“Are you on break?”

“Shyeah!” she replied, enthusiastically, a smile on her face. “Somethin’ up?”

“No. Nothing,” he said while they continued to walk across the campus. “I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to grab a snack or coffee or something.” Shane added as he shrugged lightly.

Kapri had stayed after class to ask him about something. She was having some trouble on the last lesson, and she was hoping that he could help her out by explaining things a little more. She had also asked if he could tell her what exactly she was doing wrong as well as telling her what she could do to fix it. They had spent the last half hour going over things and practicing until she felt she was competent enough to do it on her own without his help. And since they were both headed in the same direction they walked together, talking about whatever came across their minds.

Shane found that he had really come to enjoy Kapri’s company. She was so different from everyone that he knew. That difference about her made her rather refreshing to be around.

“Sure!” she answered his question that he almost forgot that he asked, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that since she just kept on talking excitedly. “I'm gonna hang with Marah, but that's not 'til like way later. Like night later. I could totally use a snack. So," she started, quickly changing the subject, "what're you doin' this weekend?”

“I’m probably going to spend as much time as I can at the skate park. I have this competition thing and I’m trying to work on a new move, getting it perfected and ready.”

“That's so cool. The skateboarding thing."

He grinned at hearing that.

"And you're totally good at it. Those jumps and spins and stuff. Way cool. When’s it happening?” she asked, but before he could answer she added, her hands gesturing as she spoke, “Like how long do you have to practice this new move?”

“It’s next week. Saturday. I’m trying to fit in as much practice time as I can,” he answered and noted a look she had. A certain glint in her eye, but as soon as he noticed it, it disappeared behind a smile. It wasn’t like it was a bad look or anything. It was just . . . different. Maybe it was something that he hadn’t seen before, so it captured his attention? Maybe? Possibly?

“Hey,” he heard her say, shaking him from his thoughts. “What’s going on over there?” Kapri asked as she pointed off towards the fountain. Sure there were more people over there than usual. Okay, so there were a lot more people over there than usual. But that wasn’t particularly strange.

“I don’t remember hearing about any Academy event happening at the fountain today.” He looked over to her, just about to ask her if she had heard anything. Maybe there was something going on that the students didn’t want any of the teachers to know about? That thought lasted for a total of a second before that was proven wrong by the confused look on her face. She was just as confused about this as he was.

“Wait,” she said, grabbing his arm and his attention.

“Are they standing in the fountain?”

“They are so standing in the fountain!”

He didn’t know what he was more curious about: why people were in a fountain, or whose bright idea this was. And then there was an even more important question his thoughts kept coming back to as he looked on—did he really want to know?

Shane, however, would not get a chance to answer that question. Kapri was already pulling him down towards the fountain.

“Is that . . . Dustin?”

“Okay. Umm. This might be a dumb question, but why is he teaching a water class?”

“I don’t know. I want to know why they’re in the fountain.”

Dustin and about fifteen other students were standing in the fountain. It looked like they were meditating?

Shane was examining the scene, but his attention was drawn to Kapri, who was gesturing wildly to get his attention. “What?” he mouthed. She pointed first at a collection of boots sitting beside the fountain, and then at the students in the fountain. Each one of them, including Dustin, stood in the fountain, barefoot with their pants rolled up around their knees.

“Uh, Sensei Dustin?” he asked.

Dustin cracked one eye open to look around. He saw Shane and Kapri standing by the fountain, looking at him questioningly.

“Hey!” he greeted energetically meditation exercises obviously forgotten. He walked over to them, water splashing everywhere as he moved. “What’s up?” he asked as he stood beside them, still in the fountain. “Did you wanna jump in? The water’s not that cold.”

“Nah, I think we’ll pass.”

“You sure?”

“Dude, what’s going on?”

“On?” Dustin asked, clearly not getting what Shane was asking exactly.

“Why are you teaching a water class?” Kapri asked, unable to stop herself from asking.

“And why are you in the fountain?”

“Tori wanted to spend some time with Blake. Ya know how he’s in town? Well, she wanted to spend as much time as she could, so she asked if I could cover her two o’clock class.”

Shane wasn’t getting this. Why would Dustin agree to teach her water class? “You agreed to teach her water class?”

“Kinda. I agreed to teach her afternoon class. She didn’t say it was a first year water.”

“And the fountain?” Kapri asked, pointing to the fountain.

“We’re getting in touch with our—with their element. Because I’m, well, not a water ninja.”

“What’s going on, guys?”

“Oh, hey, Marah!” Dustin greeted warmly.

“Hey,” she said. There was a confused look on her face. No doubt having to do with the sixteen ninjas standing in the fountain, but the smile on her face could outshine the stars.

Ninja barked, as though he wanted acknowledgement of his presence as well. Dustin moved over to him, scratching behind his ears. “Hey, Ninja. How are you doing, dude?”

Ninja barked back in reply. He was thoroughly happy at seeing Dustin and receiving such attention. He jumped up and into the fountain to be closer to Dustin and not separated by the short concrete wall of the fountain. Finding himself in the water of the fountain, Ninja barked happily. He took complete advantage of the situation, deciding to run and jump through the water to and from each student, splashing everywhere and enjoying every second. Students were laughing, some were screaming, Ninja was barking, and Marah was trying her hardest to call her dog back and out of the fountain.

Eventually, he obeyed, jumping out shaking off the remaining water that didn’t sheet off him when he jumped out, lightly spraying Marah, Kapri, and Shane with water. He looked up at them with a smile on his face as though to say, “you know you love me.”

Dustin couldn’t stop his smile and the laugh as he looked at his friends.

“You think that’s funny?” Shane asked, stepping closer to the fountain. He shared a look with both Kapri and Marah. No words needed to be spoken as they each came closer to the fountain, and Dustin cautiously backed away. In a silent but coordinated effort, Shane, Kapri, and Marah splashed Dustin.

“Oh, it’s on now,” he said as he splashed back.

The students were not about to let the situation pass them by. They joined in on the water fight, splashing running and spraying water everywhere. Water went flying in every direction imaginable, some sprays connecting, some not, but in less than a minute everyone was in the fountain and drenched from head to toe. Smiles were on everyone’s faces and laugher filled the air around them, their laughter and shouts could be heard across the Academy grounds.

Blake stopped walking abruptly and brought Tori out of her thoughts. She looked around and noticed that they were there. The Abyss was a matter of feet away from them and things looked all right from where they were. Looking at where the crevice once was, seeing that there was not gap or tear in the earth, she exhaled a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Just then she felt something. She couldn’t understand what she felt, but she knew that something had just set off an alarm within her.

“Did you feel that?” Blake asked.

“Of course I felt that!”

“Hey!” he snapped back at her. “You don’t have to yell at me. I was just asking! Maybe you were too busy to notice.”

“You’re one to talk,” she said, her tone disgusted. “You’re the one that’s never around! I have a better relationship with your voicemail than I do with you!”

“I have a life outside of you! I can’t always answer the phone whenever you want to talk!”

Around them the atmosphere seemed to change, to crackle with energy. The roar of their fight masked the sound of earth cracking and splitting beneath their feet.

Tempers flared and words filled with malice bounced between them. Their attention focused on the fight, they failed to notice the faint glow emanating from the Abyss. The chasm grew as their fight grew in strength. The earth was slowly opening, its opening ushering in an evil that could devour the earth if given time. The mouth of the Abyss grew wider, wanting nothing more than to devour and consume the world and blanket everything in darkness.

“I know! How many times do I have to tell you that? You’re always saying it. For the millionth time, I know!” Tori’s tone was sharp. She had been biting her tongue for some time now, and she just couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Blake just shook his head, anger boiling over. “If you know then why do you keep doing it?” he shouted back at her.

“I do it because I thought we were in a relationship! But that’s kinda hard to do when you’re off playing with your stupid bikes!”

That must have been the last straw because Blake turned and walked away. Tori could barely believe that he was doing that, but instead of just letting him go, she called out after him, unable to stop herself even if not saying anything would have been better judgment.

“Oh, so things get hard and you start to walk away. That’s all you ever do. You’re very good at that. Walking away. It’s something you are a pro at.”

“Well, it beats sticking around here with you,” he shouted back at her continuing to walk wherever he was headed.

“Fine! Go then!”

He turned to face her as he yelled, “You can’t tell me to do something I’m already doing. I’m already going!”

“I hate you!”

“Yeah!” Blake stopped to yell at her in return, “I hate you too!”

The earth shook violently beneath their feet. The negative energy surrounding the Abyss had reached a peak. An abundance of negative energy was available for evil’s disposal, and evil craftily used it for its own gain. The ground split apart even more, the mouth growing wider as though it wished for nothing more than to devour anything and everything. Tori watched as Blake disappeared from sight, getting swallowed by the opening earth as a spray of steam shot forth. Though anger was flowing through her, seeing Blake disappear from sight was enough for reality to hit her. Fear flowed within her freely as her world broke into pieces around her.

“Blake!”