"Behind her the noise escalated…"

Behind her the noise escalated but Raye didn’t move. She waited for Elementa to catch up. Her sister was slow in her magnificent power and without equal. Well, almost.
A thousand years they’ve been at it, Raye always a few steps ahead, slowing down every once in a while to keep the relentless pursuit interesting. It was almost like when they were children and the game of catch got a little too serious. Now it was very serious and Raye promised herself she’d stop the chase time and time again as she watched the earthquakes split the ground at her feet or as her dress got soaked with tsunami spray. She could have kept it up for another thousand years but she was tired of her sister wanting to kill her.
Raye listened to Elementa advance, ripping the age-old oaks out of the ground with her second favorite – tornadoes. Raye waited for them, her moonlight hair whipping in the wind, her feet itching to flee with the last beams of the fading sun. She didn’t move as she waited.
The sudden quiet was almost deafening after the roar of the wind and Raye squared her shoulders in anticipation of her sister’s arrival. She turned slowly, ready for her fury.
“Hello, traitor,” Elementa called out, her voice low and hoarse.
“Hello, Elie.”
Raye had no plan: trying to predict Elementa was a thankless task even when you generally knew what was coming. She just watched her sister, trying to see the tell-tale signs of deadly force before it was too late.
“So, did you slow down to apologize or to taunt me some more, so I would be good and mad?”
As if she wasn’t good and mad already.
“I’m not here to argue. I’m not your enemie, Elie, even if you think that I am.”
“Then what are you waiting here for?”
Elementa’s already flushed cheeks became even redder and her usually copper mane looked like fresh lava rolling down a slope.
“I was hoping we could talk, clear things up. We’re sisters, Elie, we can’t keep doing this. Besides, you know as well as I do that nobody can actually win.”
Elementa glared at Raye without responding. Reason didn’t work and Raye could swear her feet tried to move on their own, to cary their mistress far away from danger.
“Come on! What do you want me to say?” Raye exclaimed.
“An apology would be a good start.”
“Elie, you know I didn’t mean for things to go like they did,” Raye almost pleaded. “I didn’t know it was serious with Michael…”
” Serious?” Elementa’s hair flared up and she stepped closer to Raye, her hands in tight fists. Behind her the twin tornadoes that seemed to have been dying down roared again and started to wheel toward the two women.
“Serious?! He was the one! Do you have any idea how hard it is for a woman like me to find someone who can handle… well, me?!”
She was now so close that Raye could smell the burning rock on her breath, as if her mouth was the mouth of a volcano.
“And you just flit around , happy little Raye, skipping from beam to beam, a smile here, a laugh there and bam! he can’t take his eyes off you, all safe and happy. It’s all a game to you, isn’t it?”
Raye could hear the pain underneath the rage and for the first time ever really understood what her sister was telling her. For the first time she could see beyond the flaming red hair and the bad temper. She couldn’t believe how blind she’d been. Her sister’s scream brought her back to the roar of the tornadoes.
“And now you have the gall to act all innocent and remind me that we’re sisters! You think I don’t know that? You think that makes it all better? Well?! Do you?!”
The heat coming off Elementa was blistering and Raye could feel her hair crackling. She could barely hear her sister even though she was shouting. The tornadoes have torn through the small wood and now seemed larger than life itself, sucking the world into their gigantic vortexes. They kept circling around the women and Raye was just happy her sister was still controlling them. Instinctively she grabbed Elementa by the shoulders, ignoring the pain that shot up her arms from her instantly burned hands. Second degree? Third? She hung on.
“Elie, I’m sorry. So sorry. I had no idea. Please, why didn’t you say anything before now? Please, I didn’t know!”
Raye’s hands felt like they were on fire but she didn’t let go. Instead she pulled Elementa into a hug and squeezed until the other woman wrapped her arms around Raye’s shoulders and squeezed back. Raye’s body was one huge blister. This was it. Another minute or so and even she would go into shock. And then she felt her sister crying, her tears searing Raye’s burned skin. She almost didn’t notice the downpour that started at the same time. The rain would soothe the burns and they’d fix the worst ones later. For now they were just two sisters making up.