The Elementalists

by C Sharp

  It was then that the first two runners from T.C. Williams, clad in a patriotic uniform of red, white, and blue, passed on their left and kept going like they weren’t planning to slow down. Two Lake Braddock girls, dressed in purple and gold, followed a moment later, but already they were breathing hard and running toward the wall. Chloe instinctively picked up the pace to go after them, but Angela stayed her with a quick glance. Her cool eyes flicked back behind Chloe, where two more T.C. runners were sitting on their heels. One of them met Chloe’s gaze with the hint of a smile.

  Behind them, four of the Richmond Raiders, in green and gold, were closing in, but the third runner from Charlottesville was coming with them. Chloe turned back to the path ahead and focused on the rhythm of Angela’s strides. Her breathing settled, and she found her place of calm, competitive strength. It felt like a live spark sizzling in her belly, just waiting to explode into a full-blown electrical storm.

  Other girls who had led out too quickly were steadily overtaken by the newly forming pack. Minutes ticked by as the group worked their way through the woods, swallowing and spitting out runners with the relentless pace set by Angela. As they stampeded out of the woods and into a rolling section of open field, the crowds appeared on both sides.

  The sound of the collective cheer was intoxicating, and Chloe felt the group surge as they stormed down a gentle slope toward the large clock that stood at the side of the mile point. 5:18 – 5:19 – 5:20 – 5:21 – 5:22 was the last count Chloe saw before she went past.

  “That’s a fast first mile, ladies! Pace yourselves!” Coach Barnes shouted as they approached. “You know what to do, Angela! Stay on her heels, Chloe!” she bellowed into Chloe’s ear as they sped by.

  The lead T.C. Williams girls came into view about forty yards further along the field, but Chloe’s eyes were drawn to the place on the side of the course where Liz was lunging up and down with a poster in the air while screaming like a crazy person. The bright yellow words were painted on a black background in jagged lightning bolt script: BEWARE THE LIGHTNING GIRL! Paul Markson stood beside her with his hands cupped in front of his mouth. “Come on, Charlottesville, give ’em hell!”

  Chloe saw her mom off to the side a few strides later, and Audrey released an indistinguishable scream of raw encouragement as Chloe streaked past. She felt recklessly bolstered by the support, but needed to restrain herself from getting carried away and making an ill-timed spectacle of her efforts. Angela responded by easing the pace back, and Chloe stayed on her heels as instructed, even when the four Richmond Raiders girls moved up. All four of them passed at once, two on either side, in what was clearly an orchestrated move meant to break the morale of the other teams. But Chloe could see from the blotchy red face of one and the wheezing breath of another that Angela’s brutal first mile pace had taken its toll.

  As the pack moved across the rolling fields through the second mile, one of the two T.C. front-runners fell back and was left behind. Chloe was also starting to feel the heaviness in her thighs, and her breath didn’t flow as easily as before. Her focus slipped even further when she looked past her runners’ blinders once more and saw the radiance of wavy red hair at the side of the path ahead.

  Ezra was there, too, shouting at her through a rolled magazine. “Long and strong, ladies! You got this, Chloe; stay with Angela!”

  But all Chloe could see and hear in that moment was Kendra Roberts’s predictably shrill but oddly genuine words of support. “Lookin’ good, Chloe! You’re a monster!” she shouted while bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

  Did that really just happen? Chloe wondered, taking her mind off the race for a moment longer. That was when the smiling T.C. girl behind them streaked by on Chloe’s right and moved in front of the Richmond foursome before Angela had time to register. Angela gave Chloe a little nod before taking off as the real race for first place began.

  At that moment, Chloe had neither the stamina nor the hunger to go with her. She watched with a mixture of helplessness and guilt as Angela’s black ponytail bobbed ahead to pass the Richmond girls and lock in beside the challenger. The two-mile marker came into view after a few more labored strides. That was when the sophomore from Monticello High who’d beaten Chloe at regionals passed and locked in on the Richmond foursome ahead of her.

  Chloe’s legs and spirit started to wilt. Despite the cool air, her head felt swollen and hot, and a white film began to creep at the corners of her vision. As she crossed the two-mile clock at 11:04, heaving and straining with every step, Coach Barnes appeared again with her bullhorn. “Dig deep and stay with ’em, Chloe! You can’t let them go!”

  But Chloe’s feet had started to feel like they were glued to the mud with every stride, and she couldn’t keep her focus in check. I’m losing this… I’m letting everyone down… The world is dying, and there’s nothing I can do about it! The lead pack was pulling away, and the path ahead climbed a long incline back into the wooded highlands. The last mile would snake across a spectator-free ridge before descending to the fields for a last, cruelly steep hill and then the open field sprint to the finish. Chloe’s breath was already coming hard and ragged.

  That was when she saw Kirin through her tunneling vision. He was the last person before the climb, standing at the end of the wall of spectators behind the neon orange tape that held back the cheering swarm. A wrinkled and bent old woman who could only have been his grandmother stood beside him, watching Chloe’s approach with the same beautiful, sad eyes as her grandson.

  Kirin was clapping vigorously and shouting something, though Chloe couldn’t make out his words through the pounding of the blood in her ears. As she got closer, she actually tried to smile, but her lips stuck to her teeth and her eyes were bugging crazily. She approached, looking something more like an unhinged goblin than a schoolgirl in love.

  “Chloe!” he shouted. “Be the water, not the rock!”

  That’s an odd thing to say, she thought as she passed.

  “You are the Lightning Girl!” he asserted to her back.

  His words sunk in, sparking the current in her belly again. Just like that, Chloe started to run faster. She noticed the traction of the spikes on her shoes once more, and felt the wind’s current pushing her forward. Her legs lost the weight of pain and doubt, and she slipped back into the flow of the pace.

  The others were about thirty feet ahead of her now, but Sarah, the third girl from Charlottesville, came up beside her, winded and weary. Chloe gave her a defiant look over her shoulder. “Follow me,” she commanded with a newfound sense of purpose. Sarah nodded and matched Chloe’s pace as they hit the slope. It started to drizzle, and the grass on the hill became slick and precarious.

  Ahead, one of the Richmond girls lost her footing and tumbled to the side of the course as the others left her behind. But Chloe was used to these conditions; this was her domain. She dug in with the metal fangs on the balls of her feet and surged to make up the lost ground. Chloe had no fear of the water—she was the water; it had come at her bidding. She could still feel Kirin’s encouraging gaze on her back as she strode past the struggling girl a few short seconds later with Sarah hitched at her heels.

  By the time the path leveled out, the course was densely lined with vegetation on both sides, and the leaves were dancing with the steady patter of rain. Chloe’s uniform was wet and heavy, but she relished the feel of abandon, to be covered in water, mud, and sweat. It reminded her of her runs home from the pond throughout the summer, the feeling of absolute freedom in nature—she belonged to the terrain, more at home in these woods than she’d ever felt anywhere else. These other girls, from the suburbs outside of D.C. and their fancy schools in Richmond, they did not belong here as she did. They were intruders, and it was up to her to defend the turf.

  Chloe spied the jaunty bob of hair on the sophomore from Monticello High as an invigorating tingle of energy traveled throughout her limbs. She actually growled as she lunged ahead. She carried Sarah with her a
cross the gap to reach the tail of the lead group, and they held there for a moment to catch their bearings.

  Angela and the smiling girl in red, white, and blue had dislodged from the front of the pack as the other runners began to wither from the surprisingly merciless tempo of the race thus far…all but Chloe.

  I am the Lightning Girl. I am the queen who summoned the dragon. She pushed on, coming up beside the sophomore who’d beaten her at regionals. Her young nemesis was red-faced and panting, and her spirit wilted further as Chloe and Sarah moved by. They streamed by the third-place runner from T.C. Williams as well, and Sarah latched onto the tail of the remaining three Richmond Raiders. Chloe hovered for a moment, gauging her own will to continue before her legs spurred forward as if with a mind of their own.

  She was riding the dragon again, flying over roots and through the trees. She worked her way to the front of the remaining pack as her sights shifted ahead. Twenty paces further, Angela and the smiling girl disappeared around a bend as the path curved down toward the three-mile mark and the final battleground beyond. For an instant, Chloe had seen Angela’s dancing ponytail again. I can get there! I can cross the distance!

  Chloe moved a stride ahead, bolstered by the approaching roar of the crowd as Angela broke from the woods below. Soon that roar would be for Chloe. Soon Kirin and all the others will see what I’m capable of.

  The rain started down with more conviction, and Chloe’s breath was coming hard and fast as her feet flung mud into the girls behind her. As if in answer, two girls from the Richmond trio came up on either side with jostling elbows and even harder breaths. They attacked, trying to pass on the left, then right; but every time Chloe saw someone creep into her peripheral vision, she pushed a little harder to stay out front.

  The path slanted down through the gloom of dense woods, but beyond a branch archway, the course returned to the comparative glow of the open field. Chloe’s thighs screamed, and her knees pounded with every footfall as the grand noise of the crowd grew. She started to pull away as the urge to giggle swam in her belly—just as a sharp pain stabbed into her calf from behind. All of a sudden, she found herself falling face forward down the hill.

  She barely had time to register the bizarre change of motion before her chin slammed into the mud and she tumbled into a sloppy heap. The rest of the pack streamed around and over her as she tried to shake away the ringing in her ears.

  “Chloe!” Sarah yelled with muffled desperation as she ran by with the others. Chloe managed to wave her on, too light-headed and dazed to meet her concerned eye and too focused on getting up to think about what was happening. She looked down to see three bleeding, spike-sized holes in the back of her calf, and her hand came away from her chin smeared brown and red. She stood on unsteady feet as the secondary pack, approached from behind… Against all judgment, Chloe got up and started to run again.

  A feral yell tore out of her throat as her battered legs began to thunder down the hill once more. Mud fell off her jersey in clumps, and her calf throbbed with every footfall. I am the Lightning Girl! I am the queen who summoned the dragon!

  As she emerged from the trees, the sky flashed far off on her left, and the crowd along the path gasped at the sight of her. Six long strides later and the low grumble followed. Despite all the pain, Chloe would have cackled if she’d had the energy. She heard Uktena’s roar in her head and felt the strength of his fury. The rhythm of his deep, ponderous heartbeat filled her; his blood shot through her veins like a stroke of lightning. She did not ride the dragon; she was the dragon. The laws of physics were hers to bend. She took off like a madwoman. It was way too far from the finish line, but Chloe started to sprint.

  This time Liz was screaming so wildly that her voice cracked. “Go! Go! Go! Go!” Paul pumped his fist as Chloe tore across the field, swallowing the distance between her and the pack. She could feel their strength waning with every step as her own grew.

  Before long, she came up on the Monticello girl’s heels again as Kendra tracked her progress with her iPhone from the sideline. Ezra jumped high into the air with his booming voice carrying above everyone else. “YES! YES! YES! YES!”

  Chloe passed the Monticello girl and then one of the Richmond Raiders soon after. She snaked around Sarah and moved past the third T.C. runner without a glance. She crossed the three-mile marker without even looking at her time and did not notice as Coach Barnes ran alongside the course with her bullhorn blaring. “You can do this, Chloe! You’re doing this!”

  Chloe streaked by another runner in gold and green and advanced on the remaining two girls in the pack as everyone started to give all they had left to the final stretch. Ahead, the path fed straight into Suicide Hill—fifty yards of a steep climb—before the flatland finish. Chloe tackled it with an involuntary scream as she climbed past the others and set her sights on the dance of Angela’s ponytail above.

  Audrey had taken up residence on the hillside as per Chloe’s request, but Chloe couldn’t see her mother’s expression of shock and worry as she streaked by, looking like she’d been run over by a truck. Her legs were numb but kept on pumping, and she lowered her arms to gather more momentum with every swing. Angela was starting to pull away from her competition, but Chloe was gaining on them both.

  She crested the top of the notorious climb like she was claiming the high ground in King of the Mountain, and did not hesitate. She flew, leaving a trail of sweat, blood, and mud across the field behind her.

  Angela had gained ten strides on her challenger and wasn’t looking back, but Chloe kept coming, with her wild eyes locked on Angela’s ponytail as if the smiling girl from T.C. wasn’t even there between them. Chloe couldn’t feel her body as she floated toward the finish; there was no earth or gravity to hold her down. She hurtled alongside her nameless enemy as both surged with a further pull on energy that didn’t exist. Their heads tilted back with open, distorted mouths while every swing of their arms jerked them forward like a punch. Chloe felt the will of the smiling girl break beside her as the primordial roar echoed in her mind, and she lunged toward the line.

  She stumbled over the finish only a few seconds behind Angela and staggered down the ribbon-lined corral that led toward the results table. The muffled howl of the crowd blended with the dragon rage in her thoughts, and her eyes were stuck in an unfocused gaze, as if she’d forgotten how to blink. Someone helped to prop her up from the other side of the ribbon, but she couldn’t see who beyond the white haze that clouded her sight. She wanted to say “thanks,” but instead she stooped over and gagged with an unseemly array of dry heaves.

  Whoever was supporting her rubbed her back gently and guided her woozy motion further down the chute as a barrage of cameras flashed on either side of her. Chloe wasn’t even sure what had happened. Angela was ahead, gasping for air with a disjointed saunter on wobbly legs. The girl from T.C. Williams was whimpering in her coach’s arms behind her.

  As Chloe turned back and tried to catch her bearings, Angela enveloped her with a hug that almost knocked them both to the grass. She felt the hand slip away from her back as she held onto Angela with lifeless arms.

  “That was amazing, Chloe! You did it!” she gasped in Chloe’s ear above the din of the cheering audience.

  “What happened? You won, right?” Chloe asked in breathy confusion.

  “Yeah, and you got second! You’re a sophomore, and you just beat every other girl in the state!” Angela shouted. “Charlottesville might actually win the team competition!”

  Chloe looked back at the remains of the stretched-out pack as they charged across the field toward them. Through the tunnel of white, Chloe could see Sarah’s black-and-orange uniform holding with the second of two remaining Richmond Raiders, just where she needed to be. Her gaze swung limply over to the smiling girl who wasn’t smiling anymore. Their bugged and teary eyes met.

  “Where did you come from?” said the girl, disengaging from her coach to stagger toward Chloe with a post-battle sense of
camaraderie.

  Chloe met her with a sweaty embrace. “That was awful,” she mumbled in her ear.

  The girl barked a laugh. “Yeah, but a great race,” she added. “You deserve it.”

  Chloe swung back toward Angela with a profound sense of love for every girl that was running. She wished that she had the strength to cheer for them, regardless of what team they were on. In that moment, she realized that she loved her school, and her town, and all the people in it. She loved Liz, and Paul, and Ezra, and Coach Barnes, and she wished she could individually thank all the people who’d come out in support. Hell, she even loved Kendra for her part, even though she was the epitome of everything that was wrong with teenage girls today.

  That was when the tunnel of her sight passed over Kirin standing at the ribbon’s edge with smears of her blood and mud wiped liberally across his jacket. He grinned, and she felt like she might dry heave again.

  “Oh…that was kind of ugly,” she mumbled in her defense.

  “Chloe, that was probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” he countered.

  She swayed toward him as other girls stumbled into the chute behind her. She had to move with the press, and he moved alongside her, pushing other spectators out of the way. His gaze held her with a mixture of guilt and adoration.

  “Where have you been?” she asked, with tears leaking from her eyes and a hint of anger. “I’ve been waiting for you to ca—”

  “I’m sorry,” he cut her off. “I was stupid and confused, but I’m here now, if it’s not too late?”

  The emotional weight of all that was happening was too much for her to bear. She glanced from Kirin to the cluster of photographers around him as flashes went off in her face. Bright splotches dotted her sight, and through it she could vaguely make out the rapid, jubilant approach of Coach Barnes and her mom. In her mind, she still felt the lurking presence of Uktena, but now a vague sense of approval came with it.