Chapter 1: Fire
Jess walked down the steps of the temple of magic. Finally, she had completed her training in the Light, Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth arts. Now all she needed to complete her element training was the dark art, the hardest of them all.
"Excellent!" she said to herself, " When I finally complete my training, I'll be able to go home for good!" Jess had been away from home for almost eight years. Well, what was left of home anyway. When she was nine, Jess's parents died during and experiment involving a local corporation. She could recall that dreadful day, for the experiment was about her.
"Dr. Turn! Dr. Turn! Something's gone wrong!" someone yelled in the control room. Jess watched in horror as people scrambled around, trying to set things right. She looked for her parents amongst the crowed. She couldn't spot them. Finally, she saw her mother. She was in the control room. Her mother looked out to the floor and saw how frightened she was. Her mother then flicked on the Mic so jess could hear her.
"Sweetie, it's alright! There's no need to be afraid!" Her mothers words soothed her, but didn't get rid of the fear with-in.
"Dr. Turn! The lab's going to blow up in a few minutes! We need to get out of here NOW!" yelled the voice from earlier.
"Get my daughter out of there!" yelled a man's voice.
"Daddy!" Jess yelled. Fear had risen to its highest peak. A man barged onto the floor and rushed to Jess's side.
"Come on honey, we need to get out of here," said the man. He started to fiddle with the safety belts and bars that surrounded her. Finally, jess was free to move and the man lifted her out and placed her down on the floor. The man grabbed her hand and the two made their way out off the floor. Once outside of the floor room, the man bent down to Jess's height. Jess looked at him strait in the eye.
"Daddy," she said in a frightened voice, "I'm scared."
"There's no need to be honey! Everything's going to be alright."
All of a sudden, there was a loud bang that shook the building. The explosion came from the control room. From what jess could see, the machinery had short-circuited and sparks were flying everywhere.
"SAMANTHA!" yelled Jess's father. He then turned to Jess, grabbed her hand and looked at her with tears flooding his brown eyes. "Jess sweetie, run. Run out of here! Don't stop and don't look back until you're far, far away. I love you sweetie! Now go! RUN!"
Jess ran. She ran clear out of that building, not stopping for anyone, or anything like her father told her too. When she was about 600 yards away, she finally looked back. The building was on fire!
"MOMMY! DADDY!" She screamed, truly terrified. Seconds later, there was another explosion, causing the fire to get worse. Jess fell to the ground and buried her face in her hands, and cried. The fire crew did their best to put out the fire and save everyone, but only fifteen people out of the thirty (including her) made it out alive. Not one of the 14 other survivors was Jess's mother or father.
The fire wasn't her fault, jess knew that way to well, but she still felt as if she was accountable for something. Jess neared her room, which she shared with her best friend Muisa, and her cat Star. She with drew her key and unlocked the door. She opened it up and went inside. A black cat with a white diamond shaped patch of fur upon its forehead greeted darted for her legs. Jess reached down and picked up the animal. Muisa wasn't back from her classes yet.
"Hi Star! Have a good day so far?" she asked the creature while she stoked it's back. Star replied with a simple, happy meow. Jess smiled. "Good! That make two of us, " and she placed star back down on the ground and closed the door. Jess then walked over to her desk and picked up her plane tickets for Domino City, Japan.
"Home," she said aloud.