Chapter 14

{{ Sophie's POV 💫 }}
Sophie didn’t know what to do. Willow was floating at least six feet off the ground, blustering wind whipping her hair across her face and the leaves through the air.
Willow's tan face was contorted with fear, her eyes squeezed shut and her hands balled into fists. The wind was mostly condensed around Willow, the chaos stopping abruptly only a few feet away from her. The leaves began to pool underneath her floating form and the nearby trees seemed to bend down into an archway above Willow’s head.
Then, out of nowhere, a golden aura exploded around her, enveloping her in a brief flash of golden light. As Sophie watched, the light began to dim until it was just a thin veil that encased Willow’s body. What on earth was happening to them?
All Sophie could do was stare as the wind began to subside and the trees righted themselves. The golden aura remained, however, brightening slightly once Willow was placed back on the ground. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out. Willow slowly sat down on the now leafless ground and Sophie did the same, both unable to do anything but sit in stunned silence.

{{ Carrie's POV ☁️ }}
Carrie Smith was surrounded by chaos. Each person in their group was experiencing something impossible. Carrie had just moved one of the stacked crates, which went sailing after she glanced at it. She had been at least twenty feet from the pile of black boxes.
Ash, a pale, dark-haired boy, who was a few years younger than her, had his hands over his ears, screaming. However, his cries were barely audible over the rushing wind that was circling K.C., her brown hair blowing across her face, while her petite form curled against the gale.
Mackenzie, who was still recovering from the wound in her shoulder, was being drenched by her own personal storm cloud, sporadic bolts of lightning accompanying the rain.
The final anomaly was completely enveloped in gray rock. The only reason Carrie knew that it was Andrew was through the process of elimination. Carrie was usually calm and practical but this situation was making it very hard for her to keep her nerve. She felt like her mind was running at a million miles an hour and more random objects near her started to rise off the ground. She could feel her sanity slipping through her finger and she squeezed her eyes closed, trying to block out all of the noise, all of the chaos. She didn’t know how much more she could take.



{{ Kiwi's POV 🍈 }}
Kiwi couldn't comprehend what she was seeing. Something like a holographic image of a table set for a grand banquet was spread out before her and Sonya. One moment she was lying on the forest floor, staring at the sky and thinking about how hungry she was when Sonya had gasped. She had pulled herself up off the ground and gasped too.
What lay before them seemed to be impossible. The beautiful table covered in food looked like water in a desert. She stumbled forward to grab the nearest piece of food, a brilliantly red apple but was rewarded with nothing but empty air. She retracted her hand and the image glitched, then dissolved. What was happening? She turned around to see Sonya’s reaction but the girl’s small form was almost completely indistinguishable from the tornado of blood.
Sonya was engulfed by shards of dark red glass. They looked like tiny slivers of blood, spraying and spinning and spiraling. When Kiwi took a step closer, a shard of glass flew out and struck her in the arm.
The pain that crawled through her arm made her scream. Why did it hurt so much? Another anguished scream ripped through her mouth and then suddenly, the pain was gone. Just as fast as it had come, it had left. Gently, she twisted her arm to get a better look at the damage, expecting a piece of glass the size of her hand. But instead, she found a small sliver, the size of a toothpick. How had that small shard hurt so much? She turned her gaze back to the source of the torturous glass and quickly threw her arms up in front of her face to block a spray of stray shards. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the impact but it never came.
She opened her eyes and saw something that could only be described as a hologram of a shield, floating in front of her face, right where the glass would have struck her. This was going to change things.

{{ Alexis' POV 🌌 }}
Alexis had been sitting in a tree, trying to take a nap. A normal day in the arena. But no. Of course she couldn't relax for even a few hours. Her eyes snapped open to the sound of a branch breaking. She sat rigid on her branch, bracing herself to jump to the ground and attack. But she could see no living thing. Not even an animal. The harder she looked, the more black flecks she could see. What were they? They almost resembled ashes, but she couldn't see any evidence of a fire. She inhaled sharply through her nose and could smell the slightest hint of smoke. She swiveled her head in every direction but still couldn't see any signs of a fire.
She slid down the tree, the movement not as graceful as she had wished it to be, and began looking for the mysterious flames. She hadn't been on the ground for more than thirty seconds before she was enveloped in a cloud of thick black smoke. The odd substance was skimmed with a thin veil of blue iridescence and the smell of smoke was so strong, it stung her nose and throat.
A loud crack split the silence and the smoke evaporated immediately. She was by a lake that she had never seen before. But before she could react, she was enveloped in more smoke and another crack pierced her ears. The smoke cleared, and she was on a cliff, overhanging the valley in which the small troupe of contestants was gathered. Again, before she had the chance to look closer the valley had disappeared and was replaced with two people.
The first was a girl who was completely covered in bright blue flames. The other was a boy who looked like a human lightning rod. The ground around him was charred and smoldering, the aftermath of the huge bolts of lightning raining down from the sky. She braced herself for the next cloud of smoke but it never came.
If she couldn’t relax, then she might as well make the most of it. She drew the knife from her belt and waited for her time to attack.