Chapter 2 - The Escape

Chapter 2

The Escape




“We the jury, do hereby find the defendant, Brittney Vila guilty of first degree murder in the case of her boyfriend Jonathan Escarza.”

Those words ran through my head over and over again as the officers in the court room walked up to me, handcuffed me, and escorted me to a temporary cell. I looked over my shoulder at my mother and father; I saw disbelief in their eyes. Sitting beside them I saw Jonathan’s family including his younger sister Erika. Her eyes pierced my heart. I could tell just by looking at her that she truly was convinced that it was me who had so gruesomely slaughtered her brother.

My stories about what really happened, about a demon named Rachel killing him, were not believed by anyone. I was laughed at and I had been told that I was insane. I know, however, that I am right. There is one person that knows I am right and she was sitting all the way in the back of the courtroom. She was the one who had killed Rachel before I too was murdered.

She looked at me as I left the courtroom to be taken to prison with eyes I had not seen in such a long time. They were filled with something so alien to me, that I had mistaken them for malice. It was hope. Hope was what Jessica had for me. She rescued me and knew deep down that I was innocent. She was not able to, of course, testify in the case, yet she remained at my side throughout the entire dilemma. She allowed me to keep the last thing that had ever touched Jonathan, and that was Rachel’s bracelet. I wore it around my wrist and had not taken it off since. It was very simple, but on it was a small dark green stone.

Seeing as the bracelet was so simple, officers at the jail did not force me to take it off. It was the only thing that still belonged to me along with my long black hair that they did not force me to cut. That first night I did nothing, I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t do anything. The only thing I was able to do was look at my bracelet. I stared at it all night until I finally fell asleep.

“Hey, it’s time for breakfast. I was gonna just leave you there sleeping, but I thought since you were new I’d be nice for a change and wake you up.” I opened my eyes and standing before me was another girl about seventeen like me. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was just a little taller than me. Actually she looked like she could’ve been a model.

“I’m Carolyn,” she said extending her hand.

“Brittney,” I said in reply as she helped me up out of bed. It was a little strange actually, the entire night before I had not noticed that anyone else was in the room with me. I was so concentrated on the stone I did not know this girl was sleeping on the other side of the cell.

The guard came and opened our cell a few moments later and walked us down to the kitchen to eat breakfast. I followed Carolyn seeing as she had seemed nice enough this morning. I followed Carolyn and sat across from her at the cafeteria table.

“So what are you in here for?” Carolyn asked without looking up.

“Um”, I started. I really had not expected her to ask a question like that so casually. I really was not prepared to answer it, but I did anyway. “Murder.”

“Hey me too!” she said dropping her fork and looking up excitingly, “Who’d you kill?”

“I didn’t kill anyone!” I started, but then I realized that the only friend I had made so far in jail might begin to think I am crazy if I told her about the demon so I stopped.

“C’mon, you can tell me. Fine, just to make you feel better, I will tell you who I killed. You see as I was walking home one day from cheerleading practice, and I saw this strange lady walking by who was pregnant. I could tell something was wrong though. She was walking all funny and I could tell that the baby was hurting her from the inside. Then I remembered that I had seen the same thing in that movie Alien before. I decided to take power into my own hands and save all of mankind from that wretched thing she was carrying inside of her.

“That night I followed her home and lit her house on fire. I’ve always had a thing for bonfires, so I was able to have this really big one to help save everyone here on Earth.” When she had finished I realized that there was no way she would think I am crazy if I mention the entire demon story, so I did.

“Well, I am here because everyone thinks I killed my boyfriend.”

“Oh let me guess, you caught him cheating on you?”

“No, I told you already. I didn’t do it.”

“Who did then?”

“This might seem a little out there, but,” I leaned in closer and whispered into her ear, “it was a demon.”

Carolyn’s eyes went wide, but amazingly she did not laugh. “So it was you she told me about.”

“Wait, who told you about me? What are you talking about?”

“You’ll see, it’s a new moon tonight, she should be coming. She has been waiting for you. But don’t worry about that now, tell me about this demon.” So I took the opportunity to continue explaining to her exactly what happened with Jonathan and Rachel and how she killed him. I even felt for some strange reason that it was okay to tell her about their powers. I even told her about Jessica and the others and how Carla was capture the night I was arrested. I told her everything that had been told to me. It was amazing, everything I said she believed whole-heartedly, I could see it in her eyes. When I finished, she remained quiet. Then all of a sudden she decided to break the silence between us.

“I think things are going to make a little more sense tonight…” she said.


The rest of the day passed without much else really going on. I spent my time with Carolyn and much to my surprise; she didn’t have very many friends here in prison. While we were talking, she even told me that only one of her friends came to visit her and she had already been in here for several months. As I followed her, I also noticed that besides us, the youngest woman in this jail was probably in her early thirties which came to me as yet another shocker.

It started getting late so we went to have dinner in the large open air courtyard. I looked up at the sky and noticed the stars above me. Carolyn was also looking up at them with a smile on her face. “Yep, she’s definitely gonna be coming tonight.” We continued to the macaroni and cheese in front of us and then returned to our cell for the remainder of the night.

We sat and talked for a few hours but then I began to drift off into sleep. Before I knew it, I was out like a light. For what could have been hours later, I felt someone’s gentle touch on my shoulder. At first, I thought it was my mother waking me up to go to school, but as I opened my eyes, I was faced with the harsh reality that I was in jail.

“Why are you waking me up Carolyn?” I asked in an agitated whisper.

“Woo hoo! Brittney, I’m all the way over here,” stated Carolyn waving her hand at me from her bed.

“Then who is touching me?” I asked as I slowly turned my head around to see who had been touching me. What I saw made my spine tingle. It was a woman maybe in her early twenties in a grey bikini like outfit made out of fur. Over her shoulders hung a cloak with a hood that had been pulled back to reveal her beautiful long grey hair and her grey eyes. She had tan skin and seemed to be only a few inches taller than Carolyn. What really gave me the creeps though was that somehow, someway, I recognized her.

I pulled back away from her and asked suspiciously, “Who are you?”

“Don’t worry Brittney, she won’t hurt you. She’s the one I told you about. She came because it is the new moon,” said Carolyn trying her best to assure me.

“This is true. I have been waiting a long time to speak with you. Last time I saw you, there were too many people around for me to relay my message,” she said with a calm, yet assertive voice. I looked at her once again from head to toe. Where had I seen her before? As I was examining her clothing, my eye caught something I had not noticed before, her necklace. Around her neck hung a necklace with a grey stone. Now I knew where I had seen her. The night I was arrested she came very swiftly and kidnapped that fairy, Carla. It happened so fast, but I knew I would never forget that stone around her neck.

“You! You’re the one that kidnapped Carla!”

“Yes and no. There is not much time left. If you are to escape tonight, we must hurry.”

“What do you mean escape?” asked Carolyn with an excited quiver in her voice.

“Here take this,” said the lady throwing a bracelet at her. I looked over at it and surprisingly, it looked just like my bracelet except the stone in hers was not dark green, it was bright red.

“Brittney, do you know what this bracelet you have is?” asked the lady intently.

“Well, I know it belonged to that demon, Rachel. She had this power to control the ground and rocks and she was wearing this along with several other pieces of jewelry made of the same stone,” I replied.

“That is where you are wrong. Rachel did not have the power to control the element of Earth, all those stones in her jewelry did including that very bracelet you are wearing around your wrist.”

“So that means…”

“Yes Brittney, it means you have the power to control the element of Earth.”

“Wait there lady. Why did you give me this red one for?” asked Carolyn seemingly confused.

“That bracelet you have around your wrist Carolyn, used to belong to the demon Celina. The stones she wore allowed her to control the element of Fire. I knew I should give it to you simply by the way it has acted in your presence.”

“So if someone were to get their hands on these bracelets, they would be able to control Earth and Fire?” I asked somewhat confused myself now.

“No, these stones are meant to be controlled solely by certain individuals. When someone who has one of these stones ceases to exist, they are passed on to someone else. You two were chosen to control these two elements by the elements themselves. Carolyn, you have this burning passion and ambition in you that nothing can put out and that is why you were chosen by Fire. Brittney, you have such a strong morale that nothing in this world can make change your position on an issue. Your strength and courage is why you were chosen by Earth.

“The demons that these once belonged to also share these qualities. That is why they still possess the rest of the stones aside from the necklaces. However, in ceasing to exist, they have been forced to give up some of their stones. These very stones here are just two of the stones that were forced to be given up.”

I paused for a second to take it all in. I looked down at my wrist to look at the bracelet that I had been wearing since the day of Jonathan’s death. Is this true? Can I really be able to control Earth as this woman had just said?

“Time is running short. I must be going. Be sure to be careful as you escape. There is no telling what sort of danger may be presented on your way out. I am aware that you Brittney have kept in close contact with one of the guardians throughout your trials and tribulations recently. Go to her, she will know what to do. Farewell, until we meet again,” she said as she faded off into the darkness of her own shadow.

“So when are we gonna bust out of this place?” asked Carolyn quite excited.

“Well, she said that we needed to get out of here as soon as we could and that time was running short,” I responded.

“So… how about now?”

“Now sounds good to me. Quick question though, what type of walls are these?”

“They’re made of concrete and cement. Why?”

“Well cement and concrete are made originally from rocks right?”

“Don’t know where you’re getting at.”

“I’m just saying that this wall better break down!” I shouted as I pulled my arm back and punched the wall with all my might. As my hand made contact with the wall, it immediately began to crack into pieces until only a small pile of debris lay before us.

“Hey cool, we can see the guard tower from here! Oh and by the way, when you went to punch the wall, your stone began to glow,” said Carolyn.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, running out the newly created door from the back of our cell. Carolyn hurried after me, but after just a few seconds, we heard the alarms begin to sound.

“Oh great, I really had hoped to avoid the cops on the way out,” said Carolyn a little dismayed.

“Don’t worry, there isn’t anything that is gonna be able to stop us,” I said continuing to run full speed. From the corner of my eye, I saw flashes or red and blue.

“They’re bringing the cars!” Carolyn called catching up to me. Two cars pulled up full speed ahead of us and stopped, blocking our way to the gate. Their doors opened and officers stepped out with guns pointed at us. I decided it would be a good time to stop running…

“Now what?” I asked losing a little bit of my confidence.

“Ha, I can tell you really didn’t kill that guy. You have too much of a conscience. Step aside. Hey officers! I think you might have left that heater in your car on too high! I think they might catch fire!” she shouted laughing when she finished. Her hands lay by her sides and then she thrust them up into the air palms up as though she was lifting something.

I noticed the stone around her bracelet glowing as she said this and when she lifted her arms into the air, it was as though she was leading the flames that began to consume the police cars from the inside out.

The officers immediately hopped back from their cars and withdrew their guns. Surprisingly though, I heard gunshots being fired. “Oh well, we gotta get these flaming cars out of the way,” I said, “Seeing as they aren’t going to move themselves though, I guess I am going to have to do it. Get out of here!” I raised my right foot, stomped it to the ground and then moved it in a straight line to the right. I raised my left foot, stomped, and moved it to the left. As I was doing this, my stone had begun to glow and simultaneously, a mound of earth came up beneath the cars and moved them in opposite directions creating a path for us yet again.

The gunshots came again. Over a bullhorn I heard, “Give up, you are surrounded. There is no escape!” I whipped my head around and noticed that all around us stood officers dressed completely in black with guns in their hands firing in our direction.

“I need some walls!” I shouted. As my stone glowed, walls began to rise up from the ground and fall back down catching bullets in them shielding us from the gunfire. “There is no way we can keep moving like this, they are going to end up hitting us.!” I shouted to Carolyn amid the gunfire.

“Looks like we will just have to fight fire with fire!” she shouted extending her arms in different directions and pointing them at different officers. Every time she would point, her stone would glow and a stream of fire would soar from her hand in the direction of each cop. This however, only slowed them down.

“There is no way we can get out of here! We’re stuck!” I shouted.

“No we’re not! Think of something! Those walls seem to be working pretty well when we stay in place!” Carolyn shouted back.

I began to think as hard as I could. What is the best way to get away from something that is attacking you? I began to think of Jonathan and Rachel’s fight. That’s it. Every time Jonathan went to attack Rachel, she would open a whole in the ground and dive right into it and then seal the whole with earth.

“I got it! Stop firing for a second!” I shouted. “I need a room with four walls and a roof. As my stone glowed, four walls immediately came up surrounding Carolyn and myself. The top of all four walls began to close in over our heads. Dead silence and total darkness.

“A little fireball would be good now,” said Carolyn opening her palm to reveal a fireball floating above it. “So now what?” she asked.

I put my fists together and then slowly began to open them forming a hole as I informed Carolyn, “We’re going underground.” Suddenly, my stone began to glow and the ground beneath us opened up revealing a hole large enough for us both to jump into. “In we go,” I said leading the way. It was about a seven foot drop to the bottom of the hole. After I was in, Carolyn hopped in after me.

“Now we can’t leave any trace here can we?” asked Carolyn.

“I wasn’t planning on doing so,” I said putting my palms together and then separating them rapidly. The mounds of earth used to make the walls protecting us became dirt again. My stone continued to glow as I lifted my hand above my head and moved it across the opening of the hole sealing it with earth.

“Now we walk,” I said moving my hands side to side so as to better shift the ground so that we may continue to walk without actually digging. We walked for a very long time underground, guided only by the light of Carolyn’s fireball. All the while, I was thinking about what that lady had told me in the cell, about finding one of the guardians. I was sure that the guardians had to be Jonathan’s friends who had the necklaces allowing them to control the elements. I knew that the one I had to find was Jessica, she was the one who had been there for me after I was arrested.

Eventually, I decided it was time for us to surface. When I did, I was surprised to see that it was still dark out. I must’ve only slept a few minutes before the lady awoke me. I looked around at the area we were now standing in.

“Now what?” asked Carolyn, “We’re standing here in our orange jumpsuits, they are going to find us.”

“Look, a payphone. I just need to look up Jessica’s address and we will be there in no time,” I responded jogging over to the phone. I found the page I needed and tore it out. Turns out, we were not all that far from her house, only three blocks away.

We jogged the entire way to her house and reached it in only a few minutes. “I guess I ring the doorbell now?” I asked a little confused.

“What if her parents wake up?” Carolyn asked.

“That’s true, but her mom lives in Alaska, and her dad travels a lot.”

“But still should we take that chance?”

Suddenly the door creaked open, and there stood Jessica.

“I could hear you from my bedroom up on the second floor, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“The lady who kidnapped Carla came, and told us to escape, so we did. She also gave us these bracelets that let us control the elements too,” I explained.

For a while she just stared at me with very serious eyes. After a while, she finally said, “Come in.”