Chapter fifteen

[Cameron’s POV]

I stared out the balcony, straight past the grey stormy rain and gritted my teeth again. A white hot bolt of lightning cracked the sky once more, followed immediately by a loud crack of thunder. There was no stopping the rain and no stopping the wind thrashing wildly at everything out in the open. I felt like a similar storm was brewing up inside of me too. Angry clouds swirling inside my chest, growls of fury and the lightning...? I bent down and grabbed another large weight from my beaten up gym set and tossed it lightly up and down with one hand – it weighed eighty kilos, but to me it felt lighter than a baseball.  As another flash of lightning streaked haphazardly through the rain, I threw the weight out the balcony and watched as it disappeared through the hazy sheet of water.

I growled angrily once more and bent to pick up another weight, only to realize that there were none left. I’d thrown every one of them out the balcony and now had nothing to take out my anger on. I knew, deep down, that it wasn’t Blake I was furious at. It was obviously the situation and all my anger was actually pin pointed over a target on Malum’s rotten chest.

I wanted to kill him. I needed to kill him.

I surprised at my own bloodlust, but to know what he’d done to Cara had unsettled everything in me, and I wanted revenge... after saving Cara. All my fury suddenly disappeared and I fell to my knees as pain as white and hot as the lightning outside zigzagged through my chest and pierced my heart.

Cara.

Was there even any reversing what he’d done to her?

Was there still a chance to save, and bring back the girl I loved from what he’d made of her?

Hot tears were flooding down from my eyes and I swiped angrily at them, blinking them away, before looking around the apartment. The entire place was a disaster zone. The sofa was over turned, chairs and tables were splintered while anything I had been able to get my hands on were beyond recognition now... except Cara’s belongings.

At the moment I hated my abilities.

My strength? What help was that? I easily tore everything apart and yet could feel no pain I wanted to physically feel. My invisibility? What was the point, when I couldn’t hide from my emotional agony. I felt useless and wished that Malum had just taken me instead of Cara, she was strong deep inside but she was too scared of herself, and this was what happened.

I shuffled forward and carefully lifted a picture frame of us – us laughing at the camera while I hugged her from behind, and rubbed the dirt from the glass. “I’m so sorry for leaving you, Cara... and when you needed me the most”

Her picture didn’t reply, didn’t move or say she was okay.

She just smiled a frozen smile and it only reminded me more of the frozen state she was stuck inside of her own body.

***

I woke up to the sound my alarm bleeping and groaned. I felt as though I was hung over, except without the alcohol. I swatted towards the beeping and knew I hit it when I felt the crunch of metal and plastic under my fist. Damnit.

Why did I even have to wake up early? I thought back over the last few hours and remembered that we all had to meet with Mr Obsidian this morning. I looked over and felt that dull ache somewhere under my ribs at the sight of the empty room – no, it wasn’t all a nightmare. Cara really had been taken over by Malum, and I did abandon her with the rest of them.

I pushed the guilt down for the moment and tried to at least appear collected today. I showered and dressed in fresh clothes (something that we all hadn’t been able to do almost the entire search for the Stinger hideouts) and left the apartment. I walked slowly down the corridor and wasn’t surprised to see the Elemental girls leaving their apartment too.

“Morning Cameron” Bree greeted me sympathetically. “How are you feeling this morning?”

She wasn’t going to ask about my outburst last night, and I appreciated it. She always seemed on the same wave lengths as the people she spoke to. I nodded my head once in greeting, “I’m fine. You all ready to go?”

Evanesce and Chimera were wearing new clothes, obviously from Sophia and Bree, and they smiled sadly at me without saying anything. However, Sophia, the ever loud-mouthed girl she was, decided if no one else was going to ask then she should. “What the hell was that all about last night, Cameron? I’ve never seen you lose it like that before”

I growled lowly under my breath and counted to five. “Nothing. Just don’t worry about it”

She rolled her eyes as we all began a slow stroll down the hallway. “You gave me one hell of a bruise last night and I just want to know. We’re all friends here and in this screwed up world there’s only our group that we can truly trust to understand what each other is going through. Now spill...”

At the mention of hurting her I felt bad again. Obviously I hadn’t meant to hurt her but when Blake blatantly called Cara a Deviant, I couldn’t help but lose it. It was as though he’d just tossed her out from our group and grouped her in with the bad guys. He’d said it so mindlessly as if she was something easily thrown away, and that had been the final chip to my calm facade.

“Just leave it, Sophia” I warned her. “I don’t want to talk about it”

She rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath. “Men...”

We walked passed Helena and Val’s apartment, seeing as no one was outside and continued down a little further to find Val smiling with Derrek. I couldn’t help notice the body language between them had altered slightly – the smaller gap between their bodies, the eye contact and the way they leaned closer together, and I instantly knew they were back together.

Yay for them...

We stopped in front of them and I mentally kicked myself. I needed to stop thinking like this, I sounded horribly depressed and this was no state to be in if I wanted to save Cara. Val and Derrek looked up and offered us all a smile.

“Morning guys... all good to see what Mr Obsidian wants to talk about?” With a murmured ‘yes’ and ‘I suppose’, we walked together into the elevator and made our way to the dean’s office.

“Do you think it’s some sort of bad news?” Bree asked out loud.

“I honestly have no idea” Val replied. “Everything was pretty much said and stated last night”

When we finally reached Mr Obsidian’s office, Derrek gave a sharp knock and only after a quick moment did the dean call for us to enter. The first thing I noticed (and it really wasn’t hard) were two familiar girls sitting in front of Mr Obsidian’s desk.

One, with blonde hair that slowly changed from metal and back to blonde, the other with black slits instead of normal pupils and faint leopard spots on her arms and legs. They were the two girls who were stranded and hiding in the first Stinger hideout we searched. I threw a look to Derrek and the shadow girls who were wondering why they were here as well, while Val, Sophia and Bree stared confusedly at the new comers.

“Have a seat, students” Mr Obsidian gestured with an open hand.

I numbly sat down alongside Derrek, and continued to stare at the scared-looking girls. What in the hell were they doing here?

“Mr Obsidian...” Val whispered. “You found more Elementals?”

“Actually... we came searching for the university” The girl with metal/blonde hair answered quietly. “A girl named Helena said we would’ve been welcomed here”

Val turned to Derrek with wide eyes. “You’ve met these girls before?”

“They were hiding in the first Stinger hideout we checked, they were what Malum called” Derrek coughed awkwardly, with a quick glance at the new girls. “...uh, he called them failures”

Val turned to face the girls again, “How did you manage to escape him?”

She sounded a little accusing and the leopard girl growled softly in Val’s direction. The metal haired girl placed a hand on her friends shoulder to calm her down before speaking again. “We didn’t. Before Malum moved everyone he left us because he said we weren’t even worth the time to kill. There were others, but they either found their old homes or perhaps died. We haven’t seen any other Elementals from there since”

Mr Obsidian cleared his throat before Val could interrogate them some more. “So I think the question here is if you girls would like to stay at Abled University?” They both nodded. “Please, we have nowhere else to go”

“Firstly, ladies. I want to make it clear that Abled University is not a shelter. If you are to stay here, there are rules you must follow and classes you must attend. Personally, I believe it’s much safer for everyone if you do stay here, what with everything happening with The Control and Malum’s Deviants”

The girls looked confused at the mention of ‘Deviants’, but nodded anyway. “We understand, sir”

“Good, then it’s settled. What’s left is to find out your names and you can be shown to your apartments”

The metal haired girl pointed to her friend, “Her name is Leah. She can’t speak anymore, she has human intelligence so she can understand everyone, but she’s sort of stuck behind the mannerisms of a leopard. My name is Michelle”

Mr Obsidian nodded his head and asked them to leave the office so a teacher could show them their apartment. Once they left, he turned to us with a grave face. “As you can guess, The Control won’t like this very much. But I find it better for us that Michelle and Leah are with us rather than with him, or walking about scaring other Abled.”

I agreed with him. With Malum and his Deviants most likely planning to attack the university, we could use every odd person we could find. “So they’ll be joining our classes then?” I asked the dean.

He nodded. “Yes, which is another reason why I have asked you here. Cameron, Blake, Bree, Sophia, Evanesce and Chimera are basically our strongest link to figuring out the best way to fight Malum. Michelle and Leah follow suit, seeing as they have seen what he has been doing more recently. Until further notice, classes will be changing for both Elementals and Abled students”

“How so, sir?” I asked curiously. I didn’t fail to notice he didn’t mention Cara.

“Both will more focused on combat, first aid using your own abilities, if possible, and... Abled students will need to study more on the finer points of Elemental abilities and differences between Abled and Elemental abilities”

We all stayed silent for a moment.

“So... we’ll fight more, and you’re turning us into lab rats...?” I replied bluntly.

“No, Cameron-“

“Guinea pigs, then?”

“Cameron, shut up” Derrek snapped. I glared at him but stayed silent.

“No, Derrek. Cameron has every right to feel the way he does. I understand some of you will find it very confronting, but I’m afraid it is for the best. Everyone in the university will be sent the new schedules today and, as of tomorrow, combat will be everyone’s main focus” Mr Obsidian made it clear that there was no other way, and I sighed, slumping down into my seat. I felt as though we were being tested on again... this time by an entire school instead of one madman. “You may all go”

We all stood up, Derrek and Val walked out first and I stood back to allow the girls to walk ahead of me. As I closed the door behind me Derrek cleared his throat and jerked his head to the side, away from the others who were already making their way to their apartments. “What is it, Derrek?”

“Look... I know how you’re feeling. I get it... but you need to be strong man. The amount of depression oozing off from you is practically choking me, and to be honest it’s making me uncomfortable”

I rolled my eyes. “I just hate feeling like a lab rat, Derrek”

He raised an eyebrow, looking confused for a second before shaking his head. “No, I’m talking about last night. I made you a promise, Cameron, we will save her... and I don’t relish having my limbs torn off by you. We all care about Cara, even if Blake runs his mouth a little too stupidly, he does too. We will save her, and will do anything and everything we possibly can to get her back”

It felt as though a weight had been lifted, only slightly, and I nodded, appreciating the comfort. “Thanks man. I’m good, I promise”

He gave me a thud on the back and let out a breath. “Good! I’m not good at this emotional comforting crap, especially with a another guy, so let’s just leave it at that and train hard in combat until our ears bleed”

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A/N

A little something different. Cameron’s POV and a bit of an emotional chappy. No Blake and Helena this time.

Okay... so last chapter I asked you guys what sort of ship names you could come up with and there were a lot! I, however, just about died of laughter when ‘Spark Pole’ came up for Sparky and Tadpole hahaha!

I did take a liking for :
Valerick or Verrek
Belena or Helake– Blake and Helena
There was none for Cara and Cameron XD What’s your ideas?

What do you think?

ALSO!!! I’d like to dedicate this (late) chapter to a few people so hold your horses:
@d_unicorn – it’s a week later tan all your tests, but I hope this helps anyway!
@choppymoow – I like your dedication! Even if you say you end up grumpy at school :P hehe
@MaggieSarrack – I totally didn’t mind you commenting several times! And sorry I couldn’t finish this for your 3 hour drive!
@child_of_fire – happy belated birthday! Sorry I couldn’t get this chapter up in time!

Oh! And FYI... 80kg (kilos) is equal to just under 180 lb, in case you were wondering how much the weight was that Cameron was throwing out into the rain.

Nix<3