Julia Lelieveld and the battle with the underworld
~10~

The next day I was able to pick up my dress at the mall, but I got a call that it wouldn’t be ready until the next day. I went shopping for dinner tonight, because dad’s colleagues came for dinner. Something I had absolutely no interest in. Once he was home for dinner, it would still be about his work.

When I had finished shopping it was only early afternoon. Renzo was with his mom and Dad should come home early if all went well. He had said he could do some work at home before his colleagues arrived. I knew Eva had a match, it had been a while since I’d been there to watch it, so I thought it would be fun to cheer her on. And also to talk to Bas again. I’ve barely been able to speak to them since the fifth element.

It was a beautiful day, the winter sun was doing its best to beat the cold so I decided to go for a walk.

It was crowded with people on the street. Many of them enjoyed the rare sunshine. Lost in thought, I walked to school, but I was jolted out of my thoughts when a large man stood in front of me. I tried to avoid him but he came back to me. I looked up at the man. Why did he do this?

“So you’re the one causing so much commotion and trouble.”

I looked at the man questioningly, what did he mean by that?

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about,” he said viciously.

I looked at him again, somehow he looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him. But what I did know was that this wasn’t right. He seemed to get angry, no patience for my reaction. So without even waiting for my response, he continued.

“Do you know who I am?”, he asked in an inferior manner.

My instinct was immediately ready, this was not good. The intention that came from this man was so dark and evil.

I shook my head.

“I’m Lucas’s father.”

Immediately alarm bells started ringing. This was not good.

I gave him a hard look, trying to figure out if he really intended to attack me here. But that wouldn’t be wise of him, because then Lucas would really get into trouble. I tried to appear calm, as if I wasn’t afraid. Not knowing if he would fall for it.

“That explains a lot,” I said coolly.

He wrinkled his nose and continued aggressively: “A smartass, I will teach you a lesson.”

And before I knew it, he had twisted my arm in such a way that I was in the headlock.

I was shocked, I had not expected this. For a moment it seemed as if panic would take over, but then the fifth element came up in me. I felt the fire grow inside me and with that thought I let the fire go to my arm which he had twisted painfully on my back.

With a great curse he let go and he looked at me angrily and inquiringly.

“So you already know how to handle it?”

And with that question he grabbed me by the throat. No, not this, I thought this was such a terrible thing. Before I knew it, I blew him over with an air orb.

“I’m done! Finished!”, I shouted angrily.

I didn’t let myself be messed with.

He got up. “So he was right. You can really control the fifth element. That’s why he can’t destroy you. Evil feasts on those powers you have,” he said sarcastically. My stomach clenched at the words.

“You put him in a pretty tough spot.”

“He has it all to himself,” I hissed through my teeth. I am really angry now.

“He spends a lot of time with you.”

“Every second is one too many,” I told him.

“Then we agree.”

“That’ll be the last. We’ll never agree on anything, because you’re bad like Lucas.”

“I’ll tell you one thing girl, I’ve already lost a son to such a fucking practitioner. And if that happened to my Lucas, you would have wished you had fallen off that roof. Because then what I’ll do to you will be 100 times worse. I make you suffer so much that you wish for me to kill you. And as soon as you wish, I will deliver you to Evil. Oh, what he’ll have in store for you, I can’t even imagine in my wildest dreams.”

My stomach clenched when he said this. I started to get really angry. I felt my forces pushing on the inside of my palms, which I opened threateningly towards him.

“Watch out girl, my bastard has a soft spot for you, but as soon as he knows you’re hurting me, it’ll be over very soon.”

He confused me and he took advantage of it. He stepped over to me and held out his finger.

“Next time I see my friends, I’ll tell them to cut the knife a little deeper. Then we would have been spared all this.”

I stood transfixed, too amazed at what had just happened.

How mean could someone be, how could he say this?

I bit my lower lip to try to hold back the tears that came into my eyes. There was no point, I couldn’t hold back my emotions. Not with such a thing. How much hate could anyone have in them?

I felt the tears running down my cheeks. I wiped them with the sleeve of my winter coat. The cold wind on my wet cheeks made me shiver. I kept looking at him in the haze of my tears, I didn’t see any emotion on his face. He kept looking straight ahead.

I started to get angry, very angry. Before I started to say or do the wrong thing, before I let my instincts take over, I turned and walked away with big strides. Away from this negative influence.

I had walked to school, where else could I go?

Dad was probably already working at home, Renzo with his mother. The other practitioners were studying with Rob, ignorant of what had just happened.

My tears were still running down my cheeks.

I didn’t feel like having a normal conversation. In questions from Eva and Bas. Which would actually be good for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Careful that I didn’t run into anyone, I walked to the library and up the stairs, to the part where the history books about the town were. I slumped to the floor in front of the old computers with my hands over my face. I didn’t let myself go quickly, but I couldn’t hold back my emotions now. I had bottled them up for so long.

I don’t know how long I sat like this, but after a while my tears ran out and I just stared straight ahead. Going through my mind about everything that had happened. I shook my head, had all this really happened?

I turned a quarter turn so I could look out the window.

I looked at the bicycle shed and the entrance from the street. I already saw many children leave on their bicycles home, I looked at my phone, was it that late already? Indeed, as I focused on the elements, I felt that the sun was already setting and the moon was doing its best to bring a little light into the darkness through the clouds.

As I accepted the elements I also felt the fifth element, how stupid I hadn’t done this before. I immediately felt a kind of peace come over me. The spirit side of the fifth element made me feel better. I breathed in and out a few times and decided to go home. I got up and walked across the creaky floor to the grand staircase. Once downstairs I felt yet another individual. I looked around, but saw no one. Trying to shake my mind, I walked off the school grounds. Damn, now I had to walk all the way home. The wind had grown stronger and now that the sun had set, it began to cool quickly. I zipped up my winter coat all the way to the top so I had a big collar to hide behind. I knew I could influence the weather, but it didn’t feel right to do it for no reason.

I knew I could always fall back on the elements, but only when needed. And now? Now it was not necessary.

After a few minutes I got that same feeling again as I had in the library. I turned around but saw no one and started walking faster.

The feeling didn’t go away, it just got stronger.

I stopped abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk. I closed my eyes and concentrate fully on the elements. I heard every movement around me. A cyclist crossing the intersection in front of me. Someone pushing his trash can forward. A bird at the top of the tree. And there was the sound I was looking for. A rustle in the bushes diagonally behind me. It wasn’t an animal, because it didn’t make much noise. Geez, why hadn’t I heard this before?

I turned around and now I saw a shadow indeed. A small shiver ran down my spine. I felt my powers gathering in my hands, ready to strike when it was needed.

“Who is there?” I asked calmly.

Nothing.

“I know you’re in the bushes, I even think I’m looking right at you right now.”

I tried my best not to blink my eyes.

After a few seconds, the shadow stepped onto the sidewalk.

“Lucas?”

I knew he had to watch me, but any time of the day?

He shrugged, his hands in the pockets of his black winter coat.

“What are you doing here?”

“You know what I’m doing here.” His voice was calm. He seemed to sound concerned.

I was taken aback for a moment. He looked like the Lucas for a while before all the powers came. The Lucas who comforted and held me in the gym after Eva’s practice match. The Lucas who was genuinely interested at the time.

I shook my head. No, this was not possible. This is also the Lucas who pushed me off the roof. Tried to kill me.

He seemed to be observing me. His dark eyes stared at me intently.

“You don’t have to follow me every moment.”

“I know.”

“Why are you doing it then?”

He shrugged again.

“So that was you in the library.”

He nodded. Geez, he was so quiet. I was used to it from Renzo, but Lucas always had a rebuttal.

Would he have seen me? I lost myself in the library at that moment, it is that the elements again ensured that I could replace myself again and pick myself up again. He still hadn’t said anything and he was still looking at me.

“What do you want, Lucas!?” I asked a little too loudly.

“I just wanted to know if you’re okay.”

I looked at him questioningly. Did he really mean this?

Yes, he really meant it. Did he really care? Or was he playing a game?

“As if that interests you.”

He shrugged again, it started to irritate me.

“Is there anything else you can do but shrug your shoulders?”

“It looked pretty intense, okay? I thought..., I don’t know what I was thinking.” And with those words he turned and walked away.

I was nailed to the curb. Watching Lucas in the darkness until his shadow disappeared.

What had just happened?

It seemed like Lucas was genuinely concerned about me? Or did I see that wrong?

I tried to get rid of the weird unexpected feeling by walking home quickly. But still, what had just happened kept running through my mind.

When I was almost home I saw Dad’s car in the driveway and the light glowing invitingly. Fine, he was home.

I felt my face, luckily my eyes weren’t so swollen anymore. An advantage that I healed quickly, I was not injured, but fortunately the moisture around my eyes disappeared quickly. I entered the kitchen through the garage. And immediately my father walked up to me.

“Where were you? I’ve been trying to call you the whole time!”

Oh dear, he was angry.

“Sorry Dad, I went to watch the game at school.”

“Where is your head? We get my colleagues to eat and I don’t see anything prepared yet.”

He ran frantically through the kitchen. Oh shit! How could I have forgotten that. How stupid of me.

“I’ll get to work right away, okay Dad.”

I threw my bag in the corner and first I put the meat in the oven. That took the longest. I could kick myself.

Fortunately it was not all very complicated, tasty, but simple.

When his colleagues arrived, I made some toast and Dad opened a bottle of wine. That way I still had some time. Fortunately it all went well. Dad said he was proud of me when his colleagues went home and I fell asleep with my head full of police stories.

The next day, after cleaning and doing my homework, I went to the mall to pick up my dress. I automatically looked at the gray narrow door between the shops. I haven’t seen Renzo’s motorcycle yet. He was still with his mother. He said he tried to be back today, but so far hadn’t been able to. With an unsteady feeling I ran to the department store on autopilot and got into the elevator. Just before the door closed, someone else stepped in.