Aye, I was hoping to actually take a nap as soon as I got here, pushing off any serious explanations until after I got some much needed rest. My drive up here was a serious pain, halfway through I was doing my best not to nod off at the steering wheel. I had even considered pulling over on the side of the road and taking a power nap before continuing on. My plan was to sleep and confront the family with a fresh mind breaking it down slowly, so as to not overwhelm them. Shelley's point blank question put an end to that plan; now I’ve got to start at full throttle.

  Seeing my hesitation, already I could see warning bells going off in Shelley's head as she stopped brushing her teeth and stared at me foamily.

  Then she seemed to notice my disheveled state and she went wide eyed and asked, “What happened to you?”

  I look at the faces of my now concerned family, and I say as stoically as I possibly can, “Pesos is dead.”

  I am met with stunned silence.

...

  I almost added, I killed her myself, but decided that would be way too dramatic and they didn’t need to know that anyway.

  “What?” Shelley replied incredulously, her foamy mouth looking ridiculous. “What did you do?! What happened?! How did she die?”

  Well… first I broke her neck, then I slammed a door in her face, hugged her to death, stabbed her multiple, and even strangled her once. Take your pick.

  With a sigh, I rub my face and sit down at the dining table, all eyes on me. I say after a moment, “...finish brushing your teeth and I’ll tell you all what happened.”

  Shelley rushed off to do just that and Mom and Dad joined me at the table, making the meeting suddenly formal. It's probably for the best.

  After a moment, Mom asked, “Have you told Jonathan yet?” Mom is the only one who calls my twin Jonathan, we all just call him Jon. What’s up with that?

  “No, I haven’t yet,” I say plainly. “My phone got destroyed too, so I can’t even call anybody.”

  We all liked Pesos, but it would be a stretch to say we all loved her, so there were no tears around us. Jon probably won’t cry either, not when its out of sight and done. With a new baby, the dog lost priority in his and his wife’s life. He’ll still be upset though.

  “Where’s Lara?” I ask.

  “Downstairs, playing gamecube,” Dad says, despite it being a Wii U.

  “Good, keep her down there for now, she doesn’t need to hear this.”

  Nobody speaks again until Shelley comes back.

  Shelley returns and plops down on the chair next to me, gathering her hair back into a ponytail, her hair band between her lips. Once gathered, she grabs the band out of her mouth and finishes the job. “Alright, what happened?” she demands.

  I take a look at the TV, still going on in the corner of the room, and point to it. “One of those spheres appeared in my room last night while Pesos and I were sleeping.”

  They look at the TV as one and Shelley is the first to speak. “Really?”

  I nod. “Yes. Pesos and I got pulled inside. Inside was another world, like Narnia. I was there for a week, before I escaped. Pesos didn’t survive.” There is a pregnant silence and I add, “I am sorry.”

  There, remitted as succinctly as possible with words they can understand.

  As one, the three turned back to me. It was kind of creepy.

  “What are they?” Mom asked, worry shown all over her face.

  That’s a good question.

  “The sphere’s? I don’t really know,” I confess. “Spatial anomaly? Natural phenomenon? Alien attack? I don’t know. But they are dangerous. And bizzar. The one at my house is gone now, I, uh, defeated it or whatever. Shut it down. The other ones though, they are trouble.”

  I then gave a small rundown of what happened, leaving out as many of the gruesome parts as possible, making it seem like an adventure, not a Hellhole. Shelley seemed excited at least, especially when I told them about the system inside.

  “Like a game??” Shelley asked, her wide eyes scaring me with their excitement. Perhaps I should have told her the darker parts too.

  I can only nod though. “Which brings me to my next point.” I add, turning over to Mom. “Can you give me your hand?”

  With only a slight hesitation, mom puts her hands out over the table and I grab onto them. I close my eyes for the effect and activate heal.

  I hear a few sharp gasps and I open my eyes a moment later when the spell is done. I give my mom an evil grin and let go of her hands. “How is your arthritis?”

  She takes her hand back and flexes her fingers back and forth. The look on her face is answer enough.

  I cough lightly and explain, “A small trick, but I have also gained a healing ability. I wasn’t sure it would work on others, so sorry for using you as a test subject, Mom. But I believe I healed your arthritis for now.”

  Mom and Dad’s look of shock were enjoyable, but Shelley looked to be about to explode.

  “You gained superpowers from the sphere??”

  Ah, I know where she is going with this. “Skills” I correct her, “the system inside the sphere awarded them to me, along with levels and a class. The system doesn’t appear to work outside of the sphere, but I can still use my skills.”

  “What other ones to you have?” Shelley asks quickly, “What kind of limits do you have with that healing ability? How high is your level?”

  I scratch my scraggly beard. “Well…. I-”

  “Wait, wait!” She gushes, interrupting me and jumping out of her chair. “‘I’m going to get some paper to write this down!!” She dashes off to the office.

…

  Maybe she is a little too excited over this. Or maybe not, it is pretty cool as long as you take out the murderous mages and parasitic earthworms.

  I turn to Dad, he has what I really want to heal. I say quickly, “I want to heal your skin cancer too, Dad.”

  I see him swallow nervously and ask, his voice shaky. “You can do that?”

  “I believe so. I want you to live a long life, you know.” He absorbs that and I can see emotion in his eyes. “Give me your hands.”

  His hands are shaking like a leaf in a storm, but I grab them and hold them tight before casting heal again. I keep my eyes open, watching his skin react.

  Dad doesn’t actually have cancer right now, but he did years ago, and runs the risk of it to this day. He doesn’t go outside in the sun without clothing and hats covering him along with super sun block. His hands and face are worn past their years due to reckless sun exposure as a youth. Twice a year he visits his dermatologist to get inspected everywhere and has precancerous spots zapped off with a freeze gun. Not fun or pleasant, especially for the rest of us who have to worry.

  If this works, I swear it’ll all have been worth it.

  I can feel the mana leaving my body, not an exact figure, but I can feel my pool plummeting. This is only the second time I’ve used heal on somebody other than myself and I can already tell it comes at a much higher cost.

  A few moments in, the dim golden light enveloping Dad, and Shelley bursts back, shouting angrily, “Why didn’t you wait for me? What are you doing now?” Mom shushes her and Shelley slams the paper on the table and starts writing furiously.

  As the skill works, I can see Dad’s skin slowly transforming before my eyes, still a little wrinkly, but the spots are fading. I look up at his face where the skin is the most damaged and see the same is happening, his skin becoming smooth and fresh. Excellent.

  With my mana mostly depleted, I step back and cancel the spell. Dad doesn’t look like a whole new person, but he definitely looks healthier.

  I give him a warm smile, “How do you feel?”

  “Good,” he responds, his voice cracking slightly. I get up and give him a big hug which he returns.

  Dang, I’m so glad I could do that.

  I pull back and add, “Now, I’d like to do this again tomorrow after I have my mana back,” I can see Shelley, mouthing the words mana as she writes it down, “Just to make sure you are all good.”

  Dad and Mom both look like they are about to cry so I shift the topic quickly, “I’d also like to try to heal Robin of her MS, if possible. Honestly though, I don’t know if that will work.”

  “Why not?” Shelley asks, her eyes boring into my skull.

  I shake my head and return to my seat, “It doesn’t fix everything, I still need to wear glasses, the skill wouldn’t fix my eyes. Speaking of that,” I continue, turning to Mom who’s looking over Dad intensely. I cough loudly and ask, “Do you know if my old glasses are still around? I’ll want those back until I can get new ones again.” Mom nods at me without speaking, words seeming to fail her.

  “I won’t be able to fix your eyesight either, Shelley, I don’t think it works against what’s in our DNA.”

  Shelley gives me a big pout at that one. If I have bad eyesight, then she’s practically blind without her thick glasses. Err…. think contact lenses.

  “If you can help Robin, that would be amazing,” Mom breathes out. “That would be such a blessing to them...” She doesn’t need to tell me that. She adds on, “You could help so many people, Greg...”

  It's a scary thought.

  “This is also dangerous, Greg,” Dad finally kicks in, “If people find out what you can do, you won’t have a peaceful life ever again. Are you prepared to deal with that?”

  He knows me too well. I swallow ard and say, “That’s why I am only telling you three, let’s keep it between us. I don’t know what to do about the future. For now, I would just like some rest before I come to any major decisions. I haven’t slept in a while.”

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  “Not until you give me a rundown of what you know.’ Shelley says, glaring at me like a criminal. Considering I am somebody withholding information from her, that might make me one in her eyes.

  “Let him sleep,” Mom interjects with a cold look of her own at her daughter.

  Shelley just pouts at me.

  How can I say no to that? If nothing else, Shelley knows how to use her little sister power. Having four older brothers, it was probably something she needed to survive.

  I end up giving in to her, and give her all the numbers I can remember about my powers which she promptly writes all down. I can’t pull down my status anymore, but I pull the paper from her and write out the page as best as I can remember. As we do this, Mom and Dad unfold the couch downstairs, getting it ready for my long nap. Yes please.

  “20% increase each level?” she asks, looking down and contemplating the figures on her paper.

  “So far.” I reply, munching on some pretzels.

  “That’s a lot, especially if it continues.”

  I shrug, “not if everybody else increases the same way.”

  “That would create huge differences in strength once you get to higher levels.”

  I suppose it would. Once I have a million MP, a 20% increase would be another 200 thousand.

  “There might be a level cap.” I add.

  “There might not be,” she counters. Then she stares down a the pages she has in front of her. I can see a look of desire on her face.

  “No.” I say as sternly as possible.

  She pouts at me again, but I am immune now. Nothing on earth would move me on this.

  I look around to see that the parents are still downstairs before leaning in close to my sister.

  “Keep this from Mom and Dad, but I lied about how dangerous it was there. It’s incredibly so, I almost died hundreds of times.”

  She looks back at me unconvinced.

  I shift my weight. What can I say to convince her without coming across as an overprotective brother preventing her from having fun?

  I pause for a few moments before I continue, “It was bad in there, Shelley. It was pure luck I survived at all, if I didn’t have my healing ability I would have died a thousand times over. Everything there was trying to kill me, the air was filled with bacteria that would infect and suffocate me every three hours if I couldn’t cleanse it, bugs and insects ate through my skin at every chance they got, I never had time to rest much.” She paled slightly at that last one and I took off my hat. “There were little monsters there that would jump out and attack you like the monsters in Alien, they had acid saliva too, always jumping at my face. I have had my scalp melted off several times here, which is why my hair is like this. The zombies and skeletons would hunt me day and night, never giving me a moment’s peace if they could help it. In this last week I’ve been stabbed countless times, bitten, spliced, poisoned, burned, suffocated, that place itself doing its best to stamp the life out of me.”

  “I don’t ever want to go back there, sister, and I thanked God everyday I was there that you weren’t there as well because you would have surely died. There were not a few times when I wanted to kill myself, just to end the pain.”

  Shelley was looking properly disheartened now, but I wasn’t done yet. I pointed to the TV again, showing pictures of the LA sphere for the hundredth time. “Three people are missing there, right? It’s not ‘missing’, its ‘dead’, three dead people who didn’t make it out like I did. Let me tell you, a lot more people are going to die over this before it's over.”

  Shelley looks at me, a small shade of fear on her face. She whispers to me, “How did you do it?”

  Time to throw out my last bomb.

  “I killed Pesos immediately after we transferred after she tried to take me out.” I gesture to my throat. “After that, the system told me I was the first to kill and gave me this class, inner light. It said it was the class best suited for the environment. If I had been given anything other than the skills I had been given, I would be dead and that’s it.”

She stares at me for a moment before sighing and tossing her pencil on the table. “Dang, and I wanted to be an awesome magical swordswoman.”

  I give her a chuckle and look back at the TV, coverage on the spheres seemingly infinite.

  “What’s going to happen now?”

  “I really don’t know.”

  I watched the television mindlessly, wondering that same question myself.

  The newscasters were saying something now, looks like President Trump was going to make an address to the nation soon. I’m surprised he didn’t do it sooner, a strong show by the government to assure that everything is okay was needed in a time of crisis, even if it wasn’t true. Already, there were sporadic reports of panicked or alarmed people looting or going crazy. Occult groups were making claims, different religious organizations putting out statements, small scale riots, but nothing too serious. All the crazy people out there just found the excuse they were looking for.

  Mom and Dad came back up stairs, followed closely by Lara. As soon as Mom saw me her mouth dropped into the “O” position again.

  Oops, I left my hat off.

  Donning it quickly before Lara could see, I give them all a big smile and open my arms wide to Lara. She shuffles over quickly and I give her the biggest hug possible, swishing her around back and forth.

  “Greg~” she calls out, struggling to get away.

  Once she is free, I ask about her week and get the usual response, barely understandable due to her strange accent. As a deaf girl, she speaks as you would expect one to speak. She didn’t have her cochlear implant until after she was three, long after the usual age of learning languages. She was a smart girl but her ability to understand situations is poor since she has a difficult time hearing words unless they are spoken slowly and clearly. It's frustrating and it doesn’t help that she doesn’t seem to care to exit her small bubble of understanding. We have to push her, all the time.

  I often wondered when/if I should heal her hearing, but that would be something I would need to discuss with Mom and Dad as well as her when there is time. Mom and Dad unilaterally gave her the cochlear implant but fixing her hearing completely is not something I can do without her consent.

  I give Mom a look and add, “Can you help me shave my head? I can’t go around looking like a lunatic or wearing a hat forever.”

  She nods, but doesn't say anything. I can tell they both suspect I left out large portions of my tale to them. They are not dumb.

  Also, this whole hair thing sucks. My grandfather on my mother’s side was bald at my age and I know my genetics lean heavily to that side of the gene pool. I have always have had thin hair and knew that going bald was in my future. I fear it won’t grow back properly now even if I try to use heal on it. I just didn’t want it to happen this early…

…

  I suppose I’ll just compensate with a nice beard instead. My father was never able to grow a proper one, so I suppose that’s a silver lining for me.

Lara sits on my lap as we wait for President Trump to appear. Dad says after a moment, “Your bed’s ready, Greg.” I give him a nod of thanks and he turns to Shelley, “Find out anything good?”

Shelley shrugs, her previous enthusiasm gone. She says after a moment, “This is insane, this whole thing is insane.”

…

  I can’t agree more.

  “What are you going to tell Jonathan?” Mom asks, she and Dad standing around the living room, Dad’s arms wrapped around her.

  “The truth.” I say, looking back at her, “As much as I can, at least.”

  “How long are you staying here? You can spend the week here if you want, you’ve got vacation days you’ve been saving up, right?” Mom asks hopefully.

  Honestly, that sounds amazing. Free food and lodging. I’d like nothing better to do that just that.

  “I can’t, I made a promise to go back tomorrow. A few skeletons made the trip back with me and hid out in the lake it the nature preserve. I had to call in the police to get them to watch it and they want to debrief me when I get back.”

  Mom’s eyes bulge out at me as I realize I hadn’t told them any of that yet. Another bombshell, I guess.

  “You told the government about what happened!?!” Shelley practically shouts at me, “What if they kidnap you, and torture you for information, experiment on you, or a hundred other things? You should have kept it a secret!”

  I snorted and answered, “What government are you referring to, local, state, or federal? I called the local police because I was afraid the skeletons would harm people if they escaped. Other than the fact that evil needs to exist in a story, what possible motivation could normal people have to kidnap me? I offer what I know freely, to help them.”

  Shelley continues to stare at me, incensed and even Mom and Dad are looking at me worriedly. “Look, I did keep a lot of my cards hidden anyway, they don’t know about my powers. But these spheres need to be addressed and I can’t sit back while people blindly tackle them, not when I can provide information that can help.”

  “With great power comes great responsibility?” Shelley grumbles at me.

  I give her a stink eye. “Don’t ‘spiderman’ me. Besides, its just the local police I am dealing with. I voted for the sheriff, you know? He’s Jessie’s father, remember?”

  Granted, I didn’t know Jessie very well, we went to school together, but that’s it. Still, I met the Sheriff before and he seemed like a normal man, not a crazy supervillain.

  “It will escalate quickly.” Shelley says darkly.

  “Not that quickly.”

  President Trump appears before Shelley can retort again.

  “My fellow americans,” the president says, using the phrase that every american president uses for these kind of speeches. “Last night, not just America, but the whole world, has been attacked by these outlandish spheres.”

  I don’t think its been confirmed that its an attack, but creating a common enemy is a good move for a politician.

  “But don’t you worry,” the president continues, using his language that only he can get away with as a president. He adds with his usual hand gestures, “We have got the smartest people working on this problem tirelessly and I am happy to say that we already have a strong lead on the problem and a solution in mind. In another example of American leadership, I can tell you frankly that we have got intel that no other nation has yet and we will be sharing what we know with our allies in the world once something concrete has been confirmed. We will be able to wipe out the plague before it becomes too much of an issue. I can’t tell you much more now due to national security, but I promise you that, soon, I will be able to share what we have with you. Trust me on this,” he adds, raising his hands with a smile as if he is holding some great secret, “everything is well under control and within a month, everything that has happened today will be well in the past and America will be remembered as the great nation that led the world through this crisis. That is all, thank you very much.”

  As the president leaves the screen it leaves the anchors wondering along with the rest of the world what the president means and what he knows.

…

  Short speech.

...

  I suppose that will leave the other nations, much less the world, screaming at President Trump, wanting to know exactly what he knows. He does like being at the center of attention.

  I think despite everything, President Trump is a good politician, despite my personal feelings about him.

  “Just the local police?!” I hear Shelley growl next to me, her eyes flashing.

  I can feel a little sweat building up on my back. Perhaps it did escalate rather quickly.

  I lift Lara off of me and set her to the side. She’s giving mom a questioning look and Mom comes in and tries to explain to her what is happening.

  “He doesn’t necessarily mean me.” I say, unconvincingly. “He’s got to calm the public with promises, even if he doesn't have anything to back them up.” Shelley glares at me, but doesn’t say anything.

  “What are you going to do, Greg?” Dad asks, looking helpless. “How am I supposed to protect you like this?”

  I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to hurt my father.

  “It'll be fine,” I stress, “Nothing is going to happen to me. I’ll give them the info they need and then they'll send in their marines, and like the president said, a month from now, this will all be ancient history.” I stand up and continue, “I’m going to take a shower, and then sleep for the next few hours. I gave Officer Grant Mom’s number, if they want to get a hold of me.”

  Dad looks back with fear and worry, and I can tell my words have done nothing to ease them. I don’t know what else to do though, and I am exhausted.

  On that note, I did exactly what I said I would do. After the shower, I retreated to the basement.

  I feel bad that I am making my family worry so much, but I don’t know what else to do. I suppose all will be told tomorrow when I am debriefed by whomever they send. Perhaps I’ll keep my powers secret, but then again, they’ll find out soon enough if they do send somebody into the spheres and besides, that kind of information is crucial to their survival and its all tied into the system anyway.

...

  I don’t know. I really don’t know what’s best. I feel that the longer the spheres are allowed to grow, the more dangerous they will become. They need to be attacked fiercely and quickly. Deep inside of me, I am afraid for the human race should we fail.

  What if the sphere I was in killed me and finished its work, ultimately unleashing its undead armies onto the unsuspecting earth? That’s not a force we could reckon with with bullets. Curses, disease, and magic. What if the other spheres are the same?

  I have no idea if they even work that way. Even now, I know so little about what we are facing.

  A day ago, all I wanted to be was where I am right now, safe and secure inside a comfy bed at my parent’s house. But now, I feel the cold uncertainty rising up to strangle me.

  Oh God, where is this all going?

...

  My parent’s cat jumps up on my bed, purring lightly at me and bashing her head against mine. I smile and scratch it, enjoying the friendly feline.

  This poor cat, Bella, had bad teeth, something genetic for her type of cat and has had to have all her teeth pulled. Now she lives a toothless life.

…

  She’s a good experiment for healing.

  Holding her close, I cast some healing on her with my halfway recuperated mana and watch as she hisses and struggles at the uncomfortable feelings in her mouth.

  Finally, she bites at me, her new teeth scraping my hand and I let her go. She bounds away and hisses at me, licking herself and pretending nothing happened.

…

  She’s such a cat.

  With a soft smile I close my eyes. At least there is some good that I can do. I slowly drift off to sleep.