Three Burning Red Runaway Brides

by Kevin James Breaux

  “I need to invest in some backless one pieces,” Sabrina said as untied the strings of her bikini with one hand and held it to her chest with the other.

  “I bet you’d look cute in one…once you lose another ten pounds,” Natalia baited Sabrina.

  “Oh really?” Sabrina felt her face turn read. “Well, I saw some at Nordstrom’s last time I was on Melrose. You’ve been to Nordstrom’s, right? No? Oh, I forgot, you vampires are all thrift store and goodwill shoppers.”

  Sabrina saw Jackson back pedal out of the corner of her eye. “Ladies, now’s not the time.”

  He was right. Pollution had gotten much closer, and as hard as it was for her to believe, much bigger.

  “Oh God!” Sabrina gasped. “Does it have tentacles, now? Oh, fuck no!”

  “Run!”

  Sabrina unfurled her wings and took flight. She knew she could outrun Pollution. All she would have to do is get up into a good wind current and flap her wings like her life depended on it. And it did.

  She also knew she could dive back into the water and transport herself home just like she transported herself here. It was her choice: sink, swim, or fly.

  As she flew higher, she saw that the surf—the very ocean itself—was not where it should be. It was gone.

  “Guys…” Sabrina felt danger like she never had before; it chilled her to the core.

  Jackson called out. “It’s so fucking dark I can’t see anything. How close are we to the water?”

  “Guys…” She felt it in her very being, in the parts of her body and soul that were otherworldly—were from the Elemental Kingdom of Water.

  Sabrina amped up her wings and watched Jackson bend over and place his hand on the damp sand; he looked confounded. “Where’s the water?”

  “Where did the ocean go?” Natalia echoed his concern. “I can’t even see it anywhere.”

  Sabrina lowered herself until she hovered several feet above them. “The waves receded.”

  “Are you doing this, fairy?”

  “Me?” She shook her head. “No.”

  “The earthquake…” Jackson said. “I’ve seen this in the movies. Damn it, what’s it called?”

  “I can feel it—the ocean’s ebb and flow. And when I focus on it, it feels like breathing, gradually drawing in and pushing out air. During a storm, it can feel like the measured breaths of a runner as they sprint.”

  “And now?” Natalia asked.

  “Right now, it feels like the Big Bad Wolf as he draws in a huge breath.”

  “Tsunami!” Jackson shouted. “That’s what it’s called.”

  Sabrina looked out to the horizon where a large wave formed, then back to Pollution as he closed the distance to the beach. She felt trapped—until the solution hit her. She focused her powers on the ocean and connected herself to the approaching wave.

  “I know how to stop Pollution.” For a second, Sabrina felt elated. “I can stop him.” But she had to make a choice.

  “Do it, fairy!” Natalia shouted.

  “You don’t understand. I can stop him, or I can help you. I can’t do both.”

  “Wait?” Jackson waved his hands. “What do you mean?”

  Sabrina pointed to the horizon. “There’s a huge fucking wave coming. I can control that wave, make it bigger or smaller.”

  “Then make it smaller! Tell her to make it smaller, Jackson.”

  Sabrina shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “You just said you could.” She ignored Jackson as she flapped her wings again. “Sabrina!” he called to her. “Sabrina!”

  She must have been seventy feet above him and rising when she finally answered. “I need that wave. I need to make it bigger—big enough to wipe out Pollution.”

  “What about us?”

  “I’m sorry, Jackson. I wish things could’ve been different.”

  She was easily nearing one hundred and fifty feet when the wind stole his words from her ears.

  “Regardless of everything that’s happened, I wish you could’ve met her. She’s wonderful, and you would’ve made a good father…before all this mess. I’m sorry, Jackson.”

  Water Vs. Waste

  Sabrina was so high up now that she could barely see Jackson in the darkness below. It was for the better. She did not want to watch him die.

  Pollution had grown ever larger, adding to his size with every step in her direction. His tentacles drug on the ground and seemed to gather more of the Tainted into him.

  The thing’s only feature—a mouth—hung open and spilled oil and ooze.

  It doesn’t want to stomp or squish me. It wants to tear me into little bite-sized parts and eat me.

  She could feel the spray from the wave behind her—it was huge, but nowhere near as big as Pollution.

  Sabrina rose up another few feet as she directed the wave into the shoreline. The wave was at least a hundred feet tall and half a mile across.

  This must work. If it doesn’t, I’ve killed Jackson for no reason.

  As the wave began to crest, she turned her attention to Pollution. The thing had stopped at the street level above the beach. He’s too far away. At best, my wave will soak his feet…if he has feet.

  “Come closer, motherfucker!”

  But it didn’t.

  Sabrina looked down at Jackson and Natalia as the wave hung above them and the shoreline; her heart sunk. She released a shrill scream as she did her best to separate the wave where Jackson stood, to dissipate it before it would crush him. The wave responded to her commands and looked as if it had been suddenly torn in two with each part falling flaccid instead of pounding the beach.

  Sabrina felt weak, descending twenty feet before her wings caught her.

  She wretched and emptied her stomach of the alcohol that she’d consumed. As she wiped her mouth clean, she looked down; Jackson and Natalia were gone. The wave had swept them away.

  “Oh gods no.”

  There was no time to mourn him. The rumbling grew suddenly worse. In the distance, buildings began to crumble. Her wave, what was left of it, had struck the cliff side and sprayed up at Pollution, but the monster seemed mostly undamaged.

  Pollution continued to drill its tentacles into the ground around itself and, somehow, grew even more. She guessed it was at least fifteen hundred feet tall now.

  There’s no way in the world this thing is going unseen. The truth will be out. The wraiths…

  Sabrina turned to the ocean again. There was another large wave coming, she could see it build. I have to stop this thing now. Last chance, Sabs.

  She faced Pollution again and allowed herself to float closer to him. “Come on, you big, dumb, trash heap. Come get me. Come down here and get me.”

  Pollution did not move, so she fluttered her wings and sailed closer, summoning more water into her new wave. She looked back at the wave, which looked like a bump on the ground compared to the Tainted’s monster. She needed more but had taxed her powers.

  “Damn you!” she shouted. “Damn you!”

  There was a light in the darkness behind him, moving around to the side. At first, Sabrina could not imagine what it was, but as it continued to circle around Pollution, she realized what—who it was.

  “Skipper!”

  Amber moved around to the front of Pollution and slowed to a hover. She could tell her double was nude and covered in dirt, but she seemed unhurt.

  “Amber!” she nearly burst into tears. “You’re alive!”

  Waste Vs. Water

  Amber did not answer Sabrina; her focus was on Pollution alone. Looking like a mountain of filth and garbage—the thing was bigger than she had expected. But after the events of today, it seemed nothing would amaze or shock her.

  “I killed Lord Raion!” she shouted at Pollution. “I killed his guards. I killed almost every oil, slime, and smog spirit at that dump. Burned them all to ash!”

  Her bravado might have sounded good and felt right, but she knew she had only won a battle, not the war. Becaus
e upon unleashing her fire and killing so many back at the warehouse, she sensed no fewer in existence. There were more than she’d imagined—lots and lots more.

  She always felt Los Angeles was a dirty, disgusting place—the perfect home for the Tainted.

  “I’m your leader now, you answer to me. Stand down and return to the ground,” she shouted, but Pollution did not respond. “I rule the Tainted, and you are the many. All Tainted. All mine. I order you to return to ground, Pollution.”

  Sabrina floated closer, until Amber stopped her.

  “Stay away!”

  “What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked.

  “What’s wrong?” Amber returned sarcastically. “I’m pretty fucking sure Pollution’s loyalty remains with Raion. That’s what’s wrong.”

  “Challenge.”

  Both women were shocked to hear it speak. And worse, the smell of its breath like months’ old rotting garbage, nearly knocked both of them out of the sky.

  “I am Queen of the Water and Tainted kingdoms, Pollution,” Amber shouted. “Are you sure you wish to challenge me when you can return to the ground and—”

  “Challenge. Kill you. Kill you both.”

  Amber saw the look on Sabrina’s face change; she was clearly shocked that it had come to this.

  “Fine. We fight.”

  “Skipper?”

  The wave Sabrina had built crashed on the shore and flooded the beach. Amber watched it rush toward Pollution and strike the side of the cliff, but not enough water reached him to damage him.

  “I can’t make a wave big enough,” Sabrina groaned. “I can’t stop him. I can’t—”

  “Shut up!” Amber yelled while fluttering toward her. “Just shut up!”

  “Skip—”

  Amber grasped Sabrina’s shoulder. “You’re doing it all wrong. You’re thinking about it all wrong. You need to stop thinking like you, Sabrina, and start thinking like me.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “It means you want to hit Pollution with a wave.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What you need to do is gather that wave and turn it into a water spirit. It needs to be alive. Like him.”

  Sabrina’s eyes went wide. “I can’t do that.”

  “I can,” Amber said as she touched the crown she’d made from Lord Raion’s head. “I am Queen of the Water Kingdom. And my kingdom has a new treasure.”

  “What is that?”

  “Mine.” was all she said.

  Sabrina took a good long look at Amber. She looked more like Sabrina than Sabrina herself did, but at the same time, she looked different. Sabrina remembered the night she fought Alexander Kintner. She was nude, like Amber is now, and covered in wounds. She’d fought for her life. Amber fought because she wanted to. And that alone made her look like a totally different person.

  “That’s the top of his head, isn’t it?” Sabrina asked.

  “Just in case anyone needs more proof that I killed him.”

  Relief made Sabrina feel like she might cry.

  “Just so you know, Joe betrayed us. And he said he was doing what Dunyasha told him.”

  “Dunyasha is gone.”

  “What?” Sabrina misread her tone. “Did you… Did you kill her?”

  Amber shot her a look. “No. I…released her. She’s War. You knew, that right?”

  “War?”

  “The Horsemen.”

  Sabrina could not fathom it; it only muddled her brain more. “How’s that possible? They’re myth.”

  “You made a deal with the devil, Sabrina, and you didn’t even realize it.”

  “What do we do?”

  “We?” Amber chuckled. “You do nothing. I’ll fight Pollution and destroy him.”

  Sabrina was utterly useless—she had not felt this way in months, not since before becoming queen. She did not like it. And she was starting to not like her double holding her title either.

  “He’s moving,” Amber said. “It’s now or never.”

  Amber flapped her burning red wings and turned herself around to face the ocean. Sabrina could feel it—Amber was summoning the water, building on the next large wave that raced to shore.

  She does have my power…

  But there was another thing Sabrina could feel. She felt connected to the wave, and there was no connection between it and Amber, as far as she could tell.

  “Watch and learn,” Amber said.

  The incoming wave grew and grew, one hundred, two hundred, four hundred, eight hundred feet tall. It seemed to drain the very ocean around it dry.

  “We need to fly higher!” Sabrina shouted over the rumbling of the earthquakes and the roar of the wave.

  “Just stay out of its path, that’s all.”

  “I don’t know it’s path!”

  “Yeah, you do,” Amber pointed at Pollution who had finally stepped down into the sand. “Straight into that!”

  Sabrina was surprised to see Pollution had finally advanced—and oddly amused to see it sink and trudge through the sand.

  “I think it’s lost a few hundred feet.”

  “Good!” Amber wrinkled her brow in deep concentration.

  “Do you know what you’re doing?” Sabrina asked.

  “Making fire elementals is much easier.”

  “I can help you,” Sabrina said as she clasped hands with Amber.

  Suddenly, the wave stopped, as if frozen in time. The two fairies watched in awe as the energy building inside it surged up into a point and then rolled forward like it rounded its shoulders. Foam formed at its sides, and arms emerged from the frothing sea.

  “It’s starting to look just like one of my guards,” Sabrina whispered.

  “It’s working. We did it! It’s alive!”

  “No…” Sabrina could not figure it out. “It’s not. That’s…that’s just me.”

  Amber scowled. “W-what do you mean?”

  “I’m no longer queen, but I’m still royalty by blood.”

  “And?”

  “And regardless of its size, I should be able to breathe life into our water elemental,” she said while pointing at it. “But…but I can’t. It’s like…it’s like…”

  “The Fleece has been destroyed.”

  “Yeah… What?” she screamed.

  “It’s gone.”

  “How? How is it gone?”

  “Does it matter?” Amber pointed at Pollution, which was even closer now. “How is that wave you? You said, ‘That’s me.’”

  “Yeah, I’m connected to it and if I merge—like make full-on physical contact with it, I should be able to control it better.”

  “And you could use it to fight Pollution?” Amber said.

  “I think so,” Sabrina said as Pollution rapidly approached. “But while I do that, you’ll need to keep siphoning water from the ocean and sky into it to maintain its size.”

  “I can do that.”

  Sabrina looked at the wave. “We’re gonna need to act as a team.”

  “Whatever’s needed to complete this mission.”

  “And save our lives.”

  Amber shook her head, though Sabrina could not figure out why.

  “Ready?”

  Amber nodded. “Sabrina London was born ready.”

  Water vs. Water vs. Filth

  Sabrina lowered herself into the wave. The water was colder than she’d expected and rushed around her so quickly it knocked her untied bikini top right off.

  It didn’t matter. She was fully connected to the wave now and ready for a fight.

  It was hard to see anything outside of the water, not even shadows to guide by, but then she saw Amber. She burned bright—an orange fireball in the dark night sky.

  Great, all I can see is you, Skipper. And you look like the freaking sun.

  Sabrina pushed herself out of the body of the giant wave.

  “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you moving?” Amber said.

  “I can’t see it.”

  Amber
pointed. “It’s right there.”

  “I can’t see anything when I’m inside, it’s too dark.”

  “Well, then we’re fucked.”

  “All I can see is you.”

  “Lotta good that does us.” Amber paused. “Wait. You can see me, my wings? You can see my fire?”

  “Yeah.”

  Amber smiled. “Then follow me. I’ll light him up. When you see something start to burn, aim for it. Okay?”

  Sabrina began to feel something new: hope. “Punch anything I see burning.”

  “Just not me.”

  “Got it.”

  Sabrina started to sink back down into the wave. She kept her eyes on Amber’s orange glow, and watched it shoot forward and then up into a hover.

  Sabrina wanted to move forward, but all she seemed to be able to do was lift the giant water elemental’s arms and point them straight out.

  This is going to be much harder than I thought. How do I get it to move forward?

  She thought: forward, step, slide, move… But nothing happened. Damn it, how do I do this?

  There was a heavy rumble outside her, and when she looked up to where Amber last was, she was gone.

  Where are you? She looked about. There…

  Amber was darting around and as best as Sabrina could tell, she had just lit three fires on Pollution. Sabrina focused and moved the arms again, swinging them out side to side, but there was no contact.

  I’m still too far away. Damn it! Move forward. How the fuck do I do this? How did the Power Rangers move their Megazoid? Sabrina racked her brain. They had controls. Like steering wheels and joysticks. Buttons and levers. I need controls…

  Sabrina imagined two joysticks in front of her and the water around her took shape. Yes, that’s it. All I need now is a… Before she was done with the thought, cockpit seating formed around her.

  Yeah! Go! Go, Sabrina London! She sung out in her head as she grasped the controls and pushed them forward. Go! Go, Sabrina London!

  The water elemental finally moved forward.

  Outside, Amber dodged Pollution’s tentacles yet again. The thing had nearly grabbed her twice. She had set a dozen fires on it, but most of them burned out within seconds.