He winced as his feet hit the carpet. He had run a mile on hot asphalt that day with no shoes to cover his already bare feet. But he didn't regret it. That was one of the least painful things that had happened to him in the past week. He walked into the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water from the tap. He took a sip, and spit it out into the sink. He'd had enough plain water in the past week to last quite a while.
He grabbed a can of Coca-cola out of the fridge, and walked carefully downstairs to the garage. He set his soda on a table, and picked up a one-inch paintbrush. He looked at his selection of colors. The red would do just fine. He dabbed the brush into the vivid paint, and set to filling a blank portion of the far wall. As he painted, he drew on his experiences from the past week. He had mastrered the elements.
It had all begun when he stopped to sign an autograph for a young girl. When he turned away from her, a pair of handcuffs had been slapped on his wrists. A cloth had been pressed near his nose, and he had struggled for a while not to breathe in. But his lungs were on fire from lack of oxygen. And so, rather than going into spasms, he had breathed in a single breath of the sweet chloroform.
When he awoke, the first thing he noticed was the cold wind that hit him. It was made by the fans that surrounded the rather crude bed that he lay in. These fans made him uncomfortable, but not quite as much as his fans who screamed, cried, and told him they loved him. When he glanced around more, he saw large bowls of water, and various colors of candles which provided the room's little bit of light. They were behind the fans, but he was still surprised that they were not snuffed out. There were no windows in the room, and only one door. He jumped up out of the bed, and found himself trying to open the door before he noticed that the ground was covered in rich, brown dirt, and he was naked. Embarrassed, and disappointed that the door was locked, he slid back under the bedclothes, and waited.
At around noon, the door to the room opened, and four girls entered. Each girl stood a few inches shorter than him. They were of average build, and each had violet eyes that were obviously the result of colored contact lenses. He would have rushed out of there, but due to the fact that he had no clothing on, and he was incredibly woozy, he stayed put and focused on the four girls again. They were rather normal looking except for their hair color, and clothing. The one with bright red hair wore a red T-shirt and yellow jeans. The one with green hair wore hiking clothes. The one with blue hair wore an outfit that could have doubled as a wetsuit. And the the one with white hair wore a flowing robe that sparkled as she pulled from a bag at her side his clothing. She tossed it to the dirt floor, and ordered him to be dressed and ready in five minutes.
He obeyed, only to find out that merely standing in place drained his energy, and his shoes were nowhere to be found. What came next were six days of torture. He had been held underwater for long periods of time. He had been forced to stand against a wall covered with spikes as the girls lunged towards him in a strange rhythmical dance. He had to go without food almost the entire time. He had also been forced to walk across burning coals at a rather slow speed, and he had been what one might call buried alive for what might have been fifteen minutes, but could also have been an entire day. He had passed out after a few minutes, so he really wasn't sure. He did fight as much as possible aganst the four girls, but due to the fact that he was without food, as well as sleep, his feeble efforts were met with only subdued laughter. And then came the day. He had been bound, gagged, and blindfolded, and was led to someplace far from the house where he had been held. He had been chloroformed again, but this time he awoke in a forest, fully clothed. Beside him sat fruit, a small wooden fan with wonderful silk-screening on it, a book of matches, and a canteen of water. He ate the food, and drank a bit of the water. Then, with renewed energy, he began his trip home.
He walked for a long while, until he exited the forest, and found himself on a road relatively close to his house. By his estimations, it was around 5 PM on a Sunday. He knew that no one would be driving past for quite a while, and the closest house was his own, so he began to run. Each stride echoed in his head, and suddenly, he was home.
His brothers sat on the front porch looking quite the worse for wear. With as little talking as possible, he found out that they had gone through the same thing as he had, and that no one was home. He dug into his pockets hoping to find a key, but found only the pack of matches. Curious, he opened it to find a message written there. His brothers did the same, and they discovered that the three messages were different parts of a single message. It was all in small, purple print, and read as follows.
And they did just that. And now Taylor Hanson stood in front of the finished mural. The blue Water, the white Wind, the green Earth, and the red Fire collided into a whirling spiral. Painted a top that spiral was the symbol for Hanson done in a vivid purple. Few would know what it meant, but it reminded him that he could conquer anything. At that moment, his brothers came walking down the steps in obvious pain.
And the three stood gazing at the mural. For them, there was nothing boring about watching this paint dry. But only because it symbolized the setting of their permanant friendship, and the locking out of their fears.
~ Hanfic ~ Torific ~ Other Writings ~ Moffatts ~ The Babble Zone ~ Webmistress ~ Contact ~ Guestbook ~ Links ~ Cool Stuff ~ Updates List ~ Tori ~ Zac ~ Tay ~ Ike ~ Aspie's Fic ~ Fastimes At Moffatt High ~
Starstruck Fiction ~ HF.C ~ Home ~
You are now worthy of your fortune and fame. You have survived,
and mastered the elements. Once you have read this, each place
all of your fears on a single match, light it, and set a book
of matches on Fire. Watch as it burns. Douse it with Water.
Watch the Wind carry the ashes away to fertilize the Earth.
Your fears dispersing with that one match will help heal the
world.