Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire (10 page)

“No, just no!” I replied. Hitchhiking was
a scary thought.
All
the
stories
I’ve
heard
about
hitchhikers never end well. Either the hiker died,
or the driver.
“Maybe
if
we
could
borrow
someone’s
phone, we could call home,” s he offered. That
was actually a really good idea.
We went up to a nice looking man. He
looked like he couldn’t do much harm.
But then again, looks can be deceiving.

Tess
decided she would start off the
conversation with this stranger. “Hello mister, we
are lost and we can’t find our parents so we we’re
wondering if we can borrow your cell phone to
call them,” she asked.

Seemed like a legit excuse.
He stood there, leaned back on one of his
legs, looked
back
and forth
at
me
and Tess,
scanning
us head to toe for
about a
minute,
scratching his hairy chin, thinking about it.
He rubbed his forehead and replied, “Sure.
It’s in my car. Follow me.”
Tess and I looked at each other quizzically,
and smiled. We were one step closer to getting
home.
When we got to his car, I began to get
cheerfully hopeful. He
opened his back door,
reached in, and started fumbling through a bag.
After a few mumbling choice words to himself,
he got his cell phone out, turned it on, and was
about to give it to Tess, when there was a change
in motion.
He grabbed Tess’s arm, and flung her into
the backseat of his car. As soon as I realized what
was happening, I tried to run, but he grabbed my
arm and threw me into the car too. He slammed
the door closed, wiggled the handle to make sure
it was closed all the way, and went around to the
other side of the car, and jumped into the driver’s
seat.
I tried to open the car door, but it must
have been on child-lock, or something. I started
banging on the door; “Let us out!” I screamed.
Tess pushed me back into my seat.
“Let’s see how well this door holds up
while it’s on fire,” Tess said while raising her
hand.
Just then, he turned around from the front
seat and said, “This car is magic-proof.” Even
after he said that, Tess tried to set the door on
fire, but the sparks just wouldn’t come out.
“Who are you?” I asked, half yelling.
“I belong to a secret organization that helps
people find
magical
beings
. You two are very
smart; you managed to escape twice.
But not
anymore because we’ve got you now.”
I sat still; we were in for it now, again. Tess
didn’t give up though. That was one of the notso-good things about Tess. She didn’t know when
to stop, or give in.
She started pounding on the windows. It
kind of reminded me of when she pounded on
the back doors of the van a few days ago, when
we first got kidnapped.
“There has to be a way to break these
windows!” Tess yelled while pounding on the
windows even harder.
“They’re made of bulletproof glass,” the
man announced.
Tess didn’t settle down even after his
announcement. “We have gotten too far, and
have been through too much to give up now,” she
bellowed.
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Tess, it’s
time to give in,” I told her.
She looked at her feet. “I know, but I don’t
want to face defeat.”
Oh Tess, don’t worry. I have a plan.

We sat in the car, completely silent and
still.
I started to develop my plan. I figured out
that even if we get put into those anti-magic suits
we could still use the magical powers in our feet.
That means Tess could freeze people, and we
could run away.
After I was pretty satisfied with my plan I
asked the driver, “Where exactly are we going?
We burned down both labs, you know.”
“We are going to North Dakota where we
have
a secret lab
deep beneath
the hills,” he
replied.
I said, “So technically we’re going to Area
51.”
“You could call it that, even though that’s
not accurate,” he replied.
I settled back down into my seat. This was
going to be a long, boring ride.
I
learned
that after
a while of being
trapped, your imagination is crucial. If you don’t
have imagination, you would be bored out of
your mind. I couldn’t let that happen.
I noticed a small piece of purple clay on the
floor of the car, next to my feet.
Trying not to be so obvious, I slowly bent
over and picked it up. It was soft and warm. It
felt kinda nice in my hand.
I drifted.
I used my imagination to create a story
about this little piece of clay: I pretended that…

It used to be a large rock that lived at the
top of a dead forest, and one day it rolled down
the misty mountain, and plummeted off a jagged
cliff.
It
landed on
an even bigger
rock and
shattered into thousands of little balls of purple
clay that landed on pocket watches in the river
below. Suddenly, an eraser started erasing the
water in synch to a humming sound.

At that moment I realized that Tess was
humming a song that she loved.
I didn’t mind it, but she LOVED it and
made me listen to it all the time.
I could tell what part she was on:

There’s just too much
that time cannot erase!
When you cried,
I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream,
I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand
through all of these years

Yeah, I know you might think it’s a good
song, but it loses its touch after the tenth time of
listening to it.

We kept on driving in complete silence. I
was really bored, so I looked outside the window
and tried to imagine myself sitting on a pocket
watch going over a water fall and… It was getting
dark, and I could barely hold my eyelids open. I
couldn’t help myself, and fell asleep.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the first time I smelt
that smell.
My eyes shot awake. I looked over at Tess.
Her hands were on fire. “Ha-ha! I out smarted the
magic-proof car!” she cried.
The driver slammed on his brakes when
she said, “Now let us go or I’ll burn you and your
car to death!”
He
thought about it for
a second. Who
would need to think about this decision? I saw
him make a grab for the glass water bottle next to
him. I tried to move it using my mind control, but
failed to do so.
He used the bottle, and poured some water
onto Tess; making her fists dry. Tess stood up as
best as she could and looked at her fists. “How
could that be? I didn’t put them out.”
“You powers are weak in here,” he replied.
Tess sat back down.
Well, that theory failed. Soaking wet, she
felt like a failure.
Yay for her!
She crossed her arms
and started to pout. She looked like a two year
old.
Tess put the seat back; ready to take a nap.
I didn’t do the same, even though I desperately
wanted too. Instead, I
asked a question that
neither of us had asked. “What’s your name?”
He said, “My name is not crucial to the
mission.”
“No seriously, it’s a harmless question,” I
remarked.
Aggravated, he said; “You don’t need to
know!”
“Just tell me, you have nothing to lose,” I
replied.
He held the steering wheel tight; so tight
that his knuckles turned white. “I don’t know, I
was brainwashed to forget it. That’s why I’m on
this mission; so that I could get my name back.”
I leaned back in my chair. This is
some
drama; too much drama for me. But then again,
these past few days have been very dramatic.
I leaned my chair back and looked at the
celling. “So, if you knew your name, you would
let us go?” I asked.
“Not exactly, I’m also on this mission
because I think you are dangerous, and should be
killed.”
“What?! You mean, they’re going to kill
us?” Tess shouted, making my ears go numb.
“You guys have caused so many deaths in
the fires you’ve created. Plus, you’re not normal,
and are a danger to society.”
“Trust me; I’ve heard that all my life.
Being
a danger,
” Tess replied lying down. It’s true. She
has often been told that. For goodness sake, she
knows how to kill someone with anything, even a
thumbtack. She knows how to kill someone and
make it look like an accident; even a suicide.
She started humming a different song than
before; I could even tell what part she was on, in
this song:

‘
Think of something Tess, you always come
through for me’
Suddenly, Tess stopped humming and I
heard a voice in my head saying:

‘Hello? Maddy, was that you? This is Tess by
the way, if you can hear me.’
I was freaked out for a second.
Then I thought:
‘Are we mind-messaging each other? I think we
are. This is a little freaky. If we are, and you can
actually get this; say pickles.’
All of a sudden, and not in my head; Tess
said, “Pickles are wonderful!”

I shot my eyes open again. Is this what
happens every time I close my eyes?
Tess’s hair was on fire, but she was extra
careful not to set the car on fire.
At least not yet.
Tess grabbed the water bottle that he used
before, and threw it into the trunk area behind
her. “Now let us go and no one gets hurt.”
He shook his head. “No way, I know you
don’t have the guts to set this car on fire.”
Tess hesitated.
He was winning against her, and I knew
she didn’t like it.
“This isn’t right. This isn’t humane!” she
yelled.
“Has anything around you been humane
these past few days?” he responded.
He was right.
Still, Tess didn’t set her hair out. There was
no way she was going down without a fight.
Without a rebellion.
Without protest.
Without insubordination.
Tess decided to give him one last chance.
“It’s either us gone, or
your life gone. Your
choice. Whatwill it be?”
He sighed. “I’m not letting you go,” he
decided.
“Fine. Your
life then,” Tess
said. She
unleashed her hair, setting the car ablaze.

Why would you set the car on fire while
we’re still in it?” I yelled.
“Because I can do this!” she said, while
setting her door on fire. It didn’t melt, or even
start to go down. “Um… oops this isn’t going
according to plan,” she remarked.
“You just noticed that?” I replied.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t expect the door to be
fire-proof!" she yelled.
We only have one option; to put the fire
out. I put my hand out and concentrated.

I thought out loud.
All of a sudden, the water ball appeared,
and I threw it against the door, putting the flames
on the door out.
Tess stood up, even though it was hard to
do in a moving car. She grabbed the glass water
bottle that she had thrown into the trunk area
behind her, and smashed the driver across the
head with it; knocking him over-and-out!
“We have to move…NOW!” Tess yelled.
“What about him?” I asked.
“Never mind him, we have to leave!”
The car started to slow down as Tess put
her hand on my shoulder, used me as leverage,
and jumped into the driver’s seat, and on top of
the slumped over man. She flung open the door
and jumped out.
With one of my hands, I grabbed the driver
seat head rest, and jumped into the front seat.
Scared as hell, I glanced out past the open driver
door, as the road was just a moving blur, and
hesitated. Tess ran alongside the car as it slowed
down even more. “Maddy, I know you can do
this. JUST JUMP!” She exclaimed.
I closed my eyes and jumped out.

Tess looked at me, and hugged me. “You’re
alive!” she said.
“Yeah…what happened?” I asked. I had no
clue, whatsoever.
She said, “Well, let’s just say it’s not wise to
jump out of a moving car with your eyes closed.”
I replied, “I blacked out?”
“Sort of…well… yes,” Tess remarked.
Touching the side of my aching forehead, I
replied, “Well now I know not to jump out of
cars.” I felt blood. Dizzy, I Looked at my hands.
“How long was I out for?” I asked.
“It’s been about an hour. That blood
is
nearly dry,” I replied.
I got up. “So we escaped yet again, now
what?” I asked.
“Well, I wouldn’t say
escaped
. Look around,
haven’t you noticed?” Tess remarked.
I looked around: we were surrounded by
cops with guns.