The Fifth Element
Chapter Twenty-One

The first thing my mother did after crying a river and almost squeezing the life out of me was to yell at me.

“I can’t believe you snuck out in the middle of the night again, and you would have thought you would have learned your lesson from the first time!”

“Yeah, you would think,” I agreed with her silently in my head.

My mom sighed in defeat and pressed her fingers against her temples. “I guess all that matters is that you’re safe and back home.”

“I wouldn’t presume she’s safe,” we all turned to look at Neeva, “All of the people who are standing here aren’t safe! You can’t have it in your beliefs that the magic council will let her go that easily, do you? Daughter needs to come with me, and only then will she be in safety.”

“Hold on just a second. Why should we go with you, how do we know we can trust you? Like you can’t even form a correct sentence. Who talks like that!?”

“Violet-” my mom began, but Neeva held out his hand and stopped her.

“Let her finish,” he said to my mother before he turned to me,“But to start off my conversation, my speech is formed like this from spending too long in purgatory, which I entered not long after the around the day you arrived in this world most likely. In purgatory, you cannot speak, and I have forgotten how to do so correctly. I spend most of my time there, there in the land of trapped souls. You have passed through it with your servant I believe. Your servant is the one who retrieved me. Now, speak about whatever you are about to say. ” He nodded for me to continue.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Let’s start off with where were you my entire life? You knew these freaky power ran in the family, so why the hell would you leave me to deal with them on my own? I mean newsflash, I can wipe out an entire army just like that!” I snapped my fingers.

Neeva flinched at my words, but he didn’t lower his eyes from mine. He took a deep breath. “I didn’t want to cause interference with the life you were living. I just wanted you to be happy and normal within your life if I was around you would receive a different type of existence,” he explained.

I felt a wave of anger hit me. I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. “Are you kidding me, if anything your plan did the opposite! Maybe if you had stuck around you could have explained what was happening to me, helped me control my magic, hid me from the council, etc. You can do stuff like that, can’t you!!? I can sense it.”

“I didn’t know whether or not you had them yet. The fifth element doesn’t get passed along to every generation Neeva’s voice grew a little bit louder. “I didn’t even know I had conceived a child until a couple of years ago. I discovered this truth when I journeyed back to the living world to check on your mom one day,” his voice softened. “I just couldn’t help myself, I had to know if she had chosen life,” he glanced at my mom shyly. “When I did eventually replace her I saw you. I knew little lost you were my offspring. It wasn’t not from feelings. It was obvious after all.” He gestured to his eye and then mine, and smile. His smiled dropped when I didn’t return it.

I still didn’t buy his reasons for abandoning my mom and me completely. “Yeah kind of obvious,” I replied dryly.

He did his best to ignore my comment and went on. “I waited till you spent sixteen years on this earth to see if you had the... ah, gift. But I was too slow, the council had already found you, so I sent my shadows to protect you, but something drove them off.”

Wait,” I held up my finger, “did those shadows happen to be all black with white glowing eyes?”

He nodded and add. “Sorry did they cause fright within you?”

“Kind of but that’s not the point. If you were in control of those monsters does that mean you’re responsible for all those disappearances that were happening in theses woods?”

Neeva hastily shook his head no. “I don’t have anything any relating actions with those missing children.

“Okay fair enough,” I gave him a thumbs up and turned my attention to Emily. “Now explain why you had to get Emily involved in this mess.” I gestured at her.

Danny was the one to answer. “She’s the closest person to you after your mom, so the council would probably go after her too. It’s not safe for her or her entire family.”

I looked at Emily mortified. So he