CHAPTER 5:

‘Beep, beep, beep’. Groggily, my eyes opened. I grabbed my phone and pulled it off the charger, turning off the alarm. Sliding out of bed, I walked to the bathroom to prepare for the day. Turning on the sink, I had an idea.

“I wonder what it’s like to wash your face with telekinesis?” I thought to myself, focusing on cupping the water in the air.

As the water flowed from the faucet, a small pool of water, a few inches above the basin, started to form. Raising the water into the air I took a closer look at it. The water floated as if there was an invisible bowl containing it. I poked at the water and my finger slid through seamlessly.

“Woah, cool,” I murmured to myself.

I then tried changing the shape of the water and the water shifted into a cube, then an orb. Returning it to its original bowl-like form, I lowered the water just above the sink and then dipped my face into it. Hovering my face wash over from inside the shower, I telekinetically squeezed some out and floated it over in front of my face.

“I wonder if this will work,” I thought to myself, imagining two hands squeezing the soap together.

The soap pressed together though there were slight waves to it, as if it were held tightly between two palms. Rubbing the invisible hands together the soap started to foam. I then imagined it moving to my face and what felt like two hands lay gently on my cheeks.

“Weird,” I thought to myself as the hands began to move, rubbing in the soap. “I guess I can make the telekinesis take the form of whatever I imagine it to be.”

After finishing washing my face I grabbed some cereal from the living room, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth, and went back to my room to get changed. It never took me very long to get dressed for the day as most of my clothes went with each other. I grabbed a pair of dark gray, almost black, thinly pinstriped, Dries Van Noten pants and threw on my gray, boxy, Fear of God hoodie. Checking the weather I noticed it was in the low 20s today, so I threw on my mid-tone gray Canada Goose parka instead of my Northface puffer jacket. Grabbing my backpack, I left my apartment and headed for the elevators.

As I exited my building I was hit with a light gust of cold wind. Covering my head with my hoodie, I proceeded down the street. The walks I had to my classes were always refreshing. The streets were always busy with students and the views of our main street were nice. The buildings ranged from small shops, selling a variety of goods, to towering university hubs, filled with classrooms and lecture halls. I had a nutrition class today and it was only a short walk to the building which was a block or two away. Walking down State Street, I looked at the faces of people walking down the road. They all seemed like they were in their own worlds, oblivious to the impending apocalypse.

“All these normal people caught up in the day-to-day,” I thought to myself, walking authoritatively. “Only a month from now and everything will be in chaos. Maybe even sooner once news breaks about everything. For now, though, I think I’ll have a little bit of fun.”

I focused on the words, “Lucifer, come forth.”

Flames erupted from the pavement and Lucifer appeared, floating a few feet in the air.

“Wanna have some fun with me?” I whispered to Lucifer, who was now floating a few inches over my shoulder.

“Sure, kid,” Lucifer cackled. “I’ve been waiting to see what you’ll do with your new powers.”

“No one can see you right?” I whispered, still looking straight ahead.

“They cannot,” Lucifer replied, floating in front of me. “Should I show myself to these humans? I’m sure they would be in for quite the scare.”

“No,” I whispered. “Maybe some other time though. Don’t talk to me unless it’s really important. I can’t be looking like a lunatic in class.”

“Whatever you say,” Lucifer responded, floating back to his original position above my left shoulder.

I noticed a girl turn the corner of the block and start heading in my direction. She was bundled up, her hands in mittens and a scarf around her neck. I focused on grabbing her scarf and throwing it behind her, but nothing happened. Confused, I kept trying as we got closer to one another. Once she was around 30 feet away her scarf flew off her neck, unraveling in the air and landing a few feet behind her. A startled look appeared on her face and she turned around, walking over to her scarf to pick it up. A slight grin tried to force its way onto my face but I held it back. The girl picked up her scarf and examined it, seemingly trying to figure out what had just happened. She then shook her head and wrapped it around her neck, continuing on with her day.

I passed her and went to turn the corner she had come from as that was the direction of my class. As I turned the corner, something barreled into me. I was knocked to the side, nearly losing my footing, though with my new athleticism I didn’t fall to the floor.

“My bad, dude!” I heard a boy say.

“What the fuck, watch out, asshole!” I grumbled, getting my bearings.

I turned to look at him. He was on one of those electric scooters that were spread all around campus and throughout my city back home in West LA. The boy had been knocked off the scooter but didn’t fall to the floor, he merely took a few steps off in a stumble and continued riding.

Anger bubbled inside me. I waited for him to catch some speed and I focused on the front wheel of the scooter being blocked by a small wall. Suddenly, his scooter stopped, tumbling forward. The boy let out a yelp as he flew over the handlebars, landing face-first on the pavement.

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Lucifer laughed wildly, hands over his stomach. “It’s such a delight to witness the suffering of living humans!”

The boy groaned and everyone around started to look his way, a few people rushing over to help him. I let out a slight chuckle as I turned around, walking toward my class. Within a couple of minutes, I was at the large brick building where my classroom resided. I opened one of the glass double doors and went inside. Immediately, I was met with the warmth of the heater as I walked through the high-ceiling corridor to my class. It was the first room on the left. Stepping inside, I looked around for a seat. It seemed that most of the class had already arrived, people filling the giant, 400-person, lecture hall. I decided to take a seat in the very back, it would be the perfect spot to use telekinesis without being noticed. Taking off my jacket and climbing onto the tall swivel chair, I took out my computer. I stretched out my arms behind me and rolled my neck, surveying the room.

“I’ll wait until class gets started before doing anything,” I thought, propping myself up on the table with my elbows.

I scrolled through Discord on my computer while class started, not paying any attention to the professor. Why care about classes at this point anyway, the apocalypse was coming in 29 days and I had superpowers. The boys had sent some messages in our server:

[Jack]: @Atti, watch this

Attached below was a link to an Alex Jones Twitter video.

[Jack]: @Jeff watch it too

[Jeff]: I’m not going to watch that.

[Jack]: Why bro check it out I know you used to watch conspiracy videos

[Jeff]: Fine.

Jack was a short man and 23 years old, a year older than me. He was an intelligent little guy and was trying to start his own Crypto company after having graduated last year. Like almost all of my close friends back home, we had gone to high school together. Jack was currently living at home, in LA, after having torn his ACL skiing last week. Jeff, who I had watched anime with last night, was also a bright individual. He was more of the scholarly type of smart, compared to Jack who was more business-minded. Jeff was a skinny man but athletic, having run Division 3 cross-country at Haverford. He worked as an English teacher at a private school in Philidelphia, teaching 9th graders. Like Jack, he was also a year older than me.

I clicked on the link and put in my AirPod Pros, turning on noise canceling. The video started and Alex Jones appeared, sitting behind his fancy desk. An inch-thick strip of LEDs ran along the side with the words ‘INFO WARS’ plastered underneath. I’d been a fan of Alex Jones for the past few years and loved listening to his conspiracies about the government when he went on Joe Rogan’s podcast. His ideas and stories were both entertaining and interesting and a great way to kill time. It did make me think, how much of what Alex Jones says about our government is true? He had been right in the past, but he was also known for getting things wrong. I watched the video and listened to Alex Jones, he was talking about foreign governments planning for World War III. I chuckled a little, realizing even if true those plans would likely change once news broke out of the apocalypse and Chosen Ones. Roughly 20 minutes passed and I finished the video, taking out my AirPods. I typed out a message in Discord:

[Atti]: The apocalypse is coming

I looked around the class. It seemed everyone was either locked-in to what the professor was saying, or messing with their computers like me. One row in front of me, a girl was sitting next to a guy. Judging by their body language, with each of them sitting slightly angled away from each other, I was pretty sure they didn’t know one another. I imagined an invisible finger lightly tapping the boy’s shoulder and his body jerked slightly, as if startled by an unexpected touch. He turned his head, looking at the girl who was staring attentively at the professor. I held in my laughter, a slight smile creeping up on my face. I waited for the boy to turn back to his computer and then tapped the girl’s shoulder. She looked up at the boy with a quizzical look on her face before turning to once again listen to the professor. I then tapped the boy’s shoulder again and he turned to the girl.

“Yea?” he whispered. “You need something?”

The girl whispered, looking extremely confused. “Uh, no, are you playing a prank on me?”

Lucifer chuckled, floating in front of them to get a better view.

“What? You just tapped my shoulder twice,” the boy furrowed his brow. “You like me or something?”

“Ew, you wish,” the girl made a disgusted expression. “Anyways you tapped me, I didn’t tap you.”

“Shh!” I whispered, my finger on my lips. “I can’t concentrate with you guys speaking.”

They both looked up at me before looking back at one another with angry looks on their faces. Lucifer grinned his sharp-toothed smile, laughing quietly. Scoffing, the girl stood up and picked up her stuff. I watched as she made her way behind me and over to the other side of the lecture hall, finding a new seat. I coughed, stifling my laugh.

I decided it would be fun to keep messing with that same boy. I imagined a spider crawling on the back of his hand. He quickly jerked his hand to the side and inspected it. He then looked around his desk, presumably for the spider, before looking back at his computer. I then imagined the spider crawling on the back of his neck and he quickly slapped his neck. Holding his palm in front of his face he shook his head, confused. Lucifer looked on curiously, a grin still plastered on his face. Imagining the spider scuttling across the boy's palm and up his arm triggered a soft yelp from him, followed by a frantic shaking of his arm to dislodge the invisible creature. People around us started looking at him, interested in what was going on. A couple of people snickered silently as the boy regained his composure, glancing around the room. The boy then rested his hands on his laptop and rolled his neck. Smiling, I imagined the spider crawling on top of his hand once more. This time spiraling around the top of his hand and palm. The boy stared at his hand, rotating it in front of him, before standing up slowly from his chair. He then walked straight out of the lecture hall with quick steps, the door closing silently behind him.

I silently chuckled to myself and went back to looking at my computer, opening Discord. A few more messages had appeared below the one I had sent a few minutes ago:

[Atti]: The apocalypse is coming

[Jack]: True we gotta get ready for the nukes to drop

[Jeff]: Do you have a bunker for us, Mr. CEO?

[Jack]: Nah you wish

[Jack]: I ain’t making any money yet

I closed out of Discord, resting my cheek on my palm. A few minutes passed and I sighed, closing my laptop and sliding it into my backpack. There was no point waiting around in this class, I was better off training my telekinesis or trying to unlock another skill. I decided I wanted to become as powerful as possible before the first day of the apocalypse. I threw on my parka, settling it in place by tugging on both sides of the collar. Grabbing my backpack, I walked out of the room. Passing through the corridor I opened the glass double doors to the street. I paused for a moment, taking in the moment. I took a deep breath and exhaled, my breath visible in the cold. I grinned widely, it felt as if I was God.