Eliza's life

'Ah....Nathan!" Martha cried leaning forward holding her stomach.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Nathan questioned, rushing into the room, concern all over his face as he grabbed her shoulders.

"The baby's coming!" she yelled as another contraction came.

"oh! He said stunned and glad at the same time as he helped his wife into the car and drove her to the hospital.

"Mr.Burns? You can come in now and see your little girl", the nurse said with a smile and stepped aside letting him enter.

Nathan walked in slowly and smiled seeing his wife with their new child. He sat down next to the bed taking the baby as she handed her to him.

"she's beautiful..." he said holding her close and playing with her little fingers.

"she has your eyes" Martha pointed out smiling. "what should we name her?" she asked looking at him now.

Nathan glanced up at Martha thinking. "how about Eliza?" he asked handing the baby back to her.

"that's a perfect name for her." she said taking her back and smiling down at the sleeping child. "Eliza Burns.." she said as if thinking about the name out loud.

"Alright Eliza. Are you ready to learn to control Earth?" Nathan asked turning to her.

"Yes! Yes!" Eliza said excitedly jumping up and down with a big smile.

"ok, settle down little one" he said chuckling at her excitement. "alright, first you steady your balance like this" he began and demonstrated what he meant.

Eliza watched her father and mimicked his stance the best she could. "like this, daddy?" she asked looking up at him.

Nathan nodded. "Yes. Now concentrate on that big rock and try to move it, like this" he instructed and lifted the rock and set it down in another spot, turning to Eliza. "your turn and remeber to concentrate".

Eliza nodded happily. "ok" she said and tried to move the rock too, and made a pouty face when she couldn't do what her father did.

Nathan patted Eliza's head playfully. "it ok, try again" he encouraged and watched her try over and over again.

Eliza sighed and flopped down on the ground sadly. "I can't do it..." she mumbled crossing her arms.

Nathan knelt down next to Eliza, hugging her close to him as she pouted. "Don't worry little one you might not be earth. You may just be water like your mother" he said trying to make her feel better. She looked up at him. "Now go on and go play for a bit before you have to come eat dinner." he said squeezing her shoulder and standing up and going into the house. He sat down at the table with a sigh rubbing his face.
 
"How did it go?" Martha asked looking up from her cooking for a moment.
 
"Not so good, she can't control earth at all and she got upset about it" he said looking at her. "So my ability is out, so she must be water like you", he said thoughtfully, looking out the window watching Eliza play in the backyard. "it makes sense though, being water instead of earth I mean, because her characteristics are more similar to yours than mine." he added.
 
"Well which ever she is, I'm just glad that she doesn't have to grow up the way my family and I did...” Martha said looking back down continuing her cooking. "I'm still gratefully that you broke me from that horrible place".
 
Nathan stood up and walked over behind Martha wrapping his arms around her waste, as she continued cooking, and kissed her neck. "I loved you to much to let you be trapped there because of your family" he said resting his chin on her shoulder.
 
"Still, I fear that they might find us and come after Eliza to take her or worse..." She said her voice full of fear and worry.
Nathan kissed her neck. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll make sure nothing ever happens to you or Eliza. I’ll die before I let anyone harm you two.” He promised.
 
“Harm us?” Eliza asked coming into the house and hearing the last sentence. “What do you mean harm us?” she repeated looking at her parents confused.
 
Nathan walked over to Eliza and picked her up. “Nothing pumpkin, Mommy and I were just talking, don’t worry about it” he said giving glancing at Martha as he sat Eliza in a chair for dinner.
“Eliza come on lets go teach you how to control water” Martha said taking her hand and leading her to the little creak behind the backyard. “Now, you stand right here by the water” she said and took a few steps back. “Imagine yourself being like water and combining your energy with the water in the creak” she instructed.
 Eliza began taking slow breaths as she tried to imagine herself as water and combine her energy with the creaks water. Even if she wasn’t entirely sure what her mother meant by combining her energy.
 
“Now, try to use the connection and push the water like this” she said starting to push and pull the water slowly make a small bump on the still surface. “Now you try”.
Eliza nodded and concentrated hard on trying to move the water like her mother did. But, after a few tries she sighed. “ I can’t move the water..” she said sadly.
 
“It’s alright, just try again. I’m sure you’ll get it eventually” Martha encouraged.

Eliza sighed but nodded and tried repeatedly for an hour until she got frustrated with it. “I can’t do it mom” she said sitting down in the grass staring at the water.
 
Martha sighed and sat next to her daughter and pulled her close to her chest in a hug. “It’s alright honey; you just might not have your abilities yet” she said softly pushing her bangs out of her face and stroking her hair. “We can try again some other time” she added standing up. “Come on lets get back home before your father starts to worry about us”.
 
Eliza sighed and stood up. “ok mommy” she said and followed behind her mother.
 
Martha took her daughter’s hand as they walked back. She looked around nervously thinking someone would come at them at any moment.
 
Eliza looked up at her mom. “What’s wrong mommy?” she asked seeing that her mother was tense about something but didn’t know what.
 
“Huh? Oh, nothing pumpkin I’m just worried that an animal might jump out at us” she answered quietly and sighed in relief when she saw the house. “Come on lets get you to bed” she said picking her up and caring upstairs to bed. “Good night Eliza” she said kissing her forehead and left the room, shutting off the light as she went.
 
Nathan looked up as Martha came downstairs. “How did the water bending go?” he asked smiling.
 
Martha sat next to Nathan and sighed. “Not good. She can’t water bend either..” she said leaning against him. “But she is just 5 maybe her powers haven’t come in yet” she said thinking.
 
“Or maybe she doesn’t have any powers at all” Nathan said plainly.
 
“Don’t say that! She has powers. Everyone on both sides of our family had their powers!” she snipped sitting up suddenly.
 
“Shh! You’ll wake her!” he said quietly. “And you don’t know 100% that every family member had a power sometimes it skips a generation,” he said a little calmer this time.
 
“I guess you’re right but why would it skip her generation?” she asked calmly looking at him now.
 
“I don’t know why for sure, but you have to accept it if it’s true.” He said brushing her hair from her face.
 
“I know. I know” she said leaning against him again with a sigh.
~~~~~~~~~4 years later at 3:00pm~~~~~~~~~~~~
Martha was reading a book in the living room when she saw someone peek over the sill and quickly duck back down out of the corner of her eye. She looked up but when she saw nothing she shrugged it off and went back to reading. “It must have been Nathan and Eliza messing around” she thought, but when she saw it again she got a little nervous, the object peeking into the window stayed up longer this time before ducking back down.
“Nathan?” she called nervously, setting the book down.
 
“Yeah?” Nathan asked walking into the room.
 
Martha spun around when Nathan was behind her instead of where she thought. “Please tell me that was either you or Eliza looking in through the window.” She said, her voice cracking slightly.
 
“No, I was in the other room working and Eliza’s been up in her room for the passed hour playing” He said walking over to the window. “ I don’t see anyone out there though. Maybe your eyes are playing tricks on you?” he asked facing her again.
 
“No, I know I saw someone outside that window looking in then ducking back down” She insisted.
 
“Martha, it’s the middle of the day, I doubt anyone could sneak around in the front yard without being seen” he said gently, walking over to her and hugged her. “ I promise no one is out there.”
 
She sighed. “Alright, I guess you’re right..” she said hugging him back.
 
Nathan smiled. “Come on I order in tonight, I’ll go get Eliza and we can eat” he said letting her go and heading up stairs.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~Later that Night~~~~~~~~~~
 
Martha woke up to a small crashing sound from downstairs. She sat up in a cold sweat hearing more noises now. “Nathan!” she whispered shaking his shoulder. “Nathan wake up!”
 
“Hm? What is it?” he mumbled still half asleep as he rolled over facing her.
 
“I hear noises downstairs” she whispered as another crash was heard, this time with a small curse and hushed yelling.
 
Nathan was fully awake by then and got up immediately. “Go wake Eliza and hide her, I’ll go deal with it” he ordered heading out of the room as quietly as he could.
 
He slowly went downstairs tense and ready to fight off anyone, but everything looked normal in the darkness and he didn’t see anyone around. He continued walking around and went into the kitchen where he saw a glass vase, that had been in the window sill had crashed to the floor.
 
“She must’ve put it to close to the edge…” he mumbled, lowering his guard as he went to clean up the broken glass and hit in the back of the head with something round and metallic falling to the floor blacking out.
 
“Tie him up and make sure he can’t move his arms.” A male voice said turning to the others as they rushed over and began following orders. “ Search the rest of the house, She hiding around here somewhere” he added and saw a family photo and noticed a little girl in it and smiled evilly. “Oh and search for a child as well”.
 
~~~~~~~~~
Martha burst into Eliza’s room and shook her awake. “Eliza, honey, come on you need to wake up” she said panicking.
 
“Why mommy? What’s wrong?” Eliza asked sitting up rubbing her eyes.
 
“you need to hide, it’s not safe right now” She said and picked her up and opened up a secret door hidden in the wall setting Eliza in the hiding place. “listen to me carefully, honey, you have to stay here and stay silent for a while. No matter what you here don’t come out of hiding, until me or your father comes to get you” she spoke quickly and kissed her forehead, and turned hearing footsteps outside the room. “I love you Eliza” she said quietly and shut the door just as the bedroom door flew open.
 
Eliza started crying as she heard her mother yelling on the other side and loud banging. She badly wanted to get out and run to her parents for comfort but fought to obey her mother’s command.

~~~~~~~~~

“Tie her up along with him” The leader ordered walking over to them. “ Thought you were safe all the way out here?” he asked crouching in front of Martha. “Surely you should have known you couldn’t hide forever”.
 
“Leave us alone!” She hissed spitting in his face. “I don’t work for you anymore" she added through gritted teeth.

“Oh, but you do, once you start working for me it’s not that simple to get out simply by running away.” He said standing up whipping the spit off his face impatiently. “But I can make a deal… I’ll take the child in your place and let you live the rest of your life here peacefully. No tracking. No coming back” he said smoothly with an evil grin.
 
“We don’t have a daughter!” Nathan yelled struggling to get free.
 
The man smiled. “Do you really think I’m that stupid?” he asked walking over to him and picked up the picture of all three of them again showing it to him. “there are a lot of picture with the child, and our tracker found three people in this house instead of just two”.
 
“Just leave her out of it!” Martha yelled glaring at the leader. “She has nothing to do you or any of this!”
 
“Hey boss!” a man called, coming downstairs with a kicking and screaming child. “We found the girl.”
 
“No!” Martha yelled struggling to get free again. “ Get away from her!”

"get your hands off of her!" Nathan yelled fighting as well.

"you have no say in this" the leader hissed looking back at Nathan then at his men and gave a short nod. "deal with him, while I deal with these two" he ordered walking back over to Martha and Eliza.

The men nodded and grabbed Nathan by the shirt and hoisted him up and took him out of the room without another word.

"no! Don't!" martha yelled and flinched when she heard a gun shot and a thud. "Nathan!" she screamed fighting harder now. "you bastard!"

"daddy!" Eliza cried trying to pull free from the man gripping her arm tightly.

The leader chuckled. "He was only an unneeded extra" he said plainly dropping the picture on the floor boredly and leaning down looking Martha in the eye. "now it's your choice my dear. Come back with us with your daughter or you can join your husband".

"I refuse to work like that again and go after innocent people!" Martha spat and gave up her struggle for a moment long enough to glare up at him.

"very well, your choice.." he said and nodded at the man behind Martha. "go ahead" he said boredly.

"mommy!!" Eliza screamed as she watched her mother get shot at point black range right in front of her. She fought even more trying to get to her.

"go ahead and let her go, she can't go anywhere" the leader said looking at Eliza for the first time as she bolted to her mother's side crying hysterically. "go ahead and say your goodbye now girl, because you're coming with us shortly.." he added then looked around at his men. "all of you go ahead and get in the van, I'll be along soon."

Eliza watched as the men silently and wiped her looking at her mother. She looked next to her and saw the broken picture frame and quickly took the picture out of it looking at the happy family on it. She silently stuck it in her pocket when the leader came back for her.

"come kid lets go" he barked grabbing her arm and dragging her behind him out of the house. "light the house! Leave no trace of it" he ordered getting in the van.

Eliza watched as her childhood home was set on fire and the people who did it climb into the van. She stared at the burning house as they drove away wiping her eyes as she continued to cry. That was the last time she ever saw that house or the area where it stood.