The little girl was running through the mall, tears streaming from her eyes. She screamed for her mother, but there was no answer.

Oh God, not this dream again! I thought that it was gone for good, I thought to myself as I watched the scene unfold. I sighed.

Let's get this over with, I thought, and I watched as the dream progressed. I saw the girl stop, the man approach her, then grab her. They vanished into thin air, and the scene went dark. I braced myself for the mind-block, then the shattering, but it didn't come. Instead, I re-appeared in a darkly-lit room filled with people dressed in black. They all stared down at the girl, and one of them was scolding the man who grabbed the little girl.

"Geez Nate, we said to catch Potentials, not little girls you pedophile," she snapped angrily. Her hair was black as night, and her eyes looked like they were made from blue fire. She glared down at the girl, and I saw her expression change.

"Well Anna, if you had paid closer attention before calling me a pedo-bear, you would have noticed that she is a Potential, and powerful one too," he grumbled.

I heard everyone start murmuring things like, "What element is she?" "But she's so young! She can't be older than five at the least."

My brows furrowed. Well. This made no sense at all. It's amazing, really, what my mind could conjure up.

The woman knelt down so she was eye level with the little girl. She looked up, and her eyes widened. She seemed to be terrified right now.

"Okay sweetie, we're not here to hurt you. Mind telling us you name first?" the woman told her sweetly. I didn't detect any trace of harm in her words, so maybe she was telling the truth.

"My...my name is-"

But when she was about to say her name, my mind-block re-appeared. My dream turned black, and it shattered like glass, except this time it was like the windshield of a car in a very bad crash. I screamed, but no sound came out, and I felt the shards of glass pierce my skin. There was no blood coming out of my skin; the places where the glass touched me turned transparent and eventually disappeared. I started to lose consciousness, and I started falling into the abyss.

Am I going to die? Just like this? I thought to myself. I felt a few tears roll down my cheeks. Then, just before I completely blacked out, I heard the voice of the little girl speaking again.

"My name is Amelia. But everyone calls me Amy."

It was about three o'clock in the morning, but I got dressed and bolted out of my room. I remember Mr. Laurel telling me about some door, and I have to find it. I don't know why, but I just have to.

That little girl...that was me. I remember now, I thought as I ran through the hallways. I had no clue where I was going, I just know that I have to run. After a while, I accidentally tripped and fell in front of a wooden door. Grumbling, I got back up and examined the door. It looked old, and stuck out in this hallway. Strange how there's a random wooden door here. I looked around where I was, and realized that I had ran to the other side of the school. The courtyard east of the school was just outside, and there were no windows, just stone pillars that left empty spaces between them. Cool, autumn air and moonlight filtered in, and I shivered. It was pretty cold. I turned back to the door, and I decided to take a risk and open it. I wasn't expecting much; maybe the janitor's closet or something. But on the other side, there was a dark, winding, stone staircase that led to somewhere unknown to me. The way was dimly lit with burning torches, and I took a deep breath and ventured forth.

My footsteps echoed as I walked down the stairs, and soon I arrived in a large room with five doors. They each had an emblem on them...one for each of the 5 elements! I walked towards the door with a yellow swirl on it. I assumed this one stands for Air, but was this the door Mr. Laurier was talking about? It has to be, but I felt like I was wrong, somehow. I grabbed the handle, and pulled the door open. It led to another set of stairs similar to the ones that led me here.

I walked down the stairs, and I started to hear voices. Lots of them.

When I emerged from the stairs, I nearly had a heart attack. I had come to a huge room filled with people. I recognized them from my hallway, and I saw Sora among one of them. I had almost forgotten about her. Relieved that there's at least one person I knew, I walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and a huge smile appeared on her face.

"Amy! I haven't seen you in, like, a million years! Where have you been?"

"Never mind where I've been, where am I now?"

"Oh, here? Well, you're in the Air Users room of course."

I blinked at her. Had she gone crazy? Then she saw the confused expression on my face, and asked one of her friends over.

"Uh, hey, Nick! Can you explain it to her? I'm not too good at explaining, and I only came here two nights ago, so I don't know much."

"Yeah, sure! So, who's this?" he asked as he walked over. He had brown hair, and a grin on his face.

"I'm Amy. And I kind of just found myself here..."

"Oh, that's how we all end up here! So, what made you come here in the first place? Like, did you have a feeling, did you follow someone, or..?"

"Um, someone told me to come here. He said to explore a little after curfew, so then I did," I told him. I left out the part about Mr. Laurier telling me, and the dream that I had.

Or rather, memory. I'm pretty sure the dream wasn't a dream, but a memory from my childhood that I had forgotten. But why would I remember it now, at a time like this?

"Someone told you to come? Huh. Weird...but anyways, since you chose to come into this door, you must be an air user!"

"An air user? What's that?"

"It means that you could control the element air. Since you've found yourself here, there's no need to keep this a secret anymore," Nick told me, then he began his explanation.

"See, this school that we go to? It's not for normal people. We call them Normals because...well, it's pretty self explanatory. This is a school for Specials, which is people like us, who have the power to control the elements. Each person can control either one of the five elements: fire, water, air, earth and spirit. Although that last one is extremely rare. There are also people who are half Special, half Normal, meaning that they can't control any of the elements, but they can do some unusual things, like alchemy. We call them Neutrals. And I can also tell that you don't believe a word that I'm saying right now," he added, smirking at me. Well, I can't deny that. The things that he's saying make absolutely no sense.

"Well, what I'm saying is the naked truth, and if you don't believe me, your eyes can't lie," he said, and he walked away. I followed him.

We went through a hallway, and then appeared at a door. It led outside, and there were lots of people practicing with weapons. My eyes widened, and I just stood rooted to the spot.

They were wielding pretty dangerous weapons. Some were practicing shooting arrows towards a target, some were throwing a scythe attached to a chain, and some were sparring with swords. Real metal swords, because I saw one person accidentally graze their partner, and blood started coming out of the cut. They blew it off like it was just a little scrape, and continued sparring. Then I saw someone throwing ninja stars or something towards multiple targets. She had five in their hand, and she threw them all in one throw. Each star hit the bulls-eye of every target. I stared. Then she picked a bow and a a quiver of arrows off the ground, and turned towards a nearby tree. She reached for an arrow, then she shot it. But when she did, I saw something weird happen. It looked like there was mist gathering around it, and when she released the arrow, it flew towards the tree at the speed of sound and it went cleanly through the tree. She ran to the other side, picked up her arrow, then stared through the hole.

"Man, the earth users aren't going to like that," Nick muttered as he watched the girl shoot another arrow. Then I recognized her. I saw the glint of her necklace from the moonlight, and her braid swinging in front of her right shoulder.

It was A.

She must have felt someone watching her, because she turned around and looked at me and Nick. Her face showed no expression.

"Uh, are you sure that I'm an air user?" I asked Nick, ignoring A.

"Well, the fact that you came into this room is a good sign. But we can't be too sure yet," he told me. "We have to test you first to be sure."

"Test?" I asked, and I had a feeling he wasn't talking about a paper and pencil test.

"Yeah test. And I'm not the one who does it, because only the most powerful user gives out the test. In this case, it happens to be that girl over there. But hey, your friend Sora made it, right?" he reassured, but I could tell he knows I'm a goner. I'm pretty sure both he and I know I'm not an air user, and that I had stumbled in here by chance.

"Okay then. Bring this test on!" I yelled, and A. came over in a flash. Her face still showed no expression.

She took one look at me, and shook her head.

"Seriously? You can tell that fast?" Nick asked incredulously.

"What? What happened?"I asked.

"She just said that you weren't an Air user."

Inside, I knew it was true, but at the same time, I felt a little angry at A. for not at least "testing" me first. Or was that the test?

A. sighed, and held out her palm. Some mist-like stuff gathered on it and after a few seconds a ball of air was swirling in her hand.

"Take it," she told me quietly, and held out her hand. I reached out, but as soon as I touched that ball of air, it dissipated.

A. looked at Nick with a face that said, "I told you," and then walked away. She left us both awkwardly standing there.

"Um...let's go now..." he told me, and I followed him out of the room.

"Well...you weren't very good at controlling air," he told me as we left the Air Room. He turned towards the door with the flower emblem on it.

"So I guess you'll be better at controlling earth, since air and earth are kind of opposites," he said as he opened the door.

I wasn't any better.

The person who tested me in the Earth Room was Vickie, and she made me try and make a flower grow out of a pot. She made it look so easy. All she did was stare at it for a few seconds, and a little flower popped out. A few seconds later, a fully bloomed pink flower stood proudly in the pot. I stared and concentrated for fifteen minutes, and all I got was a little green bud sticking out of the soil.

"Well, that's okay I guess," she told me, and put the pot away. "I'm sorry, but this isn't your element."

I saw sympathy flash in her green eyes, and I could understand why. That makes two elements I couldn't control.

Nick brought me to the Water Room next, and I did a little better than the last two elements. A boy named Jace tested me this time, and he told me to try and lift the water from a bowl. He did that with ease of course, and it looked like there was a string connecting his finger with the water. I tried, and I managed to bring the water up a few inches, but then it fell back with a splash. Jace sighed.

"I guess water isn't you element either. But you did pretty good for someone who failed two elements," he said. I had a feeling he was trying to reassure me, but it wasn't working. If water wasn't my element, that only leaves fire and spirit. I remember Nick saying spirit was the rarest element, so I'm ruling that one out. That only leaves fire. If fire isn't my element, then I must be a Neutral, or I'm being pranked. Or I'm dreaming, although I doubt that.

To my surprise, James was the one who tested me in the Fire Room. He produced a ball of flame in his hands, and I was extremely relieved that he wasn't going to make me touch it or something.

"I want you to make one. In your hand. Right now," he told me, and that relief disappeared like smoke.

"And how, exactly, do I do that?" I asked him.

"Easy. Just concentrate on the flame inside you, like, the flame of life that keeps you alive. Then a bit of that energy will transfer itself to your palm, and a little fire will appear."

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I searched inside of me for that little flame, but I couldn't find it. I shut my eyes tighter, and tried to find it with all my strength.

Then I found it. It wasn't much, but in my head I pictured a little, bright, glowing orb of light. I willed the energy of that orb to be transferred into my hand, and I felt some warmth travelling down my arm and onto the palm of my hand. When I opened my eyes, I was disappointed to find that there was no fire on my hand, but it was glowing a little.

"Oh...well, you gave it your best try," James said sympathetically, and I looked up at him. He smiled down at me, but I could tell he feels desperately sorry for me. I wasn't an air, earth, water or fire user. That only leaves spirit, and I doubt that it's my element. I may as well run back up to my room and pack up.

"There is still spirit, but only one person possesses that element right now. You probably know who he is," Nick told me as we stood in front of the door to the Spirit Room. I do know who he is, and it's Adrian. If I'm going to be tested by him, I bet anything he's going to make it extremely hard for me.

"It's fine. May as well try them all before I go," I grumbled and we opened the door. This room was different from the others that I've been in. For one thing, it was completely silent, except the hum of the lights on the ceiling. The atmosphere was chilling and repulsive, completely unlike the other rooms that felt welcoming and warm. No one was in this room, except for Adrian, who was lounging on a couch, surfing the web on his shiny Mac laptop. He shut the laptop, then looked up at me with cold eyes.

"Er...I'll wait outside," Nick whispered, and closed the door behind him. Great. So I'm all alone with Adrian again, and I've got a bad feeling about this.

"Well hello again beautiful. Haven't seen you for a while," he greeted, but I did not find an ounce of kindness in his words. They sounded menacing and cold, like he was speaking to someone he was about to kill.

"You too handsome. Now then, let's get on with this test," I said, trying to sound as brave as I could.

"Wow, so eager," Adrian taunted, and he stood up and strode over to me. He stared at me with those bottomless eyes, and I returned his gaze.

Then I felt that something was...wrong. I couldn't tear my gaze away from his eyes, and I felt like something was prodding around in my head. It felt extremely invasive, and I tried to resist. To my surprise, the prodding stopped immediately. I saw Adrian frown, and his gaze harden again. The prodding returned, but this time it was a lot stronger than before. I knew this was coming from Adrian by now, so I didn't break my gaze with him. Instead, I tried to prod into his mind instead.

All of sudden, I saw a movie or something flash behind his eyes. I saw the image of a woman and man with their backs turned to me, then a beautiful mansion, and a girl. I couldn't make out her face, though.

But with the images came overwhelming feelings. The girl I saw had an extremely strong feeling connected to her, yet I wasn't able to make out what it was. I felt amusement, anger, sadness, and another feeling I couldn't describe...but it made me feel like causing pain towards someone and laughing at their suffering. It was a horrible feeling, and I tried to push it away. I saw a light flash, and the feeling went away. Just like that. It was as if it got purified or something.

Then I snapped back to reality. Adrian's eyes returned back to normal, and the prodding feeling in my head was gone. I noticed that he had a bit of sweat on his nose, and he looked a little pale. I felt his breathing on my face, and that's when I noticed how close we were standing to each other. I took a step back, and looked at him. He looked tired and drained, but he covered it all up with a smirk.

"Hm. Guess this place is going to be a little more crowded," he said with a hint of danger.

And I knew exactly why. I had tapped into his mind without even knowing it, just as he was tapping into mine. From what I infer, spirit seems like the most powerful element, and has a lot of unexplainable powers...like tapping into people's minds.

Since I was able to tap into Adrian's mind, I guess that makes me a spirit user. Huh. Guess I won't be packing any bags after all.