Chapter 9 - Embers


"Only once you understand yourself, you will finally see what you can do"


11:31 am, September 1st, 2019

"All done," Cody said. He was carefully swiping and tapping away at my phone with a paw nearby, staring intently at the screen. I crawled over to see what he was up to. A map of the city and surrounding area was visible, with markers dropped at a few different locations.

'It's a good thing you didn't see what I saw.' I'd quickly closed the tab before he could catch a glimpse of it: A photograph of the Chrysler Building ruins in New York City. Destroyed in an explosion, with the prime suspect a fire-type Elemental. I tried to push it out of my head as I approached Cody.

"Find anything cool on that?" I asked, sitting up and taking note of the remaining power. '7%… I need to get some juice in this tonight.'

"Yeah, here's something." He zoomed onto one of his markers, a large building off to the west of the city. "This is the Old Bradmill Factory. It's abandoned. Thoughts?"

"Looks a bit close to the inner suburbs. I haven't heard much about what it's like there, though. It might've quietened down." I thought about movement, having to get everyone to a far-off, entirely separate location. When you're 24 Elementals, it's not exactly possible to travel without drawing a lot of attention. It didn't seem like the best idea. "There's a lot of us here, I think the junkyard is as good as we can get."

"But being close to the city has its benefits too, does it not?"

"True, but my concern is that there'll be more eyes to look at us. I reckon we stay here for now, but I also think we should keep tabs on it. What do you say?"

"Sounds good," Cody affirmed. "Also, we're kinda close to this electrical substation. I mean, it's still about an hour's walk. I don't know what areas it covers though. I couldn't find that, sorry."

"No biggie. Seems like a bit of a… high-profile target, if we're running on the same wavelength." I imagined sneaking in through a back fence, ignoring all the warning signs to achieve a goal… shutting down a transmission line or two? Destroying a couple transformers?

"It's still worth looking at. I'd ask my brother, but he's still not back. Suppose we could get the van running…"

"We'll have to wait for the police and detectives to clear out first. They'll be done soon, surely I didn't screw up that badly."

"What happened?" He asked. "Why did we have to stay here, anyways?"

"You know when we all had to leave 'cause of the search? I stayed behind with Ollie and Kaden, and…" I hesitated for a moment. "I messed up and got found. I had to defend myself. Yeah, I guess I got in a fight."

"Oooh. Did you win?"

"Well, whaddya think? Seriously though, on a physical level, yes. Psychologically… different story."

It seemed like he was going to ask more, but he got distracted by the arrival of Ollie, Kaden and the others. "Hey, wait! They're back!" He exclaimed. They were entering the blackberry grove, with a few duffel bags in tow. Cody stood up and rushed over, with me following closely behind.

"Ollie had to break a window or two, but everything is sourced from the store. We scoped it out ages ago, making sure it was abandoned. We've agreed that it's fair game." Kaden said to us. The bags were set on the ground, and everyone came over to see the spoils.

"What's this?" I asked, pulling out a relatively large box.

"Portable stove," He replied nonchalantly, taking out a carton of nondescript butane cans from the same bag.

"Yo, Uphill Outdoors? Nice job, their stuff is really good. I remember using it a few years back on camp," I commented, carefully setting it down.

"Thanks, I kinda just grabbed the first thing I saw."

"Jason, over here," I heard Ollie say. A crowd had formed, and I weaved my way out of it. He was standing just outside the exit of the grove, disengaged with the hustle and bustle.

I approached him. "What's up?"

"I need to show you something. It'll probably be helpful for you, but we're gonna be a while." I looked back at everyone unpacking the duffel bags. 'I can pass. I've done my fair share of "organisation" already.'

He led me out of the campsite and deep into the forest, farther than Kaden did the morning after the police visited the junkyard. I had no clue where he was taking me, I just followed his steps. Despite the fresh air, and the lack of exchanged words, only the shuffling of grass and crunching of fallen leaves, I felt a slight uneasiness. "Are you planning to return to your home again today?" Ollie finally asked as we crossed a worn, wooden footbridge spanning a shallow canal.

I nodded. "Uh-huh. I'll charge up my phone and then it's straight back here. Did you guys pick up a power bank when you went out today?"

"Nup. Didn't even consider doing that."

"Alright, that's fine. I can scavenge one from home."

"Why bother with the travel? Can't you just stay here?" Ollie questioned.

"Well, I… can't. You can't just expect me to leave everything behind now, I mean, I made a promise to my family that I'd keep in touch."

"Okay, I'm guessing you and your fam are on good terms. But what if… they're the ones holding you back?"

I stopped dead in my tracks. That's one thing that can get under my skin. "What the hell, man?" I said, slightly peeved.

"I need to lay the cards out on the table here, or else you'll never figure it out."

"Figure out what?"

Ollie stayed silent, still continuing his way. I let out a sigh and mindlessly followed, not feeling like getting left behind in the forest. Soon after, he finally stopped and ordered me to crouch down. In the distance, I could make out a few solid, wooden walls. Manmade structures. "Just over there is Bentler Park. There's a lake close by, and then a few dozen trails beyond that. But the forest between those cabins right there and the campsite? That's all bush, we can do whatever we want here," He said quietly. "Right now though, that's irrelevant. If you could waltz out to the park right now, mingle with the crowd and nobody cared, would you?"

"I suppose I would," I shrugged. "If you mean I wouldn't just be arrested on sight, yeah. For the hell of it."

"And how confident are you in your illusions, Jason?"

"Uh… pretty good. I-I mean, I could fool a person if I disguised, talking and all that…" I said, hoping to hide my uncertainty. 'This feels like an interrogation…'

Clearly seeing straight through my lie, Ollie continued. "You don't understand, you're sitting on a gold mine. For you, it doesn't matter if anyone will lose it at the sight of an Elemental, because you can make them see whatever you want."

"I know that. I'm not trying to waste what's been given, but… I don't enjoy practising illusions. The more I do it, the more it doesn't feel right. It just… keeps reminding me of what should be happening here on Earth. All humans, no Elementals," I said bluntly. "Really, I wish none of this ever happened. I just wish it could all go back to how it was. I wanted to learn illusions so I could talk to people. Now that I think about it, it's just one step forward against two steps back."

"Then may I give you some advice? Don't try to wear something that doesn't fit you. That's just uncomfortable. You have to restart from a fresh, blank slate."

"A-a blank slate? Are you crazy, you want me to let it all go?" I hissed. "And what, let my entire life become a distant memory!? I am Jason Samry. That will never change."

"And I'm Oliver Winters, just a bit fuzzier. Maybe you haven't changed mentally, and that's okay. However, you have changed physically, and that tends to have a lot to do with who you'll become. Hint hint, it's not what you think. Look, if you can't embrace this, at least accept it. Because every second you spend reminiscing on the past is time spent not moving forward."

"Why should I care about what might happen? What if I had everything in my life figured out, only to lose it all in August? Because that's what happened! To you, to me, to everyone at the campsite, to thirty percent of the entire goddamn human population."

"I know it's happened, I'm not blind! No one knows how, no one knows why, and I seriously doubt anyone will figure anything out in our lifetimes, either, so work with it," Ollie snapped. He extended a paw at me, accusingly. "You can use illusions, I can use Aura. They're stronger than you give them credit, you just don't know how to use them yet. The best way is to get out there and learn."

"Okay, that's way out of my comfort zone. I don't want to have to risk myself again."

"Well, you better get confident. You don't want to be left behind when the time comes for you to use your abilities. Focus on the present. Only once you understand yourself, you will finally see what you can do."

"Really? What about you? Have you done anything?"

'But I have been busy.' A voice echoed in my head, not my own. I looked around, trying to locate it, but it had no source. No matter where I faced, it rebounded from every bearing, an omnidirectional sound. In fact… it was Ollie's voice. As I turned to him, his eyes were almost… glowing, in a way. "What did you…?"

"But I have been busy. What, did you not get my message?"

Finally, I pieced it together. "You can use telepathy!? Why didn't you ever mention it!"

"Never got around to it. Now seems like the best time. I'm showing you that I can communicate telepathically with the flip of a switch." The glow of his eyes flared up again as I instinctively braced myself for another round of foreign, echoey voices. 'Telepathy now.' "Back to talking. I could use this more, but… I can tell it's a bit of a mindfuck. Get used to it is all I can say."

"You got any more tricks up your sleeve, then?"

"A martial arts sort of thing. If you wanna know, the windows of that store were tempered glass, so it's not something to dismiss. I didn't like having to break the windows, but I felt it was better than getting- Just, assaulted by all the noise."

"Noise? What are you talking about, man?"

"You seriously can't tell by yourself? Alright, we'll do it this way then," He muttered, shutting his eyes.

'Oh. I guess I can't hide anything from you.'

"You know how hard it was to sleep? Aura is like noise, you don't know how loud it can get. And most of it was coming from you." Finally, he reopened his eyes. They quickly narrowed into a death stare. "It's like a bloody cyclone in there. You're thinking of something horrible, aren't you? Don't lie, because I can tell."

Cornered, I confessed. "Yeah. New York."

"Okay, I know it's not exactly the most pretty, picture-perfect place in the world, but-"

"No, there's been– You know September 11th?" I growled, slightly too audibly for my liking considering how close we were to the park.

Obviously, it was a very out-of-pocket remark. Ollie just blinked, before whispering, "Oh, god."

"The Chrysler Building. In Manhatten. It… ah, got destroyed. I don't… want to claim anyone's at fault, but…"

"You found out it was us Elementals who took the blame. I don't need to read your Aura to figure that out."

Slowly, I nodded. "I don't want to be seen as a terrorist. I understand fear, but this is way overboard! Stuff like this only confirms people's beliefs," I muttered. "You get why I'm so conflicted over this now?"

"Slightly more," Ollie replied, much more passively.

"Fuck, Ollie. I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

"Then it's my job to help you figure it out. Even if it means an intervention."

Though his words had stuck and stung, they were true. Ultimately, I needed someone to step in, or else I would be moving nowhere. I sighed, still feeling slightly on edge. "So why'd you bring me out here? Just to grill me?"

"If you want to get back to the campsite after you leave, Bentler Park is a good point of reference. Now you know where it is. Let's head back."

'Oh. That was… something, I guess.'


7:34 pm, September 1st, 2019

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, until the evening I left. I was about ten minutes from home when I stumbled across something… I would prefer not to have seen. Walking down one street, weary of the streetlights, I spotted a peculiar orange glow on the other end. There was a faint wailing sound, but most of what I heard were a few crickets. As I approached the intersection, the sounds became clearer, intrigue becoming alarm. They were sirens, and voices from a commotion. Against my better judgement, I approached but didn't turn the corner, only peeking around it. From there, I saw one of the houses set ablaze.

The flames danced in the air as firefighters kept it at bay, a battle between their unrelenting will, and the raging, animalistic inferno. A short segment of the road had been cordoned off, with all three emergency services dotted around. And finally, a plain silver van, which for some reason was parked right in the middle of it all, apparently having the same privilege as the other emergency vehicles.

On the side of the house, once again, a strange symbol spray painted in neon yellow. Two concentric circles, and an X over it all. A tilted sniper's scope. That same thing had been painted on the wall of Mark's house the night he was assaulted. I did my best to listen in, but the sirens combined with the distance made that a bit difficult, and I could only catch a word or two every so often.

"Fire, someone… broken win… rol fumes… rove off…"

'Was it arson? Hm.' I almost double-backed, taking the long way around the block to get to my street. However, the conversation Ollie and I had had had remained in the forefront of my mind. I'd told him that I was capable of using a disguise to interact with someone. Yet, that claim held no water, not even to me. 'I can't keep lying to myself, I need to get out there and actually do something with this.'

Taking a deep breath, I cast my illusion. 'Before the 22nd of August - Who was I?' The space around me was bathed in a soft magenta glow, which quickly faded away, as well as my tether to the conscious world from the dizziness that followed. I looked down at my hands. Naturally, they were the same set of claws as always. 'That's it- Here goes nothing.'

As I rounded the corner, every instinct in my body told me not to engage, period. I wanted nothing more than to back out and go home, but I needed this. I needed to prove to Ollie, and more importantly to myself, that I could use my disguises in an actual, real-world scenario. After all, was there even a point to learning and practising illusions if I never used them?

Under my disguise, I headed down the street and approached the first person I saw: A female police officer pointing toward the fire and talking to another officer. She looked busy. In other words, she likely wouldn't care too much about a random person asking her about the house fire in front of her while everyone on the scene needed directions.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

"It's all under control, young man," She said, barely glancing. 'Clueless…'

"Yeah, but how'd it start? Deliberate?"

"That's the leading theory. We'll get some detectives in tomorrow morning at the latest."

Though the fire was still raging on, it was indeed under control. It didn't seem like it was getting any larger, nor was it spreading to any other houses. Though, I expected there wouldn't be much left to sift through once it was put out. Off to the side, a family was watching - The people who had lived there. I saw a young girl sobbing into her father's chest, and his eyes held only terror. "Some people… just kind of suck, jeez."

"Too right," The officer whispered, slowly shaking her head.

"Oh, well. Goodnight and good luck." I turned around and started back up the street, feeling a bit accomplished. They weren't even paying attention to me as I dispelled the disguise, hardly even out of sight. 'Too easy…'

I was still smirking to myself as I arrived at the front door of my home. When I knocked, I expected a warm reception. Instead, Mum practically pulled me inside.

"Jason! Where the hell have you been, you didn't contact me at all for days!"

'Oh, shit.' I recognised the look on her face. It reminded me of when I screwed up an assessment way back in Year 7, completely failing it and pissing her off. It had traumatised Little Me, so my heart skipped a beat when it came out again. This time, I saw some concern mixed in with it. Her eyes constantly flicked to the windows, as if looking out for danger.

"And we can't even call anyone to say you've gone missing, you know!"

"I-I'm sorry Mum, it's just–"

"You know what it's like for you to disappear, then for us to get more horrible news about you Elementals?! I mean, just yesterday, there was this tower in New York-"

"Been there, done that. I already know about the Chrysler explosion–" I retorted.

"Jason. Get your laptop. We'll talk that way."

Sighing, I headed back to my room and retrieved my laptop. 'I should just cast a disguise and talk to her through it, it's not like it matters if it collapses on her. Agh, no. Better not right now.'

"That building fire in New York, you know it was caused by an Elemental?" She said naggingly, flailing her arms about as I logged in. "There's hard proof: Security cameras, system checks, burn patterns. They went over the whole tower with a fine-tooth comb, nothing was missed."

'Sadly, I don't doubt it. But I'm not like that Elemental, I can handle myself just fine. You have to trust me on that, okay?'

"You're a good kid, Jason. I know I can trust you not to do anything stupid. It's just you don't let me know that you're okay!"

'I got caught up and had to lay low for a bit. Plus, I wanted to save my battery.'

"Still, if you don't tell me you go out, you should be staying in contact! So much can happen in a day, just look at the Chrysler Building! I mean, you just disappear off to someplace, and do lord knows what for the several days you're gone!"

'For your information, I haven't done anything other than save my own skin.'

Exhausted, I shut the lid, ending the conversation then and there. We had dinner in silence, and then I decided to head straight to bed. However, my mind kept itching from the lack of closure. 'I hate being left in the dark…' Without anything to see, faces swirled around my mind. Two stood out to me. Mark, cheery and unaware of the fate that awaited him back home. The police officer, face scrunched in agony as his leg was torn to shreds. It was a long four hours.

Verging on sleepiness, I finally watched the hallway light go out. As soon as it did, I slowly sat up and climbed down from my bunk, lightly tapping on the carpet. To be sure everyone was asleep, I pressed myself against the door, listening for movement. After a minute of silence, I slowly creaked it open. Directly across the hallway should have been my parents' room. Instead, I turned to the left toward the kitchen. The room was barely illuminated by a digital display on the oven and, as far as I could see, the rest of the house was in darkness, Kate's room included. 'Quite eerie, looking at it now.' On one of the chairs at the counter was a thin blanket, an old thing from the past, a time that felt like aeons ago. I grabbed it and took it back to my room, wrapped myself up and logged into my laptop. The blanket was too small and lost its softness with time, but it felt comforting regardless.

'Right, what I need is anything on that police officer yesterday… Crap, I don't even remember his name. Oh, and I suppose I should catch up with Mark too…' Two young men with their lives irrevocably changed. By technicality, they did nothing wrong, yet got punished for it.

I decided to chase the police officer's lead first, figuring it was something that would stir a lot more attention. Lacking any direction, I typed 'Farley and Brannick Junkyard' into the search bar. As expected, there were multiple articles of a police officer who was 'attacked' while searching an abandoned property in Melbourne, as well as a few mentions of it on social media.

"Exaggerating… That was self-defence, but alright."

'The victim, Constable Eric Bellevue, 26, was attacked by a rogue Elemental while conducting a search of the abandoned Farley & Brannick Junkyard late last night. Paramedics were called immediately and Bellevue was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for a severe laceration…'

"Fine, I'll face up to that, but you can't expect to go up to me and arrest me. There was no way I was letting that happen."

'...Mr Bellevue claims that he had attempted to apprehend the Elemental but was attacked, before being approached by another two. All three had fled the scene by the time further authorities arrived, their whereabouts currently unknown. It is believed they were responsible for the fire reported earlier, having sought refuge in the junkyard.'

"Guess I did my job pretty well, huh?"

'We will find these Elementals and bring them to justice, says the Premier.'

"Alright, that's enough. I was there, I have the facts, there is no need for most of this. But now, for Mark…"

Like the junkyard, I just entered Mark's name into the search bar. Besides articles, it showed up with a post on Twitter from the Victoria Police account, only a day ago.

'Sending prayers of a full recovery to Mark.'
'How'd that happen? C'mon VicPol, you're supposed to be protecting us!'
'99% sure an Elemental was involved. He was protecting it from the police, and some of the wrong people found out.'
'Protecting? Deserved it, then.'

The reply count of that final comment told me all I needed to know. "Okaaaaaay… There's better things to do than to engage with… that."

It hadn't taken long to collect a treasure trove of information, and more links were still piling up. From what I could gather, officials suspected a small group of sorts, one with a disdain for the people of Melbourne. More specifically and concerningly, any Elementals still floating around the suburbs and the people associated with them. "God, I hope something's done about them. I'm getting chills reading this."

After a bit of digging, I found a name kept popping up as I looked through report after report: O'Landric. Whoever they were, they were somehow both separate from and very involved in the case - perhaps one of the detectives? I didn't remember seeing or hearing about such a person previously; Maybe they were a private investigator?

Searching for the name didn't yield anything, either. 'Okay, I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe my best bet is to go around and ask. I know where Mark works, so I can use that. Alright, look around for nearby police stations and maybe, with a great big stroke of luck, I might run into this O'Landric fellow.'

Before long, I had found the several police stations within a few kilometres of Mark's store. I took a mental note of them as I continued with my own little private investigation.

The last thing I looked at before going to sleep was an interview about the sweeps that hit the state - The thing that drove me out of my home and into an abandoned junkyard alongside a good handful of other Elementals, I skipped to roughly halfway, pressed play and kicked back in my chair, preparing for whatever storm was coming.

"So that's a wrap on the statistics. But the sweeps themselves, how did they go?"

"Well, to be honest, they were a disorganised mess," The interviewee confessed. "Some suburbs were checked twice, others weren't checked at all. Fortunately, we've been given a log of what's happened over the last three days, and plans for what still needs to happen are being finalised. They are expected to start this Monday, although… they aren't exactly popular among Melbournians."

"They're gonna tear themselves apart at this rate with this mistrust… We really are on our own out here." I pulled the blanket around me tighter, my heart sinking when I felt it tear.

'Shit- Whatever. It's becoming threadbare anyway.' I released the blanket from my grasp, letting it slide off my lap. It hit the floor with a soft, barely audible noise.

"This double life… all this trying to balance everything… it's just not working, everything's gonna tip over eventually. You're right, Ollie. I need to make a decision." I looked out the window, vaguely in the direction the junkyard was. "Tell you what, I'll sleep on it. It's been a long day."


8:28 am, September 2nd, 2019

I didn't like getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning, but at least I was starting to get used to it. Unfortunately, starting to get used to something doesn't mean you are yet. By the time I woke up, it was too bright to do anything. I growled at myself, staring up at the well-lit ceiling. 'Maybe I should've actually slept earlier last night…'

As far as I could tell, there was no way for me to leave the house and go anywhere without getting seen, and I would have to wait until nightfall to make a move. So, I made my standard breakfast of buttered toast, not struggling with the knife like I did the first time, all in preparation for a day of doing nothing around the house. 'Classic case of the Mondays right here. May as well study up on what I looked at last night.'

I became too caught up in double-checking everything that I didn't hear my door open, and Kate slipping into my room. It wasn't until she suddenly shook my chair, causing me to flinch, that I realised my room had been invaded. "ACK- Jesus, Kate."

"Mum's walked down to the shops, Dad's in the city. They told me to… to babysit you until they came back."

"And must it involve this, asinine activity?" I asked as she started fiddling with my mane again. I tried to brush her away, but she stuck around this time. However, while Kate was busy annoying me, after a few minutes I saw an opportunity to get back to the campsite. A few minutes more of debating with myself, and I ultimately decided to follow through. 'Oh, well. The worst thing that can happen is a "no" and then a wait until nighttime.'

I slowly typed out a message for Kate, then nudged her. 'You wanna drive me somewhere?'

'This is a horrible idea, and you're the only one crazy enough to say yes to it.'

"Um… where?"

'The campsite that I've been staying at. I really need to get back there.'

'Why did I go through with that.' I fully expected her to rebuke me. To say, "Jason, there is something seriously wrong with your brain right now." Instead, a short moment later, she looked me in the eyes and nodded.

'That was… concerningly easy. But I'll take it.' With that, we were on the road. I punched in directions to the junkyard for Kate, before absentmindedly turning on the radio and staring out the window. My phone connected itself to the car, displaying the directions on the satnav screen. As she drove, a monotonous, robotic voice read out the directions. "Turn left in 100 metres. Turn left. Continue straight for one kilometre." At least it broke the forced silence between me and Kate.

We were on the highway, headed straight for the junkyard. The satnav screen suddenly lit up, a ringtone crashing around the car. Kate moved to answer it, so I turned back around to face the landscape outside.

"Hello, this is Katelyn Samry. Who's calling?" She said. I blocked it out, gazing at the scenery out the window, watching everything go by, when Kate called my name again. For some reason, it didn't register. "Hey, Jason. Jase? JASON!"

"Wha- Yeah?" I stammered, snapping back to the scene with my ears ringing from Kate's yelling.

"This is probably for you."

Noticing the screen, I leaned forward. "Who's calling? Hello?"

"Jason? It's me, Nick."

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but a call from my cousin was not up there. "Yo, what's up?"

"Hey, sorry if this a bit of an awkward time for you, I just need to ask you somethin' real quick."

"Nah it isn't, go ahead."

"How d'you do those illusions that, uhh, you do on yourself?"

"You mean disguises? Well, it's kind of like… imagining the form you want to take. The way you want to be perceived, and… I guess convincing yourself you are that? I mean, what do you need it for? I'm not the best teacher around."

"Aye, no worries, it's enough for me. One of my buddies, Ryan, I only got back into contact with him yesterday. It's an absolute mess over where he lives, but he's pulled through. Oh, and he's a Zoroark too, I should probably mention that." Nick explained.

"Oh, neat. Tell him I said hi–"

"In 2 kilometres, your destination will be on the left," The satnav system said, cutting me off. To the left though, was Bentler Park. That was the best place to get back to the campsite from, according to Ollie.

"Hey, make the left now, Katelyn. Wait, hold on-" I tugged her arm, pointing at a turnoff on the left.

"Is that Bentler Park? Uh… alright."

"You're driving? Aren'tcha like, not allowed to be outside?" Nick remarked.

"Well… I'll call you back on my phone soon, we're here."

Kate drove into the parking lot and found a vacancy, but kept the engine running. I was about to open the door and step out, but Kate held onto my shoulder ruff, keeping me in place. "Jason, I don't think this is a good place to get out. There's too many people."

She had parked as close as she could to the forest, but we were still in clear view of the park and the people milling about there. I could count at least twenty pairs of eyes. "Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Go somewhere with less people."

It was Kate's turn to look at the map. "There's a warehouse further down the road, I might be able to stop by there and drop you off. You'll just have to go backwards. That's the junkyard, right?" She said, pointing at a large, empty area.

"Uh-huh."

"Sounds like a yes to me." She drove out of the parking space, and it was a short detour to the warehouse. There was a tiny guest car park, where she stopped and idled the car. "When you get out, run like hell until you're out of sight."

"That's… what I was planning to do, yeah." I pushed open the door, but Kate still had something to say to me.

"By the way… with the junkyard, and that police officer the other day… was that you?"

'Hooooh boy. At least I physically cannot explain anything to you.' Reluctantly, I nodded.

"I won't speak of it with anyone, Jase, honest. Just… stay safe out there, okay? The world's on fire, don't let yourself get burnt."

I once again nodded, looking out into the wilderness. Finally, I stepped out, shut the door and dashed for the treeline. By the time I reached it and looked behind me, Kate had already returned to the highway.

Starting my trek through the woods, I tried my best to stay in a straight line. Before long, I had reached the junkyard, weary of any chatter I might've heard from the officials. Despite hearing nothing, I still made my way around the back and continued my walk.

Arriving back at the campsite, I gave Ollie a curt nod. My satchel, essentially a part of me at this point, contained my phone, a power bank I nabbed from Kate's room, and a charging cable. I sat down in the middle of the grove and restarted my call with Nick. He immediately picked up.

"Hello again! Oh, wow, I'm lookin' behind you and there's, uhh… Seems like there's a lot of you."

"Yep. We're all a bit rebellious here."

"We are?" A voice said from above. A moment later, Azure landed behind me. If I could count on someone having even more sensitive hearing than me, it would be her.

"As far as I can tell, we've disobeyed the latest amendment to our long list of laws. So yes, we are."

"Huh- Fair point. Whatcha doin', Jason?"

"This is my cousin, Nick."

"Howdy," He said.

Azure leaned over my shoulder. "Okay, I know I'm not very familiar with Pocket Monsters, but I deeeefinitely do not recognise you."

"You mean my species? I'm just your local Cinderace. Uh, to summarise, Gen 8 of Pokémon got leaked. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise. I'm Azure. Noivern."

"...Close enough, I guess. This… might be a stupid question, but have you tried flying?"

"Of course I have! Despite acrophobia. I still get chills sometimes, but I face it head-on 'cause there's no other way. I'll get used to it eventually."

Just then, another person entered the call. It was an open face-to-face call, and I wondered who could have joined. It wasn't long for me to get an answer.

"Hi, Jazzy!" Angela exclaimed, in complete darkness for some reason.

"Angela!? Jeez, how'd you get in here?" Nick asked.

"Stole Dad's phone. Don't tell him," She chuckled. "Why are you in a forest? And who's the Noivern?"

"That's… a long story," I replied "This is Azure, um…"

"Hey there!" Azure said.

"Woah. You have friends, Jazzy?"

I scoffed. "Yeah, I do, believe it or not. There's more of us here, if you want to meet-"

"Oops- Gotta go, that's Dad," Angie abruptly said, apparently hearing her father. Then, she left the call, leaving us all in silence. It held for just a bit longer than she was in the call for, before we all broke out in laughter.

My ears twitched. "Jazzy?" Someone said.

"Yeah?" I looked over my shoulder. Cody and Ollie had a look of amusement on their faces. They were watching me and Azure from afar. "What? I don't mind it, y'know. On the contrary, I think it's one of the better nicknames I've had. Come on over."


2:39 pm, September 2nd, 2019

It reached mid-afternoon, and by this point, a few of us had noticed Kaden had been missing for quite some time. Though no one told me to, I ventured out into the forest alone to find him.

Somehow, I found him halfway to Bentler Park, and halfway up a tree. He was looking out into the distance, head resting on his wrists. It looked like he hadn't moved in hours. Becoming used to climbing with this body, I followed him up. Not as nimble, however, I made a bit of a racket. "Hey, Jason," He said, without needing to look.

"Finally found you, Kade. Why the heck are you out here? You feeling alright?"

He shook his head. "The other day. Some of us deserted. Just up and left. It hasn't left me yet," He said, not even turning to look at me. "I don't think we'll be seeing them for a… a long time. So, to answer your question, I'm not doing too well."

"Oh, sorry… I just wanted to tell you something. I can go if that's alright…."

He sighed. "No, mate. Have a seat. Talk to me about it."

"I tricked some people with my illusions last night, Kaden. Like, actually out there, with people who didn't know I was an Elemental."

"Oh, shit, really?"

"Yeah. There was, uh… a house fire, and the police were already there. So I went up to them, with a disguise up, and just asked some questions."

"That's, well, that's really good. Nice job, no kidding! And you did that with the cops?"

"You bet!"

"Good work, mate! Good work." His smile dropped, and he turned to face something off in the distance.

"Kaden, if something's bothering you, I'm here to listen," I said. There was a long pause, as if he was thinking long and hard about his turmoils.

"You know what I said about some of us leaving? That was a white lie. The guys who left, uh, they did alright– But not by choice." Immediately, I knew exactly what he meant. After all, I'd almost experienced that firsthand. "I tried to forget about it by organising that store raid. I mean, do we really need all that junk? The berries do wonders in terms of nourishment. I just need to give them something to work toward. You see mate, boredom is my enemy. It leads to carelessness. And carelessness leads to… Ugh, it was my mistake. I didn't even think of that as a possibility."

"Don't bash yourself for something you've had no prior experience in, man. There's been no time to get used to things, they've only just started settling down."

"That's just it. Life is short and the world doesn't care. People really don't care about what's going on in other people's lives."

"From my experience as an Elemental, that couldn't be further from the truth. Sorry, but that's just what I feel."

"Listen. I get that. I mean apathy. Why everyone chooses to be so bloody ignorant, or aggressive, I will never understand. If more people just cared, we wouldn't have to be here. You reckon there's some trait hardwired into the human psyche?"

"Whatever it is, it brings out the worst in people, I'll say. Do you-"

Suddenly, the entire branch tilted, and I practically jumped and wrapped myself around the trunk to avoid falling. Kaden barely even reacted, shifting positions slightly to better suit the new gradient. Near the end of the branch, Dart had made a landing. "Hey, Kaden, got some news for you. The investigators have cleared off. They've patched the fence and cleaned up the blood. The rest of the junkyard's been left alone."

"We're good to return?"

"Yep."

"Oh, Christ. I've been here since morning, haven't I, Jase? People are probably getting worried. Dart, could you tell the Elementals I'm okay? Once you're done, also please, say, undo the work on the fence."

"On it." He then took off, disappearing through the canopy and flicking the branch upward again, nearly throwing me off my feet.

"Well then! Here's to hoping the junkyard is well out of the officials' interest from now on."

"You thought about looking for other places to hole up, lest we get raided again? Cody showed me this other abandoned place, the Old Bradmill Factory, or whatever it's called. It's… a bit far, but not an unrealistic option."

"Ah, that one. I found out about that on my own, way before all this. Y'know mate, I was gonna take Cody there at the end of this month, during the holidays. But, as we all know, the universe had other plans."

"For real? You were gonna do that for Codes?"

"Mhm. I knew he really wanted to go explore someplace like that."

"You should take him, man. You gotta fulfil your own promise."

"It would be a lot easier if I wasn't actively being hunted by the government. And I also kind of lost the ability to drive. Can you?"

"I have my Learner's, but no hours. I think Ollie can, since he keeps going on about the van. He just needs to get it started, if that happens."

"Whenever it happens," Kaden chimed. "Stay optimistic, mate."

"Yeah… no. I heard him try to start it. To put it politely, it was on its last legs."

"Ah. What needs fixing, then?"

"The battery's dead. Well, technically it almost is, but it may as well be considered dead at this point. It'll be way easier to find a fresh one. And it's out of fuel, obviously. That's all. The latter, I don't really see any issues getting. The battery, though…"

"We passed a Repco yesterday. On the route to the store. They ought to have a spare battery."

"The auto parts shop? I see… Hold on, do you know the price of a car battery?"

"Shit… I doubt they're cheap," Kaden muttered. He seemed to be deep in thought. "How confident are you with illusions, mate?"

"Y'know, when Ollie asked me that exact question, I wasn't very sincere. Now I know I am."

"Okay, f- I need to double-check." He stood up, pulled a leaf off a branch and handed it to me. "Create an illusion of, um, just a scrap of paper, and hold onto it." By this point, an illusion that simple didn't even make my head spin, a blessing for when you're halfway up a tree.

"Pass it over." Kaden inspected it closely, flipping it multiple times. He flicked it away, and I watched as it flashed magenta again and disappeared. "Alright, this can work. For the cashier, you're gonna make it a, uhh, a stack of banknotes."

I stifled a chuckle, which quickly came out into a small, sinister laugh. "M'kay, I get what you mean. Didn't think you'd be the one suggesting that. Sure, I can do it."


Author's notes:

Welcome to Embers, a chapter that's like 80% dialogue because I dunno uhh umm. Hope you enjoy! (The next chapter will be more interesting I promise I don't know what the heck I was doing here. The 80-20 rule apparently didn't exist this week I did so much work in the past like 6 days.)

But seriously, this chapter is straight up just filler so Jason can recuperate after the previous chapter and I can set up the plot points for the future chapters. I don't know why this keeps taking so long but I've just accepted that I'm a slow ass writer. Plus, it's not my top priority right now, I've got plenty of interests elsewhere. I've started this story, and I really want to finish it someday, so I'm in for the long haul. But currently, writing is reserved for the midnight hours, so my pace is a little bit on the slow side.

Cody mentioned another abandoned property, the Old Bradmill Factory. Unlike the junkyard, this one is very real, located a bit West of Melbourne CBD. I personally haven't explored the place, but it's a pretty popular urbexing spot and I'd really like to go there someday. Abandoned places are just neat. Also drains and underground waterways. Terrifying and absolutely fascinating to explore. And I did go draining recently! A simple, short expedition. So I have a bit of experience with this. Not sure if or how I'm gonna include these in the story, but I'll figure it out.

In other news, I've got some really good art for this story's cover. This one's titled "Hush" by TrueScorn over on DeviantArt (Check him out his art is peeeaaaak). I've had it saved since May but never got around to uploading it lol.

Onto my life. I'm graduating high school! And of course, the rest of my exams in November. First off, fuck exams. Genuinely, FUCK exams. It's an outdated and overvalued piece of shit system that this fucking world has somehow managed to uphold for way too fucking long. Okay, rant over. Next, since my writing takes place when I'm supposed to be sleeping, I guess it would technically mean there shouldn't be a change in the pace of my writing and, if we're lucky, C10 should hopefully be done by the end of the year. As for 2025, who knows really. My writing pace could speed up, or come to a dragging crawl. Only time will tell.

Ta-ta!


Actual word count: 7,137 (Close enough)
Published October 31st, 2024

Index:
'Thoughts/telepathy'
"Speech"
'Typed/written text'