Part One - The Reveal
Chapter 4
The truth wears many different outfits.
Some are drab and plain.
Other’s are gaudy and loud, with bright colors and exciting surprises.
But it is the dark ones, the scary ones, the unknown ones, that shape us and make us who we are, and help us find who we can be.
Benjamin walks home from the plot of green grass the children call the park. Mary Smith and him had been taking a night stroll. He is fifteen and as tall as a tree. His dark brown eyes shine with the light of the millions of stars above him. His chin length black hair is tied up with a blue piece of fabric. He looks down at his shiny gold watch. It is a quarter to eleven. His feet pick up the pace. At eleven, his mother has instructed their maid to lock the front door. “To ensure the kids are home,” she says.
Mrs. Stevens is a tall angular woman. She is strict, but a good mother and woman. Benjamin has five siblings, each of them are older than him. One and a half years separate each child from the other.
It will take Benjamin more than 15 minutes to get home. He begins to run. As Benjamin gets closer to his home, a scream suddenly pierces the still night. Benjamin looks around frantically and sees through the trees that the Buford’s home is on fire. He runs off towards his house screaming,
“Fire! Fire!”
People began pouring out of their houses. Women in nightcaps and men in their long johns. They form a chain, and begin passing buckets of water to each other. But it is to no avail.
The grand house continues to burn.
Mr. Buford is safe. His five year old child, Sarah is burnt, but alive. Her blond hair sticks to her forehead, and she cries into the shoulder of Mrs. Stevens, who is shaking. With a shout, Mr. Buford exclaims that his wife, Hanna, is missing. The scene erupts into chaos and fear.
Out of the corner of his eye, Benjamin sees a blue-clad figure run into the woods. He narrows his eyes and runs after it. He knows who it is.
It is Hanna, the wife of Alexander Frank Buford. She is a Master of the Four Elements. Both of their fathers are rich men. An ideal couple. But there is more to the story. More to the story that Benjamin overheard.
Hanna came to visit his mother one day. They are both Masters of the Four Elements. He heard Hanna tell Mrs. Stevens how Mr. Buford is not a kind man. Not kind to his daughter nor her, his wife. Mrs. Stevens listened, and comforted Hanna. When they left the room, Mrs. Stevens' face was twisted in fury. Hanna looked sad and listless.
***
Benjamin catches up to Hanna.
“Mrs. Buford!” He cries out. Hanna wheels around, anger blazing in her deadened eyes.
“Mrs. Buford I am no longer! I am Anna! Anna of the Four. I am thirty and beginning fresh! I am leaving my cruel husband! I am a clean slate!” she marches towards him. Eight fingers light up, each with a different Element. “Don’t tell anyone I’m alive. Not a soul. Tell them I’m dead. Tell them!”
Benjamin jumps back. Her hands!
“Your fingers! They're on fire! And...and is that water?!” Anna squints her eyes.
“It is, boy. It is the power of the Four Elements.” she pauses, and her eyes go cloudy. A surprising thought has struck her. “Your Mother didn't…. tell you about this?”
Benjamin shakes his head, wonder and curiosity showing clearly on his handsome face.
Anna looks around and whispers,
“Meet me here in two nights’ time. Bring Mary with you.”
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