Julia Lelieveld and the battle with the underworld
~23~

“Are you okay?” I looked around confused for a moment, sweat was on my head. I nodded. “Nightmare.” I looked outside and it was thundering. “What time is it?” Lucas picked up his phone. “It’s half past one, maybe we can go right away.” I sat down and leaned on my knees for a moment. Only then did I realize that I was only wearing a bra and a thong. Shit. I looked at Lucas and he just looked away from me. He got up quickly. “I’m going to get ready for the ride,” he said quickly. I nodded and looked after him. The genes ran in the family. Lucas had a nicely toned body. Jesus Julia, act normal, you’re here for completely different things. I shook my head and got out of bed too. Luckily our clothes were dry again. When Lucas was done, I shot past him and prepared for the long drive to come. When we were done we walked downstairs, the bar was still open and the man looked at us questioningly. Lucas handed him the key and waved goodbye. The man understood and greeted us in his own language. Once outside, it turned out that it had stopped raining. We put on our helmets and drove on towards Romania.

After half an hour I saw Lucas look behind us a few times. I followed his gaze and saw a car with square headlights driving ahead. It must be about half past one now and we hadn’t seen anyone yet. Lucas accelerated a bit and I kept an eye on the car. After half an hour he was still behind us. Lucas looked back again. He shook his head. Shit, this wasn’t good. He turned into a side road that lay between the trees, not much later I saw the square headlights again. I gave Lucas a squeeze on his side and he understood me immediately. He went a little faster and turned into a dirt road. He turned off his lights and we took shelter behind some big trees. He gestured for me to be quiet. I nodded and less than a minute later the car passed. I saw there were three people inside and they were all peering through the windshield. Those sitting on the back seat just looked to the side in our direction. Luckily it was night and he couldn’t possibly see us. We waited a few more minutes when Lucas got back on the bike and I followed suit, we had to get out of here. But the moment Lucas wanted to switch on his bike, I squeezed his shoulder hard. Shit, there was another car with 4 other people in it. This time they drove a lot slower.

We stood like statues so hopefully they wouldn’t see us. This time they had flashlights and shone into the woods. I focused on the elements and pretty soon I felt life around me. The bushes in front of us were not big enough to cover us with the motorbike and all. I called to Earth and opened my hand to the bush and let it grow into a big bush. Lucas took off his helmet and looked at me wide-eyed. When the bush was big enough I thanked Earth in my mind and looked at Lucas. Now I was the one who made the sign for him to be quiet. He nodded, but kept looking at me. His eyes glittered in the night. He studied my face and then picked up my hand to see if it looked different. His strong big hands held mine gently, he ran his index finger over the palm of my hand which gave a tingling sensation. He shook his head, not understanding that there was nothing to see on my hand, when energy had just come out to make the bush grow. It helped, the car drove gently past. We didn’t wait a second and drove off in the direction we came from. Once back on the hard road, Lucas drove as fast as possible, I held him tight and squeezed my eyes shut. I thought it was terrifying. The little bit of light shining on the road from his headlight wasn’t enough to see what was coming in the distance. But Lucas didn’t seem bothered by it. After driving for about an hour and a half, Lucas stopped at a gas station. As with the previous times, he filled up his engine while I already walked to the shop to stock up on food and drinks for the road. When he came in I had gathered enough and we paid quickly and drove on. After another hour and a half he turned onto a small road and after five minutes he stopped at a wooden hut. He stopped his engine and got off. I looked at him questioningly. “These are hunting huts, they are all over the country. We need to rest and have some food and come up with a strategy.” I nodded and followed him. The cabin was small. There were two wooden beds, a table and three crutches. You could also light a fire and there was a kettle next to it. I sat down on one of the crutches and Lucas followed suit. He rubbed his hands and blew into them. “Is it safe enough to light a fire?” I asked him. He looked out and nodded. “I think so, it’s still too dark to trace the signals back to us.” I went outside and looked for some wood, which was not difficult, because there turned out to be a stock of firewood behind the house. I heard a river flowing and I felt the elements come alive around me. It felt good. I came back with my arms full. I saw Lucas searching his cell phone. I put the wood on the fire pit and I let the elements come to me, the comfortable feeling took over me. I felt myself getting all warm just to think of Fire. I had to remember this for next time. My arm started to tingle and got hotter and hotter and before I knew it a fireball was dancing on my palm. I fired the ball to the wood and it caught fire right away. Gratefully I sat down next to it and warmed my hands, not long after Lucas came and sat next to me followed my example. “I really needed this,” he said. I looked at him and he looked tired. “It sure is exhausting driving in the dark like that.” He nodded. “Especially when I have to drive so fast, I have to concentrate very much on the road and what’s coming.” “What do you think is coming?” I asked him. He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. “I’m afraid they’re onto us. When you use your powers, they make you feel better. Just with the bush and now with the fire. As if I’m being pulled towards you and can’t leave you anymore.” He shrugged embarrassingly. I looked at him with wide eyes.

He had changed. He wasn’t talking about how badly he wanted to destroy me or how hard it was to be around me. ‘When did it happen?’ He looked at me questioningly and then he understood what I meant. “You made me think about other feelings. And when my father was killed I think I turned the switch.” “And how do you feel now?”

“It seems that I have less urge to perform, I always had the idea that I had to prove myself to my father. I looked up the problems and that’s gone now and it actually feels pretty good.” I smiled at him. “Nice to hear that,” I told him. He nodded. “But you remember how they think, what’s our plan? Would they have followed us this far?” He shook his head. “No, I do not think so. But they have connections everywhere, especially in these countries. It won’t be long before others replace us. We have to stay in the same place for a short while, so I suggest we eat something and maybe sleep for an hour and then continue. It’s still a few hours’ drive to the place where I hope to replace answers, so I want to drive there in one go.” “Sounds good.” I grabbed the food and drink and we both took some. It started to get comfortable in the cabin. I folded my bag under my head and lay down on the wooden bed. It was not comfortable, but I was so tired that it didn’t matter. Lucas set his alarm and lay down too. I was woken up by the crackling of the wood. I was immediately alert. The fifth element was on edge, this was not good. I pushed Lucas against his shoulder and he woke up with a start. “What is it?” he asked when he saw my look. “It doesn’t feel right, I think we should move on. I have a feeling that Evil or e-warriors are nearby.” He closed his eyes and sat very still for a moment, when he opened them again he was alert too. “You’re right, shit, they found us. Come on, let’s go.” We packed our bags and walked out of the cabin, but we were too late. There were six men facing us. Lucas quickly took my bag and threw our bags in the cabin where his motorcycle was also.

We stood next to each other with our backs to the hut, I saw that there were at least 4 men who were possessed, with the other two I couldn’t see it. Either they had strong powers that made it hard to tell they were possessed, or they were e-warriors. They looked at us intently.

“We were looking for you, and here you are,” one laughed. “You know, the girl can’t die,” said another. They nodded and I saw one crack his fingers, he opened his hand and an energy ball was created. Shit! I felt fire flowing to my fingertips and as he took a step forward and raised his hand, I rushed a ball of fire towards him. He was fast and his energy ball collided with my fireball. I saw him smile maliciously. “Okay guys, this is going to be fun,” he yelled. And when he had said that, all six of them came running towards us, I felt the fifth element come to me in addition to the four elements, I stamped my foot on the ground and a crack appeared in the ground between Lucas, me and the men. And from the crack came up my protective shield. The men hadn’t seen it and bumped into the shield. I saw them looking angry. It cost me a lot of energy, I was not going to keep this up all the time. “Julia, are you okay? Can you keep them away from us for long?” Lucas asked. I shook my head. “No, not very long, this takes a lot of energy.” He nodded. “Should we fight them better?” he asked. “It’s six against two, how do you rate our odds?” “You’re right, they are stronger, I feel their powers are well developed.” “Shit, can’t we run? Will you pack your bike and our bags, get ready and as soon as I lower the shield we’ll drive away?”

I saw Lucas think, I felt myself getting weaker, I really wasn’t going to last long. And then he nodded. I saw him disappear into the hut. I watched the men kicking the shield in annoyance, some firing their powers at it which only cost me more energy to stop them. And this they saw, they regained hope and all raged against the shield. So they were all possessed. I heard Lucas’s bike come to life behind me. “Come on Julia, get up carefully. When you’re sitting I’ll drive away as fast as I can.” Without letting go of the six men, I sat on the back of Lucas and he drove away. I was able to hold the shield for a while, but after 20 feet this was gone. I slumped wearily against Lucas and I felt him hold my hands together against his stomach with one hand. I looked back at the men and they ran towards us, they all raised their hands and fired one big fireball towards us, it was fast. “Lucas, watch out!” I shouted, but it was no use. The fireball hit us both hard in the back. I felt the bike slip under us and we fell hard to the ground. We got up as fast as we could, but the pain made it too slow. They were already standing over us and before I knew it they had our hands tied behind our backs. I looked at Lucas, he had a small wound right above his eye. They picked us up roughly and dragged us further into the woods. I focused on the elements, they weren’t as powerful anymore because of the shield, but I let fire burn the ropes around my wrists. And immediately shot a ball at the one who pulled me forward. He let out a cry and fell forward. Quickly I fired three more balls at the others, some falling, but others deftly dodging them. They ran towards me and I quickly fired an orb at them, one was hit and the last one was in front of me and was faster than me. He slapped me hard against my temple and I felt dizzy. He kicked me in the knees causing me to fall to the ground. I grabbed his ankle and let fire burn his skin. He screamed. He grabbed me by the throat and literally lifted me off the ground, leaving me unable to breathe. Flashbacks ran through my mind and I went wild with rage. I called on Air with all my strength and it helped, Air pushed me up, loosening the man’s grip. His eyes widened. I kicked his face and he fell to the ground. I also collapsed on the floor. This really took a lot of strength. I searched the area. I saw two other men lying on the floor. Two men stood with Lucas and one came my way. He opened his hands together and some sort of electricity crackled between them. With a thrust of his open hands he hit me hard on my chest which threw me back a few meters, I hit a tree causing me to flop over and catch my breath. This didn’t go well. I felt him grab me and get another hard blow to my head, it became dizzy and then my eyes went black.