Nell hadn''t stopped crying during the last half hour we had been sitting there and the only time that the cops had come over was for contact information for her dad. I was getting sick of waiting. I had to know what was going on.


    “Come on,” I said to Nell. “We''re going to see if they found anything.”


    I shot a quick glance at Sam who nodded his encouragement.


    We went outside and over to where a cop was standing, taking notes.


    “Have you guys found out anything yet?” I asked.


    He looked at me with a stern expression, as if he was wondering why I had the nerve to inquire about police business. “Why do you want to know?”


    I gestured to the body bag they were wheeling out then to Nell. “She was her mother,” I said flatly.


    His face softened. “Oh, I''m sorry,” he said without a hint of sympathy. “No, we haven''t found anything out yet, but when we do, someone will let you know.”


    With that, he turned back to the scene and resumed his notetaking. We wouldn''t get any more information out of him, so I took Nell back to my house.


    I told Sam of our failure, and we resumed our silent wait. Nell had even stopped crying, but I could see her trembling. I took her in my arms and held her.


    My dad showed up sometime later while I was making us something to eat. “What’s going on next door?” he asked.


    I quietly explained to him what had happened.


    His face fell and he stumbled, catching himself against the kitchen counter before reinforcing his composure.


    That’s the first time in a long time I’ve seen him show any emotion like that, I thought as I finished the sandwiches.


    He went into the living room, and I heard him expressing his sympathies to Nell. I brought in the food and served Sam and Nell, who just set it aside.


    Just then there was a knock at the door. “I''ll get it,” I said.


    “You wanted to know when we found something?” a cop asked when I opened it.


    “Yeah,” I answered, then louder said, “Nell, it''s about your mom!”


    There was a sudden rush of footsteps as everyone crowded around me. The cop looked surprised at the group of people, but he took it in stride. I was grateful that it wasn''t the same cop we had spoken to earlier. I was also shocked he had complied with my request and sent someone.


    He held up an evidence bag. Inside was a butcher knife that was covered in blood. “I’m not really supposed to be doing this, but we believe this to be the murder weapon.”


    With that, he turned and left while I closed the door.


    “Well, that''s some good news,” my dad said, looking at his watch. “I have to get back to work. I''ll be home later.”


    I briefly wondered why he had even come home since he didn’t do anything.


    Once my dad was gone, Nell spoke up. “I hope they don''t find anything on that knife.”


    I did a double take.


    “What? Why?” Sam asked.


    Nell started crying again. “Be-because when I-I saw it. . .I threw it under the co-couch.” She broke down into loud sobs and I took her into my arms again.


    Sam glared at me. “How did you let that happen?”


    “Hey,” I said defensively. “I knew nothing about it.”


    “It was wh-when you were on the ph-phone,” Nell explained. “I''m so sorry. I have no idea wh-why I did it. I guess I th-thought that if I got ri-rid of it my mom would come back.”


    “Oh man, Nell,” Sam moaned. “You could get into big trouble.”


    “I know!” she bawled. “It wa-was stupid!”


    “It''s okay,” I reassured her. “If anything happens Sam and I will help you. Right, Sam?”


    “Yeah,” he agreed. “Everything will be fine. You''ll see.”


    How he intended to keep that promise, I had no idea.


    Nell had been staying with us the past few days while the cops looked through her house. Her dad had wanted her to go to a hotel with him, but she didn''t want to, so my dad had allowed her to stay with us. Sam had been coming over every day since it happened, and due to the events of the past few days, none of us had thought of the explosion or of the people at the crater who had chased us.


    We were all sitting in the living room talking when there was a knock at the door. I got up to answer it, finding a cop on the other side.


    “Is your friend here?” he asked gruffly. “I have some questions about her mom''s murder.”


    How did they know she would be here? I wondered as I let him in and led him to the living room.


    I sat next to Nell while he started in with his questions. They were all the same as the ones the first cop had asked me, and Nell answered them the way I had the first day. It was as if he was trying to find a flaw in our story. I was getting angry. How could he not believe us? I thought. It’s as if—


    He asked the one question we had all been dreading since Nell had made her revelation. “One last question. Why were your fingerprints on the murder weapon?”


    Before she could answer, Sam broke in, “What makes you think they were hers?”


    “Because we took samples from her room to rule her out as a suspect, like we did her father, but her prints were on the knife,” he answered without looking at him. “Now, I''ll ask again. Why were they on the knife?”


    “Because I threw it under the couch when I saw it. I didn''t know what I was doing,” she answered matter of factly.


    “I don''t believe you. You''re under arrest.” He pulled his cuffs out.


    I was livid. How dare he accuse Nell of this and try to arrest her? But what could I do? My anger was building up and had nowhere to go. Except it did. As the cop moved to cuff Nell, I felt a surge of hot energy flow down my arms and into my hands. My arms tingled as if they had fallen asleep. The tingling traveled down to my fingers, causing them to vibrate like a low-level electric current was running through me.


    My fingers sparked, then thin white bolts launched from them striking the cop in the chest. He flew across the room, hit a wall, and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.


    We all looked from my hands to the cop and back again. None of us could speak and my hands weren’t doing anything anymore. I looked at Nell and Sam. Both had stunned looks on their faces.


    “What. . .just happened?” Sam asked slowly.


    “I have no idea,” I replied, staring at my hands.


    “We should probably run before he wakes up and tries to take us all in,” Nell suggested.


    We ran out of my house and down the beach, not even knowing where we were going. I guess our brains knew what to do since before I knew it, we were scrambling over the rocks, ending in the last chamber of the cave Nell and I had used days earlier to hide from the other people who had been after us, panting. I was getting tired of being chased so frequently.


    Nell and Sam tried to figure out what was going on.


    “What was that?” Nell asked me.


    I stared at my hands. “I don''t know but I think it was electricity. It certainly felt like it.”


    “This is insane,” Sam muttered while looking around. “Electricity shooting from your hands, the explosion, and a torch on a cave wall? What the fudge nuggets is going on here?”


    Nell and I shrugged. “Who knows?” she replied.


    “All I know is that nothing like this happened until we found these pendants,” I said.


    There was a rumble in the back of my mind, and I knew that the cloud was warning me about something. But since it was just a damn cloud how could I know what it was referring to? Sometimes I wished it could just speak and tell what the frack was going to happen. That would be so much better.


    “Good point,” Sam said. “But why us? How did we get involved in this? And, for that matter, what the fudge even is this?”


    I stood up. “We can''t stay hiding from the cops forever, I say we try to figure out what’s going on, or at least as much as we can, before they find us.”


    “Where do we look?” Nell asked as she studied the back wall in the flickering light.


    I thought about it. “Where this all started. Back at the crater. There may not be a building there anymore, but there has to be something.”


    “And what about the people who were there?” Nell asked as if trying to get me to come up with all the answers.


    “I''ll deal with them,” I replied. “I can apparently shoot electricity, remember?”


    Nell and Sam agreed. We got to the mouth of the cave, and I checked to make sure the coast was clear. When I saw no one lurking around, we set off for the crater.


    It seemed someone had cleaned up the area because there was no debris or green stuff anywhere. We stayed quiet in case we weren''t alone, but we arrived at the crater with no trouble. All that remained was the huge trailer from before. We looked around and saw no one.


    “Why do you think they left that?” Nell asked.


    The answer quickly became clear when the door was tumultuously thrown open and a man in a lab coat headed toward us yelling, “I knew you''d be back if I waited!”


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    “Here we go again,” I muttered as we turned and ran full speed back toward the beach.


    “Just use your electricity!” Sam called from behind me.


    I stopped and let my friends pass me then turned to face our pursuer. “Keep going,” I told them.


    They nodded and kept running.


    I wasn''t sure how to use my new ability, so I improvised. I made a fist and waited for that guy to come out of the brush. My wait was shorter than I expected. Before he could speak, I opened my fist and did an uppercut, but nothing happened.


    “Oops,” I said and took off again.


    Fortunately, he wasn’t as adept as me at running through the jungle. I could hear him stumbling and I think he even tripped once. Though, to be fair, I was barely faring better. I didn’t fall, but my feet kept getting caught in hidden vines and roots. Branches whipped me in the face and arms, though my arms remained free from scratches.


    “Come back here,” he yelled. “I need to test you!”


    I caught up to my friends as they were climbing over the rocks.


    “What happened?” Nell asked as we dropped down to the other side.


    “It didn''t work, and he''s right on my tail. Let''s split up and double back on him. We''ll meet back here.”


    They nodded, and we split up, each going in a different direction.


    I continued toward the city, and I heard a splash behind me, from someone diving into the ocean, but I didn''t dare look back to see who it was. I hoped whoever it was would be okay. As for me, I had to think about where I was going. I didn’t want to go too far from them, so I turned back into the jungle just before I got to the houses. I flung myself into a bush which I found out had thorns. They didn’t affect me.


    *    *    *


    Sam didn''t know what had possessed him to do it, but dove into the ocean and swam a good distance away from the shore before his pursuer arrived at where he had dove in.


    “Come back here!” he yelled.


    Sam chanced a glance back and saw the man was getting closer. Without thinking, he dove under the surface. He panicked when he realized that he didn''t take a breath before diving. Instinctively, he inhaled and was in complete astonishment when he discovered that he only took in air. He filed this information away for later so he could concentrate on getting as far away from the man as possible.


    Being a native Hawaiian with a lifetime of swimming under his belt, he had no trouble getting away.


    Sam heard him splashing after him, but he seemed to stop when he got too far to walk. Miraculously, Sam was able to hear him clearly though the water.


    “What the hell? He’s breathing underwater!” He turned away, muttering to himself. “No one told me about this. I have to do more research. If only I could access that video, but no one granted me clearance.”


    From his vantage point, Sam watched the man head back to shore and toward the trailer, his mutterings growing fainter until he felt safe enough to poke his head out of the water. He breathed a sigh of relief before slowly swimming to shore.


    *    *    *


    Nell heard the scientist splashing after Sam and ducked behind a bush. She peeked through the leaves to watch the events on the beach unfold, but her attention was soon diverted by a dark shadow rising off the ground. Her mind told her there was something familiar about it, something sinister, but she couldn''t remember. It molded into the ground, blending into the others.


    She turned her attention back to the beach, noticing the shadow again when it followed the scientist away. When they were gone, she came out of hiding, just as Sam came out of the ocean, raving about his newly discovered talent.


    “Did you see that?” he asked excitedly.


    “You mean you breathing underwater?” she asked mildly.


    “Yeah! This is like Will''s electricity! This is so AWESOME!” he exclaimed.


    “Yeah, it is,” she agreed flatly. “I hate to burst your bubble, Sammy, but we need to find Will.”


    “Did you call me?” Will asked, suddenly appearing from the trees.


    *    *    *


    “Will, you missed it! I can breathe underwater!” Sam told me the instant I broke through the brush.


    “Cool, Sam. I know it''s a big deal, but we need to take it down a notch here. We need to think.”


    “About what?” he demanded.


    “About our next step. We know we can''t go back to the crater. The cops are hunting Nell, and probably us, too. And we have no way of proving her innocence or getting our questions answered.”


    I could tell by the look on Sam''s crestfallen face that he knew I was right, but he didn''t want to admit it. He pursed his lips and slumped his shoulders. I hated breaking his excitement.


    “So, what do we do?” Nell asked. “The crater was a bust. We can’t go back there.”


    “See if that cop is gone,” Sam suggested.


    I nodded. “Right. I can’t have my dad come home to an unconscious cop in the living room.”


    “Okay,” Nell agreed, “but what if he arrests us?”


    “I don''t know,” I admitted.


    We went back to my house and saw that the cop was gone. I checked out front to make sure his car was gone, and it was. I relayed this information to my friends.


    “At least he''s totally gone,” Sam said.


    “Yeah, but he''s probably out looking for us,” Nell argued.


    “Probably, but we have a hiding place,” I countered.


    “True,” she agreed.


    “Then why didn''t we use it while that guy was chasing us?” Sam asked.


    “Because then we would''ve been trapped in the dark not knowing where he was,” I answered. “Duh, Sam. Let''s use your brain for a minute here.”


    “Speaking of the cave,” Nell quipped, “I saw some carvings on that back wall where the torch is. Want to see?”


    I thought about it. We were momentarily in the clear. There were no immediate signs of our pursuers. I couldn’t think of anything else that could stop us. I nodded. “Yeah, let''s go.”


    We left my house and a short time later we were standing in front of the back wall of the cave, the torch''s light flickering around us. I ran my fingers over the carvings.


    “Doesn''t that thing ever go out?” Sam wondered.


    “Beats me,” Nell answered.


    “What do these mean?” I murmured, looking at three pairs of letters set under three smooth grooves.


    “What does what mean?” Sam asked, coming up beside me.


    I pointed to the letters under the notches. “These. L-R, L-Y, M-B.”


    “Why are they even here?” Nell asked


    I shrugged. “I have no idea. But they have to mean something or else they wouldn’t be here.”


    We all stared at the wall, but it was Nell who spoke up.


    “I have an idea. Remember those notes we found? The ones with our backward names?”


    “Yeah,” Sam answered. “What about them?”


    “Just stay with me here, but what if the L, L, and M are for Llen, Lliw, and Mas?”


    Realization hit me like an anvil. Duh, Will. Let’s use your brain for a minute here.


    Sam picked up on her train of thought. “So, the R, Y, and B are. . .”


    Nell stole the rest of his sentence. “Our pendants."


    “So, what about the grooves, little miss know-it-all?” Sam asked.


    “Duh, Sam. We put our pendants in them.”


    I shrugged. “Let''s see what happens. Give me your pendants.”


    I collected them and set them in their proper places. At first, nothing happened. Then the flame on the torch flared red, faded to yellow, and darkened to blue.


    “That’s all it does? How anticlimactic,” Sam said.


    As if to prove a point to Sam, the cave started to shake, knocking the dust and small rocks down all around us.


    “Holy chizz!” Nell said.


    “A cave-in? Seriously?” Sam exclaimed.


    The quaking intensified. I frantically looked around for something to grab on to but all I saw were the torch and my friends. Neither would help.


    “Let’s get out of here!” I yelled over the noise.


    Nell and Sam tried their best to head to the tunnel as I moved behind them. We struggled to remain standing as we tried to run for it. We fell hard to the ground, but I felt nothing. All around us, a loud groaning filled the air.


    We turned our attention to the back wall that was now slowly opening. The shaking came to a stop, but we were too busy staring at the vibrating widening gap to notice.


    On the other side of the opening was a long dark passage The torchlight barely illuminated the area we were in, so we couldn''t see much of anything beyond the range of our vision.


    Nell was the first to speak. “What the chizz. . .?”


    “I. . .don’t know,” I answered.


    “Magic?” Sam offered.


    Neither Nell nor I disagreed with him. We didn''t have any better theories.


    Once we were over the initial shock, we stood up, gathered our pendants, and hesitantly made our way down the new tunnel, heading toward an unknown destination. The shock may have worn off, but my apprehension was building.


    “What''s going on here?” Nell asked.


    “Something creepy and crazy,” Sam said.


    I remained silent. We didn''t have any answers, just more questions. The cloud made itself known again, this time feeling like a thunderstorm was raging in my mind.


    What have we gotten ourselves into?


    After walking some distance in the dark, the tunnel opened up to an empty, sun-drenched beach. I looked around, wondering what just happened.


    “Did we just cross the island?” Sam asked.


    “I don’t think so,” Nell answered. “We didn’t walk that far.” She glanced around. “At least, I don’t think we did.”


    “Something really weird is going on here,” I muttered. I wouldn’t have had problems like this in California. I sighed.


    Slowly, we left the cave, making our way up the beach. We hadn''t gone far from the cave before the ground started shaking under our feet.


    “Seriously? More shaking?” Sam yelled as we tumbled to the ground.


    Over the rumbling, I heard something approaching. We turned, sitting and watching with wide eyes as a large sand cloud rapidly drew closer. There was no chance of outrunning whatever was headed our way and nowhere to hide, so we waited.


    The cloud stopped before us, finally settling down, revealing a large, unbelievable creature.


    I stared in awe, trying to take it all in. It was golden and as huge as an elephant, with the body of one. Large eagle wings protruded from its back, currently in the resting position. Falcon’s legs protruded from the beast, complete with talons. The back of the creature carried a huge, scaly alligator''s tail. But it was the head that was the most impressive. Like the body, it was the golden head of a male lion, complete with an amazing mane. It roared thunderously to add to its terrifying presence.


    “What is this thing?” Sam whispered.


    “Beats me,” I replied.


    The creature panted from the exertion of its run but still looked ready to attack. It stared, as if it determining who it would eat first. Slowly, we all stood, trying not to make any sudden movements. The creature roared again.


    I watched Nell side=eyed as she stood trembling in place, staring up at the beast. Her arms turned a light shade of red, rapidly growing darker. Nell screamed and clutched her hand as she fell to her knees. The creature opened its mouth to roar again, sending spittle through the air. I had just shielded my face from the spray when Nell’s arms exploded into a bright orange flame. When the monster roared for the third time, the fire shot from her hands down the thing''s throat, making it choke.


    To stop this assault, the being turned quickly, hitting all of us with its tail, knocking us in different directions. Sam was thrown into the ocean, landing with a loud splash; I was launched into the air, but didn''t come back down; and Nell was sent flying further down the beach, landing on her left side.


    She cried out in pain, shaking me from my daze. The monster took off after her at full speed, beating its massive wings to create a dust cloud. I oriented myself and flew off after it, wondering where Sam was.


    I glanced around seeing him come out of the ocean, chasing the dust cloud. I didn''t know what he could do to stop it but hoped something would come to him. As he ran, he looked as if his movements were becoming more fluid, like he was gliding over the sand. Despite the distance and flying sand I could see his arms turning dark blue. He was focused on the dust cloud ahead of us. He dove for the cloud, presumably for the thing’s tail.


    When he reached out to catch it, water blasted from his hands, hitting the cloud. Sam slowed to a stop, staring at his hands. I would have stopped with him, but Nell was still in danger. I flew over him, picking up speed to catch up to the beast.


    I didn’t even feel like myself as I did this. It was as if something else had taken over and was pushing me.


    “Come on, guys!” Nell screamed as she tried to pull herself away with her right arm but soon gave up.


    Sam started running again as soon as I passed over him, quickly closing the gap to cloud. I flew over it, shooting electricity, but it had no effect. Maybe the sand was creating too much of a grounding shield?


    Sam shot his water to dampen the dust cloud to fully reveal the creature. Once the cloud was gone, he focused his efforts on shooting water at the creature.


    I snarled, rage flooding my body. Neither Sam''s water nor my electricity had any effect, and the creature was getting closer to Nell. This thing had to die. No, not just die, but be completely wiped from existence. There was no way it would touch her again.


    My pendant began to glow brightly; so bright I had to squint to lessen the yellow light. A surge of power erupted from my hands, sending a huge burst of electricity, the white light overtaking the yellow. I closed my eyes, opening them again only when the world went silent. The thing had been in mid jump when I hit it. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as we watched. The animal’s wings froze, outstretched, and its talons were pointed straight down, but it wasn''t moving. Then it began to fall back toward the beach.


    Nell writhed in pain as she covered her face. It seemed to take forever for the monstrosity to hit the ground. I was already moving to scoop her out of the way just in case it would land on her.


    When it eventually came back to earth, it was a few feet in front of her, and all sound returned. The sounds of the ocean flooded my ears. I landed when the sand settled, and we watched the thing turn into dust. Once the beast was gone, I scooped up Nell and we took off down the beach, looking for help.


    Groans and hisses escaped her but for the most part she was quiet. I tried to be careful as Sam and I ran down the beach.


    We found a white house with blue trim that Sam rushed to and pounded on the door. My mind vaguely registered its familiarity before someone answered. Sam tried to explain what had happened, but he was speaking too incoherently.


    Finally, he managed to break his own language barrier just as I got there. “Hurry!” Sam panted. “She''s hurt!”


    The boy looked at Nell. “Come in.”


    We rushed into the house, led by the boy.


    *    *    *


    The band of five rode into the village on black horses. Everyone looked up at them in fear, assuming that they were there to give them new orders or more taxes. They were wrong.


    “We heard that some people have asked for help against our boss. Where are they hiding?” the leader of the group asked.


    One bold citizen stepped up to him. “We do not know what you are talking about. We pay our taxes to Lord Phiale. Why are you harassing us?”


    The leader smirked. “You dare talk back to me? I will ask again. Where are they hiding?”


    “We do not know of anyone who has asked for help,” the citizen repeated.


    The leader pulled out a gun and pointed at his head. “My patience grows thin. You will tell me, or I will kill you.”


    “Kill me then. I don''t know...” he was cut off when the gun fired into his head, splattering his brains all over the people behind him. Everyone watched his body fall.


    The leader turned to his group. “Search the village. We need those people. Kill anyone who opposes you."


    The members of the band nodded and set to work.