I didn't really know what I was doing here. You know when you're about to do something stupid, and you know it's stupid, but you do it anyway? But instead of having fun like you wanted you just wind up worried and fidgeting all night? Well that was me, right now.

Because I didn't really know what I was doing here.

"Hey L.J. You... doing all right over there?"

Without looking up, I simply raised my beer bottle in half-committal salute of assurance, the boy who called me shrugging and turning away. I glanced overhead and caught sight of the moon, half obscured by the trees as blood oozed from it's grin and cast a gold-red glow upon the clearing. Teenagers and young adults milled around the area, clogging up the nearby campsites and dotting the woodlands. Music pulsed from the main bonfire at the lakeside, but I stayed tucked away in my corner, not feeling up to mingling with anyone. Well, except for that one guy I chatted to long enough for him to offer me some of his beer. Hats tipped to you, charitable-extra-beer-man.

"L.J.! Hey!" I looked up and suddenly spotted two figures coming into focus from shadows.

One was a tall, lean-built guy with an old baseball cap pulled over dark hair; the other a petite ginger girl with wearing preppy, pastel-colored clothing. Both had eyes as dark as street asphalt- the pupil, iris and sclera were solid orbs of pitch black.

I waved and stood up, leaving my empty bottle in the dirt.

"Where are John and Damian?" The girl, Mary asked, peering about as if expecting my partners to materialize out of the trees. "Isaac and I didn't see them in the lot."

"Stayed home."

"Huh. That's not like them." Isaac noted as we automatically trudged towards the warmth of the bonfire.

I just shrugged, casually falling into step beside old friends. As we approached the bonfire, we came upon two more figures bickering in the glow.

"God damn it, Leah!" A boy with broad shoulders and brown hair panicked, stomping on the burning remains of a former fold-up chair.

"Gasp!" Leah feigned horror as she presumably rolled her eyes (though there was really no way to tell without a way to see her black irises), and swept a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. "It's burning! Very, very slowly! Oh goodness. Oh my word. How horrible, I hope we can escape in time."

"This isn't even our bloody chair!" Adam snapped, shaking a small lick of flame off his boots.

"That's not what you said when you sat your lazy arse in it!"

I waited patiently for the quarrel to end, wondering distantly just who the chair did belong to. Adam, Leah, Isaac and Mary had been my friends for as long as I could remember- the occasional fight or burnt piece of property was no news to me. I was going to be stuck with them for the rest of my life; accepting their oddities was something I had gotten used to rather quickly.

The way my mother explained it, is that there are two worlds (or at least "only two that I need concern myself with", whatever that means). The world of mortals, and the world of Gods. There was a time when the Gods thought to leave mortals to their own devices, leaving their world to be torn apart my monsters and madness. But then Death pitied the humans, and brought them order. Then more gods started taking active roles in the humans' lives, keeping each other in check to maintain Balance. And despite being vastly powerful, gods could still die. So they created 'fragments'- clones made from pieces of their own souls, to take over for them. Adam, Leah, Isaac and Mary were the fragments for the Elemental gods; Air, Fire, Earth and Water respectively. And because Life is forever co-dependent on these elements, if I were to stray too far from them… well, apparently it wasn't a healthy thing to do. At first I'd been quite uncertain about the whole thing, but as time went on, I began to genuinely enjoy spending time with the Junior Elementals. I knew better than to think this time would last forever, but I couldn't help but hope, as I watched them laugh and bicker, that these days would never end. They made me feel safe, like I wasn't alone in the burden my mother had left me with.

I suddenly felt at a soft buzzing from my coat pocket, and quickly extracting my cell phone with a skittering heart. There was only a brief text message on the screen, but it made me cringe nonetheless.

Tick-tock, L.J. Someone's not happy.

-John

I had known John and Damian ever since I was twelve. They took up a job from my mother to be my body guards (read: babysitters that could follow me around inconspicuously), and I'd eventually adopted them as my partners. They didn't like telling me about their past lives, always being so irritatingly vague, but I'd eventually discerned that they were runaways.

"L.J.? What's up? You got all thoughtful all of a sudden."

I blinked and awkwardly put my phone away as my friends stared curiously.

"Well, there's something I forgot to really tell you about tonight…"

This. Chapter. SUCKS. Oh god, I mean it. Please don't judge me or my OC on this awfulness, beginnings are damn hard for me.