Elements

“You have got a LOT of explaining to do!” I shouted at her, half-seriously yet half-jokingly. She laughed at me and grabbed my briefcase-free hand to help me out of the helicopter. Her skin felt like satin against mine.
How is she doing this?!
“I’ll explain when we get inside, Tyler,” she said loudly over the whining of the propellers. She started pulling me towards the house as I turned around to look back at the helicopter. The pilot and co-pilot were both smoking a couple of meters away from the helicopter, which was being refuelled by a team of people in blue clothing. I could see the NATAB seal on the back of their t-shirts. I felt the cool rush of air conditioning on my skin and turned my head instinctively into the house. Nurse Brandon had let go of my hand and I stopped dead at what I was seeing.
I was in the entrance hall of what was seemingly a palace. The floors were hard polished oak, reflecting the lights from the chandelier directly above it. The walls were made of smooth white stone, with oak-framed pictures hanging from them. I looked ahead and saw a huge red rug on at the foot of a double staircase, which swept up to the second floor hallway. A small water feature was at the far end of the room, just in front of a set of double doors which led out onto a patio area. I could see a few people playing around in the pool, the sparkling ocean and sunset sky providing the perfect backdrop. This had to be heaven.
Nurse Brandon brought me back to my senses by snapping her fingers in front of my face.
“Take it all in later, big man. Let me show you to your room!”
She grabbed my hand and led me upstairs, pulling me gently to the left and through the first door. The ceiling-height windows held the same view of the ocean I’d seen just seconds ago. The room was white with red and orange furnishings.
Fire, I thought to myself, barely containing my laugh.
Nurse Brandon let go of my hand and sat down on the bed, crossing her legs and leaning back slightly.
“So, Tyler,” she asked innocently. “Enjoying the view?”
I laughed. I knew exactly what she meant, but I didn’t want to give her an honest answer.
“Well, Miss Brandon – ”
She cut me off.
“Call me Annie. Or Annie,” she said, mocking me.
“Well, Annie, the view is very – um – beautiful. Best view I’ve seen for a while.”
I winked at her slightly. She blushed and smiled.
“Glad to hear it,” she replied. “Dinner’s gonna be ready in about fifteen minutes, it’s down to me to give you the tour of the house. Thought I may as well start with your bedroom!”
She stood up, leading me to the en-suite bathroom, gleaming in white marble. Then she led me out of my room and started showing me the whole house. The main bathroom, the bath as big as a swimming pool. The living room, more like a very comfy nightclub with its huge plasma screen TV and its squashy corner sofas. The kitchen, with its huge white tiles and modern appliances, an island counter in the middle with stools for people to sit on. The games room, with its snooker table and darts board and arcade machines. But I wasn’t paying attention to any of this. I didn’t care about the TV, or the island counter or even the snooker table. I was more interested in Annie. Her blonde hair shimmered every time she made the slightest movement. She had me in a trance, and I didn’t want to come out of it. Unfortunately, though, a gong-like alarm sounded and snapped me back into my senses.
“That’ll be dinner,” said Annie. “Follow me, Tyler. We generally eat together.”
I followed her into the kitchen, where three men and three women were already sat at the island bar. They turned round as I entered. Staring. Watching me. I felt like the new kid at school.
“You must be Tyler,” said the biggest of the men. He stood up and walked over to me, standing about two inches taller than me, and offered his hand. I shook it, returning his firm handshake. He felt rough. He had dark hair and dark eyes and had a certain grimy look about him, almost as though he lived underground.
“I’m Alex,” he offered. “This is Sam,” leading me to a blonde man who was about a head shorter than me but just as wide. I shook his hand as he smiled and nodded at me, looking at me with his watery blue eyes. He too had a rather firm handshake, but his touch was much smoother, much cooler.
“This is Brady,” said Alex, leading me to the last man. He had a certain wispy look about him, his white-blond hair and his pale gray eyes giving him a certain air of none-existence. I shook his hand and was surprised to find he had a very light handshake, almost as though I was shaking hands with thin air.
“My name’s Ryan,” he said. “But everyone just calls me Brady.”
“Here we have Anna,” Alex continued, leading me round the island and to a small and slender brunette girl. She looked as though she was in her late teens, possibly her early twenties. There was a certain fire about her, and her hand felt warm as I shook it.
“Next is Sophie,” said Alex in an almost bored voice. She was fairly tall with flowing blonde hair.
“And finally, considering you’ve already met Annie, we have Hannah.”
I offered my hand to her, but she turned away, her red hair swinging around her cheeks as she did so.
“Um, Hannah doesn’t like physical contact with fire,” said Alex, a slight look of embarrassment on his face.
“Neither would you if it killed your family,” Hannah shot at him, her eyes full of a fire I was sure didn’t match her element.
Alex turned away from her and towards me.
“There are eight elementals living in this house. Two air – that’s Brady and Annie. Two earth – that’s Hannah and me. Two fire – that’s you and Anna. And finally, two water – that’s Sophie and Sam. As you can imagine there’s a lot of tension with all this power floating around, so there are a few rules we live by to try and keep the peace.
“First of all, we don’t use our elements against each other. At least not for defensive purposes. We can all have a laugh and joke when people are shooting water at us, but we draw the line and violence when it comes to our elements.
“Secondly, we tell no one about our powers. This is a top secret government agency and it’s not within our rights to divulge information that is top secret. I don’t even think the President knows we exist. Yet…
“Finally, although it may seem like you’re here to have a laugh and joke, you’re actually here to work. It’s nothing like you’ll have ever done before. There is no paper work. No sitting in offices. No swinging around on your spinny chair.”
I opened my mouth to ask what kind of work it’d be, but I was cut off.
“You’ll find out in the morning,” said Alex, a little impatiently. “Now I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. So let’s sit down and eat already!”
We took our seats and a chef appeared from a side door, pushing a cart full of silver platters full of the most delicious looking food I’d ever seen. . As I sat there and ate, I couldn’t help thinking about the situation was in. I tried to piece it all together in my head.
I’d woken up this morning in some government facility in the middle of Area 51. That itself was strange enough. Then there was the fact that I could create fire from nothing. Fire. That was pretty damn fucked up. Then I got told I was gonna be trialled for more elements. I didn’t really like the sound of those needles again. And now I was sat in a mansion in California, eating a magnificent meal whilst looking out over the Pacific Ocean. It was all too much to take in. I wasn’t feeling hungry anymore. In fact, I was feeling quite sick.
“May I be excused?” I asked, more to Alex than anyone. He seemed to be the one in charge around here. He looked at me, confused, but then gave a curt nod. I stood up and almost ran to my bedroom, where I collapsed down onto the bed face first. The fresh sheets felt cool on my face. I closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of lavender fabric freshener and trying to think about other things than vomiting my Snickers and Coke up from earlier. I could feel my heart racing. I felt like I was going to throw up everywhere, it burned in my throat. It burned in my hands.
My hands?!
My eyes flew open and saw the fireballs that were my clenched fists. I panicked, looking around for something to extinguish them – water perhaps, or a towel to wrap around them. I ran to the en-suite bathroom and turned on the cold tap at the sink, throwing my hands underneath it. The flames extinguished immediately, but my hands still had a glowing quality about them, like embers from a dying fire.
That must have been what they meant by “uncontrollable outbursts”.