided me. Sasha… doesn’t hate me. When I almost killed her, my hand had brushed her shoulder. Like I said before, Darkness is an emotional element. Like with Light, one of the darkness-based abilities is to transmit memories and emotions. But you can only do this by touch.
When I touched Sasha, I transmitted my memories and emotions to her. Sasha started to understand. She could see I’m not a dangerous killing machine, but a person who's just been alone for too long. But she couldn’t do anything about it because of how much her Mom hated me.
I began to hide my emotions. I stuffed them down and kept it under control, and it worked. I didn’t accidentally blow anything up and all my family members stayed alive. But it was incredibly hard. I felt so alone, because I was.
Things got worse. I started to... see things. Not like I was going crazy or anything. I saw ghosts. The dead. They were everywhere, and they were trying to talk to me. They whispered in my head. I found out that I could communicate with them, unlike my Mom ever could.
But I was scared of them. Because I knew that somewhere, in their numbers… was my Mom’s ghost. And I was afraid to see her, dead. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stuff down my emotions with her around. I’d explode with everything, and someone would get hurt. So I hid from the ghosts, I ignored everything they said.
When I was 13 years old, there was an accident. I was hiking with my best friend and her Dad, both of them not elemental and without any knowledge of elementals. We stopped for a break and to eat lunch, and my friend, Mae, and I wandered off. We went off the trail and followed a creek up into the hills. We climbed a slippery, moss-covered rock. We sat on top and talked. And talked. I don’t know how long. The subject went from school, to friends, to family. And there it stopped because Mae had asked me the question, “Do you feel close to your family?”
After that, in my memory, everything is fuzzy. I hardly remember any details. But I know that I lost control. Darkness exploded from me once again, pure shadows and pure sadness and pure hate. I knocked Mae from the rock. When I calmed down, I found her. She had been hit on the head. She was bleeding. I screamed for her father, who had already been looking for us. He found us, running in on the scene. His daughter, on the forest floor, eyes closed. Blood on the ground by her ear.
There was no reception and his phone was dead anyway. We drove as fast as we could, but we couldn’t get there fast enough. Mae died with her head in my lap in the car, with her father holding her hand.
And so another ghost joined the millions already whispering in my ears. Another ghost to be scared of seeing. I started to hear the ghosts every night as I fell asleep. They spoke quietly in my ears, whispering. I tried to block them out, but every time my eyes closed and darkness enveloped me their voices grew louder. One night, she found me. Mae’s ghost.
I didn’t see her, but I heard her.
“It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.” Her voice came to me through the hundreds of others.
“But it is.” I had whispered into the night. It was my fault. I should have remembered that we shouldn’t go off the trail. I should have been more careful.
I cried all that night.
Somehow, my father got the story of Mae’s death wrong. He thought… I don’t know what he thought. But he decided that enough was enough.
He sent me away. I went to a boarding school somewhere in the countryside. It’s called Willow Creek Boarding School for Girls and Boys. It’s there, at that school, that everything went wrong. Or maybe it went right. But let me tell you, it was not pleasant.
Feel free to continue posting your story in chunks––your original post was too big for me to check, and it's easier for friends to read it in smaller pieces as well! --Admin
submitted by ..., age ..., ...
(December 17, 2018 - 10:03 am)
(December 17, 2018 - 10:03 am)
I'm crying. I absolutely love this. *goes into corner to cry*
(December 21, 2018 - 4:02 pm)
Just binge-read this all, and wow. It's pretty crazy good.
(December 21, 2018 - 2:43 pm)
Wow, this is good! I like your style, and it's well-written. One suggestion, though; you could maybe take the beginning a little slower.
(December 21, 2018 - 4:54 pm)
Wow, thanks you guys! I'm glad you like it. :D Soren Infinity, thanks for that suggestion! It's super helpful. Yeah, the beginning is a little awkward, I re-wrote it fifteen times. Beginnings are not my strong suit! I'll keep what you said in mind as I revise. :)
I'm so glad I wrote something you're enjoying!
(December 21, 2018 - 9:57 pm)
And the next chapter!!! This one is also cut in half because it's 10 pages long... I need to make my chapters shorter! :)
Chapter Five
I woke up, still enveloped in Chloé’s hug. Arivas had fallen asleep under the blankets and was snoring quietly. Chloé’s eyes were closed, but I could tell from her breathing she was awake.
I slowly rotated my head, observing the bedroom. It was bathed in golden morning light. The birds were chirping. A glance at my alarm clock told me I had woken early.
“Chloé?” I whispered, so I didn’t wake Arivas up.
“Yeah?” Her eyes opened immediately.
“Did you sleep at all?” I asked, shifting out of her hug.
She stretched. “No. I watched the moon through that crack in the curtains. Don’t worry, I won’t be sleepy. Staying up late makes me energized.”
“Uh hu, I believe that,” I said, slowly inching my way from under the covers. I went to the corner of our room where a full-body mirror stood and frowned into my reflection.
“Darn it, I left my beanie on while we were sleeping. My hair’s going to be a mess…”
Chloé came up behind me. “I bet it’s not too bad. You have really beautiful hair. You should wear it down more, you look so pretty.”
“I don’t want to look pretty,” I said, taking off my hat an exposing my tangled rat nest of hair.
“Yes, so pretty,” I said sarcastically, pointing up at a knot so big a bird could have lived in it.
“Here, I’ll help you. I have a brush on my bedside table.” Chloé said.
She walked over to her bed and came back with a magenta hairbrush in hand. “Sit down,” She commanded.
I sat on my knees before the mirror, and Chloé sat behind me. She began to brush my hair. I had to use my hands to keep myself from falling over because she was pulling so hard to get the big knots out.
“Chloé!” Arivas had woken up, and her voice rang out loud. “What are you doing to Grey?”
She came racing over, her own hair a little messy. “Don’t comb out the knots from the top down. Do it from the bottom.” She grabbed the comb from Chloé’s hands and began to work my hair.
“Okay, well. Sorry if I was pulling too hard,” Chloé said.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I don’t really mind.”
In a couple minutes, Arivas had worked all the knots from my hair. She was more experienced in the ways of beauty than Chloé was, I guess.
“Ooh, this is beautiful, Grey!” Chloé said, reaching out and touching my hair.
I observed myself in the mirror. Beautiful? No, I wasn’t beautiful. Arivas was beautiful, and Chloé too.
“Nah. I prefer it hidden under my beanie,” I said and shrugged.
“Will you wear it down? Just for today? Please?” Chloé asked.
I shrugged. Honestly, I didn’t care that much about how I looked as long as I was completely covered, ankles to wrists.
“Guys, we’re going to be late for class if we--” I began, but Arivas bounced in and interrupted me.
“Wrong!”
“What?” I said.
“You forgot! It’s Saturday! No school!” Arivas said, beaming.
“Oh, yay. Another day sitting in the library with nothing to do.” I said unenthusiastically.
“Oh, come on. Study, do homework if you have to be doing something. I like weekends because it means I can write letters home.” Arivas said, plopping down onto the softly carpeted floor next to me. Chloé sat down too, and we formed a little circle.
“We could just nap all day,” Chloé offered.
“No, I still have a little of my book report to finish, and it’s due Monday,” I said, thinking about my report on Fahrenheit 451.
“Let’s go to the library,” Arivas said. “It’s always quiet there. Chloé can nap, Grey can write, and I can answer letters. We’ll have to stop at the office on our way there, though.”
“Can we go out for dinner?” Chloé asked suddenly.
“I thought you wanted to nap!” Arivas said, and I cracked a smile.
“Sorry,” Chloé said sheepishly. “Now I’m suddenly craving Burmese food.”
“Okay, we can go out for dinner,” Arivas relented. “But can we really afford it?”
“Of course we can,” Chloé said.
“Yeah,” I broke in. “My dad sends me a little allowance every week, and that’s literally all he’s done to help me for years.”
“I work as a babysitter for a woman named Mrs. Clacey who lives nearby, so I can help pay,” Chloé said.
“I guess since I work and I get an allowance I can help, too,” Arivas said.
“Okay! Office, Library, then into town!” I said, about to stand up.
“Wait, Grey!” Chloé said suddenly.
“What?” I asked.
“Will you wear your hair down?” She asked me a little nervously.
“Fine,” I said and shrugged.
I stood up with Chloé and Arivas and turned to look at myself in the mirror one more time. I hardly ever saw myself with my hair down. I looked like another person. I tucked my hair behind my ears so my earrings were visible like they usually were. That looked a little more like me.
I went over to my bed and slid open my drawer, pulling my clothes out. I turned my face to the wall and began to slip out of my pajamas and into my usual clothes. Jeans and a black turtleneck. I always wore that. I had never really liked wearing anything else. Except for before my mom died. Then I wore blue angel-winged shirts and jean shorts, every day. In the winter I wore a long sleeved shirt under my angel-winged one and leggings under my jean shorts.
I sighed as I flipped my hair around onto my shoulder and tucked it behind my ears again. What I would give to go back to that time.
Normally I’d freak out if I had to change in the same room as anyone, but with Chloé and Arivas, I trusted them enough to respect my boundaries and my wishes. I knew they cared about me and they wanted me to feel comfortable. As I grabbed a pair of socks from my drawer, I couldn’t help but think how they were the nicest people I had known for a long time.
Once I had pulled my black sneakers on and stuffed my backpack with all the books and papers I’d need for my report, Chloé and Arivas were ready.
Chloé was wearing her usual -- a baggy sweater and jeans, with her reddish hair hanging around her shoulders in spring-shaped curls. Arivas had her blonde bob cut, her bright pink off-the-shoulder shirt, her acid-washed ripped jeans giving her the ultimate popular girl look.
“To the office!” Arivas declared, and we stepped out of our room.
The light streamed in through the windows on one side of the hall. I cast a glance outside and saw that most of the puddles from the rainstorm were gone. I hoped it would rain again soon.
We made our way down the white tiled hallways quickly, our footsteps echoing down the hall. We passed other groups of people, mostly girls since we were still basically in the girl’s dormitory. As we went by one group of girls, I heard them whispering worriedly about some kind of break in around their neighboorhood. In the back of my head, somewhere, I wondered about it. Normally this area didn’t have a very high crime rate. But the thought was gone in a moment.
We clomped down a staircase and around another corner, picking up speed. I didn’t know why we were running but, hey, it was fun.
I laughed, my hair flew behind me and my backpack bounced. My mind took me back years, to when I used to run like this with Mae.
Just as we were rounding another corner, I slammed right into someone, knocking them to the floor and scattering papers from my bag everywhere.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, are you okay?” I said, turning to whoever I had knocked down to help them up.
My hand closed around his.
----------------
Sorry about the cliff-hanger! I'll post the rest of the chapter tomorrow. :)
(December 21, 2018 - 10:03 pm)
Here's the rest of Chapter Five!
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Chapter Five
My hand closed around his.
“Come on, Grey! Hurry up!”
“I’m coming! This bag is heavy,”
“Leave it! My brother’s coming soon, and I still need to get back at him for scaring us last night.” Mae helped me lower the bag to the ground.
“That sleepover was the best. Which was your favorite ghost story?” I asked.
“I liked the one you told, where there was a girl who could control darkness, and every night she heard the sound of ghosts’ voices.” Mae shivered.
“Yeah,” I looked down. How do I always manage to just barely skim the truth?
“Come on, let’s run!” Mae said, grabbing my hand and pulling me with her.
We raced to her car, laughing and smiling.
It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not--
“Grey!”
I gasped, shocked back into myself by Arivas’s voice. I was on the ground, sitting. I looked up and saw my hand tightly wrapped around Caleb’s. I pulled my hand away.
I knew what had happened. I had been thinking about Mae, about running with her. When I touched Caleb, I transmitted the memory to him. That was not good.
Maybe he’d write it off as him remembering a movie he saw once or something. But I doubted it. Caleb wasn’t stupid. He’d know that it wasn’t just him.
I began to stuff papers and books back into my bag.
“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going. I guess I forgot to zip my bag,” I said to Caleb.
He was still where he had been when I had been holding his hand. Sitting, pale, surprised, and staring at me. I felt like I was going to explode. Why couldn’t I just keep my powers to myself? Why couldn’t I stop endangering the people around me?
Arivas and Chloé dropped to the floor to help me with my bag. Caleb regained his composure and came over to help, too.
“It’s not your fault,” He said.
“Uh, yes it is. I ran into you.” I said.
My heart was thumping. It was beating so fast it just sounded and felt like a big, low, vibrating mass. I kept my voice calm. I couldn’t let him think that I had anything to do with the memory.
“Okay, that’s true. But I’m sorry I was in your way,” Caleb said.
“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” I asked.
Caleb looked up at me for the first time in this conversation and I saw shock register on his face. “You’re really pretty,” He said. Then he gasped and put a hand over his mouth.
“I… uh, I mean… Um… you’re-wearing-your-hair-down-today-and-it-looks-nice.” Caleb said frantically.
For a second I was just sitting there, blushing my face off. My really pretty face, apparently. Then I took a deep breath. “Um, Thanks,” I said as calmly as possible.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Arivas stifling a giggle and Chloé hiding her smile by neatening a pile of paper that was already perfectly neat.
“Your welcome.” Caleb said stiffly and passed me a pile of paper. “Here,”
I took it, and my finger just barely brushed his. I pulled back, not wanting to give him another of my memories. The papers spilled everywhere.
“No!” I groaned.
“Darn it!” Chloé said and began to pull papers together into a pile.
I sighed and pulled my hair around onto my shoulder. This was why I never wore my hair down. Because it got in the way when I tried to do stuff.
We finally got everything into my bag again, and we’re just zipping it up when I heard a voice above me.
“Samantha!” Some girl called out.
I looked up, even though it wasn’t my name. Arivas, Chloé, and Caleb also turned their gaze upwards.
There was a group of four girls, all with their arms either on crossed or with their hands on their hips. I knew these girls. The ‘mean girls’. Their leader, Maggie, was the biggest jerk I’d ever met. All the girls were all looking a little down the hall at a small, curly-haired girl trying to hide behind her two other friends, who also looked terrified.
“Samantha, did you hear that?” One of the girls said, raising her hand to her ear with a mock expression of curiosity.
“Hear what?” The tiny girl, Samantha, squeaked.
“Sam, don’t answer them!” One of Samantha’s friends whispered to her.
“You didn’t hear it? Huh. Well, I thought I heard a monkey somewhere over there. Oh--wait! Maybe it was you!” The girl exclaimed, with a face of fake surprise.
“Oh, yeah, you’re right! She does look a lot like a monkey, doesn’t she?” Maggie said, stepping forward. Sam’s friends shrank back, leaving her exposed.
“I bet you are a monkey,” Maggie said, her glare venomous.
“I’m--I’m not a monkey…” Sam whispered.
“Yes, you are. Prove to us you aren’t. Prove it! Come on, prove it!” Maggie said.
Sam sniffed.
“Aw, is she going to cry?” One of the other girls in Maggie’s band of jerks said.
I felt myself tightening. My shoulders stiffened.
They were chanting “Is she gonna cry? Is the monkey gonna cry?” at Samantha.
I stood up. “Quit it.”
They stopped. They hadn’t expected to be stood up to. Maggie was shocked, but she quickly put herself back together.
“Uh, what are you going to do about it?” She said bossily.
“Well, I’d insult you back, but that would make me no better than you. I’d just be another pathetic jerk in a crowd of pathetic jerks.” I said.
Maggie’s strong expression slipped for just a moment.
“Well, well, well I-- I take karate!” She burst out, at a loss for words.
“Where did you hear that one?” I said.
“From you, actually,” Maggie said, and I could see her preparing her next insult. “When you were trying to convince your new boyfriend you don’t love him!” She shouted.
I was completely taken off guard. I had expected insults about my appearance, my grades, and my family. All of which I don’t care very much about. I wanted to shout at her, but I couldn’t I was so mad.
In the corner of my eye, I saw Caleb.
What is he thinking now? My brain thought, somewhere too deep under my anger to really hear.
“Yeah, I think it’s a perfect match,” Maggie said. She had found my weak point, and she was going to exploit it.
“You two should get married!” Maggie said, and her band of girls started murmuring other insults, always about me and Caleb. Caleb and me.
I stepped forward, feeling myself losing control. But I wasn’t losing control of my Darkness, I was losing control of something else.
I don’t remember exactly what happened after that, but I remember that the punch I landed on her jaw was not a wimpy punch. When I could think clearly again, Maggie was on the floor, looking up at me, shocked.
She scrambled to her feet and stepped backward. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” She whispered to the other girls. They slowly stepped back, like I was some kind of crazy monster. I saw Samantha in the corner, smiling at me. She caught my eye and wordlessly thanked me. Then she turned and began walking down the hall, her two friends following, slightly bewildered.
I turned around and saw Chloé, Arivas, and Caleb staring at me with their mouths wide open.
“I’m probably going to get in trouble for that later,” I said.
“I thought you didn’t take karate,” Caleb said.
“I don’t,” I said.
“That was awesome,” Chloé said.
I shrugged. “As I said, detention here I come.”
“Actually, I don’t think she’ll have the courage to say anything,” Arivas said.
“I wouldn’t,” Caleb said, still staring at me.
“I kind of hope she doesn’t,” I, glancing down the hall where the girls had disappeared.
Chloé smiled at me. “This is the best day ever.”
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Not super proud of this part, I'definitelytly be coming back to work on it later.
(December 22, 2018 - 10:56 am)
I think this outlines what some people face *coughMEcough* during middle school: Bullying. I like how you captured it in your writing. You described it at a bystander's point of view. As Chloé said, "that was awseome!"
Dream says peep. Her first word! She wants a peep of the story, I think.
(December 22, 2018 - 6:15 pm)
I'm glad you think I captured it well! It's kind of funny, though, because I'm homeschooled and I've never had any experience with bullying besides reading books in which it happened. I'm sorry you've been bullied, from what I know about it it can get really bad. :(
(December 22, 2018 - 10:55 pm)
The conflict was resolved about a week ago. It's fine.
(December 23, 2018 - 6:57 am)
Okay. :)
(December 23, 2018 - 10:58 am)
Here's the next chapter! I'm probably cutting it into three this time because the original is twelve pages long.
Chapter Six
Getting rid of Caleb was easy. All we had to do was tell him we were going to the library to study and he left. Once we were safely hidden behind the tall shelves of dusty books, I plopped down into a chair by one of the tall windows.
“I accidentally transmitted a memory to Caleb,” I said immediately.
“I guessed that something like that happened,” Arivas said, sitting down on the floor across from me.
“That’s not good at all. What if he figures it out or something?” Chloé said, sitting down in a chair next to me so we formed a circle.
“Then I’ll have two people’s missing memories to be responsible for,” I sighed.
“Don’t talk like that. I…” Chloé trailed off. Then she took a deep breath and continued. “I don’t want you to blame yourself after I… after I forget. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I knew. But I wouldn’t know. And then, years later, my memories will come back like you said it will and I’ll feel horrible.”
I looked at her sadly. “It’s so hard. How do you live with the knowledge that tomorrow… you won’t remember anything?”
“ just don’t think about it.” Chloé looked up at me. Her eyes were so sad, I couldn’t stand it.
For a moment there was silence. Then Chloé asked me something that caught me completely off guard and changed my whole life in a second.
“How do you live with the knowledge that one mistake could end someone’s life?” She wasn’t scared of asking. She wasn’t hesitating.
I was so shocked. Somehow I had never realized that what was going on in my head could be going on in other people’s heads at the same time. I thought that somehow it was a secret that I was really just a bomb waiting to go off. Chloé asking me how I lived with myself made me feel so sad and hopeless. My own best friend, saying that I could kill someone in a second.
Of course, she was right.
I swallowed. How do you answer a question like that?
“I don’t. I’m scared of myself, of every move I make.” I said finally, staring down into my lap. I felt tears building in my eyes, but I fought. Like I always did, I fought. I fought down my emotions, hid them for my friends’ safety.
Chloé reached out her hand and closed her fingers around mine, but I lurched back. Chloé hesitated, then lowered her hand back into her lap.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just… I don’t want to share any more memories. I don’t want to hurt anyone else.”
“I understand. But can you try to understand me?” She whispered.
I looked up at her, confused. “What?”
“I am your friend. One of your best friends. I love you. You are in pain. Great, horrible pain. And you won’t let me reach you. You say it’s to protect us, but really… I think you’re scared. You’re so scared of yourself you hide away so you don’t have to look and see and really feel.” Chloé’s voice was getting louder. “You shut us out and leave yourself to suffer! How can I help you if you won’t let me? I love you, Grey! Let me come closer and help you.”
She was standing now, shouting. She was angry, she was worried, her eyes were looking right into mine and I could see the pleading in their depths.
“You’re right.” I said, feeling myself start to shake. I couldn’t hold it back. “You’re right. But I can’t let you get closer. The closer you get, the more in danger you are! The closer you get, the sooner you’ll be gone!”
I began to sob, and the tears flowing from my eyes were black. I couldn’t speak through my tears anymore. I shook so hard I could hardly breathe.
I pulled my knees up and hid my face, rocking back and forth. I felt Arivas’s arms close around me, but somewhere deep inside me, something broke. The little, weak dam that had been keeping my emotions contained snapped, and everything flooded out.
Arivas was thrown from me, and I could hardly hear her scream. An orb of shadow formed around me, coming from me. Radiating from the stone above my heart. The whispers of ghosts grew to shouts and screams, the sounds of those who could never speak again, except to me. My tears floated up around me, and my hair rose like gravity meant nothing. I opened my eyes, still crying, and they weren’t warm gray, they were dark, dark black.
“Grey!” Chloé’s voice called out to me. “Stop! I’m sorry! Please, Grey!”
I wanted to. I didn’t want to, too. I wanted to let everything out, I wanted to let myself feel. But I couldn’t hurt my friends. I couldn’t. I was trapped in a circle of myself, everywhere I turned something else showing up and saying, but because of this stone, this stone above your heart, you cannot tell anyone, you cannot show anyone, or else they will be hurt. Hurt so badly they will never heal, never be the same.
And I couldn’t let myself keep going like this. My crying slowed. I could breathe again. The shadows evaporated, streaming back into the stone, into me. Still there. Not gone. Just waiting.
I wiped my eyes, and slowly raised my head, afraid of what I would see. Arivas was sprawled on the floor, pure terror showing on her pale face. Chloé was on the floor too, crouching like she was ducking to avoid being hit, her eyes squeezed shut.
I raised my eyes just a little farther, and they landed on the face of Caleb Peterson, standing frozen by one of the bookshelves.
I fainted.
(December 23, 2018 - 11:03 am)
Okay, it's no longer premature that I say this. I ship it. Bumping into your crush cliche. Being teased about your crush cliche. All signs are pointing to it. Grayleb. I ship it.
(December 23, 2018 - 8:25 pm)
Yesyesyesssss, same.
(December 23, 2018 - 11:21 pm)
Okay... this will probably sound really weird... But will someone please explain to me what shipping is?? All my friends keep making 'shipping' jokes and I have no idea what they're talking about!
I believe that "ship" is short for "relationship." Thus "shipping" two people means matching them in a relationship.
Admin
(December 24, 2018 - 9:10 am)
Ahhhh. That makes a lot of sense now. Thanks, Admin! :)
(December 24, 2018 - 6:27 pm)