I was in a cabin. A tiny flame was visible in a cast iron stove. My hands hovered over it, but it did little to warm my frost-bitten hands. It wasn’t enough, but there was nothing in the room to burn. All the furniture that should have been there was gone. I’d need to leave the confines of the cabin to get firewood, but before I could do anything, the sound of crashing of glass drew my attention. A gust of wind blew through the room.

The source of the clatter stood facing me. It was a wolf that growled in warning. I stepped back, but another entered the room from the kitchen. I was cornered. I decided to bolt past the one that had just appeared. My charge was met with a snarl. As I threw myself past the wolf, pain shot through the back of my thigh. I screamed out and flung a hand back at the wolf next to me. It went careening into a wall. The other wolf followed me into the kitchen while its companion fell to the floor, unmoving. Behind both creatures, the stove’s flame flickered dangerously. Unable to bear the thought of it being extinguished, I ran toward the dangerous canine, but it was too late. The fire went out and despair surged in my chest. While I was distracted, the wolf leapt at my neck with its teeth bared.

“We need to call an ambulance.” A woman said with anger in her voice.

“He’ll be fine.” Another responded calmly.

“His neck is broken!” The first shouted. “He will not be fine.” I blearily opened my eyes.

“Look.” Al gestured. “See? He’s waking up.”

Leah was crouched next to me with her head turned toward Al who stood a few feet away. Leah turned to face me. Even with blurred vision, I could see her desperate exasperation. I blinked a few times and put a hand over my eyes. I shook my head to clear away the fog.

“Don’t!” Leah warned. “You’ll damage your spine even more!” Ignoring her, I tilted my head back and forth to crack my neck. She was right, something was off. There was some misalignment. My reserves were low, but I was able to send some energy toward the damage. The problem was quickly resolved, and I cracked my neck again loudly. Al smiled down at me, still wearing a towel.

“I never get sick of seeing you do that.” She commented.

“I get sick of doing it.” I responded, scrunching my face at her. “It still hurts you know.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “You know what they say, no pain, no gain.”

“I don’t like they and I’m not sure what sort of gain I get from almost dying.” I replied. She shrugged while Leah stared at me in disbelief.

“That was awesome.” Dale said, but Leah shot him a reproachful look.

I looked up and the granite countertop was cracked and a piece of it had broken off. I sighed and started to get back to my feet. Leah held out a hand to stop me, but I shooed it away in frustration. A wave of exhaustion struck me. The fight lasted about 15 seconds, but the expenditure had taken its toll. Al inspected me once more and nodded. She walked toward my bedroom and disappeared inside. Ignoring the holes in the wall, she dropped the towel to the floor, allowing us a full view of her nude. She went through my clothes either not caring or oblivious to our stares.

It shocked Shawn out of his stupor. Dale watched her with an expression of appreciation. Even Leah was staring through a hole with her mouth agape. Dale’s eyes met his wife’s when she turned to look at him. Her mouth was still open in awe. He smirked at her, and she nodded in understanding.

The unabashed rage mage returned to the room wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. The shirt stretched tight across her chest. Shawn stared at her, still dumbstruck. A cocky smile spread across his face as his eyes roamed up and down her body. Clearly, he hadn’t learned his lesson. Al ignored him completely. Rather than stare at my mentor while she took her time getting dressed, I assessed my apartment with dismay.

“I’m never going to get my security deposit back.” I said to no one in particular.

“Well?” Al asked.

“Well what?” I responded.

“Are you ready to go?”

“You just…” I said in confusion. I shook my head. “No, I’m not ready to go.” I added as if it were obvious and hoped she was being sarcastic.

“Why not?” She asked.

“Uhh, let’s see – I’ve been unconscious and healing massive injuries for the past several days, then you showed up, and we all know how that went. I’m kind of spent.” I replied. She sighed impatiently. I forgot that Shawn didn’t know I was injured after the fight with Cara, but he was still trying to undress Al with his eyes – or go back in time.

“If we don’t move now, the monster could get stronger.” Al said calmly, or as calmly as one could sound behind clenched teeth. Her eyes challenged me but yielded after 10 seconds or so with a sigh. “I guess we can wait for you to recuperate.”

“Why don’t you give me more energy?” I asked, but it was more of a demand than a question. “I can recharge while you go home and change.” I had to bite my tongue. I knew that a lot of the anger I felt was from having to use so much of her power, and I had practically none of my own left to temper the emotion.

“Fine.” She said grudgingly. “But I’ll give you more power right before we go in so you’ll be a little less useless in the fight.”

“I’m coming with.” Shawn chimed in. Al and I stopped speaking strongly at one another to turn on him. “What? I can help. I’m starting to understand the way magic works from the way you were talking about it. I can use lightning, can’t I?”

“You’re not coming.” I said sternly. “You’ll just make everything worse.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll stay in the car and just watch.” He pleaded. I eyed him. “I want to see how the demon-thing fights. I promise I’ll stay in the car this time.” I looked to Al; she shrugged. I sighed.

“Alright fine.” I said begrudgingly. I sighed once more. “And yes, you have lightning abilities; you can probably use water as well.” Al’s face contorted; Shawn noticed her expression.

“What’s wrong? Is that bad?” He asked her.

“They’re almost completely opposite magics.” I explained, before she could say anything. “It puts you at a major disadvantage; opposites negate. You’ll be a quarter as strong in each because of it.”

“I could still be helpful though, right?” He hoped.

“Maybe as a battery.” I shrugged.

“A battery?” He asked, not quite understanding.

“Yeah.” I responded and quirked my mouth sideways. I didn’t want to admit something I’d done and said to him, but I fessed up. “I lied before. I can’t really conjure lightning and ice. I can only use elemental magic if someone else is the source of the power. However, when I do use them, I don’t have the same restrictions as you do. You’ll be limited because of the opposing elements in your body, but I can use them without diminishing their effects. Therefore, it makes a lot more sense for me to use your power than you.” I explained.

“I didn’t know that.” Al asked.

“That’s because we only practiced with your power.” I said. “With all the energy I’ve gotten to use for work, I’ve learned a lot about what I’m capable of.” She paused in thought, then gave me an odd look.

“Why would you want to use water?” She asked. I sighed; I was doing that a lot. We’d had this conversation before, she thought everything could be resolved with fire and strength. I didn’t want to bother answering her question. She wouldn’t understand.

“It’s useful. Let’s just leave it at that.” I replied dismissively.

“No, tell me. I’m curious. What can water do in a fight that fire can’t?” She challenged. I should have known she would force the issue.

“I’m don’t want to argue. Just give me some of your energy and go change into your battle attire.” I said.

“We’re not arguing. I genuinely care about what you think and want to know.” She said, continuing to push.

“No, you don’t.” I fought, anger flaring once more. “You just like argue. That’s why you became a lawyer.”

“I do not. Why do you think so poorly of me, Jay?” She asked. She was goading me; she hadn’t changed. She was trying to manipulate me into fighting with her. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

“Fine.” I acquiesced with my jaw tight. “Fear is the emotion that provokes the fight or flight response, that’s why it provides the body with more speed to escape.”

“Why would you need to escape? If you hit the enemy hard enough the fight is over.” She argued. I seethed; it was exactly what I thought she’d do.

“Because – sometimes , you can’t get to them fast enough or they’re strong enough to take the hit and you have to run away.” I explained. She just stared at me, so I decided to put it in terms that she might better understand. “You also get the benefit of agility and dexterity; you could dodge their attack or you could throw something at them and have better accuracy.”

“Why would you need better accuracy when you can throw something big and heavy at them?” She asked.

“ Because,” barely maintaining my composure, “Maybe you don’t want to kill the target.”

“Well, you don’t have to throw a car at them. You could throw a table or a bed.” She countered. I put my face in my hands and took another deep breath. She acknowledged my frustration. “Alright fine, forget about the body augmentation, what good is water?” She asked. She wasn’t going to drop it, until she was satisfied, so I humored her with another approach.

“Alright… you could use water to sweep someone off their feet and create an opening or you could trap them in water so they couldn’t breathe, thereby incapacitating them.” I explained.

“Ok… but you could also use fire to knock them down or burn all the oxygen out of the air so they couldn’t breathe. Same effect.” She argued. I just eyed her. She stood deep in thought and then excitedly exclaimed, “Oh! I guess you could use the water powers to stop their blood from moving or use it to control their body.” There was a long pause and my eyes widened with horror. She was right, but that just seemed – wrong somehow. For the first time, she looked around the room to inspect everyone else’s reaction. They all wore the same expression, even Shawn. She coughed. “…or you could spray them into submission or whatever. Very astute, Jay.” I shook my head. She gestured in Shawn’s general direction and said, “You should try to teach, whatever his name is, how to use it.” I rolled my eyes.

“Go get changed, then we can figure out what to do next.” I said to her. She nodded and went to leave but hadn’t even taken a step before Shawn opened his big mouth.

“Hold on!” He said. “You haven’t apologized yet.” She ignored him and started walking. “I demand an apology!” He shouted. She stopped.

“What did you say?” Al asked with a threatening tone. She turned on him slowly. As she twisted away from me, I shook my head at him furiously, but he acted oblivious to my warning.

“You heard me.” He replied. “You waltzed in here and beat the shit out of me for no reason.”

“Language!” I reprimanded, pointing at him. I’d hoped to disarm the situation and it worked! Al’s tension dissipated.

“Oh shut –” Shawn started to say, but Al had turned back to me.

“Really?” She asked, making a face. “You still do that?” My expression became serious.

“Yeah.” I replied sternly. “I do.”

“Yeah, what’s with that?” Leah interjected, confused. There was an uncomfortable pause. I responded by staring down at my feet. Al crossed her arms and averted her eyes with a pained expression. The silence hung there, and I’m pretty sure Leah realized that it was a sore subject and intended to drop it.

“He said it reminded him of someone.” Shawn said. “It’s probably someone in his family; they’re all dead.” He announced. The tension in the room increased. No one moved.

The heat in the room slowly increased, and everyone looked at Al. She had her eyes closed with an even deeper expression on her face, so they all turned to look at me. My face had darkened and my teeth were clenched so hard that I thought my molars would crack.

The room suddenly felt like it was too small and there were too many people in it. I took a step toward the door. I wanted to be alone. Another couple steps and I’d passed Al. I didn’t want to be around anyone. My feet continued to move forward.

“Jay.” Al said. Leave me alone, I thought. “Jay – wait.” Please, just go away. She started after me. Don’t follow me. She got closer. Stay away from me! I sensed her hand reach out to grab my shoulder. I whirled and grabbed her arm with a snarl. She took a step back in surprise. The apartment drifted away like leaves stirred by an eddy of wind.