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Carving in the Sand
As Leo led us through the trees, thorny bushes, and dirt paths, we finally emerged into an abandoned neighborhood, where torn-down and vandalized houses dotted the landscape. Leo's house, with its peeling and weathered paint, was no exception. Stepping inside, the interior matched the exterior's state of disrepair.
Leo continued to guide us to a small, dimly lit room, where his mother lay frail and bedridden, her breathing shallow. Beside her stood a much younger boy than Leo, his eyes betraying wisdom beyond his years. I assumed he was Leo's brother; they looked remarkably alike.
Leo knelt beside his mother, whose eyes glimmered at the sight of him. She mustered the little strength she had to embrace him, while the younger boy eyed us with suspicion.
"Mom! These guys are The Sunspears, the revolutionary group we always hear about on the radio! They came to help us! They also needed a place to stay for the night, and of course, I offered," Leo's voice brimmed with excitement. He seemed to truly believe in us.
"That's great, sweetie!" Leo's mom replied, rubbing his arm and giving us a warm smile. "Of course, they can stay the night. I'm Mayra."
I stepped forward to introduce ourselves, but before I could speak, the younger boy chimed in. "No! If we let them stay, things will only get worse here! You're already causing trouble over at Vanity, and now you'll bring your troubles here too? This island has enough problems already. Don't come bringing your pointless revolution here." His voice was serious, his face etched with irritation.
"Diego!" his mother yelled, which caused her to start coughing violently. Diego immediately tended to her, apologizing, while Leo just stood there, helplessly watching his mother slowly succumb to her sickness. It was clear that Diego was the primary caregiver, while Leo, likely out searching for help, struggled to stay by her side and witness her suffering. Diego shot an angry look at Leo, who then looked down in shame.
I exchanged a glance with my team, feeling the weight of Diego's words and their dire situation. I was left dumbfounded, unsure of what to say.
Then Max, usually more reserved, stepped forward. His voice was soft yet laden with emotion. "I understand what you're going through. My mother... she passed away because we couldn't afford her medicines. She lost her job, which meant losing her medical help, and she got worse every day until she finally..." He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence but continued, "It was the USC's involvement on our island, with their new policies and restrictions, that stripped us of everything. I promise you, we will get you those medicines. I won't let what happened to me happen to anybody else."
Max stood determined, but Diego remained unfazed, silently focusing on his mother. The room was heavy with unspoken pain.
Leo left the room, and we followed, leaving Diego to attend to his mother. We returned to the living room, sparsely furnished with only a sofa and a small wooden table. "The first room to your right down the hall is empty, and the one at the end is mine. You guys can take those rooms; I'll take the sofa here. Sorry, it ain't much, but there aren't any motels or hotels open at the moment. They've been closed since the storm hit. But I know a guy who can help. Just give me a few hours," he said with sudden energy before heading out the door.
"Did he just leave his mother and brother with four strangers in his house?" Fabian noted, finding Leo's trustfulness unusual.
"Maybe he knows we're here to help," I replied.
"Or he's still naive," Max added, as he turned toward the room at the end of the hallway, Leo's room. His demeanor had changed since we arrived. Fabian followed behind him, turning to wink at me before entering the room.
Kyriah then walked to the other empty room. She opened the door, then stopped and looked at me with a smile. "What are you waiting for? Let's leave the bags." She waited for me to move.
Sharing the room alone with Kyriah? I hadn't really considered us being intimate. We had been spending a lot of time together, and of course, I'd love for things to progress, but there was still so much going on. We were on a strange island, inside a stranger's home. Ah, screw my overthinking. I slowly walked into the room, brushing past her as she held the door open.
The room was simple, like the rest of the house. A full-size bed stood in the middle, surrounded by torn cement walls and a ceiling made of zinc that didn't fully close off the room, leaving a small gap at the top. A wooden chest with a cracked mirror sat against one wall. I left my bags in the corner and sat awkwardly on the bed.
Kyriah sat down next to me, tossing her bag onto the bed. "You seem more in your head than usual. What's going on? Is it too weird for us to be sharing a room?" She looked straight into my eyes, making me even more nervous.
"No! Of course not. It's not that, it's..." I struggled to come up with an excuse. Suddenly, I heard someone leaving the room at the end of the hall. I looked up and saw Max rushing outside. Perfect timing. I could use Max as an excuse. "It's Max. I noticed his behavior changed when we got here. I'm just a little worried. You know what happened last time he got upset." This should change the subject of us sharing the room.
"Oh, I get it, but he's changed since he's been with Annabella. I've noticed it. He's calmer and laughs more. She really makes him happy," Kyriah said, a soft smile on her face as she remembered them together back home. "If you're worried, you should go talk to him. You're our leader after all. You should know how each of the team feels."
She was right. Over the past few weeks, I have gotten to know the team much better, especially Yelena and Owen, who were part of my initial group. But I hadn't spoken much to Max other than for greetings and goodbyes. I should take this chance to talk to him. "Fine, I'll go. I hate it when you remind me of my responsibilities."
"Better get used to it," she said with a smile as she laid back on the bed. I got up to head out the door, but before I left, Kyriah called out, "Don't go too far. The cell signal here isn't that strong. I barely got one bar."
I gave her a thumbs up and walked outside, hoping to find Max and maybe clear my head in the process.
The other torn-down houses looked abandoned, but if you looked closely inside, you could see signs of life—clothes strewn about, drying on makeshift lines, and old cars parked in front of the dilapidated homes. Was this place always like this, or did it get worse after the storm?
I kept looking around for any sign of Max, trying not to peer too closely into any of the houses. Their doors were wide open as if the whole neighborhood was an extended lawn. I followed the sound of a waterfall beyond some fallen trees, pushing aside leaves and thick bushes as the roar of the water grew louder.
Finally, I reached a small waterfall cascading onto a shallow riverbank. Max was sitting on one of the massive stones near the water. I approached him slowly, deliberately making noise on the small rocks to let him know I was there.
"We've got to stop meeting like this, Max," I said, a small reminder of the time I found him in Itayó Forest.
A smirk appeared on his face. "I know you're here to check up on me, but I'm fine. Mayra just reminded me of Mom."
That's what I figured. "I'm sorry for what happened to your mom. I don't remember much of mine, but that must be a very special bond," I said, my voice tinged with regret. To be honest, I didn't even remember what my mother looked like.
"That's sad. Everyone should have a good relationship with their mothers. But let's not talk about it. No need to dwell on depressing topics because of me," he said with a clearly forced smile, making it obvious he didn't want to continue the conversation.
"Alright," I replied, leaning against the massive rock he was sitting on and listening to the sound of the waterfall breaking into the river. "Hey, Max, I don't want to keep reminding you of depressing stuff, but I've always been curious about your training with Nicholas."
This seemed to catch his attention. His expression changed quickly. "Oh, yeah? I can show you if you want. You seem to pick things up pretty fast," he said, getting down from the stone.
"You think so? I've never really had any training. It was just something Nicholas said about 'imagining harnessing my powers inside' or something like that. It was weird."
Max started to laugh. "He tried to teach through wisdom, but it wasn't his strong suit. He confessed he never really knew how he got the others to manifest their powers. They just had their powers awakened one day while he was training them, but he never really knew what triggered it."
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That's why we did dozens of different training routines, from exercises to meditation. He just hoped that one of them would do the trick for me. Now that I think about it, I never did manage to awaken my unique power. The one I have is from Nicholas. Did I even have one?
Max continued, "Here, let me show you what we did." He walked to the other side of the small riverbank and pointed to where I needed to stand. "Now, try to make a small ice diamond with a flat top in the middle of the river. Start from the tip at the bottom and work your way up to the wide top."
"An ice diamond? That seems easy." I opened the palm of my right hand with full confidence, and ice blasts started to shoot out, forming a small tip of ice that joined with the bottom of the riverbed and broke through the water's surface as it widened. But as I started to widen it more on its left side, it collapsed forward into the river, breaking into pieces.
"Easy, huh?" Max said with a wide smile.
"I see, you want me to see if I can maintain its balance as the water runs through it at the bottom? Okay, it won't happen a second time." I started blasting again, but this time I used my left hand to blast the tip at the bottom with ice while using my right hand to form the shape at the top. When I finished, I crossed my arms and looked at Max proudly.
"How about now?" I said with a smirk.
"I said make an ice diamond, not an ice mushroom," he replied, his smile still wide.
I looked at the ice 'diamond' I made, and the bottom did look like the stem of a mushroom.
"It's not going to happen a third time, so be prepared to wipe that grin off your face." I prepared both my hands before Max interrupted me.
"Before you start blasting away, can I ask you something?" He crossed the riverbed with a curious look. "Why are you blasting away? You know you could freeze the water without using much of your inner energy cells."
I looked at him, confused. "Freeze the water without blasting ice energy? What do you mean?"
"It seems Nicholas really didn't teach you much. Everyone's abilities are different, but something Nicholas and I had in common is that we can freeze or burst into flames, using whatever is around us, which consumes less energy from our bodies." Max raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. In an instant, the formation of ice I had made burst into flames.
"WHAT?! NO WAY!" I was shocked. I couldn't believe he had such power—well, we had that power. It was amazing.
Max chuckled. "It's something we had to learn. I kept catching on fire and Nicholas—"
"Hated the cold," I said, finishing his sentence. "He told me he was always shivering after using his powers." I smiled, remembering him lying down after one of the days we came back from pursuing Max, but that smile quickly dimmed as the reminder of his death crept into my mind.
"I'm glad he found someone like you, Ellion." Max put his hand on my shoulder. He smiled, but I could see he was holding back his tears.
"I'm glad he found me too." I smiled back at Max. "Come on, teach me all you know," I said as we got back to training.
Max started walking back to the other side of the riverbank. "After you're done making the ice diamond, we'll start with you maintaining the ice while I burst it into flames!" he said with his usual grin.
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Vanity Island usually gets very cold at night, especially when you live on top of its mountains. But stepping out of a cold shower here in Amaracuya felt even colder somehow. I was freezing from top to bottom. Now I understood Nicholas and the irony of having ice powers. What was the point if you weren't immune to the power you were using? You only get resistance to it, which my body clearly hadn't built up yet.
As I walked out of the bathroom, still shivering because the thin towels hadn't dried me completely, I caught the smell of dinner being served. Entering the kitchen, I saw everyone sitting around the table—Max, Fabian, Leo, Diego, and even Mayra, who was seated at the edge of it. Kyriah was serving each of them a plate full of white rice, beans, and what looked like corned beef. I wasn't a fan of canned beef, but I couldn't be picky now, especially when they had given us a roof over our heads.
Kyriah gave me a warm smile when she noticed me, nudging me to sit and eat too. I sat down next to Fabian, who had already dived into his food. "Man, this is so good! Thanks, Kyriah!" he said, his mouth still full.
"Yes, thank you so much, sweetheart. You didn't have to do this," Mayra said to Kyriah.
"It's the least I can do. I was invited to your home; I must repay you somehow," Kyriah replied to Mayra, who just smiled back at her and ate slowly, while Diego watched her, possibly making sure she ate without any problem.
"I saw you guys practicing earlier! Your powers are so cool! Fire and ice! Are you guys planning to use your powers to enter the hospital?" Leo asked enthusiastically.
I looked at him with a reluctant expression, knowing what they expected. "Sorry, but no. We're here to stand up with the locals, but we are not going to use our powers to harm anybody, not even our enemy."
Leo's face turned to one of confusion. "Then how are you guys going to help us? USC officials are never going to listen to us unless we show them the same strength they are showing us."
"We'll think of something else," I said, trying not to sound too firm.
Fabian then stood up from his chair and, as he passed behind me, bent over to whisper, "Meet me outside. I've got a plan." He proceeded to leave the kitchen through the front screen door.
I turned to Leo. "Did you manage to find your friend? The one who can help us with a place to stay?"
"Yes, I did! But he told me he'll have rooms for you guys in a few days, as most of his rooms are still being fixed up. But you guys can stay here until they're available, right, Mom?" Leo asked excitedly.
"Of course," Mayra replied weakly but with a warm smile, while Diego gave Leo a stern look.
I felt a bit of tension rise between them, so after I finished eating, I thanked Kyriah for the food and went outside to meet Fabian.
Fabian was standing still, looking upward, mesmerized by the shining night sky. "The stars sure look beautiful on this island," Fabian said.
They did look great, but I was eager to know Fabian's plan. If it was something we could do without needing to use our powers against the USC officers, I had to know. I walked to his side, looked up at the night sky with him, and asked, "What's the plan, Fabian?"
Fabian smirked. "This might not be such a great idea, but I don't think we have another choice." He turned to look at me, the stars highlighting his cheekbones. "We have to sneak into the hospital and steal those medicines for Mayra, and we have to do it tonight."
I quickly retorted, "What?! Are you crazy?! There are USC officers in there, guarding it. We don't even know the layout of the place. We'll get lost and caught."
"If we wait any longer, security will get tighter and so will Mayra's condition," Fabian replied seriously. "You know what's going to happen now that we're here, don't you? Once they send word to the USC that we're on Amaracuya, things will only get worse. If we ever have a good chance to get those medicines for Mayra, it's now. Or we risk not getting them at all."
It was very risky, but he might be right. We made Amaracuya a target by coming here. They'll surely tighten security, and who knows when we'll be able to get those medicines to the people in need? I didn't like the idea, but it was the only one we had.
"... Fine," I said to Fabian, my tone one of reluctant defeat.
"I knew you'd understand!" Fabian replied with a smile, heading through the trees and bushes toward the hospital. I followed behind, knowing at least that the way to the hospital wasn't a long one.
Walking through the bushes and trees at night brought me back to that night in Itayó Forest. It felt as if it had happened ages ago, but it had only been two months. Comparing how I felt then to now, I realized I was a completely different person. I remembered walking through the thick rainforest, feeling anxious and insecure, wishing to turn back every second. But now, I could only think of moving forward.
I reached Fabian's side, matching his pace. I never imagined being alone with Fabian, much less on a mission. Unlike the others, Fabian was very hard to read. I got along with everyone in the group, except for Braden, but at least with Braden, I knew where we stood. Fabian, however, always kept his intentions hidden. I couldn't shake the feeling that he had an ulterior motive for everything he did.
"Something on your mind, boss?" Fabian asked suddenly.
Now was as good a time as any to get some answers. "Yeah, I don't get you. You always act kind to everybody, but underneath that kindness, you're always trying to get your way, even if it looks like it's for good intentions. Like that leader stunt you pulled, having it put to a vote. That was very low, especially when you noticed how unsure I was about taking the mantle. But lately, you've been very accepting of my decisions and not trying to undermine me. And I can't help but think, this is another one of your ruses." I kept my eyes fixed on him as we walked, expecting an elaborate lie hidden by his kind response.
"You're right," Fabian replied unexpectedly. "I was trying to undermine you. You looked like you weren't up to the task of what the group expected from a leader, and I thought I was. But you proved me wrong. I thought The Sunspears needed someone decisive, no matter the sacrifice. But you take everyone and everything into consideration, not making hasty decisions so that no one gets hurt. You taught me that a leader doesn't need incredible strength; a leader needs to be acknowledged and respected by the people. And you certainly are that type of leader."
"Wow, now I feel like a jerk, accusing you like that. I'm sorry," I said to Fabian, who just gave a faint smile and waved his hand dismissively, letting me know it was no big deal. I felt so bad that I didn't say anything further until we reached the hospital.
Once we had the hospital in sight, I turned to Fabian. "So, how do you plan to get in?" I asked, nervous about what was to come.
With a smirk on his lips, he said, "We break the backdoor, of course." It was the response I dreaded, but I knew breaking in was our only option, especially since it seemed less guarded now.
As we approached the backside of the hospital, I noticed tents, bonfires, and dozens of people camping out front, waiting for a chance to enter if they could. The sight of them in this state erased any doubt I had about breaking in. Their desperation made our mission feel even more crucial. Maybe, if all went well, we could snag some extra medicine for the locals too.
Maybe, if all went well, we could snag some extra medicine for the locals too [https://img.wattpad.com/303620d04bbc845c7f3ee30e2d1f702d2e20ad70/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f52476d6e626a73667773754647413d3d2d313339373132393832332e31376237323666363031643261376537323933383133323239372e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Name: Cristofer Leach
Age: 31
Clemons Cell Ability: Shadow Manipulation
Character Info: Cristofer Leach, one of the sons from the notorious Leach family experiment—the first known human trials involving Clemons Cells by Dr. Cyrus Clemons—lives as a fugitive, relentlessly pursued by the Cell Seekers. Despite the constant threat, Cristofer managed to evade capture and now devotes himself to protecting a group of younglings. Always serious and highly overprotective, Cristofer's stern demeanor hides the burdens of his past and the fierce loyalty he feels towards those under his care.