Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire (5 page)

I opened my eyes.
Nope. Not a dream.
Even if this was a dream, it would be more

Tess started walking slowly. I was about to
give in, but I followed her. After all, neither of us
would like to be alone at a time like this.

Tess and I walked on. “I don’t care if they
find us again. I won’t even put up a fight,” she
cried.

“Don’t say that, please don’t say that,” I
pleaded.
“I’d rather just die than go through another
minute of this,” she moaned.
“Tess, I know you don’t mean it. You’re
just getting melancholia.”
Tess wiped the tears off of her face and
asked, “Are we ever going to get home?” That
was a question I couldn’t answer. “I mean it,
Maddy. At least we’d be with Penny and Briana
in the afterlife,” she said at last.
We walked on. Questions began sprouting
in my head. Were our parents worried? Were the
cops nearby? Were we ever going to get home?
Tess was still upset.
I wanted to raise her spirits. Tess loved
singing. Maybe if I began to sing, she would join
in.
“I got this feeling on a summer day when you
were gone…”
I began.
Tess joined in, singing the clean version.
“… I crashed my car into a bridge. I watched. I let it
burn…”
We both started singing,
“I threw your stuff
into a bag and pushed it down the stairs. I crashed my
car into the bridge…”
We paused.
“I don’t care!”
Tess shouted.
“I love it!”
I sang.
We began singing together again.
“I don’t
care! I got this feeling on a summer day when you
were gone. I crashed my car into a bridge, I watched. I
let it burn. I threw your stuff into a bag and pushed it
down the stairs. I crashed my car into the bridge. I
don’t care, I love it! I don’t care!”
We paused again and got into individual
roles.
“You’re on a different road…”
she began.
“…I’m in the Milky Way…”
“…You want me down on Earth…”
“…But I am up in space…”
“…You’re so hard to please...”
“…We gotta kill this switch…”
“…You’re from the 70s…”
“…But I’m a 90s chick!”
We both finished with
“I love it!”
We laughed.
Tess gave me a hug, but grimaced when
she moved her arm. “Thanks for that,” she said.
We sang the rest of the song to brighten up
our spirits. Tess wanted to sing loads more songs
to pass the time, so we did.
After we finished the tenth song, it was
about 10:45 p.m. We decided to rest up, since we
were walking more tomorrow. Though we really
had no idea where we were going.
We found a nice spot in the middle of a
corn field where there was a nice, big tree. I
looked out into the distance. I saw a little house in
the distance with its lights on. “Hey Tess, do you
think we can ask the people who live there if we
can stay the night?”
She looked out. “Sure, we have nothing to
lose anyway.”
We walked about half a mile and reached
the house. I knocked on the door. Tess loves
singing to crowds but she just can’t talk to people
she doesn’t really know, without blushing. “Hey
Maddy, come take a look at this.”
I went over to her. “What is it?” I asked
while heading over. I saw something sad.
I think we both knew where we were now.

It was a ‘missing sign’ with a picture of
Briana on it.
All of a sudden the door swung open and
someone said, “Hello?”
I
ran over
to the door
and responded,
“Hello, may we come in? We have some updates
on Briana’s case.” I wasn’t entirely sure if they
cared, butit’s the first thing that came to mind.
The lady smiled and let us in. Then she
yelled, “Honey, get down here. These kids know
something about Briana!”
Once the husband came down, we sat on
the couch. They introduced themselves to us.
“My name is Claudia, and this is Clemmence.
We’re Briana’s parents.”
I smiled and said, “I’m Maddy, and this is
Tess.”
Tess waved and said, “Hi. Nice to meet
you.”
They were impatient. “Where is she? Is
Briana ok?” Claudia asked.
Tess decided to speak. “Are you both
aware that your daughter isn’t exactly, um,
normal,
right?”
They sighed. “We know that one day the
police came to our
house
and took
Briana,
charging her for being a Nymph. That’s all we
know.”
I began to tell them what happened next.
“Well, she was taken to a jail with two other girls
and a guy. The others were dissected. When she
tried to escape she was hit by a car. I’m so sorry. I
really am.”
It was silent for awhile. “It’s not your fault.
It’s fine,” Clemmence said; a tear rolling down his
cheek. Claudia started to bawl and buried her
face in her hands.
“How do you know all of this?” A crying
Claudia asked.
“Well…” Tess began. We were in a tricky
situation.
“We’re not exactly
normal
either,” I
finished.
There was an awkward silence. “Out of my
house!” Clemmence yelled; “OUT!”
“You didn’t even bother to save my
daughter when she needed help the most; I want
you out of this house NOW!” Tess and I bolted
out of there as quickly as possible.
We walked back to the tree. Tess
had
managed to smuggle two pillows and a gigantic
blanket out of the house while they were sobbing.
We set up camp. It was actually really
comfortable. We looked up
at
the
stars. Tess
pointed at Polaris, the North Star. “If we head
that direction in the morning and don’t stop, we
can make it to Idaho. We are probably reported
missing so then we can get a ride home, right?”
She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
To guide our way in the morning,
I
arranged some rocks in the direction of Polaris,
hoping that this was going to be all over soon.
After that I too went to sleep.

Tess has always been fascinated with the
stars. And I
mean
all
of them. Every single
constellation that she knew, she would point out.

When we’d go camping
together, she
would find a dark area near our campsite, to gaze
at the night stars. She would put a marshmallow
on a stick and then set it on fire. She would then
shove the stick into the ground, making it seem
like our torch to light the night around us. We
would
constantly
have
to
place
new
marshmallows on the stick, since we would eat
the burned ones, but that was part of the fun.

She would then point
out
all
of the
constellations that she knew. She could go on and
on. Sometimes, I wish I’d listen to her more often
than I did. It would make the night sky much
more fun when she wasn’t around.

When you’re a wanted criminal you find
anything to do while walking. When looking at
the stars at night, immune to sleep, star gazing
would be fun.

I remember one night while camping; Tess
didn’t let any light in. She didn’t even light a
marshmallow like she usually would. She just
made us look straight up at the sky.

I remember she would say; ‘
if we stayed up,
we would eventually see more stars
.
’
I’d ask why,
and then I would fall asleep while she explained.
I never knew why, and I still don’t know. I’ll ask
later.

I woke up in the morning with a pain in the
neck. I looked around hoping to find myself in
my bedroom and discovering this whole thing
had been a bad dream.

Sadly, I wasn’t in my bedroom at all.
I stretched, and got up. I pulled the blanket
off of Tess, yelling “Wake up! It’s time to get
moving.” I heard a grunt of a reply. “C’mon get
up!” I said, pulling the pillow out from under her
head.
By the time Tess got up, I had already
returned the stuff to Briana’s doorstep. Tess hated
getting up early, even if her life depended on it.
Like I said before, she’s not a morning person.
Tess rubbed her arm and said, “I think I
broke it. The first thing that I’m going to do when
I get home is go to the hospital.”
I responded with, “That’s a great welcome
home gift; a cast.”
She snickered.
We began to walk
north. It was really
boring. I’d rather be getting a Social Studies
lecture, and I hate that subject.
Tess set her hand on fire and applied heat
to her arm. It looked painful; it really did. It
started raining but that didn’t put Tess’s hand
out. It didn’t go out unless Tess blew on it. I
wonder if that’s how it works; you can’t stop
using your power unless you put it out.
As soon
as Tess
blew her
fist
out, she
fainted. I’m dead serious. She just fell forward
and fainted, on the spot. I didn’t know what to
do. I was freaking out. All of a sudden, from the
distance, I saw a car coming. I jumped into the
middle of the road and waved my hands like
crazy.
Soon enough, a car screeched to a stop and
a man jumped out from behind the wheel. “Is
everything all right here?” he asked. The man
was tall, and he
had a moustache. He
was
wearing sun glasses.
Trying to sound calm I said, “My friend
just fainted.”
“Well that’s not good; we should get her to
a hospital.”
I nodded. She needed one anyway; this is
killing two birds with one stone.
He picked Tess up and put her into his car.
“The nearest hospital is in Idaho, so that’s where
we’re heading,” he exclaimed.
“Ok, thanks for doing this,” I told him.
“No problem, I was on my way there
anyway. If you don’t mind me asking, where are
you parents?” he inquired.
I started biting my nails. I couldn’t think of
anything to say. “We’re lost, and we’re trying to
find them,” I said half lying.
“Oh, well I hope you find them,” he
replied.
It was silent for about three minutes, and
suddenly
Tess began waking up. “Wh-what
happened? Where are we?” she asked.
“You fainted, so this man is taking you to
the hospital,” I told her. Then I leaned up to her
ear and whispered, “He doesn’t know anything,
he’s good.”
She nodded.
About an hour
later
we were at the
hospital. We went to the ER unit of the hospital,
and Jason (I learned that was the name of the man
who helped us) filled out the paper
work.
“Thanks for doing this; I don’t know how to
repay you,” Tess said smiling, even though she
was in pain.
“Think of this as a major act of kindness,”
he said, smiling back.
After we finally got a room, Tess laid down
on the hospital bed. She fell asleep quickly, as I
predicted. I
noticed
her
arm
was blue. Jason
seemed to notice it too, because he asked, “What
happened there?”
I
started biting my
nails
again, another
question I couldn’t quite answer. “She broke it
yesterday doing something weird,” I said, half
lying again.
When the doctor finally came in, he took
Tess’s temperature and gave her pain medicine
with a needle to the arm. He then took her to an
x-ray lab, took pictures, and brought her back,
then left again. She was still sleeping.
About 45 minutes later, just as the doctor
came back in, Tess woke up blinking. He told us
that she fainted from low food intake and that she
also broke her arm. As soon as they put a red cast
onto Tess’s arm we left the hospital.
We thanked Jason and started to leave, but
he wasn’t finished yet. He said, “You fainted
from low food supply, so let’s go eat.”
“You’ve done so much already; we don’t
want to be a burden,” Tess said, blushing.
“My treat. Come on, just take the offer,” he
said grinning. We shrugged, and got in his car.
While
driving, we
listened
to the radio.
Suddenly,
an alert
came over
the radio, you
know, the
kind that is loud and annoying
beep…beep…beep…taking over the song that
was playing. The alert continued…“Police are
looking for two tween girls, both are twelve years
old. The names of these girls are; Maddy Webber
and Tess
Turner. They are to
be
brought
to
justice, immediately. We are offering a $10,000
reward for their capture and return.” It then went
back to playing the song on the radio, which
happened to be a good song by Adele.
We went to a McDonalds drive-thru, and
both of us ordered the two cheeseburger meal.
We then parked in the lot, ate our meals quickly,
and then got out of the car. “Thank you so much
for what you’ve done,” I said to Jason. He smiled
with a nod as he started to drive away.
As we stood there
watching
Jason
pull
away we heard another radio alert blasting from
the radio of a car parked not far from us, giving
our descriptions. Luckily, Jason had turned down
his radio, muttering that he hated alerts as he
pulled away; so hopefully he’ll never know that it
was us.
As the alert continued to blast on the radio,
the woman that was in the car that we were
standing next to started giving us funny looks,
and pulled out what appeared to be a camera
with a big lens on it. As soon as she pointed it
towards us - and from the sounds of it taking lots
of pictures, we bolted from that scene.
Thankfully, we knew exactly where we
were in Idaho, and knew which way we needed
to go. We were finally close to Boise. It wouldn’t
be long now.
But like I said before, ‘
or so I thought’
.