Battle of the Elements
Chapter 8 Titania

The woman stood in the garden. Her red hair was matted and frizzy. Her dark, dark eyes were switching and her black dress was no longer beautiful, instead, it was ripped and creased and only helped her look even more insane. She had a knife in her hand. Mar, Hank, Melanie, Jake and Bridgette were standing on the porch, Alex, Dane and Harrison were behind me.

The woman smiled, but it wasn’t a kind smile. It was more a smile of pure lunacy than any sort of affection. I shivered at the sheer eeriness of her. Her expression didn’t change as she spoke. But when she spoke, the voice didn’t belong to a woman, it was higher and rusty but also sounded slightly familiar. “You are trying to ruin my plans to save this village. I am very angry.”

Bridgette smiled, “So?”

“I’m afraid this form won’t do at the moment. It’s a shame, really.” She clutched the knife in her hands and raised it to her throat. I held my breath as the woman slid the knife across her throat, soaking the silver surface with red. But that wasn’t what made me so scared I wanted to cry. What made me want to cry in fear was the smile on the woman’s face as she died, then, she turned to ash and then, that ash disappeared into thin air.

A girl stepped out of the trees just beyond the front fence. Then the owner of the voice came to me. The red hair, the dark eyes, the cracked voice. Abby stood in front of the woods, she wasn’t smiling, she was just muttering. Three more figures came out of the woods. A boy, around five-years-old with red, shaggy hair, his eyes were blue and avoid of emotions – lifeless. A man, around thirty with dead, blue eyes and blonde hair and a muscly build. Then the woman; the one who I had just saw die, wearing an ordinary brown dress.

Abby walked into the garden. The three people followed her silently. Abby stopped in the middle of the garden, only a few meters away. A smirk appeared on her cracked lips, “Hello. We have met before, haven’t we?”

Bridgette nodded once and I did the same.

“Good. I want to fight.”

Bridgette’s smile widened, “Great.”

“I’ll go first.” She said just as the boy behind her disappeared then reappeared next to Jake. He threw a punch and Jake caught it in his hand, then they vanished and reappeared in the yard. The boy and Jake started fighting, throwing punches and kicks rapidly.

Bridgette threw a fireball, but as soon as it was about to hit her, the man held out his hand and the ball hit an invisible wall and rebounded. Dane jolted forward, pushing me out of the way as it crashed into the doorway.

I got to my feet, dazed as the house erupted in flames. Screams filled the air, making it hard to breath – or maybe that was the smoke. I felt Dane’s rough hands on my back, leading me away from the house in a frenzy. I caught a glimpse of Bridgette diving into the fire. Harrison was next to Dane and I, a streak of blood ran across his cheek. Mar was clutching Hank as her house burned to the ground. Hank was staring at Abby with a burning hatred. Melanie and Jake were fighting head on with the teleporting boy as he tried to come closer towards us. Bridgette emerged from the flames, hauling something big out from the house desperately. Alex. Without thinking, I pulled away from Dane and ran to him. Bridgette wasn’t harmed apart from a few scratches on her arms and legs. She hauled him away from the house and sat him down on a patch of bare soil. Alex was unconscious. His clothes were ripped and burnt, burns covered his body and a nasty cut was placed on his right leg. His face was covered in ashes and dirt. I put my finger to his throat and felt the fast paced thumping of his heartbeat. I felt Bridgette put a hand on my shoulder, “You ok to take care of him?”

I nodded. She already knew me well enough to know what I would do. I took a breath, let the strength kick in and soon, it was just me and Alex. I kicked into action, pulling herbs from the ground in a frenzy of magic. I tore my dress at the hem and ripped up one of the plants, making sure the juice leaked onto the material before tying it around his cut, making a temporary bandage. I crushed some of the plants in my hand and added some water from a hose, making a burn ointment.

I put the ointment on his burns and just as I pulled away, I felt two hands pull me back sharply. The woman had a knife in her hand once again and this time, she wanted to kill someone else. She raised the knife into the air. I flexed my hand and two, giant tree roots came out of the ground and wrapped around her waist and neck. Then, they dragged her down into the ground, swallowing her whole.

A rush of power exploded from the scene around me, sending me off my feet. I looked up to see Bridgette, wrapped in a ball of growing, erupting flame.