Right as my body passed completely through the darkness I realized that I could only feel one thing. Pain. Excruciating pain. It jolted through my body and before I fell unconscious I only had enough time to reach around behind me for Pixie, but grasped only air. My body burned as if it was on fire and I knew it wasn’t long before the darkness would completely swallow my mind.
‘But…she should’ve been right there…why bring us into the tower just to kill us?’ These were the last words on my mind before I lost consciousness.
………………..
Feeling a shaking sensation, I opened my eyes, sat up with some effort due to the weight of my pack and realized that the terrible, burning sensation of pain had vanished. Some people I didn’t recognize were waking up unconscious people around me. Taking a closer look, I saw that Akito, Kualin, Milik, and Pixie were all splayed out on the ground behind me. Moving over to them, I began shaking each of them awake and finally got a good look at our surroundings.
The inside of the tower was plain white and the room was just large enough to fit all of us inside. The only big difference was the ceiling, which was maybe fifty feet above the ground, and it was blood red. Nothing else stood out except for an opening in the wall furthest from where I sat waking up my friends. The opening led to an obsidian colored stairway leading up to what I assumed to be the next floor of the tower. My friends were all groggily getting into standing positions and they also began looking around at the inside of the tower and everyone who was standing.
“Yo, check that out.” Kualin said, pointing over towards the obsidian stairway. Looking over, I saw that crazy black spiked haired dude shouting to over thirty people with his hands still cuffed behind his back.
“…no salvation for the ones that threw us in here! We will have vengeance! Together!” He shouted to all those listening to him and headed towards the stairs, but upon reaching the opening was forcibly thrown back a couple feet.
“Is it just me, or is that crazy over there getting pushed back by nothing?” Milik said out of the corner of his mouth.
“That’s the only way out of this room…I’m sure something will be explained to us soon by the Aliens. They’re probably waiting for all eight hundred to enter a tower.” I responded back to him.
“Alex, what do we do now?” Pixie asked me tugging on my shirt. I hadn’t heard a word she said though.
Looking off towards a corner of the room, I caught sight of the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. She was about half a foot shorter than I was, had an athletic body, and perfect blonde hair cascading down around her head complementing her fair skin tone. I couldn’t see her face because she was looking at the ground, but…she seemed to nearly be in tears. Before I even knew what I was doing, I took Pixie’s hand off my shirt and began walking over towards the girl.
She must’ve felt somebody coming towards her because she looked up as I got within ten feet of her and our eyes met. My gray looked into her shining hazel eyes and there were tears brimming near the edges of them. I felt an electric jolt run through my body and my heart immediately ached for this girl I didn’t know. Without knowing what else to do, I just stood there for about five seconds staring at her.
“So beautiful…” I accidentally thought out loud. The girl immediately blushed and wiped her tears away.
‘Oh, shit. I didn’t…’ I wanted to die of embarrassment, but I tried to salvage the situation.
Sticking my hand out to her, I spoke with as much confidence as I could. “Hi, I’m Alex.”
‘I’m so lame.’ Surprisingly, she took my hand quickly.
“I’m Jessica.” She pronounced in a sweet voice. Her face was perfect. Not a blemish to be seen. She had a cute silver nose ring and her lips were a soft alluring pink.
‘I didn’t know girls were made that well.’ Making sure to keep my thoughts to myself this time.
Before we could get to talking anymore, a projection on the wall to our side, about 50 yards away, blinked to life and a hooded figure came on the screen. Before I could look around for my friends that I’d left to come over to Jessica, I felt a hand grasp my shoulder.
“We’re right here, man.” Kualin leaned over my shoulder looking at the screen and I turned my attention back to it just before the hooded figure began speaking.
“Oh, humans. You surprise me. All eight hundred of you actually decided to show.” As he said this, I looked at the group nearest to the stairway and they were glaring daggers at the projection of the hooded figure. Turning back to the hooded figure, I waited for him to continue speaking.
It began speaking again, but this time it sounded uncharacteristically excited. “We have waited for this day far longer than any of you could imagine…” The alien seemed to take a moment to compose itself and began speaking in a cold voice once more. “Assuredly, you’ve all realized that you’ve been marked. These marks signify your abilities and prowess.”
I start nodding at his words, but then became puzzled. ‘Wait, are we being given elemental abilities? Prowess?’ I became a little excited at the idea, but the voice carried on as if it wasn’t dropping bombshells of information.
“There are currently one hundred and twenty-eight people within this room. You will break off into groups of eight.
There are eight different types of marks. Each type of mark symbolizes an element: Air, earth, fire, water, light, dark, lightning, and the mind. You are to find seven other people to join a group with. You will have all eight elements represented in your group. It is your greatest chance for survival. I suggest you choose wisely. You have ten minutes to get situated.”
Once the figure finished speaking, the projection disappeared and everyone was staring at the wall in confusion. After about another second, the room burst into movement as people went about finding a group. I looked at my friends and found that they were all staring expectantly at me. Even the new girl I barely knew, Jessica, was looking up at me waiting for me to speak.
“Ummmm okay okay.” I nervously laughed out, then turned serious. “Alright, eight elements. I assume you want so know if it’s possible for us all to be in a group together.” They all nodded towards me. “Alright, so I’m air. Pixie here is lightning; I’ve seen her mark. Akito, you’re water, right? I saw the raindrop on your back when you were doing all those squats yesterday…?” He nodded to me silently and I continued speaking. “Kualin and Milik…I haven’t seen your marks yet. Which elements do they correspond to?”
Kualin was the first to speak. “I have this huge mountain on my back. It’s kinda cool actually because someone told me that rocks come tumbling down it every now and then…” he trailed off because I must’ve been looking impatient. “It’s earth.” He finished. I nodded towards him and turned towards Milik with a raised eyebrow.
“What’re you, bro?” I asked him.
He pondered for a moment before speaking. “I’m fairly sure that I’m darkness.” He looked skywards thinking a little more and then spoke once more. “Yeah. Darkness.” He finished, giving me a firm look.
Nodding towards Milik, I turned to Jessica. She spoke before I could ask her what she was.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“I’m mind!” Her sweet voice was very comforting to listen to, but I tried not to get distracted and took a step back getting all of my friends in my vision.
“Okay. We have six of the eight elements in our group. We’re missing fire and light. Any suggestions on how we should go about this?” I addressed them all and began looking around. Before I could even take in my surroundings, which were bustling with the movement of the other hundred something people in here, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning to see who it was, I realized Akito was the one who had his hand on my shoulder and he was currently pointing behind me.
Speaking in a clear and deep voice, Akito said, “She looks to particularly be on fire at the moment.” Turning around, I realized I was looking back towards the obsidian stairwell where those from barracks one and two were getting situated along with a couple others that I assume were there just to complete their groups.
The spiky black haired guy looked like he was about to explode from anger as he looked at a very short girl in front of him. She was probably a whole foot shorter than me, but her body was voluptuous. She had a perfect hourglass figure and her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her face was extremely red and she looked furious. Her blue eyes shone like lasers behind a pair of big glasses aimed directly at the spiky black haired guy.
“What the fuck do you mean come with me!? I saw you outside the tower! You’re crazy!” She was waving her hands and shouting loud enough for the people around to hear her.
I grinned and looked back towards Akito. “I like her attitude. Let’s go see if she’s fire and will come with us.” He nodded and began moving in that direction. I was about to follow him, but had a thought and turned back to the rest of my friends.
“Hey, Jessica, will you come with us?” She nodded and smiled sweetly at me before walking off after Akito towards the fuming short girl. I turned to watch her leave and smiled to myself. Even in this situation I could only sigh in admiration at her beauty. Hearing a snap, I turned back to see Kualin and Milik laughing at me while Pixie looked a little more serious.
“We’re running out of time, Alex. Did you need us to do something?” She quickly said snapping Kualin and Milik out of their laughing fit.
Forcing the image of Jessica’s walk out of my head, I started nodding. “Yeah…yeah, I need you three to go and look for a light element person. We’ll meet over near that corner in about five minutes.” I pointed towards the corner furthest from the stairwell and where the projection had shown up. “Got it?”
Pixie nodded her head. “Got it.” And then she walked off with Kualin and Milik trailing behind her.
I turned and sped off to catch up with Akito and Jessica who were nearly at the short girl and spiky black haired guy. The argument seemed to have escalated into a full scale shouting match and drawn a crowd. As I was contemplating how to get in between them, talk to the girl, and not make her shout at me, the guy threw a punch at the girl.
Before his punch landed, Akito stepped in between them and caught the fist. The guy pulled his fist free, looked at the huge man holding his hand and I saw his eyes widen in surprise.
I almost laughed out loud at the look on his face, but stifled it lest I get into a fight with him over it. Sneering at the girl behind Akito, the spiky haired guy walked away to the groups of people he’d gathered so far.
Akito turned to the girl whose face was now red for an entirely different reason. “Are you okay?” He asked her.
“Yes! I didn’t need anyone to save me! I could’ve thrown him easily!” The short girl confidently said back to him with a smile on her face. Now that I was closer, I could see that she had a doll-like face and her red blush was giving way to a tanned white skin color. Akito and her exchanged names as Jessica and I walked up to them. She looked at me fiercely probably thinking I was going to try and force her to join my group like the spiky haired dude had done.
Akito must’ve noticed the look on her face and he hurriedly began speaking. “Oh, they’re with me Izzy. We were wondering if you’d like to join our group. Are you the light or fire element?”
She looked at both Jessica and I not speaking for a moment. I looked around and saw that most people were calmed down and speaking with their new group members. Then the short girl, Izzy, looked like she had decided on something and started talking.
“I’m fire and joining your group is the least I could do since this big lunk helping me out.” She smiled upwards at Akito’s hulking figure and turned back to Jessica and I. “I’m Isabelle, but you two can call me Izzy.” It seemed like she’d calmed down immensely and was acting as sweet as Pixie does.
‘So she’s one of those girls that act sweet and innocent, but on the inside are similar to a raging inferno. No wonder that crazy dude was trying to get her to join his group.’ I silently thought.
I smiled at her and gave her my name. Jessica did the same and we all began walking off to the corner that I’d told Kualin, Milik, and Pixie to meet us at. We had to bump and jostle our way through a lot of groups that seemed nearly finished and it wasn’t made any easier by the packs that we all were carrying. Finally making it near the corner, I spotted my other three friends with some African-American girl who was about my height and laughing at whatever Kualin and Milik were saying. Pixie was also listening to them, but I could see her looking around frantically.
‘Time’s running out, so she’s probably looking for us.’
When we got close enough, Pixie spotted us and began leading the other three over towards us. When we reached them, I looked at the African-American girl and she looked really similar to any actress that had ever played Queen Cleopatra in any movie ever. The resemblance was uncanny. Regal look, emerald green eyes, and mocha colored skin.
Reaching my hand out, I introduced myself and those behind me. Pointing us all out as I said our names.
“I’m Kyra.” The Cleopatra look-a-like told my group to which we all nodded.
“Okay everyone. Izzy…” I pointed to the short doll-like girl. “…is our fire element.” I pointed over to Jessica and my heart beat sped up. She was just way too beautiful. “…Jessica is our mind element.”
‘How does a mind element even work?’ I thought to myself.
Carrying on I pointed to the hulking mass of muscle that was Akito. “Akito is our water element.” I looked at Kyra and asked, “I assume you’re our light element?” She nodded upon hearing the question and I started talking again while pointing out each person. “Pixie is our lightning element, Kualin is our earth element and Milik is our darkness element. That’s seven elements; my air element makes eight all together. We’re good.”
Just as I finished speaking the projection came back on and the hooded figure looked out at us all neatly divided into our groups of eight. There were some remaining stragglers, but they were quickly called out to by others who they raced to join up with.
“Now, marked ones, allow me to tell you what you’ll be doing in the tower.” The deep, cold voice of the hooded figure echoed throughout the silent room.