William Trey, Water elemental
“You want me to create water?” I frown down at the empty bucket on my lap.
“Yeah. I mean, if you can control water, why not create it?”
“That seems like a leap of logic."I say flatly, then shrug. “Well, I guess I could try.” I say, then pause, looking down at my hands. “Uh… how?”
“Well, how do you do everything else?” Selena asks, leaning forward. “A mixture of instinct and feeling about.” I shrug. “I don't feel anything for creating water, though.”
“There's another thing, too. Look at this.” She hands her phone to me. On it is a news page labeled “Man of fire burning down Jasper National Park”. Scrolling down, I read through it.
“A man creating fire seemingly out of nothing?” I frown. “Is this what I think it is?”
“I think so.” Selena nods. “The comments are exploding full of questions about if this is one of the “elementals” everyone heard were selected. So, we know there's a fire and water elemental. That would imply earth and air, right?”
“Probably. Can't be too sure, though. Again, we are running on limited information.” I lean back, raising a hand over the bucket. I feel about inside myself, trying to figure out how to create water. Nothing comes to me. I frown. “yeah, I got nothing.” I set the bucket to the side. “have you seen anything about other elementals online?”
“I saw one thing about sightings of a man flying on a hang glider in ways a hang glider can not fly. Maybe wind or something? There was another about a man who was spotted in multiple countries within the same day.”
“No idea what element someone who can be in multiple places at once could be.” I mutter, frowning. “Is space an element? Or maybe light?”
“That's kinda esoteric…” she frowns, then shrugs. “Meh, what do we know? I'll keep looking while you keep practicing.”
“Good idea.”
…
Over the next few days, practice continued. This practice was more fine tuning and precise control, which I did with Selena at her place while she looked on her computer through all sorts of news. Every once and a while she’d find something of interest, only to check the date and realize the time was too early, before the time-stop, or as the internet has begun calling it, the “Still moment” in history.
“Maybe this is something.” She says after a while, holding up a picture of a man refracting light with his hand. The man appeared to be Scottish.
“Probably just a party trick.” I shrug. “There's something more important going on, though.”
“What's that?” She asks, turning away from the screen.
“The vote happens tomorrow, remember?” I point out, making her pause.
“Yeah, I almost forgot about that.” She frowns, leaning back in her chair. “Any idea what the voting will be for?”“Something to do with us.” I say with a frown. “Nothing good, I imagine.”“Who knows? Maybe it'll be a boost or something.” She offers, then sighs. “Who am I kidding, it's probably not.”
“Well, we are about to find out.”
…
For a second time, time stopped. New words rang in my mind as I stood, yet again, in the middle of the street, not too far away from the original sidewalk I froze in.
Voting has begun.
Please select an elemental. The most selected elemental shall have their [Name] revealed.
Fire
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Water
Earth
Air
Light
Dark
Space
Time
Sound
Electric
Life
Death
Creature
Null
Mind
Gravity
Pestillence
Technology
Creation
Destruction
The list spanned before my eyes, and I felt as if the blood would have drained from my face, if it weren't for time literally not flowing. I pause, thinking over my choice. Who do I want revealed most? Thinking it over, I end up selecting fire. Fire is the only elemental I've seen anything on this past while, so I suppose it would be best to select the elemental I'm most sure is close to me. And it seems the majority of the world agrees.
[Name] of [Fire] elemental has been selected. Now displaying [Name] of [Fire] elemental:
Tory Renold
Next vote begins in 30 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds.
Then time resumed. I gasped, then shook on my feet, then started to run.
…
“This has so many implications!” I groan into my hands. Me and Selena had both had the same thought, and immediately went for the forest. I've still got 20 minutes before class begins and I'll be damned if I don't use this time right.
“So we know all the different types of elementals, at least.” Selena offers, holding out the notebook. On it, each and every elemental we had remembered was written down. 20 different elements.
“The mind element freaks me out.” I comment, shuttering. “Imagining having someone else reaching around in your mind is freaky.”
“I know, right?” Selena sets my notebook down, then sighs. “Well, we have more information now. We can't be sure if the vote will be for the same thing next month. The “Name” thing looked kind of like a placeholder slot, didn't it?”
“Yeah, I noticed that.” I nod. “We'll see, I guess. Anything else you noticed?”
“Well, it's hard to tell.” She shrugs. “i'm not sure if a living person is doing this, or if it's some kind of god, or if it's some strange computer. It feels kinda computer-y, you know?”
“I see what you mean.” I nod. “All this feels a little computer generated. Do you think this has anything I could benefit from?”
“Nothing readily apparent, no.” She shakes her head, then sighs. “Meet after school?”
“Sounds good.” I nod. “Let's go.”“Yeah, we should get back to class. I told my teacher I'm going to the bathroom.”
“I told mine I might be late due to bowel problems.”
“You did not!”
…
“No mom, we aren't dating.” I roll my eyes as I sink into the couch beside Eva, who's eating a bowl of frozen blueberries and watching a video of young kids doing tricks on trampolines.
“Are you sure?” My mother grins, leaning against the kitchen counter and looking over to me. There's no wall separating the kitchen and living room, leading to situations like these where I'm stuck between annoying videos and my mom. Jamie Trey is a hardworking woman, and a person I looked up to my whole life. I've considered telling my mother and sister about my powers, but I don’t want to drag them into trouble. They don't deserve that, no matter how I spin it. Would mom want to know? Yes. Would she be mad, and a little sad, at me if she found out without me telling her? Probably. Would my sister want me to make the lemonade in her drinks float up into her mouth? Definitely.
Honestly, it just feels unsafe to tell them.
“Yes, I'm sure.” I roll my eyes. “we mostly just study together and play video games.”“Oh? But you don’t share any classes, so what are you studying together?” She asks, pausing when a timer goes off and turning to her stew she's been making all day.
“Studying together doesn't mean studying the same thing. We just study at the same place and keep each other company.” I say, somewhat exasperated. Me and Selena aren’t dating. I'm pretty sure I would be able to tell if she liked me.
“You're hopeless.” Ava mutters, then takes another scoop of blueberries.
“Tone it down with those, or you'll have no appetite for dinner.” Mom says, setting the stew to cool down a bit. “Dinner should be ready to eat in a few minutes, ok?”
“Sounds good.” Me and Ava say at the same time. I lean back and flip open my notebook.
“Ooh, what's that?” Ava asks, leaning forward, only for me to snap the book shut before she can read anything.
“Private stuff sisters can't see.” I say flatly. I then take her blueberries away and put them on the opposite counter. “Just watch your video.”
“Alright…” Ava squints her eyes suspiciously at me before turning away and shaking her head. “I'm hungry, let's eat!”
“In 5 minutes we will eat.” I say even more flatly, then push myself up. “I'll be right back, I need to put my stuff away.” I lift my bag up and tuck my notebook in it, then leave the room. I love having a family, but God, why couldn't mom have stopped at 1? (Not actually, I love my sister(sometimes))
