There's a really big trope in Hollywood that teaches people that if you're falling from a high place all you have to do is aim for the nearest body of water, keep your legs straight and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt and you're safe and sound. In reality however, I have one word for that–

Bullshit.

Water, like most things in this world, doesn't like being hit at high speed, in fact it has the tendency to form the consistency of concrete if said thing is done. That's why people jump off bridges, they know it'll break them apart on impact, or injure them so severely they'll drown. Les Misérables is a perfect example, dude jumps into a river, dude goes splat. Olympic divers can only do it because they know how to land and even they can break bones and split skin if they're at the wrong angle. I've seen compilations on YouTube, it aint pretty.

However, it was the aid of those videos that meant that I knew to zip my body up in a straight line, so I hit the water like an arrow rather than a flailing mess of limbs, and without too much pain, only a stinging streak of brief agony racing up my sides. But now I had another problem, I was in water and I can't swim a yard, literally. Luckily for me however the high current was easily dragging me along for the ride, all I had to do was try and keep my head above the surface and avoid the underwater onslaught of sharp, pointy rocks that were intent on gouging slash after slash out of my skin.

I gasped for breath as I was dragged along the twisting river, water filling my mouth with every breath, so I choked and spluttered. I felt like I was dying, my lungs felt like they were on fire and my heartbeat was pounding rapidly in my chest. I hadn't felt like this in a long time, and I didn't want it to end the same way it had done before. I closed my eyes and prayed for it to have just been a childhood panic attack, and not something much, much worse.

I opened my eyes and yelled out in shock as I saw a line of rocks blocking my path, sitting jagged and brutal looking above the surface, a fence between the worlds worst raging rapids ride and the seeming calm of the glassy river beyond. Only problem was that it was going to hurt to get there. I managed to brace for impact, but I still couldn't help but howl in pain as I felt a long gash open up on my arm and my head cracked against the hard surface so that the taste of copper coated my tongue. But I got through, but now I had a much bigger problem as I was now completely and figuratively up the creak without a paddle, or a life jacket in my case.

I frantically kicked my legs, forced my head above the surface and screamed "HELP! I can't swim! Somebody!" A wave of water rushed into my mouth and throat, leaving me choking and for one terrifying moment forcing my head beneath the waves. I tried to remember the techniques that swimmers used because my thrashing and flailing wasn't going to keep working in my favour for long. And no, my doggy paddle wasn't going to save my ass either.

The bank wasn't too far away, the current was still flowing, ripping me further down the river, away from safety and possibly away from Shadow and Sheira. Where the hell were they? I hadn't seen them at all since we jumped. Had they hurt themselves on the rocks? Had they climbed out already and I was just being dragged alone down the winding blue road with no hope of being pulled out? Another rush of water forced in way down my throat. I was already exhausted; my arms and legs were aching from the strain and my eyelids were getting alarmingly heavy.

I tried to wave my arms frantically to try and get some unseen person's attention, but there was no one there to see. My head dipped under the water for a few seconds again. The water was a horrible grey, so foggy and so lonely. I don't want to die down here. I treaded water to the best of my memory and frantically screamed out for help, waving my arms like a windmill while my legs felt like they were burning, my head was spinning, my lungs were on fire and–

I felt it. Something that haunted my nightmares, something I hadn't felt for nearly a decade, something that just seemed like a long-distance memory, something I'd thought I'd made up. In my chest, my heart, it felt like it was being run through by Incaendium, and that heartbeat was all I could hear. A few seconds ago, it had been frantic, my panic attack beat, racing faster than Formula 1 at the Autodromo di Monza. But now? Now I was missing beats, pounding feebly, slowing down. My muscles felt like they were turning to lead, and I kept dipping below the surface, cutting out my pleas.

No one was going to hear me. Even if the other two did make it out past the rocks, I was a speck in the wide water, they wouldn't be able to find me, especially if I...if I drowned. I was so tired now. That rhythm in my ears was slowing down to almost nothing, my nose and mouth was the only thing above the surface now...I'm going to die, aren't I? Oh god. No, I had to give myself a chance. Conjuring what little strength I had I pushed my arm and head clear out of the water and formed a fireball, golden and beautiful in the afternoon light, and with a final surge of energy I hurled it skywards. My flare shot upwards into the sky, burning red before trailing out to nothing but smoke about a hundred feet up. At least they knew where I was.

With one final, desperate gasp of air the water completely swallowed me. It was cold. So cold and lonely and dark. I couldn't move my legs, my arms, anything, I was sinking like a rock to the bottom. I couldn't see anything around me, only when I looked up I saw a window of light rippling against the surface like it was being projected there. It was rather beautiful, I thought to myself as the remaining air in my lungs drifted away from me in the form of bubbles rising towards the window. My heart beat was almost silent now. I'm sorry Mum, I thought quietly and then to wait for the inevitable, I closed my eyes...

I opened them with air rushing into my lungs as I gasped for breath. I squinted against the sunlight which was already warming me down to the bone like a giant electric blanket. I was lying on solid ground, there was air, I wasn't dead! (Unless this was heaven, of course) Well maybe I'm not quite in the afterlife yet as the sudden urge to vomit overcame my body, sent me retching forwards and what looked like oil flew like a water cannon from my open mouth onto the grass. It had the consistency of tar, looked like ink and tasted worse (Anyone who has ever had a pen explode in their mouth know what I'm talking about.)

After a few moments of vomiting blackness and spitting out the remnants that clung to my tongue and teeth like glue, I realised that I wasn't exactly alone. Out of my peripheral vision I could make out a black pair of boots and a figure clad in dark jeans kneeling next to me. I turned and shot a weak smile at Sheira. She was actually crying, or at least had been. Her eyes were red and watery, and she was clearly trying to not tackle me into a hug. The two of them both looked exhausted, but Shadow looked significantly wetter than Sheira was. Did he jump in after me?

"Hey guys," I said weakly.

Sheira lunged forwards, her arms out, either to punch me or hug me (Or possibly both). However, before she could, a still dripping wet Shadow grabbed her and held her in place. "Hold up, you don't want to get burned do you?"

Burned? I thought, what the hell does he mean by that? Well whatever he meant, it stopped Sheira from tackling me. Instead she crept round the side of me and hunkered down low beside me. "You okay?" she asked.

I shrugged, "I think so. I'm not drowning anymore, that's always a plus, but who the hell put this...this black stuff in me? Not the best taste in the world."

Shadow scoffed from his position by the river where he was shirtless again and attempting to dry out his soaked t-shirt. "Oh, I'm sorry about that bad aftertaste, maybe I should of thought about that before I saved your life," he rolled his eyes, further emphasising his sarcastic tone.

"Saved my life?" So, I was in mortal peril? Fun. "Ever heard of CPR?"

Abs glistening in the sunlight he turned to me, an unmistakable look of anger blazing in his eyes. "To be fair kid, that wasn't exactly the problem," and with that he jabbed a finger at my chest.

For the first time since being dragged clear of the river I looked down and jumped about a foot in the air in complete shock and horror. Coming directly out of my chest like an arrow was a flickering tongue of fire. But it wasn't like any fire I'd ever seen. It was golden, actually golden like melted metal and it was curling with a regaining strength that only I could feel. I flicked my hand through it, it wasn't even warm, it just felt...familiar somehow. "What the hell?" I whispered under my breath.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Sheira placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.

"And it explains everything. I should have known, why didn't I pick that up before?"

"Are you talking to us?" I asked him.

He spun on his heel and crouched down to my eye level, "I've been wondering since the day I met you why you're so powerful. You made a fireball in five minutes, you fought off Molly with no training, you even managed to keep up with me!"

"Thanks?"

"You even claimed Incaendium, this entire time I've been wondering why he chose you but it's so obvious now."

"What is?"

"You've got an Elemental Heart!"

I blinked at him a few times, surely he must have known that I had no idea what he was talking about, right? "Is that a good thing?"

"Good thing!" Sheira gasped. "Good thing! It's amazing! It's an incredibly rare condition that only stays in families, only like one percent of elementals in the world have it. It boosts your power, makes you stronger than normal, that's why you're a natural Nick. To be honest I'm an idiot for not realising it, but we'll skirt over that because we skipped out before your medical exam. Which, come to think of it,  would have made some little surprises a lot clearer."

"How so?"

Rather than explaining Sheira pulled Shadow's multi-tool out of his backpack and flicked it to the thermometer setting, shoved it into my ear and then pulled it out a few seconds later and then showed it to me.

"Well I think the fact that you're running at a toasty one hundred and twenty degrees should give it away," she said while I squeaked in shock. "Ever get sent home from school with a high fever?"

"Mum always sent me straight back. Said that the school thermometers were malfunctioning."

"And now you know why."

Shadow cleared his throat, his damp shirt now back on. "If we can return to the matter at hand, that power source of yours also explains why Incaendium picked you. In his very long lifespan, he's only chosen masters with a Fire Heart."

"Its also explains why you just had a heart attack."

Okay, that was new to me! "What!" I yelled in shock, "I can't have!"

"You bloody did. After I dragged you out we spent ten minutes giving you chest compressions until we put two and two together and decided to try this," and with that he snapped his fingers and a pitch-black flame danced on his palm. My instinctive reaction was to get as far away from that flame as possible. It felt wrong, too powerful, too alive and too sinister. "It's called dark fire, we needed it to get your heart going."

"Your element is so closely tied to you, its actually connected to your body, down to your bones. Its your power source and it's the reason why we couldn't start your heart, it needed reigniting," Sheira explained.

"It's also the reason that you vomited up that residual dark energy, your body took the spark that it needed and rejected the rest." The flame in his hand was extinguished with a quick flick of his wrist and the pounding of my own burning heart slowed down to a regular pace.

The golden flame marking the spot was beginning to fade, retreating back into my own chest with a gentle glow that seemed to illuminate my chest from the inside out, where I could see the individual beats and rhythm of my own heart. The black goo was now seeping into the ground like something out of a sci-fi movie. And then Sheira proceeded to punch me in the arm with such ferocity it went numb.

"Why the hell did you not tell me you couldn't swim!"

"I was trying to! You lot kept trying to push me off a cliff and to be fair, I didn't exactly know it was important."

"Nick," Sheira crouched down to my eye level, "people like you may be incredibly powerful but something has to balance them out, and that balance is incredibly severe. As water is fire's natural counter a large dosage could kill you in order for balance to be upheld with your sheer power level."

I thought about that for a moment. It all makes sense now. The fear, the panic, my hatred of baths, it was all my body trying to preserve my stupid ass. I ran my fingers over the warm spot on my chest, it had always been there but now I knew what it, what I, was.

"What did you mean by that?"

I flicked round to face Sheira as I realised that she had actually been talking this entire time. "Sorry?"

Dare I say it, but her eye rolls were better than Shadow's. "I was asking you what the hell you meant when you said, 'All my life I've had this big problem with this thing, and looking back now it could be elemental based'?"

"Oh that? I almost drowned in the shallow end of a swimming pool. Went on one of those school water safety things when I was about eight years old, first lesson I jump in and the next thing I know is that I'm in the lifeguards office and an ambulance is on its way."

"Jesus Christ."

"Dad arrived first, somehow convinced the paramedics to leave and took me home himself. The car and the house was boiling hot, heating full blast and when we got home I was shoved straight into a boiling hot bath. I was off school for two weeks and I was given very strict instructions not to go near water again, said I had a heart condition. Lucky for me my dad knew how to fix me."

"Elemental hearts are passed down through the eldest of a family, your dad had one too," said Sheira.

All those electric shocks that I could never replicate, even after fifteen minutes of rubbing my socked feet over the carpet, suddenly made sense. I may be a walking match, but he was a live wire and he'd passed it down to me. That's why the twins weren't afraid of water, or flying or being underground, even by elemental standards they were normal. I smiled slightly to myself, god what I would give to see him now. He'd love this mad adventure we were on.

I pushed myself up to my very wobbly feet, "anyway, now that drama of touching the void is over we need to get back, I don't doubt for a second that she'll leave without us."

The other two nodded. "Yeah, lets get a move on. You still got the stone?" Shadow asked.

Panic seized my mind for a moment as the idea of jumping back into the river for the Vulcan Star might become reality, but after a few frantic searches through my bag later I pulled out the remarkably dry box from within the sodden fabrics. The amount of heat that it was giving off was extraordinary and cracking the lid lightly sent a wall of heat blasting into my face. "Well, its in there. That's always a plus," I said blinking away the temperature that had gone straight into my eyeballs.

"Good, now let's go see blondie," Shadow muttered. "Let's just hope this is all freaking worth it."

***

Well, it was very evident that Scarlett was very surprised to see us. We just climbed on board as the whistle blew so her two cronies led us up the train into the large and fluffy living room where Scarlett was sprawled over one of the sofa's like she was dying for someone to re-enact Titanic with her. She was so surprised to see us in fact, the first words out of her mouth were 'You're still alive?'. So yeah, her expectations were very low.

However, her confusion gave way to joy as Shadow tossed the box to her and with her blue eyes glistening with greed, she squealed in delight, clapping her hands together and giggling like a little girl. She carefully removed it and fixed it to a strange looking contraption which oddly enough allowed her to touch it. It looked like a wrist bracer, but it was thick and chunky and was somehow siphoning off the energy to make it less, you know, burn your face off.

"Oh, its so beautiful," she crooned, "and its all mine. Oh darling, I've been waiting for you. The pride of my collection."

Shadow coughed to get her attention, snapping her out of the dreamlike waltz she had been doing with the rock. "Alright, we upheld our end of the deal, now its your turn. Safe passage to the north wasn't it?"

She glowered slightly, "fine. Miles will escort you down to one of the carriages, one that isn't too overcrowded."

"We almost died for that thing!" I protested, "eaten and drowned in one afternoon!"

"Then we'll get you better food and good bedding. Anyway, there's no room anywhere else."

I looked around the obnoxiously pink surroundings. You could fit fifty people in here and there would still be room to spare and yet Scarlett lived in luxury, starstruck servants waiting on her every beck and call while on the same train people were living like prisoners. The only difference between the two was that they were poor, and she was rich, it was unfair. But we didn't dare argue as the train had now started to move so we either had the option of doing what she said or being thrown off.

We did manage to find one with a doctor for Sheira though, so that was a plus. The carriage we were shoved into was a little emptier than the others, but people were still sat, packed in like sardines in a tin. The smell was horrific, a mix of sweat and urine that burned my throat as the doctor, a kind faced, short little man called Arthur examined Sheira's fractured wrist.

"It's a nice clean break," he repeated as he reapplied a clean bandage over the injury, "very lucky that is. How'd you do it missy?"

"Fell out of a moving water cart and forgot how to land properly," she said with a shrug.

"How'd you end up in that situation?"

"We were getting Barbie reject up there her precious jewel," Shadow spoke for the first time since coming in. He had been sitting silently, his head leaning against the wall and one hand pressed firmly into the ground.

There was a collective gasp and bulging eyes when he said that. The calm and collected doctor looked stunned. "How?" he whispered, "how did you do it?"

It took about half an hour to tell the whole story because we started right from when we had first heard about this mad adventure in Greencoast. We explained about the fight in the trainyard, meeting Scarlett for the first time and how she had given the ultimatum of finding the jewel for her or being thrown off while this thing was in motion. When we got to telling them about the inside of the forge and the automaton there were actually screams of fear, gasps and cheers whenever we seemed to get the upper hand.

By the time we were done Axel had muscled his way in with three platters of food. Fruit, cheese, bread and biscuits were all spread out neatly on the silver trays but the three of us didn't touch them, instead, without any prompt from the others, we shared it out with everyone who was in the carriage with us. Must have been the first decent bit of food they'd had in days because they savoured every mouthful, even the kids. I only had sympathy for these guys because I knew what it was like to be that hungry. There was still enough left over for the three of us to get a good meal so as we lay down to get some sleep the gnawing ache of hunger was almost non-existent.

Despite the cold hard floor, I was exhausted, its funny how being chased around by a death machine will do that to you, and with my backpack acting as a rather lumpy pillow I was prepared to settle in for a good nights sleep. Well as good as you can get with the knowledge that Lady I-need-every-jewel-on-planet-earth was currently lying on silk sheets in a fully heated room and didn't have the sounds of the wheels clicking against the tracks for company. We had to find a way to make sure these people were safe, no matter where we were going. With a sigh I pulled my coat tighter over my shoulders and closed my eyes...

And opened them on the top of the train. I yelped in shock as I realised that I was actually surfing along the top, smoke billowing backwards into my face and the wind screaming in my ears from the sheer speed. The sky was dark and stormy but there was sunlight, it was day time. What the actual hell!

"I'm dreaming, I have to be dreaming," I said to myself and to prove this a large sign barrelled towards me and before I could duck, the thing passed through me without a second glance. "Yep definitely dreaming."

This was more vivid than anything I'd ever been in. The one I had been in when Juliet met her end I was just a spectator, but this? I could feel the wind pressing against my cheek like a knife, the world was alive around me, I may as well of been standing on the roof itself. I looked around to see if I could find somewhere to go and then it got weirder. Something golden and glowing with an ethereal light stepped out of the distance, it was a large creature, with horns but I honestly couldn't tell, but with a flick of its massive head it seemed to guide me away, towards the front.

Knowing that dreams have weird mechanics I chased after it, leaping over the partitions with the cart in order to keep up with this spectre. I realised where it had stopped before I'd even caught up with it, it was over Scarlett's living room, next to a skylight. The creature looked up at me with a pair of big black eyes and simply turned to dust in front of me. Dreams are weird man. I crept forwards over the skylight to what I think the animal was trying to show me.

"Of course, they don't know."

Scarlett's voice drifted up from the open window as I crept closer and peered down. I was right, this was Scarlett's plush living room, but everything seemed to be muted except for Scarlett, who appeared to be glowing. But as I looked closer I saw that the glow was simply skin deep as at her core was a twisting, writhing orb of blackness sitting above her heart. It was incredibly unsettling to see, and something felt distinctly off as she continued her conversation with someone on her laptop screen.

"Its like stealing candy from a baby it's that easy."

"How many are there?" The voice she was talking to was cold and metallic, and eerily familiar.

"Exactly? Two hundred and forty-six so far. We're aiming for the three hundred mark by the time we reach you."

"Excellent, we're running out of guinea pigs, the serum isn't quite right yet, its started to set them on fire from the inside out."

No. It couldn't be. She couldn't...

Scarlett shuddered, "I don't like to hear what happens, it's too gruesome for me, I just want to get paid. Are we still talking the same price?"

"My workers have been bringing the jewels for months now. Fulfilling each person's body weight shouldn't be too difficult."

"Excellent. You know, I don't know why people are so worried about you, you're an excellent business woman Molly."

That cold, merciless voice laughed from her end of the screen. "That's how I should like to keep it. Now if you don't mind we're about to test a new batch and I don't want to miss it for the world."

For the last minute of their conversation I'd been reeling backwards in shock. No. No, no. NO! This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be real. Had this already happened? Of course, it had, that's how my visions work. She'd sold us out. All these people, all the kids, they were being delivered on a silver platter to the slaughterhouse and none of them realised. We had to get them off this train, we couldn't let this happen. A crackle of energy behind me sent me spinning on my heel to face the animal once again. I still couldn't make out what it was, but I saw it open its massive mouth, electricity shooting from its eyes as an unfamiliar male voice rang out across the skies,

"NICK, WAKE UP!"

I sat up in alarm, the voice ringing in my ears as I felt a hard-wooden surface beneath my fingers. Well at least I wasn't on the roof anymore. My breath was uneven, I could feel a cold sweat dripping down my forehead and...who's hand was on my shoulder? I looked down to see the fact that it belonged to Shadow, who was quite quickly retrieving it, but he looked concerned. As did Sheira, the doc and everyone else in the room. All of these people were in danger and none of them knew it

I sat up more, trying to catch my breath, as Sheira started asking questions. "Nick what's going on, are you alright?"

"We need to leave," I whispered quietly.

Shadow and Sheira both froze in place, "what did you just say."

I felt my voice coming back to me in a rushing wave. "Scarlett. She's sold us out, Scarlett has sold us to Molly!"

***

Finally got this chapter after about a week of procrastination and right in time for Christmas. Give this a vote if you enjoy the escapades of my little band of adventurers and leave a comment saying how you think they're going to get out of this one. Peace out✌🏻