Chapter 40 Facing Their Monster selves
The Fifth Element 🔥🌊🌪️⛰️🌀
Cassie's POV ~
The ground stopped shaking.
From the darkness of West Wing A, they emerged. One by one.
Twisted mirrors of us.
A Damon made of churning, black water, his eyes frozen over.
A Jake wreathed in blue-white flame that sucked the heat from the air.
A Madeleine with bark for skin, vines writhing from her shoulders like serpents.
A Phoebe whose body flickered like a tornado, her laugh the sound of shattering glass.
Phoebe’s voice was still layered, echoing. "They’re us. But wrong."
"Simulation or not," Jake growled, fire igniting down both arms, "we end this."
The monster-Damon moved first. He thrust his hands forward and a spear of black ice shot from the ground, aimed straight at Jake’s heart.
I ducked behind a collapsed pillar, heart hammering. I can’t fight. Not like them.
"Incoming!" Phoebe shouted. She clapped her hands and a wall of compressed air slammed into the ice spear, shattering it into harmless snow. Her hair whipped around her like she was standing in a hurricane. "My turn."
She spun, and the air itself became a blade. It sliced across monster-Phoebe, who dissolved into wind and reformed behind her, giggling. The two of them became a blur— cyclone against cyclone, tearing chunks of stone from the walls.
Monster-Jake roared. The blue fire around him flared, and the temperature plummeted. Frost formed on my eyelashes from twenty feet away. He launched a wave of cold fire at Madeleine.
"Not today," Madeleine hissed. Her eyes blazed green. The stone floor rippled and rose, forming a massive wall of rock and roots between them. The cold fire hit it and steamed, but didn’t break through. Then she slammed her palm down.
Thick, thorny vines erupted from the cracks, snaring monster-Madeleine’s legs. The monster screeched and hacked at them with branch-like claws, but more vines grew, wrapping her waist, her throat.
Real Jake was already moving. "Damon, flank!"
"On it," Damon said, grinning feral. He swept his arms wide. Water ripped itself from the damp walls and pooled at his feet, then surged upward into a roaring serpent. He rode the wave, crashing it into monster-Jake.
Steam exploded everywhere. Fire and water screaming against each other. For a second, nothing was visible but white haze and shadows.
Monster-Damon used the cover. He reformed from a puddle behind Madeleine and swung an ice axe at her back.
I gasped, wanting to scream a warning—
Jake was faster. He threw his fire sword like a javelin. It spun, blazing, and buried itself in monster-Damon’s chest. The creature staggered, looked down at the fire eating through his water body, and howled before evaporating.
"Two down," Jake panted, recalling his sword to his hand.
Madeleine didn’t even look tired. She clenched her fist and the vines around monster-Madeleine tightened, crushing. With a wet crack, the bark monster exploded into leaves and dust.
"Three," Madeleine said, brushing dirt off her shoulder.
Above us, the two Phoebes were still a tornado of motion. Real Phoebe yelled, "Little help?!"
Damon laughed and thrust both hands up. A geyser of water shot from the floor, catching monster-Phoebe mid-spin. The water flash-froze around her, trapping her in a block of water
She fell. Drowning in the water.
Phoebe landed beside it, breathing hard. She pressed her palm to the surface of the water and whispered. The air inside the water block imploded. The water—and the monster—collapsed into nothing.
"Four," Phoebe said, grinning at Damon. "Nice assist."
Silence. Just the sound of dripping water and our ragged breathing.
I peeked out from behind the pillar. They were all standing, shoulders back, powers still crackling around them. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. They looked like gods.
And I’d just hidden.
Shame burned hotter than Jake’s fire as I stepped out shyly hoping they didn't notice my cowardice.
"I think we have just one monster left to kill and we're out of here." Phoebe said.
“I vote we let Cassie have the last kill. I really want to see how her powers work. If it also has an offense side and not just defense," Damon said, wiping monster residue off his jacket.
"Are you crazy? We can't let her fight." Jake replied, not looking at him.
"I know. But hey, we all know how each of our powers work when it comes to defending ourselves. But what does she know about defending herself? Is her mind magic really enough to stop incoming quick attacks? I’m genuinely very curious," Damon said, his eyes finding mine.
"Now isn’t the time for that. She can learn that during normal defense classes. Right now, we just want to end this quickly and go back to our dorms." Jake shot back.
How can these two act like I’m not here and can’t hear them?
I just kept quiet and listened to them bicker.
"What do you mean, isn't the right time? There is no right time. She needs to be in total control of her powers," Damon argued.
"Can you guys just stop? I don’t know about you all, but I really want to get outta here. I’m tired and I'm hungry. And I wanna go back to my dorm and take a nap!" Madeleine added, sounding pretty annoyed.
Hell, even I was annoyed as well. And I was really hungry too.
"Madeleine’s right. We should hurry up and get out of here," I said, supporting her.
"Fine. Your decision, princess," Damon said to me, that infuriating smirk on his face.
I saw Jake shake his head from the corner of my eye.
"I’m not a princess," I said to Damon.
He just smirked wider.
"Okay. Phoebe, do your thing," Jake said.
🌊
After struggling and successfully taking down the last monster... we headed out to the fields to give a report of the task.
Damon bragged about killing more monsters than we did, but none of us took it seriously.
I suddenly remembered what I saw Damon do earlier. The ice.
"Hey, I just remembered. I didn’t know people with water magic could make ice as well. That was really cool," I said to Damon when I was standing close to him.
"What?" he asked, his face instantly blank. Innocent.
"The ice thing you did with that monster? I saw you, remember?" I said.
"Right. Umm... Cassie, I have to ask you for something." His tone turned serious all of a sudden. The playful smirk gone.
"What?"
"Don’t tell anyone about that. What you just said you saw me do. Don’t tell anyone about it," he said, his voice low.
"Okay? But why not? Is it supposed to be a secret or something?" I asked him, a small smile plastered on my face.
But I saw how serious he looked and wiped the smile off quickly.
"Oh. Ohh... okay. Of course, I won’t tell anyone," I said after realizing he was serious.
"Thank you. You should go back to your dorm and get some rest, you did good today." he said and walked away from me before I could even say something back.
Okay. Weird.
~
I kept thinking about why Damon would want me to keep his ice powers a secret.
Everyone just keeps being way too secretive in this school. It was beginning to bug me.
Madeleine and I went to get some food first... I couldn’t go one more minute without eating something.
While in the cafeteria, we ate our food quietly. Neither of us wanted to start a conversation. And Stacy and the rest wasn't here yet.
After feeling a little full from the food, I decided to break the silence.
"So, today was fun," I said to her.
"Yeah," she replied.
I was expecting her to say something more, but she remained silent, pushing food around her plate.
"What do you think about my powers? Pretty cool, right?" I said.
"I guess so," she said nonchalantly.
I noticed she was giving me the cold shoulder. She doesn’t want to speak to me, not like she normally does.
Perhaps I could reach into her mind for a second just to hear what she’s thinking right now. No harm in that.
I decided to do it after contemplating very hard.
I pretended to be very much invested in the plate of food in front of me, but my mind had already traveled, prying into hers.
(🧠Why is she so annoying!!! I don’t see anything special about her so-called powers! Pretty useless if I’m asked. Why is everyone so interested in her! Nothing special, nothing!🧠)
I was taken aback by how loud it was in her mind. She was reciting a loud hate speech about me.
This got me thinking. I’m beginning to think maybe Madeleine isn’t really my friend like I thought she was.
"Madeleine, do you have a problem? You’re oddly quiet," I managed to say to her.
I’d rather not read her mind again if she has nothing good to say about me there.
"I don’t have a problem," she replied and smiled at me before focusing back on her food.
I chuckled slightly and Madeleine shot me a look.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing. Just overwhelmed by a lot that’s happening around here," I said to her.
"Yeah. You shouldn’t worry though. I’m sure the whole school is willing to protect you if anything bad happens," Madeleine said and smiled.
I knew her smile was a fake one.
"Right. Although I don’t want that. I’d much rather prefer to protect myself when I need to than depend on strangers," I said to her.
"Strangers? So you still consider me a stranger then?" she asked, sounding a bit annoyed.
"No. Of course not. I mean, you’re my friend and the only one I can trust here. I know you have my back. Right?... I mean we ARE friends, aren’t we?" I asked her.
She hesitated for a second before answering.
"Of course we are. And I’m glad you trust me," she replied innocently.
I smiled slightly at her, really confused about her attitude towards me.
We ate the rest of our food in silence. And went back to our dorm.
On our way back, we saw Sage also going to her room.
I really envy that she has a whole room to herself. She didn’t need to share her space with anyone.
"Hi, Sage," I said to her.
"Hi," she replied, not stopping.
"So... how did your monster hunt go?" I asked awkwardly.
Madeleine just stood there and watched.
"Ok... Why are you talking to me?" Sage asked, finally looking at me.
"Um... I was just trying to be friendly. ‘Cause we’re like neighbors..." I said and did a small laugh, then looked over to Madeleine, who squinted her eyes at me.
"Oh... You don’t have to be friendly or even talk to me, you know. We’re not friends," Sage said nonchalantly.
"Right. Of course. I know we’re not friends," I said, trying to brush off the fact that I was embarrassed.
Did Sage really have to embarrass me in front of Madeleine?
"Good." Sage replied and went straight into her room and shut the door.
"I honestly don’t know why you keep trying to talk to her, she obviously doesn't like you," Madeleine said before opening the door to our room. I sighed heavily before joining her.
You don't like me either. You're just good at hiding it more.
\~~~