Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire (11 page)

Side Stories VII
Two roads diverged

Surprisingly, that wasn’t the first time I’d
been surrounded by cops with guns.
Once, when I was at a park with Tess, her
enemy’s house started on fire. Her enemy blamed
her, called the cops on us, and soon enough we
were surrounded. Tess almost got arrested that
day.
I still remember when they threatened to
shoot Tessif she didn’t put her hands up. I had to
give them an alibi, so I told them that we were
both at laser tag; and I showed them the receipt. It
was crazy, but they finally left us alone.
It was a pretty crazy day for both of us.
More so for Tess than me, I’m sure.
That day was the very same day that we
got kidnapped one year later.
It’s crazy how some things work out.
For some reason this makes me think of
this poem:
“The road not taken” by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Isn’t it odd that I thought of that? Maybe it
will make sense later.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Monachi

I
put my hands
up but
Tess
quickly
grabbed them and
put them
down. All
of a
sudden I got a mind message from Tess, saying
“
Don’t give in to them, they’re the enemies.
”

I nodded.

Tess smiled; the way she always smiles
when she has a plan.
One of the cops yelled, “Do anything funny
and we will shoot, and we know about your feet
powers.” That wiped the smile clean off Tess’s
face.
There had to be something we could use
against them. All of a sudden, I had an idea. I
grabbed Tess’s hand and held it tight. I looked at
her and thought;
“
I have a plan…
” Then I told her the entire
plan; from within our minds.
She nodded in agreement.
We let go of each other’s hand.
Using my waterpower, I created a ball; and
suspended it in mid-air.
Then,
Tess
using her
firepower, lit the
water ball on fire. The fire didn’t go out. The form
that the two elements created
seemed pure,
somehow.
It
was
magical,
mythical,
and
supernatural.
The
only
explanation
for
it
was…..
Monachi!
I launched it at some random cop, and
quickly created another ball that Tess then set on
fire. And then another one. Pretty soon it became
a running cycle. Soon, there was only one cop left.
As I readied my next water ball, I suddenly felt a
harsh blow to the side of my head.

Chapter Thirty-Three
Our Death Day

I woke up in a room identical to the last
ultimate prison cell
that we stayed in. What had
happened?

Then
Tess
woke up. She
stretched, and
rubbed the side of her head. “What happened?”
she probed.

“We just got so close to victory, only to
have it stripped away from us. That’s what
happened,” I replied feeling ashamed.

Tess put her hand on my back and smiled a
cold, fake smile while saying, “So, this is it. Our
death day. The day Maddy Webber and Tess
Turner disappear off the face of the Earth

“Guess so. At least we
almost
made it,” I
said, flashing a fake smile right back at her. I
didn’t think anyone could be happy at a time like
this.

All of a sudden we heard the doorknob
turn.

This was it. This was the end. Tess and I
locked hands and shut our eyes.
“We will conduct one or two more tests.
Possibly require you to do something; and then
execute you. Any thoughts?” one of the guards
said.
“I have something to declare,” Tess said
with her eyes still shut.
“What would that be?” he replied.
“I hate your guts,” Tess
said while
I
laughed.
“I get that a lot. Now come with me to your
last hour or two on Earth,” he snickered.
We opened our eyes and got up off the
floor. We walked hand in hand out the door.
The first thing I thought of when I walked
out the door
was
that
everything seemed so
white, and bright; unlike our future. Tess and I
glanced at each other. If this was going to be the
place where we die then why is it so bright?
I squeezed Tess’s hand. It was a foolish
mistake; she thought I
wanted to play
mercy
,
which was one of her favorite games to play. You
see,
mercy
is a pain game where you bend your
opponents hand back until
they scream
for
mercy, from
the pain. Tess
never
lost
at that
game.
While we walked down the halls, I began
thinking up a list of regrets:

1.
Never kissing anyone. I’ve
never
kissed
anyone that wasn’t family,
and probably never will. I’m going to
die not knowing what it’s like to have
your
special
first kiss.

2.
I always played by the rules. I
never
got into trouble at school, and
never
did
anything bad, really. The
worst thing I ever did was that recent
scene with the cops; where Tess and I
formed that
Monachi
ball and wreaked
havoc.

3.
I never told my
crush
I liked
him. I will die knowing that I never told
him, and that he will never know. He
probably doesn’t even know who I am.

I lost my concentration when I heard Tess
starting to hyperventilate. I glanced over at her,
and she looked pale white; dead like. I thought
she was going to pass out right next to me,
again
.
She lost her balance and fell to one knee onto the
floor.

I let go of her hand and knelt down to
comfort her. The guard that was following close
behind us kicked Tess and told her to quit faking
it, and to get up off the ground and keep walking.
I hit him in the shin with my fist and called him a
jerk. He looked at me with an evil eye and told
me to pick her up, and to keep walking.

I helped Tess back to her feet, and we kept
walking. I squeezed her hand trying to calm her
down. Once again, she tried to play
mercy
, but I
shook my head and gave a stern look at her. Is
she crazy? She doesn’t have enough strength to
walk right, but has enough strength to play
mercy.

When we reached the door at the end of the
hall I
knew this
was going to be
our final
challenge.

Penny lied to me.

 

We were going to die.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Our final challenge
I had high hopes of living, after all Penny
was so sure that we were going to live.

 

Thanks for lying to me again, Penny.

 

I’ll tell you a
need to know
story about the
first time she lied to me, later, if I’m still alive.

The guard that was following behind us
opened the door
and pushed us in. Then
he
slammed the door behind us, and I heard the lock
click
. We were locked in. I heard another lock
click
. How many locks were there? I heard about
ten more clicks before it stopped.

I glanced quickly
around the room. It
seemed so isolated; except for Tess and I. Though
it did have many things in it; it had a fish tank, a
bucket, a candle, and a jar. Ok, so I
guess
I
exaggerated when I said
many
.

My first thought was how Tess
and I
seemed to be unsupervised; no camera visible
anywhere. Were they not watching us?
Did they
trust us enough in our last moments on earth, not
to pull any stunts? That wouldn’t be wise of them
at all!

I then noticed a T.V. hanging on the wall. A
T.V.? Really? Do we get to watch a movie? One
last episode of
Doctor Who
. Ha-ha. Sometimes, I
can amuse even myself!

As I continued to look around the room,
this time slower; checking to see if I
missed
anything else, the T.V. suddenly turned on by
itself. A face appeared on screen. It was Zeke.

“Long time no see. How have you been?” I
said casually, as if we were best of friends.
He snickered, and replied, “Good. You look
a mess. Your first assignment is to get all of the
water out of the fish tank, and into the bucket.
Your
assignment …” he started to face Tess, “Is to
singe the water in the bucket after she fills it. You
have one minute.
Go!”

Side Stories VIII
Lies

Here is the last side story for your reading
pleasure.
Ok, so I am still alive; so now is a good
time as any to tell you about the first time that
Penny lied to me. I know it’s a bit off subject, but
here we go...
Just about every day after school Tess stays
with me until my mom or dad picks me up. Well,
one day she had urgent business so she left early.
So while I was waiting by a tree for my
mom to pick me up, Penny came up to me. I
didn’t know her that well; this was the first time
that we had a real conversation.
“Hey Maddy!” she said.
“Hello…um… Penny is it?” I replied.
“Yeah” she replied, and then continued to
say “So, have you
ever wanted to climb that
tree?“
I looked at the tree. “Sometimes, but it
looks too dangerous.”
“Looks can be deceiving. C’mon, just climb
it. I bet it will be fun!” she remarked.
“I really shouldn’t.
I could easily
injure
myself,” I replied.
“I’ve done it before. It’s easier than it looks.
You won’t hurt yourself. Just do it,”
she
continued to pry.
“Fine. Just
stop nagging
me,” I
barked;
giving in. She gave me a boost into the tree. When
I stood up on one of the branches, it broke; and I
fell down, twisting my ankle.
“Oops. You must be a little clumsy,” Penny
said, kneeling next to me.
“You said you’ve done it before. Why
didn’t you warn me about that branch?” I asked.
“I kind of lied when I said I’ve done it
before. That was just to get you to do it.”
On that note, my mom arrived and Penny
bolted. My mom had to take me to the hospital.
By the way, I lied when I said you
needed to
know
this. That was just to make sure you would
come back.
We have all told our share of lies, ha-ha.

Chapter Thirty-Five
The Tasks
I started off as soon as he said…Go!

I had no idea why I was listening to him. I
just wanted to get this done.
As soon as I emptied the 30 gallon fish tank
using my ability to control water, Tess started to
complete her task of evaporating the water. She
started shooting small flames out of her hands,
only to watch them dance around the water’s
edge; and go out.
Tess slapped her hand, and yelled;

“C’mon! you gotta get this DONE!”

All of a sudden, her small flames turned
into a flamethrower. I guess she hadn’t thought of
holding the fire before. Now, as hard as she may
have tried, she just couldn’t shoot small flames
anymore.

After about what seemed like an hour, she
managed to evaporate all of the water, and set the
bucket on fire. That, I believe was an accident; but
with Tess, who knows?

After I put the fiery bucket out using a
water ball, Zeke looked up from his watch and
said, “That took 4 minutes and 36 seconds.” The
T.V. turned off and suddenly, after a bunch of
‘clicks,’
the door behind us opened. We scrambled
to the door like hopeful puppies wanting to go
out, but we didn’t.