Prisons & Police
The Elements of Love
I’m about to be so late! I knew I shouldn’t have waited for Narquise to walk on stage! I should have just did his makeup and made sure all his clothes fit properly. Now, Zahur’s lame ass is gonna be all up in my business. I bet he gon be like, “Where were you at? You know we got training at sundown. I just don’t think you wanna be apart of the team Lik.” I can just hear his stupid voice now. Luckily our house is down the road. I’m not that late to be honest.
“Lik! What the hell man, where were you at! We up here waiting on you to start training,” Zahur snapped at me.
“Chill out,” I managed to muster. “I’m not even that late, first of all.”
“Uh, you are 20 minutes late, Lik. We up here waiting on you so we can start the sundown mediation.” I knew his bald headed ass was gonna be all bent outta shape.
“I’m sorry I’m late but y’all could have started without me.”
“Just so yo sweaty ass can come bustin’ in here all loud and stuff! Not to mention we are a team Talik. I think you are forgetting about that.”
“Za, chill out man. I see steam coming off that big ole bald head of yours,” the team snickered at my joke. “Look, Za, Imma make sure from now on I make every training session. I was just busy, that’s all. So, lets all just sit down and get our mediation on, so y’all can just get y’alls asses whooped real quick. I got places to be.”
“You know what Talik, I’m so sick of you thinking this is a joke! Let’s go right now!”
Out of nowhere a huge fireball came hurling at my face. I felt the intensity as it left Zahur’s fists. Luckily I managed to dodge it. I looked at Zahur in shock that he actually tried to hit me in my face with a fireball. He knows we don’t do that in training. I didn’t even have my elemental bracelets on. The rage on his face was as bright as the sun and his fists looked like the molten lava. So, I knew I pissed him off.
In a blink of an eye, four fire balls came rushing toward me. I leaped in the air as high as I could to avoid the blows. As soon as my foot made contact with the ground, I dashed right for Zahur. I pushed him as hard as a gale force tornado. He went flying backwards toward the wall, and it gave me enough time to rush for my elemental bracelets.
Every elemental fighter has some elemental bracelets. They activate our abilities to manipulate any element with enough practice. Our mediation helps us get in tune with the elements around us so that we can manipulate them more easily. Which is the reason why my big headed brother is so furious with me that I was late to our mediation. He gets as cranky hungry crocadurtle when he doesn’t have his sundown mediation. Poor baby.
As soon as I snapped my bracelets on, Zahur was barreling toward me. I stood still. Everything appeared to slow down. My brother looked like he was running at me in slow-motion. I closed my eyes. I gently filled my lungs of air, and ever so smoothly pushed in out. Once more I felt the air rolling around every crevice of my lungs. My arms felt as light as clouds. I opened my eyes and saw my brother five feet away from me. My legs were anchored to the ground like the roots of a mighty tree. In one fluid motion, I rotated my hands counterclockwise, and a massive gust of wind ripped Zahur from his path and into the wall.
Unfazed, Zahur stood up off the ground and said, “Oh look y’all, Lik finally showed up for training! To bad I’m about to whoop your little ass!” Zahur stomped on the ground and the vibrations ran up my spine. Then a boulder the size of my torso zipped toward me. I stopped it in midair and I used the momentum of the boulder to spin around and chuck it right back at him. He must not have been expecting me to redirect it because he was sprinting toward me. The boulder exploded into a thousand pieces as it made impact with his chest. He hit the ground and laid there as still as night. I ran toward him to make sure he was okay, and all of a sudden he sprung up and grabbed the collar of my uniform. I felt a sharp object press against my belly.
“You’re dead Talik,” he had a ice dagger pressed against my belly. That sneaky little bastard! Then Amanté ran over to break us apart. Ammanté is my brothers best friend and is my secret crush. He wedged himself between the ice dagger and broke my brothers grip on my collar. “Zahur, you’re taking this a little to far man,” Amanté said as his butt brushed against me.
Amanté is a 6'3 athletic elemental fighter. He wasn’t bald like me, but his hair was low enough that it felt like little prickly fuzz. His coffee skin glistened with a light coating of sweat. He had these weirdly sexy shaped ears. They were big and round and flared out from the side of his head. He was gorgeous.
“Yeah, Zahur! You lucky Amanté helped you out. I guess he didn’t want to see his best friend get his ass beat by his younger brother.” Zahur look at me like he wanted to rip my head off.
“We don’t have time for you to just be late to training sessions, Lik,” Zahur yelled at me. “The Unification Games are tomorrow and you’re acting like this is second on your list of priorities,” Zahur said while rubbing his big ole bald head in frustration. “Look everybody, since Talik ruined today’s session, Imma cancel training today. But everybody make sure y’all meditate tonight. We have a big day tomorrow and we all need to be in the right mindset.”
Everybody started packing up to leave. Then, Amanté sat right beside me. “What’s going on Lik? This isn’t like you man. I know your brother can be a little overbearing, but he kinda has a point. Tomorrow is the Unification Games and you’ve been acting like you wanna be somewhere else.”
“Nothing is going on,” I said while trying my hardest not to get lost in Amanté’s eyes. “I was just late.”
“Talik, you’ve been coming late for the past week. This isn’t like you. I’ve noticed and obviously your brother noticed. Are you sure you’re alright. You can tell me if you’re scared for tomorrow Lik,” he chuckled and shoulder bumped me. I almost melted.
“No, I’m fine Amanté. I promise you.”
“Aye, if you say you’re fine, I’ll believe you. Just know that if you ever wanna talk you can stop by my room. Alright Lik, I’ll see you later,” he assured me as he patted my back. I almost fainted. His huge hand felt so comforting on my back.
Later that night I decided to go to Narquise’s studio. I figured I could mediate right before bed, so I was refreshed from today. I wasn’t tired at all since we didn’t train, and all I wanted to do is see how Narauise did on the runway. Narquise’s textile studio is my sanctuary where I can go and design clothes and uniforms for myself. It’s in the middle of the city in the basement of Narquise’s textile shop.
“Aye Nar Nar, I’m back!”
“What are you yelling for Lik? You acting like this shop is a palace or something.”
“You right, it is kinda small in here. A little too small. It’s so small in here a pigeonrat would say it’s not enough room.”
“You think you’re so funny,” Narquise chuckled. “Anyway what are you doing here so early? I thought you had training. You ran out of the fashion show so quickly once I walked.”
“Yeah, I did, I’m sorry. I came back to see how you did. I couldn’t stay long enough to see your scores.” Narquise is one of the best elemental performers in the city. He is my fashion icon. The category today was forest freshness.
“I almost had a perfect score, but that one judge that I just can’t stand gave me an 8. An 8! He is just a hater, but that’s okay because I know I’m fabulous.” Narquise really is amazing at what he does. His is thick and curvy fashion expert. My best friend is a 6”1 fashion assassin. Every look he creates fits with the elemental category perfectly. I look up to him physically and metaphorically.
My dream is to make the best elemental uniforms for fighting, but make it fashionable and functional. I want to tell Zahur I don’t really care that much to be a fighter, but we have been fighting ever since we were young. He taught me everything I know, and I’m really good at what I do. However, my passion is fashion.
“Yeah don’t let one judge make you feel like you you don’t deserve to be up there,” I reassured Narquise. “That judge reminds me of my brother to be honest. Zahur was all stressed out when I first came in the door. I get I was late, but only by like 20 minutes or so. He was tripping. He even tried fighting me without my elemental bracelets on.”
“His cheating ass,” Narquise quipped.
“Yeah! I whooped his ass though. I couldn’t let Amanté see me get beat up by Zahur.”
Narquise is the only person who knows I have a crush on Amanté. He has been telling me for years to finally express myself to him, but I’m scared that he might not feel the same way about me.
“Lik, now you know you need to finally talk to that man,” the sass spilled out of him. “I’m so sick of you telling me about your little crush and not doing anything about it.”
“You don’t understand Narquise,” I snapped back. “It could jeopardize our whole team dynamic. We are in a good place right now. The Unification Games are tomorrow, and I damn sure can’t profess my love for him tomorrow. What if he doesn’t feel the same, and then he feel awkward around me during the Games. Plus, Zahur’s bald headed ass would literally kill me for ruining our shot at winning. I can’t. I just can’t.”
“Well you need to figure that out quick, because I’m tired of hearing your sappy love story.”
“Of course your tired of hearing it. You’re just mad because you don’t even have a love story to share,” I quipped.
“Oh so Zahur must not have told you that he came over last night,” he busted out in laughter.
“If you have sex with big bald headed angry fools like Zahur then you need to reevaluate your life choices,” we both laughed. Then we heard a frantic knock on Narquise’s shop door. Narquise went up stairs to go see who was at the door. He was bothered because his store is obviously closed. He had so many people coming to his shop after hours with emergency clothes repairs and alterations because he was the best tailor in town.
He came back downstairs with this dumb smirk on his face. “Lik, your man is at the door.”
Amanté? Why would Amanté be here? How did he even know I was here? I walked up stairs as fast as I could. I saw him standing in the door way of the shop. However, he didn’t look like he had good new on his face. He didn’t look like he wanted to profess his love for me right here. He looked like something bad had happened.
“Hey Amanté, what’s going on? Is everything alright?” He didn’t even look me in my eyes. My heart was beating so hard I could swear it was trying to escape. Amanté’s face looked like he had been crying. His eyes were puffy and they were a sad shade of red. “Amanté, are you alright,” I probed again.
“I think someone took your brother.” My heart stopped. My face melted. My ears rang. “I went over to y’all’s house and the door was cracked open so I went in and then I saw how everything was on the floor so I panicked and ran through the whole house looking for you and your brother and I couldn’t find y’all. I knew you hang out here sometimes so I came to see if you were here and luckily I found you but I don’t know where Zahur is Talik! I don’t know where he is! I can’t find him!”
I stared at Amanté as tears poured out of his eyes. He slunk his head down and weeped. I stood there in shock as a salty burning sensation engulfed my eyes. My mind is scrambled as I try to piece together everything he said. Two tears hug my checks to comfort me.
