Life had gotten a bit complicated.

A horde of shadows would arrive and attack Manitou, Colorado in three weeks. Assassins from a rebel, religious cult were out to spill blood, particularly mine, my sister's, and Sarah's. And to top the chaos with a cherry, we were chosen as hosts for the seasons.

Together, all four hosts would join as an unstoppable force to conjure enough energy to seal the tear in our dimension. If we did our job right, it would prevent the swarm of shadows materializing to wreck havoc on humanity.

That was, however, if we were together.

There had to be four of us, and, currently, there were only three: winter, summer, and fall. Spring was still missing, and so far there was no sign of them.

Mandell was still speaking; Sarah and Autumn seemed to pay close attention to his every word, but I still couldn't comprehend it. Mentally, I was stuck processing that I was one of the four people that were handed the responsibility of protecting humanity.

Me. Out of all the millions and billions in existence, the fate of humanity, or at least a small portion of it, lay in my hands. 

No, I wanted no part of this. There are more responsible people out there that could actually get what they needed to get done- people who were willing to step up to the plate and think about the greater good. I am the type of guy that would rather place my life in the hands of another and hope that I would come out through the ashes of destruction alright.

If not, oh well. I would rather be a nameless corpse lying in the scattered heaps of others, rotting in the scorching hot sun, to be put aside as a plus one on the body count.

Being a part of the dead than be the one handed such responsibility sounded better to me. A person like me could not live up to this responsibility. Failure was always a part of my succession- one of the things that I have always done best.

This was all a mistake. I swallowed hard and stared at the carpet until I got lost in the details and stains. This had to be a mistake.

Matthew, do you understand?

Still retaining my gaze on the ground, I swallowed hard and shook my head. "Yeah." I lied.

I missed at least a good ten-minute chunk of information.

Excellent. Now, as you may have noticed, no one can notice your powers or see the things you currently associated with Ethel. Which means the portals we open, the shadows, and even the light from your powers are invisible to the rest of the world. For the time being.

The aftermath, however, will be detectable to other humans. If you decided to burn something down, they will see the fire. But they will not see the flames stream out from your fingers. To them, the object had spontaneously combusted.

Sarah's eyes glimmered at the idea of randomly making objects combust without any of it leading back to her- formulating the perfect crime. I honestly wanted to know who authorized the idea of giving fire abilities to an arsonist and psychopath. If this girl ever had free reign to do what she wished, I'm sure she would start striking away at her hit list.

"Will using our abilities come at a price?" Sarah asked with most unnatural calm intrigue, leaning forward and resting her head on her fingers- no doubt picturing the endless possibilities of arson.

Yes. Without the four of you gathered in the same place working together, your powers would wear on your physical body greatly. You must use Ethel sparingly, not only for your own personal health but to keep your identity secret. The assassins from the Eyes of the Chosen do not know who you are yet, but if they ever catch you utilizing Ethel they will know and kill you.

Though Sarah was too busy daydreaming about what she could do with her new abilities, Autumn peered up at the window with impeccable concentration- the sunlight making her light brown eyes glisten sharp like the golden irises of a hawk. She processed the situation meticulously from every angle, and not a single detail escaped her concentration.

She was the right person for a situation that called for such damage control. Autumn always had the knack for finding the flaws and issues in a plan, but she had the sharpness of a tack in solving them.

"Clearly, if you know the host for spring is alive but they haven't established a connection, they are hiding." Autumn spoke silently after a while, still staring deeply into the light. Despite the apparency of her statement and that this was a fact so obvious there was no need stating it, the way her voice lowered and her fingered drummed against the couch signaled her transition to a greater topic.

Mandell was silent. Perhaps. Hopefully, that is not the case. There is nothing more difficult than finding a man that doesn't want to be found.

Autumn straightened her back to combat his pessimism, her face narrowing with determinism as she offered a solution. "You earlier said that the four of us are able to see anything associated with Ethel, like our powers. To seek him out, we can blast our powers in the middle of the school, during a rally where everyone is gathered for example, and catch who pays attention. He may be hiding, but nothing can stop an instinctual, raw first reaction."

That will not help, Autumn. Mandell replied quickly without hesitation. The assassins from the Eyes of the Chosen will see your lure as well. It may not just be Spring reacting to it, but yet again the assassins may be too smart to react. It is a dangerous ploy I do not suggest acting upon.

Pools of darkness and frustration welled like thunder clouds in my sister's eyes while she gritted and grounded her teeth in frustration. "Then how else are we supposed to find Spring in time? We only got three weeks, at best, and you expect a bunch of teenagers to conduct a manhunt?"

You are not alone in this process, remember that. As trainers, we will watching as well, but for now hide your powers, keep low profiles, and do not trust anybody but each other. For now, I must deliberate with my court so we can formulate a secure plan of action to find Spring and avoid drawing attention from the members of the cult. Your trainers and I will get back to you in a day.

A sharp breath of vexation seethed out from my sister's lips when she snapped her head to the side to look out the window again. "I can't wait that long, especially knowing there are professionally trained killers on our asses. At least we haven't unleashed our powers in public yet."

Shit.

About that.

Needles of panic prickled across cheeks when I tried to advert my flushed red face from Sarah and Autumn, hoping they wouldn't notice the absolute havoc that burned on my face. It would be preferable that I wouldn't have to share what really happened on the football field with Julian, to simply run away and ignore all the probable catastrophes that resulted from that one moment. On one hand, they had to know. We were on the same team now, and we would have to be ready for any calamity that would hurl our way.

Or did they have to know?

No. Why? How? How did I mess up already?

The bitter taste of iron glazed the tip of my tongue when I bit down on my bottom lip. There were about thirty people in my class, the chances of one of them being part of the cult that was out to get us was too high for my liking.

Sweat started to mist the top of my forehead while my nerves battered underneath my skin.

"Matt?" Sarah was the first to notice.

Knowing that I would give it all away and fold under the pressure if I looked over there to address her, I instead curled my knees towards my chest and buried my head in my arms. "Man, I am super tired. All this-"

Autumn wouldn't have any of it, and as my twin sister she read me and the signs I gave off like an open book. "What did you do?" Her voice trembled low in anticipation, and when I refused to respond and kept my head buried deep in my arms she violently shoved my shoulder, causing me to jerk over to the side. "Matt, what the hell did you do?"

Ridden with guilt and glowing completely red, I raised my head but immediately avoided eye contact with her. The anxiety chipped away at my voice, the fear taking over. "You know about five days ago, that day when word got around I beat Julian up?"

The confession was too much for me to handle. I bowed my head down to the floor again because the look of panic was only going to make my heart shudder more in apprehension. "When I knocked him down, I was out of control. I was about to punch him, but then I stopped because- because." I let out a shaky breath realizing the magnitude of my mistake. "There was this blue light that came out from my fingers. Frost gathered at my fingertips, and everyone in my class was watching."

The weight from my words added tons to the silence that engulfed between us.

"Do you know what you just did?" Autumn finally managed to mutter, her voice threatening to rupture the fire and hell of her scorn.

I was very well aware, and I wanted nothing more but to disappear from existence.

Already, I messed everything up and gave ourselves away- or me at least. But the assassins, no doubt, would know that Sarah and Autumn were associated with Ethel, merely because I was with them. It had been five days, and I can only guess that the only reason why they didn't kill me already was keeping me alive in hope I lead them to the others.

Because of me, we were standing knee high in our graves.

"I know. I know." I murmured while raising my hands up to my hair and pulled at it, stumbling up to my feet and paced back and forth. "I had no control, Autumn. I honestly had no idea what was happening."

Autumn jumped to her feet as well, grabbing my shoulders to make me face her, which I hadn't been able to do on my own.

I was such a coward.

"Matt, had anyone noticed what you did or had a certain reaction to it? Do you think anyone from your class was a part of the cult." She fired her words at me, spitting accusations like bullets firing from a machine gun.

The hysteria and dread swirling through my mind ripped through the memory of that day to incomprehensible. All I could see were quick fragments of Julian flying into the air after one kick to the gut, the crowd gasping in unified shock while clambering forward when I ran to Julian to punch him, and Julian, the way he clambered back from me in fear- calling me a freak.

A freak. That was it.

"Autumn!" I exclaimed while grasping her shoulders. "Julian is Spring. He has to be."

She shook her head. "What? What makes you think that?"

"Right before I was about to punch Julian, he backed away scared and pale like he had seen a ghost. Like a scared animal, he clambered away from me while still on the ground, and he called me a freak. There was no way he would have said that unless he saw my abilities. Julian has to be Spring."

A light of hope ignited in my sister's fearful eyes. "We have to get in contact with him as soon as possible. But what else? Did you see anyone else in your class that reacted differently?"

"I'm not sure-"

Sarah stood up as well and stepped forward to interrupt- urgency creased between her brows. "Guys, someone from our school got murdered. They just found their body today, and police say they have most likely been dead for five days, which means the same day Matthew revealed his powers.

"What?" Autumn gaped.

I was stunned to silence, and we all leaned into peer at Sarah's phone, reading the article that one of her friends from Facebook shared. Some kid named Arthur Chang was found dead in the deeper part of the forest by the football field. The police suspect that he had been strangled to death, but there was no evidence at the scene of the crime that would lead to the killer. Authorities were absolutely stumped, and on Monday they would start questioning students for more information.

"Could he have been Spring?" I dared whisper out, doing the favor of saying what everyone was thinking.

Autumn shook her head. "Mandell said he could still sense that Spring was alive. It couldn't be this guy."

"But a murder at our school to happen out of all days? Kids don't just die at their schools, Autumn. It rarely happens, especially a crime that has left no trace back to the killer. This sounds like the work of a professional killer, which we know exist. What if Mandell is wrong? Or worse? What if Mandell is lying to us? How can we trust him?"

Sarah chimed in, for once taking my side. "Matthew is right. We hardly know the man, and as much as I appreciate him trying to help we don't know his motive. What if Spring is dead?"

Shakily reaching out to take Sarah's phone from her hand, Autumn scanned the article again, flicking her finger across the screen to catch every detail and absorb every word. "Let's just hope he's not."

A/N: Ahhh, okay. So, hopefully, this was alright enough. <3 

Thanks so much for the votes and the comments, like really, you guys <3. Hopefully, it is still enjoyable lmaooo. 

Would have gotten more down, but was a bit sick this week. So this is what I have, and I made a promise to myself to update once a week at least. I am going to keep that promise, freaking damn it lol.