A quick web search gave me the name, Mistress Evanora’s School For Girls. The school, which was founded in North America around two hundred years ago by one Evanora Prower. She was a woman who seemed pretty ordinary in the extremely old black and white photo that illustrated her.

“Strange,” I remarked aloud.

For a woman who founded her own school back in a turbulent time period, there wasn't much known about her. I mean, I’d at least expect a biography, but there was nothing but a brief bio under the school’s homepage which only included miscellaneous. There was also nothing that seemed out of the ordinary when looking at the detailed syllabus. On the surface, it appeared that Mistress Evanora’s school was very successful as it boasted about several locations outside of the US, one being located on our little Emerian Island until it shut down for lack of attendance.

I still had a few hours before I had to meet with Jameson and others for planning. I grabbed a pouch of bones and called up a taxi before stepping out of my apartment.

The animal's bones were just to be on the safe side since I couldn’t rely on stop signs and cowardly monsters to be commonplace.

I climbed into the taxi while keeping a close hand on my “luggage” that was safely tied up in a cloth pouch.

“Hey, you’re that guy!” The driver smiled as he looked into the rear-view mirror.

“I’m sorry?”

“You know, the stop sign guy! Your video’s blowing up man!” The driver laughed as he handed his phone to me.

The title was simple, A Gifted with a rare power saves the day!

I was familiar with how everything proceeded so I took the time to read the comments.

[Crazy_Man_66: What sort of crazy gift was that?] The comment with the most likes posed a question.

Right below there was an exchange full of replies.

[S3LL0UT: I think it’s pretty fucked up. If he can raise dead monsters, who is to say he can’t do the same for humans? He probably already messed with a few bodies?]

[Skullboy_19: @S3LL0UT You shouldn’t be so quick to judge, he saved a lot of people.]

[Not_A_Troll: @Skullboy_19 lmao nice name, fanboy.]

[Strictly_Business: Hello, my line of work makes me someone who has been involved in the process of evaluating all types of gifts and I’ll give you my honest thoughts on this one. To begin with, the man in this video has strength above average since he appears to have ripped that sign out of the sidewalk. Brushing that aside, if you slow down at the 0:45 mark, you can see some sort of weird letters written in blood. Based on how powerful the Stop Sign appears to be, it is likely some sort of enchantment ability, I’ll come back to that to keep it in mind.

After he kills the first Imp, he turns into some kind of an undead warrior, but it appears to be extremely weak later on. I believe that either it requires extreme concentration to use effectively or he has little experience in using that ability. There is also the possibility of the man having an evolving gift, so it could naturally become more powerful over time.

Now, after the skeleton appears, the man removes his arm and turns it into a weapon. I’m not sure what the requirements are for summoning that weapon, but he appears to need some sort of medium. There are several gifts that operate similarly where the user can make weapons from materials around them. Once the weapon is brought out, he gathers the blood from the dead Imp and writes out those strange letters once more. If you pause at 1:26, you can see the letters glow red which confirms he is able to enchant weapons but only through blood I’m guessing. There are also several strange abilities seen later in the video, but if you want to know more, you can go to...]

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

The comment ended as the writer left a link to his website. His analysis of my abilities was more or less accurate which was a bit scary. It helped me remember that there were millions of dollars to be earned by experts on abilities so ordinary people sometimes knew more about gifts than the Gifted themselves.

“Here you go.” I handed the driver back his phone as I had seen all I needed to.

As long as my real gift, the one that allowed me to view memories of the dead, wasn’t discovered, I would be alright. There would be countless people who would want me to use that ability for their own personal goals, whether it be voluntary or not. It was something that wasn’t particularly unheard of. A Gifted who had a powerful gift, but not extremely so and no backing would be an easy target for shady groups.

“We’re here.” The taxi came to stop in front of a run-down building surrounded by a rusty fence and tall grass.

The school building itself was slightly archaic in design and the lettering had mostly faded becoming a barely visible reflection of what it once was. The tattered curtains hanging from the broken windows as well as the stillness around the school made it seem like a haunted house.

I paid the driver for the trip and stood alone near the abandoned plot of land. Other than the school, there was no other building in sight, just a wall of unwelcoming trees.

I jumped over the gate and trespassed onto the school property without a second thought. As soon as my feet touched the ground, a congress of ravens emerged from the roof of the school and took flight. Or maybe it was a murder of crows?

I wasn’t too privy to the distinction between the two species, but I don’t think it mattered as they both were pretty bad signs.

I ignored the loud cries as they flew off and approached the metal doors that were locked with a chain. I grabbed it and began to violently pull at it before it snapped and the door creaked open and a gust of wind blew out.

“Okay, I get it,” I muttered as I stepped inside the dim corridor of the defunct academy.

I didn’t know where my destination but suddenly realized the basement storage was the probably the best place to look for dark secrets. I mean, that was a general rule for these sort of things, bad stuff either goes in the basement or the attic. Of course, there could be hidden rooms and things like that, but the point was to hide your taboos where people wouldn’t look.

I navigated through the floors covered with dust and glass and used my phone as a flashlight as I descended the creaky stairs that led toward the basement level. The silence became more noticeable as the only sound to be heard came from me.

I reached the bottom and stood still, flashing the light over every inch of the room before pressing ahead. The interior was mostly dust covered metal barrels and empty wooden crates. I opened one up there was nothing of note to be found inside, just old textbooks.

I spent the next five minutes rummaging around but there was nothing like what I saw in my mother’s photos. In fact, it seemed to be stuff you’d normally see in a school which was obviously troubling.

“Oh?” I noticed a part of the floor seemed uneven so I pushed some boxes aside and found what I was looking for.

A small hatch that was barely visible under the layer of dust. One tug at the hatch informed me it weighed far more than I would expect. I grunted as I put all my strength into lifting the door and it slowly began to creak open.

I finally threw it open only to jump back as crows came flying out, all letting out cawing sounds as they moved past me.

“...That’s not good for my heart,” I mumbled.

I was about to go into the hidden cellar when black feathers began floating around me, and there was this feeling that crawled along my back. The feeling you get when you think someone’s right behind you. It was that but multiplied times ten and it came from behind me.

I breathed in calmly and stood still as my hand slowly reached for the bag of bones on my waist. Right when I felt the pouch in my hand, I dove to the side while hearing something cutting through the air.

I crashed into a stack of wooden crates, but managed to grab a handful of bones and summoned Wilma’s War Scythe.

I rolled backward as the sound of another impact rang out, losing my phone along the way. I had no time to think and swung the war scythe as hard as I could but all I hit was a rusty pipe that snapped in half.

I searched for my assailant and spotted a silhouette of something moving around but it was too dark to make anything out. My cell phone was halfway across the room and barely illuminated the basement.

Just as I was thinking of how I would identify whatever it was, it stepped forward.

A tall human figure dressed in a tattered leather cloak moved toward me with heavy steps with a crude club in its hands. I almost thought it was a human until I saw its head, and quickly realized it seemed to be a giant bird with a human's body.

I sighed a little and began to rotate the war scythe with a wry smile. I guess I was expecting something like this to happen.