Going back (Part 5 of Mutants versus Witches)

Elysse propped up her chin against the side door. The heat pressed against her repressively, both Simin's radiating natural heat and the sun beating down on their car.

John had loosened his tie, opened every window in the car, and was blasting the AC, but it was inescapable.

Devon had finally stopped arguing with Simin, both he and Harry pressed against the side doors to get cooler.

Elysse had already tried begging John to let her teleport all of them and the car to a destination, but John had told her that her using her powers would get them caught.

Which kind of defeated the point of not using their powers and driving across the country to avoid getting caught.

Elysse hated the silence, but the music had started annoying everyone, and nobody felt like breaking the dry, parched silence for long enough to say anything.

Boring, flat green, and dismal yellow were the dominant colour themes of the outside world. Look front Elysse, her mother would have said, and Elysse tore her eyes away. No need to make this awful car ride worse with her motion sickness.

She couldn't help it, the memories had been rushing back all day today, the same day as three years ago when she discovered her powers.

The day even felt the same, hotter than any she could remember, so hot that her thoughts dragged and she could swear she felt feverish inside.

Elysse moved her sweaty hand to let her head rest against the cooler window, wondering if this is how Simin felt, and let the memories wash over her.

It was the hottest day of the year, and Elysse and her little brother were sprawled out on the crisp, rough grass outside.

Ten-year-old Elysse was content to lie there, eyes closed, waiting for the nonexistent breezes to cool her down.

Philippe chattered on, somehow unexhausted, his words a mix of broken Vietnamese and English.

As a child, Elysse had been committed to being a perfect sister, and she enthusiastically listened as his four-year-old imagination provided her with images of the freezing Arctic, penguins, polar bears, ice, and wind.

Antarctica, Elysse had corrected, reminding her brother that penguins lived in Antarctica, and polar bears, which he called 'Poley' bears, lived in the Arctic.

Elysse's father would have been annoyed if he knew Elysse was encouraging Philippe to say Poley instead of Polar. He corrected every incorrect word Philippe used, but secretly, Elysse and her mother let Philippe say them, charmed by the adorable mistakes.

Elysse had played along with Philippe, imagining the Antarctic, frigid breezes rushing over them, and it took her a moment to realize that cold breezes really were rushing over them.

Philippe shrieked excitedly, and Elysse shot up, seeing a twisting, massive rift in the world. The colourful, spiraling portal spat out snow, and Philippe scooped some up, ecstatic.

Elysse had never seen anything as beautiful in her life.

Philippe’s attention quickly turned to the portal, “Ooh!” He crowed gleefully, stumbling towards it on his short, stubby legs, little hands outstretched. 

Elysse’s heart almost hurt as she remembered scrambling to her feet, chasing after him. 

“No! Don’t go there!” She yelled, somehow knowing with a sinking dread that something bad was going to happen. “Philippe!” 

Her fingers brushed the back of his shirt, her mind went blank in panic, and Philippe disappeared into it, the portal closing in on itself and vanishing. 

Back in the present, Elysse clenched her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears from falling. 

What happened next, always happened fast, hurriedly, and suffocatingly in her memories. 

Her parents searched madly for over a year. They yelled, cried, and tried to get her to say something they could understand. Strange women and men began circling the house, their faces stretched into large smiles. Posters circulated, her family became known everywhere, their grief pushing away everyone.

Elysse forced herself to do something, and started messing with her hair, refusing to indulge in the memories anymore. 

“John, how long until we stop?” Elysse asked, cracking the stiff, swelling silence. 

John looked over at her with some concern in his light eyes, “Oh, in around an hour, Elysse. Is everything okay?”

“It’s just really hot,” Elysse replied, shaken. He and Simin had shown up right as the one and a half year anniversary of Philippe’s disappearance had approached. 

My grieving parents understood very little of what John had to say, but their desperation forced them to let the thickly accented stranger into our house. 

I was unable to tell the story again, almost entirely convinced that I had really made it up. 

John knew the story before I could tell it, and his patient, careful instructions helped me open another portal.

He firmly told me to think of Nowhere, and for the first time in over a year, another portal opened. John told Simin to go through it, urging me to remain focused. 

Simin returned in minutes with my shivering, unaged brother. He was wearing the same clothes even frosted little blades of grass clinging to him. 

Elysse had been so relieved that she broke into tears right then, watching her parents tear him from John’s arms to hold him. 

Once everyone calmed down a little, and Simin cautiously heated herself up to warm Philippe, John explained everything to Elysse's parents. 

“Your daughter has a gift-” 

“A gift?” Elysse's father asked, his voice gruff with an accent to rival John’s. “This is a curse, you need to cure her of it.” Elysse had fully agreed back then, terrified and disturbed by her powers.

“I cannot do that, sir,” John stated calmly. “What I can do is train her, help her control her abilities. But she’s not safe here, I’m sure you’ve noticed strange events around your house?” 

He went on to drop more bombs on Elysse's family: her powers, their unknown origins, the witches who had been wreaking havoc on my family, how he could train her, everything.

At that moment, Elysse had turned to her mother, fully refusing to go with John.

But her father had given Elysse a steely look. Nothing was more important to him than family and responsibility. He told his daughter that she would have to master herself and her powers.

Elysse couldn't return until she could protect her brother.

This summer was so much like that one. She had so much to lose, again, if she lost her focus. 

Elysse braided her hair, breathing in deeply, locking away those memories again.

There was no point in reminiscing about the past, she wasn't that child anymore.

"Anyone want water?" She asked, already reaching for the bottles crammed into the side of the door.

"Yes," Simin responded immediately, gratefully accepting one.

"Harry?" Elysse turned, handing one to Devon too, who was letting an arm dangle outside the window.

Harry looked at her a little too knowingly and leaned forward.

"Everyone has one of those summers," He murmured, his voice quiet from disuse, gently taking a warmed bottle from her.

Elysse nodded, catching John's eye as she turned back.

"Simin, your stupid heat ruined the water too." Devon declared, scrunching his face as he took a sip.

"I cannot apologize for my natural hotness," Simin replied, stretching.

"John, do you think I'll ever be able to go back?" Elysse asked, hoping she wouldn't have to explain herself.

John glanced at her, a little surprised. Maybe it was the heat, but Elysse swore he looked lost for words.

"We all want that, Elysse." He answered, switching lanes.

Elysse vaguely wondered what that meant, and smiled back in politeness. She had a feeling this was going to be a long summer.