Elementalist

9

"What do you mean, you told him that if he ever did that you would kill him?" Ethan demands astounded. He hadn't realized that Jet knew, let alone that his father had tried to abuse Jet like that.

"You were sick one night and I guess he wanted more than just your mother. He came in and ordered me to take my pants off. I told him to go to hell. When he tried to force me my powers suddenly filled me and he could see it in my eyes. A bit of wind started stirring and he backed away. He was terrified that I would follow through on my threat, and I would have. 

"I realized in that moment that you likely had been abused and that's why you started being paranoid around others. Although, you never were around me. Why didn't you tell me?" Jet demands of Ethan, a bit hurt that Ethan had never told him something so life altering, even after more than a century later.

Ethan chuckles bitterly, "At first it was because I feared for your life, and the life of any one I could tell. Not that it would have made a difference back then, there were no laws protecting children, no place of safety for me to go. Then when I got older, I was ashamed. How do you tell your closest friend that you were raped by your own father? The same man that took over being the father of my friend as well? I couldn't ruin your memories of him, the good things he did for you."

Jet closes his eyes and lets out a sigh and wipes away the tear that falls from his eye. He looks at Ethan, "How sure are you that Isabelle was not just my sister, but yours as well?"

Ethan looks him in the eye and lets out a sigh, "Positive. I heard my parents talking about it. Arguing rather. Mother was upset that he had fathered a child on her best friend. Father turned around and told her that it was only fair after all she got pregnant with his best friend. You likely never saw it, but Clarence looked just like your father. The older he got the more he looked like your father and not mine."

Jet staggers back a bit with this information. So many lies and secrets about his family and his best friend's family and his best friend. He looks up his eyes pain filled as he looks first to Ethan then to Stephanie. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart, Stephanie. I understand now what you meant about trust. I didn't even know this information."

Stephanie gets up and goes over to Jet and holds him. She feels him shudder as he fights the sobs that are trying to break free. "Let it out, Jet. Let it out and let it go or you will lose control. With hunters in the area we can't afford for you to lose control."

So Jet does just that. He lets out the pain that he feels at Ethan's revelations, he lets out the pain from the past betrayal that she still doesn't know about, and he lets out the pain of her leaving them.

"Ethan, there is more to what happened tonight when Talon said that you were leaving. What was that about?"

Ethan starts pacing and runs his hands through his hair. "After my family was killed by the piece of shit hunters Jet and I did our best to survive. We were hurt and to put it plainly, dying. Talon and his companion, Chase, found us." Ethan stops his pacing and becomes lost in his memories.

Even Jet stops his sobbing and takes part in the story. Lifting his head from Stephanie's shoulder Jet relates the story. "When the hunters found us, they managed to surround the house without the family hearing them. I was out hunting with Ethan. We got back to the house we were living in to find the men laughing as they watched the house burn. I created a storm and the rain helped to put the flames out, but it wasn't soon enough and it alerted the hunters to our presence. 

"They started chasing us, firing their guns. They hit Ethan in the back and I had a hard time holding him up and helping him run. In desperation I increased the storm ferocity, the winds whipped the rain so it felt like small bullets as it hit our bodies and the wind all but took us off our feet. Trees were being flattened by the storm as they were ripped from the ground. The screams of the hunters was lost in the scream of the wind. Then, my strength gave out and we both collapsed. I knew that Ethan needed immediate care, but I had neither the ability nor the energy at that time.

"It was cold, the storm had dropped the temperature to dangerously low temps. Perhaps it was that, that saved Ethan from bleeding to death, but it was a short term saving. We needed help and there wasn't any one around to help us.

"We had no idea that there were any other elementalists any where around there. When Ethan lost consciousness I didn't think that he would ever awake and I could feel myself doing the same. My last thought was that at least I would see my family once more. I only regretted that I wasn't able to save Ethan and his family before I died." Jet stops his narrative, lost in his thoughts or rather memories.

"Chase was the one that found them. He did what he could for Ethan before running back for me to help him bring them to our home. It wasn't much more than a dugout at the time, small, dark, but warm.

"When I saw them there, I was shocked. When Chase told me that one of them was responsible for the storm I couldn't believe it. I grabbed Jet and Chase grabbed hold of Ethan and we brought them back to our home. I went back out to where we found them and I did my best to back track the two boys. 

"I found where trees had fallen over from the storm and crushed people. That's when I realized the reason for the storm and the bullet wound. I was able to back track the hunters to the now half burned house. I wasn't sure that I wanted to know, but I went in and checked. The child, couldn't have been more than four or so was being held in his mother's arms and they died together. The father was killed from a bullet wound. The mother and child likely from the smoke from the house fire.

"With the storm ferocity I knew that at least one of the young men was an elementalist and was very strong there was no way that I would allow him or them to leave until they were older and better trained in how to use their abilities. I went back home and told Chase what I found." Talon finishes and is frowning when he does. The memories he has don't seem to be happy ones.