ELEMENTARY VIRTUE: The Savior

by Sonja Wuthrich

  Mila snorted. “Yes, I know,” Aiden gave her a smug look.

  “That is quite sexist, but I am not really able to change that,” he continued smiling at her.

  “It says that boy would be able to be master of all the four elements. However, there is a snag to it. The black Vultures have been looking for this boy for centuries and if it would come to their attention, you would be dead faster than you would care for.”

  Gregory raised his hands in defense.

  “When it comes to that, I’d rather not be dead at all, if you don’t mind.”

  Aiden grinned, “It is quite clear to me, dude. I'm just pointing out that we must be extremely careful. Otherwise, you’re going to live dangerously and we must absolutely keep this a secret. Nobody has to know about your existence. Does anyone else know anything about this?”

  Gregory’s head was spinning.

  “That's really great, maybe we could already pick out a coffin for me.”

  They made him nervous.

  “No, Leyla is the only one. And if you want me to help, they are going to find out one way or another”

  Aiden sighed wearily.

  “That’s exactly why nobody needs to know except us at least for now. My father must not know under any circumstance, as he pulls the strings for the Black Vultures in this city.

  He is into power and real estate. If he is into something, there is no stopping him. Let’s say someone doesn’t want to sell their house and leave even when his mind is made up to buy the place. The property burns to the ground for no reason. No witnesses ever show up. And whether the owner dies or not, he doesn’t give a shit”

  He stopped talking and Gregory had the impression that he had drifted to another place in his thoughts. When he looked up, his expression was sober.

  “What about Leyla, can she keep her mouth shut?"

  Gregory was appalled and disgusted that Aiden’s father seemed to be a real creep.

  “Your dad sounds like a real jerk. Makes me feel sick and take off that villain’s pants. That's disgusting, and don’t worry about Leyla, she is ok and I know how to handle her.”

  Aiden had only just begun with his stories.

  “I have an uncle; his name is Carmine. If he doesn’t like your face, it can happen that during a windless night, a tree is uprooted and falls exactly on your car. Then a storm comes up and rages only just above your damn car. I could tell you about some interesting accidents, poisonings and quite remarkable floods.”

  Gregory shook his head aghast, “That's horrible, and what about your mother; what happened to her?”

  A blank expression crossed Aiden’s face, and it was clearly visible that it was difficult for him to answer.

  “She was a wonderful person and always saw only the good in all the people. Probably, this was the reason she fell for a spineless weak guy like my father. He is weak there is no doubt about it, and he does everything his delusional brother expects from him. My Uncle Carmine is the incarnated evil, and his son Gabe, actually Gabriele, named after the archangel Gabriel. Lucifer would have been a more appropriate choice.”

  He sat there lost in thoughts, and after a while, Gregory realized that Aiden had somehow drifted away with his thoughts and was somewhere else.

  “Hello, earth to Aiden,” he moved his hand back and forth in front of Aiden's face. “What exactly do you expect me to do?” Aiden scowled.

  “You’re going to prevent them from committing their criminal acts once you are in control of the elements. We will be always one step ahead of them. The most important thing is that we stop Carmine and my cousin, Gabe. Have them convicted.”

  "But you said that even the cops are on their side,” Gregory objected.

  "Only a few of them; most of them are regular Akando people, not Black Vultures. We need to go against the two most important criminals. Once they fall, the odds will be in our favor.”

  “What about the ones in Italy? Are they not even more powerful than your dad and your Uncle?”

  Aiden shrugged, “We have to start some place, don’t you think?”

  Although Gregory was not convinced, it was with no doubts important that he got in control of his powers. Aiden got up, wiping his hands on his pants, and brought a box of matches out of his backpack.

  He waved Gregory and Mila over to him and sat down on a small wall next to his mother's place of power.

  “I want you to sit across from me and Mila to sit beside you. Go and get yourself two of these plastic chairs over there and sit down, about 3 feet from each other.

  “Why don’t you sit on a chair?” Mila grumbled.

  “Because I can control my energy best at my mother’s place of power, silly. You’ll thank me.”

  Mila grimaced, but took a chair as she had been told. They formed a triangle, each of them having a match in front of them.

  "Well Gregory, the first exercise is to light up a flame and then to extinguish it again with your will power. This will be easier with a match, that’s why we do it this way.”

  “Still, what do I have to do with it? I don’t know anything about fire,” Mila tossed in. Aiden put her to silence waving his hand. She rolled her eyes to heaven surrendering to her fate.

  “So let’s get going then,” Aiden said.

  “I'll show you what I have in mind and Gregory can try afterwards.”

  He fixed the match with his black eyes and instantly there was a small flame. Then he did it again and the flame was gone. Gregory raised his eyebrows.

  ”Do you want me to try it now?”

  He heard Aiden’s brusque voice, “Shut up, I haven’t finished yet. Hold your damn matches.”

  He closed his eyes and all three matches lit up at the same time. Mila yelped, but continued holding her match after she got an annoyed side glace from Gregory. Aiden opened his eyes and the three small flames shot up into huge flames into the air and blazed dangerously. This time, Gregory almost screamed and Mila smiled gleefully. Then Aiden closed his eyes again and the flames extinguished immediately.

  "Holy shit,” Gregory exclaimed.

  Mila shuddered.

  “Tell me about it. I’ve already seen it more than once, but I still get the creeps every time,” she laughed.

  Aiden gave them new matches. They were longer than the last ones.

  “Well, my friend, now it’s your turn and do not forget you have it in you! First, concentrate on your match. Imagine the small flame in your hand.”

  Gregory turned his gaze to his match and focused, but somehow he didn’t succeed which made him angry. He closed his eyes and imagined a big flame in his imagination with all his force, and suddenly a big bush behind Mila went up in flames. She screamed fleeing over to Aiden.

  He got up moving his hand and turned his gaze to the bush; it extinguished immediately. Gregory still sat completely baffled in his chair, the match intact in his hand. Aiden grinned, “That’s what I presumed. You're doing things a couple of sizes bigger than us. But the extinction part, we really need to practice some more.”

  Gregory was petrified; he was useless, unable to do anything right. He could not even handle a match. He heard Aiden's voice.

  ”Hey dude, this was your first time, don’t throw in the towel immediately. You can do it. Come on let's try again, I'll support you.”

  “Sure. And this time, you are going to burn me to the ground instead of the bush you two crazy morons.”​​

  Mila was not thrilled at all.

  “Don’t play innocent now Mila,” Aiden said. “How many times did I drink your indefinable brews before you finally got it right? I remember a pink gnats piss; that made me feel pretty bad, and I did not get out of the shithouse for two days!” Mila cracked a smile, “You're right, so let’s do this.”

  This time Aiden was sitting beside Gregory giving him instructions on how to breathe and how to focus and things improved immediately. By the end of the afternoon, Gregory was able to light his match and extinguish it again. Closin
g his eyes, creating a darting flame seemed to take somehow more time to succeed. He had not managed to control the darting flame until now. Each time the flame exploded in the air and Mila refused to participate any further. She had taken a mixture for her blisters and couldn’t be persuaded to continue practicing any longer. Since it was already dark, Aiden and Gregory agreed to stop the training for today and head home. He was quite satisfied with the fact that he had been able to handle a match; at least it was a big progress for him. Rome hadn’t been built in a day either. On the way home, they all were in a cheerful mood and Leyla was amazed when she saw Gregory getting out of Aiden's car with a big smile on his face. When Aiden drove away, they behaved just like old pals. They had dropped off Mila earlier, otherwise Leyla would have been wondering if more what was even going on.

  A fateful concert

  Gregory was humming some song while he walked up the stairs, where he met Leyla. He seemed to be in a great mood and told her without her even asking him that things had gone well today. Aiden had helped him a lot and he was on track to get the fire under control; he was apparently full of enthusiasm. Leyla was glad that apparently he found a friend. She just asked herself how Jason would react to this new friendship.

  “Your nose looks almost normal again,” she said, surprised. “Just imagine, Mila from my class also belongs to the clan and she is a healer. She gave me a mixture to combat the swelling. It worked like magic!”

  Leyla felt a sting in her chest when she thought about the beautiful girl. There seemed to be quite a bit of competition out there for her to stand up against if she wanted to remain in the game with Gregory. He was in a great mood the whole evening. They were sitting on the back yard veranda throwing sticks for Rogan. He raced fanatically, back and forth, and seemed to enjoy the unexpected attention a lot.

  There was something on Leyla’s mind and she had to ask him while he was in this lighthearted mood.

  “Gregory, I have a problem and I hope you can help me out.”

  He beamed at her and her heart skipped a beat.

  “Anything you want love”.

  He was so damn charming tonight. She was thrown completely off track and didn’t know where to start anymore. She cleared her throat, “You do remember my friend Brooklyn, don’t you?” He nodded. “She just called me before. Today, she had to pick a new cheerleader because Anne Sophie broke her leg making out with some jerk.”

  He frowned, looking at her, so she went on quickly.

  “Tomorrow night, there is a concert at the Rogers Center and the new girl’s dad gave her four tickets. I would really like to go, but my parents will not let me go alone with her. If you'd come with me they would let me go.”

  She looked at him hopefully.

  “Pleeeease?”

  She folded her hands as if she were praying. He could not refuse her anything, not today. He brushed a strand of hair from her face.

  “Sure love, I just wonder who will be the lucky guy Brooklyn brings along and I sure hope it's not Jason”

  Leyla hesitated.

  “Here’s the thing; the second problem is that the last Lakeshore East train leaves at midnight and the concert will probably finish later than that. Therefore, we would have to go by car, but our car is currently in the garage”

  “But I saw your dad driving this morning and everything seemed to be fine,” Gregory said doubtfully. She had taken her dad’s promise that he would support her story with the broken car. In truth, the car was perfectly fine. Leyla continued, “Dad mentioned something about the brakes and I thought, now that Aiden and you seem to get along quite well, maybe you could put in a good word for us and he would possibly drive us.” Gregory knitted his brows.

  “I don't know if that's such a good idea. What concert is it anyway? Which band is playing?”

  Leyla wondered how she’d best break it gently to him.

  “The supporting act is an Australian band called 5SOS.”

  Gregory shook his head.

  “Never heard about them and that’s kind of a stupid name.”

  “That’s not stupid at all. It’s an abbreviation for 5 seconds of summer.”

  “Which doesn’t really make it any better, does it? Don't you think it is a little uninspired?”

  He grinned, “What is the name of the main act? “10 minutes of winter?”

  “Very funny,” Leyla applauded, slightly annoyed.

  “The band is called One Direction and they are British.”

  Gregory couldn’t believe it.

  “You’re not being serious, are you? Those douche bags, and you really think that Aiden is into that kind of music? Get real kid! How the hell do you think I can convince him to come along? A Metallica concert maybe, but One Direction? Maybe we’ll be lucky and he hasn’t heard of these guys. He looks more like he listens to Punk or Hard rock to me. I can’t guarantee anything, but I will do my very best to convince him. Don’t forget you owe me for that.”

  He looked teasingly at her.

  “Still, I want you to keep one thing in mind. I am never ever going to scream and yell, like all the other fan girls.”

  He seemed to be enjoying himself. Leyla didn’t care, she was satisfied after all he would try to convince Aiden. She had high hopes in him that he was determined enough to succeed, otherwise Brooklyn would be very disappointed. She looked at him how he continued to throw sticks for Rogan, a bright grin on his face and she had to admit, that she would be disappointed too if he didn’t succeed to persuade Aiden. She longed for being alone with him on that concert.

  The next day passed without major events except that Aiden actually recently hung out with Gregory. Jason and the other guys seemed apparently to accept that fact without putting up a fight. It was indeed a bit strange. Gregory told them at lunch that Aiden had agreed to come to the concert and that fortunately he didn’t know the band. He had told him that he thought it was a heavy metal thing.

  Brooklyn was totally excited and almost freaked out. She didn’t know what to wear and that was apparently her biggest problem. There was no other issue on her mind the whole day through.

  They went directly to Brooklyn’s house after school and Aiden and Gregory were supposed to pick them up later. Brooklyn fluttered like a headless chicken through the house. She had changed her clothes several times so far and Leyla was sitting on her bed watching her. She wasn’t nervous at all and had not put much of an effort into dressing up. She wore some jeans shorts and a 5SOS shirt. She actually really was a big fan of the band with the uninspired name, she grinned to herself.

  She had barely put some make up on and once more braided her unruly hair. A storm had been predicted and the baseball stadium was only partially covered, so she had packed a raincoat and she wore her Converse. She was a practical girl compared to her friend. Just a minute ago, she had tried to persuade Brooklyn not to wear high heels, because Aiden was not very tall and she would otherwise probably tower over him. After some counselling from Leyla’s side, Brooklyn was finally ready. She looked very natural having tied her long blond hair into a ponytail. She wore faded skinny jeans and flat Sandals to a black short-sleeved blouse and there was almost no visible make up on her face, except for some shinning lip-gloss. Leyla was satisfied with the result of her counselling. Aiden would like her that way; there was no doubt about that.

  Finally, the black Ford Mustang drove up in front of Brooklyn’s House with squealing tires. As the two girls got out of the house, they found Gregory and Aiden both leaning casually at the car looking cool and quite relaxed. Aiden smiled at Brooklyn and opened the door for her in a gallant way. Leyla and Gregory were speechless for a moment.

  The two girls were sitting on the backseat and to everyone’s astonishment, Brooklyn and Aiden were making small talk during the whole drive, which was nothing special for Brooklyn but frightening Aiden was unrecognizable. Both of them ignored Leyla and Gregory completely. Actually, it seemed that the two of them were not present at all. Brooklyn bea
med at Aiden through the rearview mirror, and he seemed to enjoy it. Today he didn’t looked like a punk for a change. He even seemed to have combed his dark hair and looked perfectly normal. He wore jeans and dark blue super dry T-Shirt. If Leyla hadn’t known for sure that this was Aiden, she would probably not have recognized him. He looked just like a regular high school kid. Her eyes met Gregory’s in the rearview mirror and apparently, he seemed to have similar thoughts, and they smiled at each other knowingly.

  Once they arrived at the stadium, they took their seats but Aiden and Brooklyn left instantly to get closer to the stage where the real action was and they fought their way through the crowd during the supporting act.

  Leyla didn’t like to get into the crowd at the stage and rather saw the whole thing from a certain distance. She was jumping and singing along in fascination, because she knew the lyrics of all 5SOS songs by heart. Gregory grinned and had to admit that the band wasn’t so bad after all. They were in a relaxed mood when the main band was finally on. Once again, Gregory had to admit that they were not so bad and seemed to enjoy himself. The turning point came with everyone waving their cell phones to a particular soulful song called ‘You and I’ and the sea of lights was really quite romantic. Leyla was singing along, Gregory lay his arm around on her shoulder, and they moved to the rhythm of the music, when he suddenly turned to her and their eyes locked. Leyla decided not to think about what it would be like to kiss him for the rest of her life and held his gaze. His face got closer, she could feel his warm breath and then he kissed her. The kiss was unexpected, and Leyla was shaken to the core. She lost herself completely in this never-ending kiss.

  The song had ended, and everybody around them was jumping to the beat of the next song, which had a faster rhythm. Leyla and Gregory looked in each other’s eyes and neither of them lowered their gaze. The crowd was raging around them, but for the two of them, there was nobody else in the world at that moment. They stood there embracing each other for the rest of the concert, moving to the beat of the music. It felt like magic. From time to time, he stroked her cheek as if he wanted to make sure, that she was really here with him. After the concert, they went hand-in-hand to the exit to wait for Aiden and Brooklyn. It took a while until they found them. They seemed to be in no hurry and were smiling at each other strolling along hand-in-hand. Just at that very moment, the weather forecast proved to be reliable and a heavy storm came up. It rained in torrents, lightning flashed and the wind whistled around their ears. The girls threw over their raincoats quickly. Gregory and Aiden hadn’t thought about bringing a raincoat and they were completely soaked in no time; they couldn’t find their car in the dark anymore. The parking lot on a field was huge for 35000 people and it was damn difficult to find the car in the dark with this storm going on. At some point during the haphazard roaming around, the mood dropped from romantic and lovely to annoyed, tired and soaked to the bone. Eventually they found the car more by chance than by a thoughtful plan. On the trip home, no one said a word and since Aiden dropped them off first, Leyla didn't know how the evening ended for her friend. There was an awkward silence between Gregory and Leyla. Just before they entered the House, Gregory took her by the hand and looked at her. He cleared his throat and seemed to feel uncomfortable. “I want you to know that I really like you Leyla, but you have to understand that I'm no good for you. It is too dangerous for you to be with me. I don’t want to put you in danger and I must focus on my task. I think it's better for us if we're not together, even if it is very painful for me.”