Ashton Etrigan

Age: 28

Current Mass: 82 kg

Mental Status: Curious

Physical Status: Normal

Public transport in Luxin was bad. I was forcefully reminded of this when an older woman next to me on the station began loudly bemoaning the waiting times of all wheel-driven vehicles. True, cars with wheels were usually slower than other, Grav-Mag enabled vessels. They were also forced to react to the condition public roads were in, which at the moment was extremely slippery. Six weeks of winter had left many car-owners in debt, having to repair damages caused by physics. However, it economically beat the alternative by lightyears. I wasn’t a booking-a-private-ride kind of rich. Not yet.

The practically medieval network of landlocked buses were another victim of these conditions, and as such my ride to the mall I worked at was late. I found myself reluctantly agreeing with the woman’s whining when the bus’s estimated arrival changed from two minutes to three. Frank was already pissed at me, and I really didn’t need any more shit from him.

After my talk with Emily, and the stack of pancakes we made and ate together, I decided it was in my best interest to take Frank up on his offer to come in to work. This decision was cheerfully encouraged by several strongly worded messages from Frank himself, as late morning turned into early afternoon. Emily had even chimed in, reminding me about the importance of a steady income. I only bitched about it for a minute or two before I started getting ready.

The money in the contract I’d signed had tricked me into a sense of security, I’d realized. A security that didn’t really exist. It wouldn’t last forever, and until I had it in my hands, I should still keep working as normal. Especially if I was physically capable, which after my gym session was evidently no longer a problem. At least as long as I didn't do anything too crazy, like attempt to lift the weight of a car again.

After lunch Emily had contacted one of dad’s old friends, who’d agreed to help us with the legal stuff surrounding the contract, as well as getting me in contact with someone at Lodestar. He said that while a direct line to Mr. Solomon was impossible, there was a good chance he’d get me a meeting with someone from the R&D team that worked in preparation for the convention.

The bus eventually arrived, only ten minutes late. A makeshift plow had been strapped to the front of it. It didn’t look particularly helpful. The angles were crooked, and the metal looked rusted and old. I pressed a finger against the scanner as I boarded, and it chimed cheerfully as it validated my ticket. Another thirty minutes later I got off and waded through the snow until I finally crossed the main entrance of the DigiSea Mall and shopping Centre.

The mall was barely filled. Small groups of people sat or walked about around the open court in the main hall of the building, but the noise still bled through my old earplugs. A twenty-four hour radio station played constant music throughout the mall, and the sound of people's voices bounced around the great entrance hall due to its natural acoustics.

I gritted my teeth and headed towards the staff-only stairways that led to the back of almost every business in the building. It was mid afternoon, so the stairs were empty, as most of the employees at the different stores were almost certainly doing closing shifts, and their opening shift coworkers had probably already left for the day.

I walked up a floor and down the long hall that eventually led to the backroom of my store, called Spetro. It was a special parts and repair shop for everything from remote controlled toys for kids and old game consoles, to home appliances. We also sold a random assortment of used phone devices, prank products and home office accessories. Anything people would pay for, really.

I reached the door to the changing room/storage area behind my store, and was about to scan my access card when I heard Frank’s grating voice coming from the other side of the door. It sounded like he was yelling at whoever was currently there with him, and he sounded angry. I hesitated at the scanner, fear and curiosity mixing in the pit of my stomach.

“And when it happens again, because I know you’ll fuck it up again at some point, it’s coming outta YOUR paycheck, got it?!”

Something crashed to the floor, and sounds of broken pieces scattered behind the door. Someone whimpered, and I thought I recognized the voice of one of our younger employees.

“Now clean this shit up while I try to smooth over your mess.” Frank’s voice grew more distant as he moved towards the front, but I still managed to catch his last words.

“And if Ashton decides to actually show his ugly mug at some point today, you’re gonna stay here until closing and study that manual until you can recite it to me backwards. If Ashton asks, you tell him you just like reading it, and nothing about this conversation, or you’re out on your ass.” There was nothing more to hear after that, as Frank presumably went out to “fix” whatever problem apparently had appeared.

The skin across my knuckles was stretched white from how hard I was gripping my key card. In my mind I saw images of things I wanted to do to Frank at that moment, and none of them were any less than gruesome. The memories from the convenience store brawl came to me, and I knew that the line between a normal shift and a repeat of that night was not very thick.

I swiped my card to open the door, and took a calming breath as I stepped across the threshold.

YOUR RESTRAINT IS ADMIRABLE, BUT ULTIMATELY UNNECESSARY

My legs froze mid stride, just a bit over half through the doorway. A tingling feeling flickered up my back and across my head, as I felt more than heard the words. No sound or voice came with them, only a slight vibration I couldn’t sense the source of. It was as if something was speaking to me from inside my own brain. And it wasn’t the first time.

Then it spoke again.

THERE IS NO NEED FOR HESITATION

NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, I GUARANTEE YOU ARE SAFE

The words weren’t hard, nor were they soft. Monotonous and seemingly without beginning or end, they existed briefly, then stopped. Only the vibrations inside me confirmed that they had ever actually been real.

THE POWER IS HERE

JUST TAKE IT

That was it. No more vibrations, and no more words.

I stood there, halfway through the door, waiting, but nothing else happened. The door beeped, an automatic obstruction warning, and Frank’s red face appeared as he leaned in through the curtain to check what the noise was about. His mouth twisted into a sneer, and he stepped fully into the storage room, while I was still awkwardly standing in the middle of the beeping doorway, one foot outstretched.

He was a corpulent man, with clothes that were stretched out at the neck and waist. Parts I didn’t wish to look at jiggled as he walked over and sat down in his custom office chair.

“Ashton!” he hissed. “Somebody better have died! Quit standing there like an idiot, and start handling tickets! You can also bet your ass I’m gonna write you up for today. Poor Silas has had to pick up your slack, ain’t that right, Sil?”

Silas squeaked in terrified affirmation from a corner, where he sat and read the storage manual. He was barely seventeen years old, and only worked part time to pay for school, but Frank treated him like an adult with the same amount of maturity and experience as himself. And that just wasn’t fair.

“Okay Frank, I’m sorry, ” I said, and pulled my other foot in the door. Behind me the automatic alarm quit beeping, and the door slid closed. “But, I’m here now, so why not just let Silas go home. The two of us is more than enough for-”

“Tell me somethin’, Ash, since when are you the boss here?” Frank abruptly cut me off. His face was turning an unhealthy shade of red, and the collar of his shirt was close to bursting at the seams. “Did you get your brains all scrambled from that long nap you took? I bet that’s the case, there’s no other explanation for your attitude,” Frank continued. His habit of ranting had gotten worse it seemed, and his short temper didn’t exactly help.

“Actually, never mind, I don’t give a shit. Get changed, and start handling tickets. The system is backed up all because of your procrastination, and we’re busy with other stuff,” he gestured to Silas and himself. “So hurry the fuck up and go deal with it!”

I looked at the ridiculous man in his chair, ass hanging out on either side of the seat, with flakes of food stuck in the fibers of his shirt. The second he was done berating and commanding me, he turned his head to the holographic monitor at his desk, where I caught a glimpse of some reality game-show. It was one of those where the contestants allowed themselves to be humiliated on Public Network for the chance to win a lifetime supply of electricity, or somesuch.

There was something incredibly infuriating about it all.

Most people I knew growing up were like me and Emily. Struggling every day to find ways to improve our situation while still maintaining some semblance of freedom and happiness. The rich and powerful I so disliked for their behavior was one thing, and my hate for them was deep, but it felt much more personal when someone acted like a rich brat, when they supposedly came from the same background as yourself.

Frank was, to my knowledge, the same, socially speaking. Normal education, normal job, and a normal apartment. He even shared my resentment towards those in power who habitually overlooked guys like us. That was one of the reasons I’d taken a job here in the first place. Yet there he sat, laughing at strugglers like myself, gorging himself on foods I knew he shouldn’t be able to afford. Sure, he was my boss, and made more money, but you didn’t look and eat like that while working here unless you were doing something super shady on the side. I hated people like Frank.

A slight hum appeared in my ears.

“Excuse me, hello?” There was someone at the front desk. I hadn’t changed shirts yet, but decided I could step out and handle it anyway. “Coming!”

I dumped my things in a tiny locker on the floor, then started towards the plastic curtain. A hand shot out in front of me, and Frank pushed me back towards the entrance while he gave my shirt a pointed glance. He held his hand on my chest, forcibly stopping me from moving, and then narrowed his eyes directly at me.

“Be with you in a moment, sir,” Frank said loudly with a practiced welcoming tone, all the while staring daggers at me. “And you,” he whispered at me in a much lower tone. “We don’t serve customers without our uniform, you know damn well what corporate thinks of that. Besides, I told you to deal with tickets! Now I’m gonna have to write you up for being late AND for disobeying orders!” His whisper turned into a hiss, and his dull green eyes were practically jumping out of their sockets from the blood pressure.

He wasn’t the only angry one, however. My own body felt like it was starting to boil, and I was struggling hard to keep a neutral face. “Sorry,” I said. “Won’t happen again, boss.”

Frank snorted a laugh at that.

“Thought so,” he said, then frowned at his hand. “You ain’t still sick, are you? You’re practically an oven. Get your shit together.”

He wiped his hand on his shirt, then pushed past me. I stood and stared at the back of his balding head until it disappeared behind the curtain, and I heard Frank welcome the customer with the warmest, most welcoming service voice he could manage.

I turned and walked back to my locker and picked out my shirt and name tag, and got changed. Silas stared wide eyed at me from the bucket he sat on, still reading the store manual. He looked scared for some reason, and I realized it was because of me. My carefully kept poker face was apparently not as good as I thought.

I sighed and gave him a friendly nod. Of all the other employees, he was one of the best to share a shift with. Not because he was a great salesman or anything. No, Silas was cool because he never tried to suck up to Frank, and never reported another employee when they messed up. He didn’t deserve my anger. He was trustworthy, which made it so much worse to watch him be treated so poorly by frank.

I took a deep breath, and let go of my frustrations. Like the storms on the surface of a sun, I let the flames burn themselves out and made an effort to try and cool myself down. It seemed to work, because Silas when I looked back at Silas he smiled and gave a friendly wave back to me.

We didn’t say anything to each other. Frank preferred work to be done quietly, so the only sound I heard as I stood there was the low humming in my ears. Except it was growing louder.

It was slow, but noticeable, building in intensity, and when Frank suddenly laughed at something on whatever stream he was watching, the sound was muffled in my ears, like I was wearing protective ear plugs. It worried me. I didn’t understand it. It kept growing louder.

I pushed away my concern and tried to focus on my job. Frank had been right, the queue for waiting tickets was long, and if I didn’t start chewing it down then he would probably write me up a third time today. That would be bad. Three strikes and you’re out, shift went unpaid. I couldn’t afford-

Wait. That’s not true anymore.

I took a calming breath. I had allowed an old fear to replace a new one in my haste to push it out. It didn’t have to be that way.

I’m going to be okay. I’m safe.

I looked at the queue with new eyes. It was a list of tasks that needed to be fulfilled, sent in by customers or by my superiors who worked at corporate. Made no difference really, they were all the same stiffly dressed people who couldn’t do basic manual labor themselves. The list was displayed on a monitor at a small desk. You just tapped the ticket you wanted on the screen, then a printer would spit out a plastic card with full instructions. You fed the plastic card back into the printer when you were done, where the instructions would be erased, prepping the same card for the next ticket you picked.

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I read the list. To my relief it was pretty simple stuff. Most of the tasks involved just putting in new power cells in personal devices, with some actual repair work sprinkled in. The task queue really shouldn’t have gotten that backed up, but I guessed it was futile to expect Frank to ever do any proper work himself. I got started with the least time consuming tasks.

“Heeeey! Ashton!” I looked up from the drawer full of scattered tools to find Silas next to me, looking like he’d been trying to get my attention for a while. I had only been working for what felt like twenty minutes, but looking at my band told me it’d been almost two hours.

“Are you okay? I’ve been trying to get your attention for some time now, but you just kinda…” He trailed off. The hum in my ears had stopped getting louder at some point, but I still had to focus to hear his words. That was probably why I hadn’t noticed him earlier.

“Yeah, I’m alright. What’s up?” I closed the tool drawer and turned to fully face the young man, wondering why he’d stopped talking. All I saw was him staring back at me, with eyes as wide as planetary rings. I waved my hand in front of his face, and he flinched backwards, as if I was about to smack him. I quickly pulled my hand back.

“Woah, take it easy,” I said. “I was just… Is there something on my face?”

Silas kept staring at me, directly into my eyes, and I was starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. His lips moved, but whatever he whispered was too low to make out over the hum in my ears.

“Uuh, sorry, what was that?” I asked, hoping he would repeat himself. Silas answered by lifting his hand, and pointed directly at my left eye.

“How are you doing that?” I heard him this time. The hum seemed to grow gradually easier to hear him through the more I focused on him.There was a sense of wonder in his voice, but I thought I heard a small amount of fear mixed in as well.

“Doing what?” I asked.

“Your eyes,” Silas said. “They’re glowing.” He spoke softly, as if he was too entranced by what he saw to put any force in his voice. His words were coming through the hum with complete clarity now.

“What?” I tried to deflect. “That’s impossible. It’s probably just the work light!” I looked away and adjusted the lamp arm on the desk so that it was more in my face. I hoped that would mask the glow, if there really was any. “See, my eyes are perfectly normal.” I said, pointing at my face. Unluckily for me, Silas was clever. He clicked his fingers, and the lamp turned off.

Shit.

With the light from the work lamp gone, it was obvious. I moved my face around and I saw reflections bounce off of a myriad of metal surfaces as my gaze passed over them. I closed my eyes, but it only made it clearer. Instead of not seeing anything, it was like when you shine a flashlight across your closed eyes, except I experienced it from the inside.

I reopened my eyes and looked at Silas, who was staring at me with his mouth hanging open, slack jawed. We stood there, just looking at each other in silence for a bit. A numbness appeared in my head, and I was forced to realize the truth of the situation. I wouldn’t be able to hide forever. People were going to find out, one way or another. My life would never be the same.

WORRY NOT

YOU ARE ABOVE SUCH THINGS NOW

I’m what?

The hum was starting to increase again. Not in volume this time, but frequency. It felt like it was getting faster.

“Does it hurt?”

The words were suddenly crystal clear, and pulled me out of my own thoughts. I realized it was Silas, who had gathered himself from the astonishment of a superhuman experience, becoming curious instead. The question, soft and honest, calmed me, and I made a decision.

“No,” I said, truthfully. “I don’t really feel it at all. I don’t even know when it started.” I had to be able to talk about it, I decided, if this was to become a regular occurrence. I looked at him, faintly lighting up his face with the glow of my eyes. It was brighter than I’d imagined.

“Can you turn it off?” Silas asked next.

“Sorry, I don’t know how,” I said while looking away, worried I was blinding him or something. “This is only the second time this has happened, as far as I know. And last time it just kind of went away on its own.” I clicked my fingers to turn the work lamp back on.

“Well that kinda sucks,” Silas said plainly. “It would be a lot better if you could make your eyes glow whenever you wanted. You’d be the best at making dramatic faces.”

That caught me off guard. I blinked in surprise at Silas, shining eyes making it look like a flickerlighter. He was right!

“You know what, yes. It does suck!” I practically deflated from exasperation, the way I sighed. “And you know what sucks more? I think I might have other abilities, but I have no fucking clue on how to activate them!” I kept my voice down despite the harshness of my words. I didn’t want Frank to hear.

“Just two days ago, I ended up in a fight with some guy with a knife. He managed to slash me across my chest, but after, when I was home, I looked at myself in the mirror, and there was nothing there. No cut, no scar, nothing! And I have no idea why!”

I finished the short rant, enjoying the brief sensation of relief that washed over me. Complaining was never cool, but damn if it didn’t feel pretty good afterwards. Had I been in a group larger than just one other person, I would never have dared doing something like that. So long as it was just me and one other person however, I felt okay. It dawned on me that I’d been in more one-on-one social situations lately, and I found that I actually enjoyed it.

Silas however was looking like he was about to pass out. His eyes were opened so wide it felt like they could fall out their sockets any time, and he had completely stopped breathing. His face was starting to turn a little purple, despite his mouth hanging open.

“Uh… Okay, you’re kinda creeping me out now,” I told him, hoping he would start breathing again.

He suddenly coughed in response, then breathed in deeply. “Several other abilities?!” He burst out in shock. “Why haven’t you reported this? You could become a superhero. You could meet Crusader!” He said, loudly. I gestured to him that he should lower his voice, but was ignored.

“Holy crap, this is the most amazing thing I’ve heard,” he said while waving his arms in the air. “You gotta tell me more, I need to know everything!”

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you whatever I can. I haven’t exactly had much time to figure much out, but I’ll try.” I spoke in a hushed tone while gesturing towards Frank’s area, trying to get the point across that this was not the place to have a conversation like this unless we wanted his greasy company.

“I can’t believe this is happening!” Silas nearly shouted.

Take the hint, please!

“I have so many questions! If you’re joking about this, or you’re lying about anything I’m gonna-”

He was cut off by a grumpy voice coming from behind the wall, accompanied by the loud stomps of heavy feet.

“Silas! Shut up!” It was Frank. He had heard us. Or rather, he’d heard Silas’s excited outbursts, and was about to turn the corner. He would see me and Silas hang out together, not working. More terrifyingly, he would see my glowing eyes. This was bad.

I scrambled to find something that would hide my eyes, like a pair of glasses, a mask, anything that could help.

Silas had frozen in place, all color drained from his face. He didn’t make another sound. Fear and guilt melded together in his expression. I felt bad for him. He was just an excited kid. I was the one with suddenly glowing eyes. This was technically my fault. I had to find a way to fix this.

“What are you two chattering about back here?” Frank turned the corner as I put on a pair of soldering goggles to hide my eyes behind. “You better not be wasting my time,” he grunted. Leftovers of some recently eaten meal was smudged around his chin, and he clutched a bottle of some drink in his hand. As if he wasn’t a professional at wasting time already.

“S-sorry Frank,” Silas stuttered. “I got through the whole manual, so I thought I’d help Ashton with…” He trailed off, looking up at Frank’s looming figure, standing in the alcove entrance with a sour look on his face, tapping his foot.

“You thought, huh?” Frank asked menacingly. “It’s a good thing you like thinking so much all the time. You’ll get a lot of time to do that once you’re out of a job, know what I’m saying?” Silas was staring at his shoes. He nodded slowly, once, then sniffled.

“I’m glad we agree,” Frank said. He was looking at me as he spoke, seemingly no longer caring about Silas. “Lucky for you, you’ve only been written up once today. You might get away with a warning if you follow my directions to the letter for the rest of the day.” Frank smirked then. Somewhere in my ear canal I heard a popping sound.

“Speaking of, you’ll be helping Ashton close up tonight, since you obviously enjoy his company so much. Can’t get you overtime though, since you’re still in school and tuff, so I appreciate you donating your time like that. Shows real character.” Frank’s smirk grew into a sadistic grin, and he bowed in mock respect as he stepped to the side, letting Silas out from the alcove.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us for a bit, I need to have a little one-on-one talk with Ashton.” Frank clapped Silas on the shoulder. “Just man the front desk, and make sure to serve every customer with a smile, okay?” Silas didn’t respond. Frank let go of his shoulder, and Silas walked silently out to the front, where he would most likely not hear whatever Frank wanted to say to me. That was too bad, because I had a few choice words myself. I was about to collect that third write up.

“You shouldn’t treat your employees like that.” Frank jerked his head around at the sound of my voice. He probably had expected me to wait for him to speak first, so hearing me talk must have surprised him. The self-assured service smile he used to usher Silas away was quickly replaced with a sour sneer. “Shut up,” he said curtly. “And take off those goggles when I’m talking to you.” I did as he said. I felt a vibration through my temples as my fingers brushed the bone. The hum had become more than just a sound. Somehow that felt incredibly… right.

“Now Ashton, we’ve had this discussion- what the fuck?!”

Two beams of bright light converged on his shocked expression as I opened my eyes and looked at Frank. The small alcove space was immediately bathed in a silvery sparkling light that illuminated every little dark cranny, reflected again and again by every metallic surface it hit.

“I’m sorry Frank, we have had many discussions about a lot of stuff over the years. You’re gonna have to excuse me for not knowing what specific topic you have in mind right now. Please, enlighten me.” I felt the smirk appear before I could do anything to stop it. Not that I would have tried anyway.

Frank was shielding his eyes with his hands, holding his short arm up in front of his face. It didn’t help. Clearly the output from my eyes had grown in unison with the hum. It was like I had a spotlight for a face.

“I gotta say,” Frank said from behind his hands. “I used to think better of you, Ashton. To think you of all people would waste your money on such a dangerous modification.” The initial surprise from my sudden brightness seemed to begin to fade, and he was beginning to compose himself again.

“But I suppose that also explains your ocular color correction, hmm? Yes, I caught it, don’t try to deny me.” That surprised me a little. The fact that he had noticed I mean, not what he thought it came from. Although, ocular modifications could explain what was happening, and I guessed Frank decided that that was more comfortable than anything else, therefore it must be true.

“Silver is pretty bold though, don’tcha think? Not that I believe in the old societies and their ways, but still, that’s quite the statement. Never seen a person with those eyes in a job like this either, and I personally think that’s a shame, because-” he was rambling. Nothing he said made sense, and he was quickly losing control of what he was saying.

“Anyway,” he managed to collect himself. “You and I need to have a little conversation. It’s not- you mind dimming the lights now? It’s becoming a little ridiculous.”

“Actually, I can’t.” I said.

“The hell you mean, you can’t? Just turn off the fucking light. I’m ordering you to turn off the light!” Frank was getting angrier by the sentence. His whole face looked like it was about to burst.

“Remember that thing where I was supposed to have paid time off from working due to the incident at Lodestar?” I asked Frank as calmly as I could.

“Oh come on, you’re just using that as an excuse to goof off and still get paid. As if I’m gonna care what corporate has to say about your worthless mental health. You put about as much effort into this job as our CEO puts into paying his taxes.” To be fair, that was probably correct.

“Actually, Frank, the situation is a little more serious than that. You see, I did something during that horrible incident at the convention, and I still haven’t really figured out all the results of that action.” I spoke slowly and forcefully, not letting Frank get a word in to interrupt me.

“However, I have learned a few things over the past few days. My eyes for example. They’re silver now. No modifications. They also light up from the inside.” I stood from the work stool. “I also have this incessant hum in my ears. It’s pretty annoying, and it makes it really hard to focus on anything else. Just like you.”

“That’s it, you can kiss your day wage goodbye! I’m writing you up for continued disobedience! Keep this up and I will be forced to terminate your position, Mr. Etrigan!”

The use of my last name almost made me laugh out loud. Frank wasn’t the guy to usually give a damn about how he addressed someone, unless he was trying to influence them somehow. It sounded incredibly dumb coming from behind the plastic tray he was still holding.

“That’s alright Frank, I don’t really care about that right now.” I reached my hand out towards the plastic sheet in Frank’s hands.

“You see, I just realized something else that’s changed about me since the convention. The first part of it is that some of my anxieties are gone. Burned out like a dead star. It makes it easier to deal with some things as well. The feeling of powerlessness you’ve always cultivated in me, for example, that’s gone. Instead I’m left with this urge to be truthful to myself, and do the things I always told myself I would one day accomplish.”

I chuckled to myself. Today was turning out to be a good day.

“Pft, ridiculous. I’ve never seen that kind of drive in you before, and I don’t think I will see it for as long as I live.” Frank stated with a gruff voice. My hand reached the tray he was holding, and I pushed it down, uncovering his face and eyes. They were wide and bloodshot. His green irises looked almost brown with all the red mixed in. I smiled.

“It means I’m not afraid to act anymore. In fact, you should have seen what happened when a knife wielding idiot tried to kill me. I went home unharmed.” I grabbed his face with my free hand. I felt Frank struggle to pull my fingers off the plastic tray, and when that didn’t work he tried pulling my hand away from his face. It was like a toddler trying to escape a grandmother's cheek pinch.

“The second part of what I just learned,” I said as I held Frank’s face. “Is this.” I lifted him by his neck, arm outstretched, effortlessly shifting his weight over to my feet instead of his.

PULL FROM THE OUTSIDE AND PUSH FROM THE INSIDE

“I have actual, personal power.”

I followed the vibration’s instructions, and pushed from the inside, while I pulled from the outside. What that really meant, I had no idea, but the result was immediate.

The world around me bent, as if I was looking at reality through a glass sphere. Everywhere felt like ‘up’ from where I was standing. Everything around me and Frank shook, and started moving towards us, all by itself. Loose screws, plastic pieces, tools, and even the work stool. It all slowly moved across whatever surface it was on, focused on me.

At the same time, the light from my eyes became two solid beams of white, and a similar light appeared from beneath my skin, and inside my mouth. I felt the heat of it coursing through me, like the fire from when I died, but this time without the pain. In fact it felt soothing.

Frank screamed and tried to shield his own eyes, but his reaction was too slow. It was like he was moving through mud. I let go of my hold around his face, and watched in fascination as he began falling. I hadn’t lifted him more than a few centimeters, yet it took him almost six full seconds to fall all the way to the floor. It provided me plenty of time to look at what had happened to him.

Frank's eyes had visibly changed. Gray, misty spots had developed on both of his eyes, covering parts of his pupils, and most of his irises. The area around the spots were swollen, and tears were welling up quickly. The skin around the eyes had also become brown and rubbery, and a vast network of wrinkles had spread out from the corners of the eyes, covering the nose ridge and most of the forehead. It was like he’d spent several days out in a desert without any form of protection.

I lifted my gaze and stared at the point where Frank had been a moment ago, looking at the strange refractions in the air. The light I emitted bent strangely at a certain point in the air, and when I took a step towards it, the point moved with me. That little step made me almost fall over however, as instead of walking forward, it was like taking a step on an upwards hill. The feeling of everything being slightly ‘up’ apparently extended to more than just my eyes.

A low droning sound came from Frank, and I turned to look at him. He lay on the floor and held his hands over his face, sobbing slowly. The sound of his voice was stretched long and deep, but grew shorter as the sibs came faster. The world relaxed, and I was no longer looking ‘up’ in every direction. My eyes dimmed, and the light from my body disappeared as something relaxed somewhere inside me. Frank’s cries of shock and pain sounded normal, and I heard quick footsteps coming from the front, right before Silas peaked his head around the wall.

“What is happening?!” He asked in a loud whisper. He looked down at Frank. “What have you done?!”

His words were crystal clear. The hum was gone, leaving no trace of it ever being there in the first place. I was still pretty angry at Frank, but the hum didn’t come back.

I TOLD YOU. I WILL KEEP YOU SAFE.

Astonished at what I’d just done, I turned to Silas with a hesitant smile. “I think I just got fired, and also may have committed a crime.”

Silas stared at me, uncomprehending. A moment ticked by, and as it did I only started feeling better.

I had power. Personal power. Power to change the things in my life that before were impossible. And I was safe.

I would be safe.