Elementalist

I wandered through the alleys, hands deep in my pockets of my baggy black pants. I was looking for something, but I didn’t know exactly what. Then, as the alley drew damper and the smell of white-river came over the top of the edge, was what I was looking for.

“Hex!” I looked around to see Sarah there. She had long blonde hair, nearly mid-back length, and soft green eyes. Shit, how am I supposed to tell her?

“Hey, Sarah, what’s up?” I asked as she ran up to me and hugged me. I kept my eye on the tattoo place as if I lost my sight it would get up and walk away, or disappear into hell.

“Ha, I work there,” she pointed to where I was looking at, “have you seen—“

She stopped when she caught me looking away with a soft, sad look in my eyes, “He’s dead, Sarah, he committed suicide after Tina was murdered…”

“He’s—he’s dead?” she asked, sounding like she was trying to hold back her tears. I pulled my hands out from my pockets and hugged her so she could cry into my shoulder rather than the air.

“Hey, did you say you work there, Sar?” I asked, trying to change the topic off of Connor; it still hurt when I talked about it.

Sarah shook her head and looked at me with tear-filled eyes, “Yeah, I do, Hex. Are you planning on getting a tattoo or something?”

“Yeah, Connor said I needed to be ‘branded’ with this,” I showed her the drawing Connor drew before his death and she gasped at it.

“That’s the devil mark that means, or symbolizes, your power, Hex,” Sarah whispered, “Connor told me about it before.”

“You mean you know about it?” I wasn’t very surprised seeing as Sarah as know Connor as long as I have, “can you tell me more about it? Please?!”

“Yeah, sure, Hex, but you’re not an Elementalist, so why would you need to be ‘branded’ with it?” She asked, grabbing my hand and leading me into the dark store.

“To tell you the truth, Sarah, five years ago, Connor’s parents were killed by HTWBE and so, he went to get revenge. He ended up meeting Rachel, a girl with fire Elemental Powers, who tagged after him. He had to cut open his hands open and re-met Jimmy and David.”

I stopped. I hated to talk, in full detail, about that day. I sighed and continued, “And so, I met Connor on the cliff, where we talked and were interrupted by Jimmy, who broke twelve of Connor’s ribs and literally knocked me off the cliff. I was scared as hell, Sarah; my last thought before I came to my senses was ‘oh shit, I’m going to die.’ Then, Sarah, I did what Connor told me to do and bam! I was on top of a massive tornado!”

Sarah took my hand and sat on a chair with me under her. “Wow, really? That’s nifty but Connor said that only those whose fate was to beat,” she smiled, “Connor had one, Frank did, too,” her eyes drifted against the wall, “Frank used to say that you were going to be great, guess this is what he was talking about.”

“Ah! Sarah, I have to go soon so can you brand me or not?!”

“Huh? Oh, sure, where?”

An hour and a half later, Sarah was wrapping my hands up in plastic wrap, “Have any cloth on you, Sar? My brothers will kill me if they know I got this.”

“Who, Hex?” Sarah asked, as she wrapped my hands in the warm, white cloth.

“Charlie and Metal Freak, err, Hay,” I said, totally forgetting the fact that she has never met either of my brothers. “Hey, why don’t you stop by Connor’s sometime, that’s where we’re staying, with Nick, that is.”

She smiled at me, “Sure, sooner or later, any time good?”

“As long as you tell me a few days before hand, yes,” I laughed. I grinned as she helped me up, carefully, as to not grab my hands and I pulled my shirt sleeves down so only my fingers were showing.

As I wandered out, I smiled. The pain was worth it. I highly doubt Charlie or Hay have one of these. As usual, I wasn’t paying attention and hence, I ran into someone.

“Where’ve you been, Hex?” the guy asked. Damn, the pain got to my head… I rubbed my eyes the best I could and grinned.

“Why would you like to know, Charlie?” I semi laughed. I was right about the pain getting to my head.

“Fine, then,” he mumbled, “why the hell are you wearing your sleeves down?”

“It’s the middle of freaking winter, Charlie, and I don’t have your Elemental powers so I’m always cold, unlike you,” I had even confused myself when I said that.

“Whatever,” Charlie mumbled, sounding like he wanted to hit me. He followed the Alley down to where the bridge was and I followed him, “why are you following me, Hexagram?” he suddenly asked.

“I have to tell you something, Charles, but you can’t get mad,” I said as he stopped two feet in front of me. He turned around and looked at me.

“Well?” he was already angry and I looked out at the water, we both stood on the bridge now.

“Connor said, ‘my father told me you could overwhelm me in power…’ and he told me to get the ‘Devil mark’ branded on me.”

I stopped at that. He looked out at the water, hands in his pockets and his eerie glow of black circling his ankles. “The Devil Mark, Hex? The thing Frank had on his forearm and that necklace he wore?”

He glanced at me, the look in his eye didn’t scare me, and it was more of a soft, sad sort of look that Connor gave to Tina. The look of concern and of one caring. So he does care I told myself. I shook my head at him, “Yeah, that’s the ‘Devil Mark’, Charlie.”

“Listen, Hex, I don’t want you getting that mark, okay, please?”

I shook my head no, “I can’t Charlie, two reasons. One, I WANT it and two…” I stopped at his reaction.

“No, Hex,” now Charlie was angry. He grabbed my shirt and pulled me so we were at eye’s length, “You’re not getting one and that’s final.”

“Remember that ‘you can’t get mad’ part, Charlie? Well I don’t care if you don’t want me to do something or not. I’m not a child anymore, you know.”

He looked at me and dropped me, “I know, Hex, but I don’t want you getting into the shit I’ve been through. I’m sorry, really, I am.”

“I know, Charlie, but you have to remember, my best friend is Connor, the strongest Air Elementalist ever.”

“And he’s DEAD, Hex, remember?” He looked at me.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he’s not my best friend anymore.”

“Whatever,” Charlie sighed and headed off back towards the alley. I sighed and followed him.