William Trey, Water Elemental

  “Yeah, I smell it.” I say with a nod after a moment. “Selena?”

  “No, I don't smell anything.” She says, sniffing at the air with a frown. “Does anyone else look like they smell smoke?” I turn my head about, but nobody seems to be reacting to the smell. Me and Lily exchange a glance. I shrug.

  “Not much we can do but keep half our minds on it.”

  “Should I tell someone I smell it?” Lily asks, and after a second's consideration, I nod.

  “Yeah, go tell a teacher to be on the lookout just in case. Then let's go do some jello shots and head to the computer room. I hear they have some games in there.”

  “Alright.” She nods, then shuffles through the crowd to the nearest authority figure.

  …

  “It's the best quiz app, no question.” I say, gesturing to the computor.

  “No way, Kahoot is way better.” Selena argues, shaking her head.

  “Um… does it matter?” Lily asks nervously. “I like them both.”

  “No, not really.” I say, sighing.

  “Hah! So I win!” Selena says, rising out of her chair and jabbing a finger at me.

  “No, I'm just withdrawing.” I shake my head. “Lily, you choose?”

  “What? Me? Why're you bringing me into this?” Lily practically whines as she takes a moment to consider. The betrayal both me and Selena feel when she chooses gimkit is immense.

  …

  “Maybe doing games like this while drunk was a bad idea.” I mutter, lying in a puddle on the floor.

  “Nah, it was great.” Selena says groggily, lying beside me. Lillian, the only one to not have 5 jello shots as she agreed to be out driver home, looks down at us disapprovingly.

  “You're better than this.” She admonishes flatly. I barely hear her from the blissful grogginess of drink.

  “WEEEEeeeeeeee…” I mumble out, and Selena laughs. Me and Selena sit up, and I rub my eyes. My body is anti-drink, I've learned. It took twice as much alcohol to get equally hammered as Selena, which is disappointing but understandable. I'm all wishy washy inside. Selena leans against me, one arm draped around my waist.

  “I wanna go home.” She whispers into my ear, then collapses over me. I chuckle mindlessly and lie back down too, the water on the ground simply flowing away down the drain in the next room over. Despite all my other senses being dulled, my water sense isn't, so it's easy-ish.

  Lily seemed to spend a bit just considering what to do with us as we mumbled and eventually got up, stumbling about like idiots. As time went on I started sobering up, and by sobering up I mean sobering fast. Within 20 minutes I found myself able to think in full sentences again.

  I groan. “Alcohol is a bitch.” I mutter to myself, rubbing my forehead with the back of my hand, holding Selena up with one arm while she drools on me.

  “I've never drank before.” Lily says sheepishly, helping walk Selena with me.

  “I wanna see the horsies.” Selena mutters, pointing to a person dressed up as a horse.

  “Time to go?” I suggest, and Lily nods.

  “This party's been pretty fun though. I enjoyed it.” Lily smiles to herself as we waddle out, selena in tow.

  “That was my first time getting drunk, and the buzz is already leaving me.” I say as we reach the car. Selena passes out in the back seat immediately, leaving me to try to shimmy her into a seatbelt in a position that won't break her neck if we come to a sudden stop.

  “I've heard hangovers suck, but you don't seem to be experiencing a bad one at least, despite all the jello shots you got. How many did you have?”

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  “35.” I admit after a moment counting. Lily chokes on her own spit at that.

  “Thirty-FIVE? Were you trying to put your liver in a coma?” She shakes her head, then chuckles. “I only had the ones those coupons bought me. I'm pretty sure it’s gone already.”

  “Seems you have a rock hard immune system.” I joke as she starts the car. I run a hand along the fake hilt of my not-so-fake sword, glancing back at Selena as we start to drive. I lean back into my seat with a sigh.

  “Do you think I should tell my mom?” I ask Lily after a moment.

  “Tell your mom about what?” Lily asks.

  “About my… you know, splishy splashy?” I wave a hand listlessly side to side, water from a forgotten water bottle moving from the side door up to my hand to form a ball.

  “You're considering telling your mom about your powers?” Lily asks. Her eyes go slightly unfocused as she thinks to herself. She stops at a red light. “I don't know.” She says eventually. “I guess I get why you'd ask me, though. We both have powers. But I don't have parents.” She sighs. “But I think… I don't know what I think.”

  “Have you told anyone about your powers?” I ask her. She freezes up for a moment, then shakes her head nervously.

  “N-no… not a soul.” She says with what I interpret to be embarrassment, or maybe something else, in her voice. The light turns green. “Not except you two. It's ironic that two of us met so quickly after getting our powers. It's been, what, two months?”

  “Yeah, just over that.” I say with a nod, then pause. “That smoke smell earlier hasn't left.” I sniff the air. No, it's gotten even stronger. As I sniff the air it smells strongly of ash and smoke and females, though it's mostly smothered by the powerful earthy smell of Lily.

  “Yeah, I smell it too, though with us sitting beside each other it's harder to smell. But I think it's stronger, right?” Lily asks. Then she pauses. “Us… smell…” We're nearly at my house now, and she pulls over on the side of the road.

  “Why'd you stop?” I ask, confused.

  “Could it be…” Lily frowns. “You know what I'm thinking… right?” I pause, thinking things over. Then a realization hits me.

  “No.” I mutter. “The fire elemental? You think he's nearby?”

  “I… I think so.” she nods. I lean forward in my chair. I glance back to see Selena still asleep in the back seat.

  “I should go check.” I say after a moment's thought. “My mom is likely asleep since she had a day job today. My sister is on a sleepover. they won’t notice me gone. But Selena's mom will notice you two being gone.”

  “I'm not just going to leave you to fight Tory alone, if that's what he plans to do.” She says sternly, a forcefulness in her gaze she hadn't exhibited before now.

  “Then bring Selena back, then come back for me. But leave my car at my house.”

  “How am I supposed to get to you without the car?” She asks, confused. I point down at the earth below the car.

  “Swim.”

  …

  Leaping from building to building is a lot harder than the movies make it out to be. But with my practice using water pressure inside my own body to enhance my own movements, I can jump at world record heights and distances without too much effort. At first I'd expected my body to not like me using my powers to manipulate it in such a way, but I've come to find it's shockingly accepting of my little tweaks. I'm a hydraulic powered superhuman and I'm able to move across the rooftops with ease.

  I make my way to the northwest end of town, where I can smell the smoke and ash. I can't be 100% sure it's the fire elemental. After all, me and Lily didn’t sense each other from miles away. Perhaps it's just paranoia, but I have to be sure. As I move I eventually reach the end of the residential areas and close to the streets. I frown. Someone on the roads could see my face, or a road camera could catch me, though they don't constantly record, only recording short clips at a time when certain conditions are met. Either way, I need to cover my face.

  I pause as I look down at myself. I'm wearing a knight costume. The outfit mostly obscures my build and covers my head, save for my eyes. Honestly, this might be enough of a disguise, although a goofy one. Lucky it happened today, I guess. Or maybe unlucky. This interaction might taint a perfectly good day with my friends. I hope not. I've had a pretty good track record of halloweens thus far.

  Eventually I reach the trees and start moving along the ground using them as cover. Their branches are too thin for me to use them to jump on.

  As I move the smell becomes stronger, and even my water sense starts to pick up the feeling. I feel that same instinctual repulsion and disgust to the feeling as I did when I first met Lily. That feeling never left, but it's been ignorable. Despite only knowing her a little while, I'd like to consider her a friend. I don't fully trust her, not to the level I trust Selena at least, but we never fought or anything. She was even willing to go with me to fight the fire elemental, if it comes to a fight.

  I think it'll come to a fight. I've seen on television what he did to both Jasper and Banff, as well as their signature parks. Those are my favorite places in this damned country! Or, were my favorite places, I guess. Eventually the burning had just stopped, but that never for a second made me think he hadn't stopped moving. Or, maybe for a second, but… you get my point.

  I come to a halt as the heat becomes overwhelming. I'm right beside the road, hidden in the trees. In my water sense I can see two people, even before my eyes register them. One is a tall woman with black hair done into a bun, light streaks of grey hair from lack of dying present within. her eyes are purple, which I've only seen in one or two people. She doesn't look like she's there willingly, at least by her expression. Probably some sort of hostage to prevent being bombed?

  The second was a tall man, around equal in height to me, and perhaps a decade older. Maybe 27 or 28. He had short, messy black hair and a chiseled frame, like a firefighter, with tanned skin and black eyes. The woman wore a hoodie, but I could see a uniform underneath, of origins unclear to me due to the lack of badges or tags. The man, Tory Renold by the energy I could feel, wore a black t-shirt and pants, slightly stained by ash but otherwise unaffected by fire visibly.

  For a while I just watch, considering how I should go about this. What should I do now? walk up to him? Attack him from behind? However, I had forgot one crucial fact. I could sense other elementals. Lily could sense other elementals. So why wouldn't he be able to? The answer? He could. And he did.

  “Now this… is interesting.” He says, amused, as slowly he turned his head into the forest and locked eyes with me.