A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) Read Online Free

now.”
    Mindy didn’t like
breakfast after Raven and Claire finished eating.  They were always watching
for her to drop her food. Now they wanted her to eat fast.  She still had a lot
left to eat.
    Claire said
grabbed Mindy’s dish, “I’ll do dishes if you clean the rat, I mean brat.”
     “Done.”
    Mindy took Raven’s
hand and followed her to the bedroom to pick out clothes and then into the
bathroom to wash up.  Raven said to pick play clothes, so Mindy picked her pink
princess sweats.
    Raven ran a wash cloth
under the water. 
    Mindy looked at
the faucet suspiciously and said, “Warm water.”
    “Gotcha. Get out
of your clothes, Mindy,” Raven said. She waited until the cloth was warm.
    Mindy struggled
with the nightgown, but finally pulled it off her head.  Her fingers stuck to
the cloth a little from the jam. Raven washed her hands carefully and then her
face and neck.  It was a relief not to be sticky, although the air on her wet
skin made her feel chilly.
    Raven quickly
helped Mindy into her sweats. She tied Mindy’s shoes for her. Her mom refused
to get her Velcro shoes, convinced Mindy could learn.  Raven and Claire had
long since given up. Only if Jade or Mom were watching did they bother to let
Mindy try tying her shoes.  The weird thing was that Mindy could sometimes do
it…and then sometimes she couldn’t.
    Raven changed into
her own outside clothes and the three sisters met in the living room.  Raven
expected Mindy to fuss when she tried to lead her outside, but apparently she
had forgotten between breakfast and this particular moment that she didn’t want
to go outside.
    Mindy found a
patch of moss under the gnarled apple tree.  The sun was shining and the moss
was dry.  She sat down. Raven said, “Now, Mindy, you know not to play by the
creek.  Say it.”
    “No creek,” Mindy
agreed with a slow nod of her head.  Water was dangerous.  Fire was dangerous. 
But Earth was safe.  
    From her perch,
Mindy could see Raven and Claire play with the Universe. Seeing a heavy branch
that had cracked and fallen from a tree, Claire grabbed it and threw it onto
the pile that she had made to slow the water’s flow.  The water was up to their
waists now. Claire wanted to make a swimming pool, but it was hard to dig deep
enough. 
    Mindy could have
helped.  The dirt would have moved if she asked, but she didn’t trust Claire to
know that she spoke to the Universe.  Not even Mom or Jade knew that.  Earth
said to keep it a secret. Claire would never know, not as long as Mindy was
quiet.
    Claire stripped
off her shorts and t-shirt, followed by her underwear.  Mom wouldn’t like
that.  She stepped into the water and changed, her form melting.  Mindy felt a
little queasy when Claire’s whole self collapsed, her form merging with the
water. Raven closed her eyes.  Mindy could see that Raven was trying to do the
same thing, only with air. Somehow Raven couldn’t quite manage. 
    Earth spoke to
Mindy and she stopped watching Raven and Claire.  Lying on her back, she
watched the bunny cloud and the duck cloud float along in the far blue.  Earth
pulsed with warmth, like a blanket soothing Mindy and relaxing her mind.  She
was a blank. Time. Time. Time.  Mindy couldn’t think straight. There was
something important about Time, and Earth was trying to tell her, but Mindy’s
brain was broken.  Deep down Mindy knew that, but she could never fix herself,
so she let go.
    She relaxed and
didn’t worry, letting Earth’s instructions wash over her.  Maybe someday she
would understand.  Maybe Jade would fix her.  Jade said she was going to be a
brain surgeon. Neuro, nurture, something.  Earth whispered and Mindy closed her
eyes.
    “Fix me,” Mindy
begged the presence she felt hovering in the dirt and stone beneath the moss.
Earth cuddled her.  Mindy felt safe and warm in Earth’s embrace, but the lost
feeling never went away.  It was beyond Earth’s power to fix what was wrong
with