1 Start

"Got you." He said, gripping her by the throat. Her whimpers and painful gasps are covered by the furnace burning hot next to them. "Where are they now?"

She tried to wiggle free, but her small frame was too weak, and her mind began slipping and her vision blurring. She felt sick; bile building up in her throat. It was too fast, she couldn't realize she was dying.

Amora woke with a jolt, now sitting upward in her seat.

"That dream again…" She murmured to herself.

She peered around, she was still in her seat, the bus still moving steadily.

"You okay?" Her friend, Shirley asked.

Shirley was Amora's only dependable friend at school, it's not that nobody spoke to Amora, it's just that people only did when they needed something. She was only needed when she was useful.

Shirley seemed to be the only person who cared for Amora, she was relaxing right next to Amora as Amora slept.

"Yeah, I just had a strange dream," Amora replied.

"Yeah, I didn't want to wake you. I mean you sleep just like you did in 1st grade. 11th grade and we are still going on field trips, they tell us to act like adults, yet take us to a museum, right… right. Well, what was it about?" She asked, flipping her blonde ponytail out of her face.

"Um… I can't recall… just that I've had it many times before." Amora said, not wanting Shirley to worry.

She glanced out the window and saw a storm cloud billowing in fast in the distance. She grinned a bit, knowing that when it rained, everything would look prettier.

Slumping down into the seat, she could see Andrew peering down at her from the seat in front of her. His brown hair was medium-length and seemed spikey. Likewise, his brown eyes peered into her.

"Didn't you say you were getting some kind of surgery for… that?" He asked Amora.

Amora quickly felt self-conscious and looked down at her arm, she assumed her face become bright red.

Darkness. Her arm was covered in it. It felt like human skin but was a mark left by Darkness, a man made out of dark matter. He left it on her when he had supposedly saved her from something. It was solely on her right arm up to her elbow.

"Yeah, I will." Amora always wanted to remove it, even begging Darkness to do so, as she got heavily bullied for it, but Darkness refused, stating it was a way for him to pursue her in the event of an emergency.

He assured her that since he was her brother it only made sense to protect her. She thought of Darkness as such because since she was born, he had taken care of her. He cooked for her and let her go to school, but he always managed to be someone else when he brought her to school because he couldn't be seen "as himself."

Amora didn't understand why he hid the fact he was a being of dark matter in a world of Elementals but left the matter alone.

***

Amora zoned back into what was happening.

Shirley was yelling at Andrew for what he said and Andrew was apologizing to Amora profusely.

"You dirty asshat! Pay attention to what you say!"

Andrew put his head down and Amora stopped Shirley mid-speech, covering her mouth because nothing else would quell Shirley's wrath.

"It's fine. He didn't mean to." Amora looked out the window silently, feeling a little sick.

Students on the bus began to gasp as the sky began whirling and the bus began shaking, the lights flickering.

As the shaking continued, everyone gripped tightly to their seats, with one boy in the back standing up and looking at Amora directly. She turned to look at him, feeling a strange vibe from him. His purple eyes seemed to glow, and he smiled.

Lightning struck the side of the bus and students screamed.

A tornado whipped down and sped towards the bus, forming in a matter of seconds, the screams continuing as the bus shook profusely and many people collapsed, the bus swerved off the road and quickly lifted through the air.

It spun for a moment, and Amora tried to cling to her seat as the movements desperately tried to pull her out of her seat. It didn't help that small objects were flying through her open window.

As she held on, a glowing blue butterfly floated delicately through the window, ignoring the high winds and movement of the bus. It landed on Amora's head, clinging lightly to her hair, and her fear seemed to slightly vanish for a moment, that was until the bus pointed straight toward the ground mid-air, and then was flung straight into it.

***

Amora gasped in pain as she woke up, attempting to stand only to drop back down and land hard on her side.

"Fuck!" She yelped in pain, then attempted to squirm towards the bus, which lay dormant on its side.

She grasped onto the exhaust pipe of the bus, which was now bent at an awkward angle, and pulled herself up, looking inside and expecting the worst, her dead classmates or teachers, but upon further examination, nobody was within, there wasn't even any blood.

"How is there nobody inside? Or around? Did they escape and leave me? Did they forget me? Even Shirley?" Amora pushed the thoughts that plagued her away and pulled herself up, she now could see all the cuts all over her body.

She felt a sharp pain in her leg and cried out loudly. She almost collapsed in pain, catching herself on the bus once more.

She limped her way around the bus, using its bottom side as a railing.

She could see someone's leg sticking out from in front of the bus.

"Hello? Hey! Are you okay?" She asked as her heart continued to sink. She followed the leg to the other side of the bus and could see Andrew lying down, covered in blood, pierced by a large metal pipe from the underside of the bus.

She rushed to his side and shook him.

"Andrew? Andrew!? Are you alright!?" She screamed, warm tears falling from her eyes.

He looked up at her and smiled weakly, he then winced in pain.

Her eyes widened, his shirt was ripped and he had very deep cuts.

"Hey… nice to—see you're worried for me." He said, blood dripping from his nose. "Shut up! We need to get you help!" She yelled, continuing to cry.

"I'm an elemental, okay? I can heal, but I need your help. You see the metal pipe going through my stomach? Yeah—we need that out of me for my wound to seal." He seemed calmer than he should have been.

Amora didn't know Andrew was an Elemental, she started wondering about all of the people she knew, and which of them could be Elementals without her knowing, However, she managed to pull her thoughts back to the situation.

She knew she had to pull him off the pipe, or the pipe out of him, but she felt very afraid as she slightly flipped him on his other side.

She could see the pipe had rust on it but, not on the side he was impaled with, luckily, but it was still a nasty wound regardless.

She closed her eyes and started pulling on the pipe and him in opposite directions, he grunted in pain and she stopped pulling to ask:

"Are you okay?! I'm so sorry!"

He reassured her, seemingly caring more for her than himself.

Her stomach ached from fear and panic. She began to look for another way to help him since what she was doing now wasn't working. She began pushing his back to get him off of the pipe.

***

She pushed and pulled until the pipe fell out of him, dripping blood from any crevices in the pipe.

Andrew lay on the ground for a moment before trying to stand, yet he fell right away.

Amora grabbed his hand and helped him up, allowing him to use her shoulder to help him walk out of the road.

Once in the grass, the two fall to the ground and lie there, Andrew was breathing heavily, and Amora watched the hole in his stomach slowly close up. He laughed and then said, "You know, Amora, I really like you." Followed by a small chuckle.

Amora stared at him in awe, and then asked, "This is a joke right? First off, now is not the time, and secondly, you only ever seem to follow Shirley around—I thought that you liked her!" Amora still didn't quite believe what he had just said.

"I mean you just escaped death and you confess something like that? Are you out of it or something?"

There was an awkward silence between the two before Andrew spoke up. "I only followed Shirley around to learn more about you. Not only that, but she's too bossy, you're not only pretty but very shy, it's honestly cute." Amora sat up, her face bright red.

"Stop that! This isn't funny."

"And I'm not joking."

The two sat there silently before he leaned forward and hugged her tightly.

"I wish you could believe me. I know it's hard to trust when you haven't had the best past, but… once we get home… and go back to normal, I'd love to go on a date with you. Is that okay?"

Amora stayed silent. She'd only ever had one boyfriend, and he didn't last long, he never treated her like this, Andrew was making her feel so good despite the circumstances.

"You don't have to answer right now, but eventually, I would love that date if you don't mind."

Amora felt like crying, all of what happened today was beginning to hit her. Shirley was missing, as was her entire class, and someone she had slight feelings for actually confessed to her first.

"I know today was… a lot, but I want to help you. I promise that. I wouldn't hurt you. Let's find the others. They could be hurt like I was. Okay?" Andrew asked, not letting go of her.

"I—want to find Shirley," Amora said, no longer crying, slowly pulling away from Andrew.

He smiled at her and she noticed he had fully healed. The two stood up, and Andrew began walking, with Amora following after him, the two followed the street, seeing some cities in the far distance.

"Amora. Are you an Elemental?"

"Sadly… no. I've seen them on TV all my life. I was so obsessed with them to the point where every day I would hold out my hands waiting for something to happen but—it never did."

She stayed silent for a moment before continuing, "It's okay though. I'll be fine without them."

Andrew smiles at her reassuringly and replies, "It's not that cool actually, you have to be careful with some elements because they could do immense damage to the area. Especially if you work at a job with Fire Elementals."

Amora suddenly became uninterested in what he had to say, none of it mattered and it was just making her view of Elements and Elementals boring.

She zoned out for a bit until suddenly everything was quiet.

"Are you listening?" Andrew asked, faking an angry expression.

"Oh, uh—yeah," Amora answered awkwardly, looking at Andrew and then to the ground.

Andrew shook his head and started laughing. Amora followed him as he walked into a forest, she never once questioned why they didn't just stick to the road, she only could think about how quiet it was now.