Ravela watched as Namon averted his gaze and shielded his eyes.
“Holy mother of… Ravela, you’re radiating light.”
She was too stunned at the light emitted from herself. There was only one explanation, and it would fit her current state. The energy she had absorbed in a short time must not have been negligible.
Ravela looked around herself inside the barn. The entire building was engulfed in a bright light. All shadows were pointing away from her or no longer visible. She quickly put her helmet back on. “I am sorry, Namon, that wasn’t intentional. Are you alright?”
The keeper slowly lowered his hand, squinting at her. “I mean, I looked straight into a flashlight, but I think I will be fine once my eyes recover from the contrast. What happened; did your powers return fully? Is this how you usually look?”
Ravela wiggled her head a bit. “It is complicated. Could you go outside? I have to check this quickly.” Her breath came out as a cloud of condensation in the air. She felt like she was boiling inside.
Namon walked toward the door of the barn, still shielding his eyes.
After she was alone, Ravela took off her body suit and cussed as the light in the barn became even brighter with more of her skin exposed. She removed the rest of her undergarments. The lighting in the room became comically absurd, but her eyes didn’t struggle with the brightness at all.
Looking down at her palms, her skin was glowing brightly. Stretching out her arm, Ravela hesitated. Testing what could happen on Michael’s or Ramiel’s ring wasn’t the best idea. Her fingers closed without pulling a ring into her hand. She walked over to the rings on display instead and picked one of them. The black ring with its orange stone slipped right over her left ring finger. She watched her hand turn from glowing bright golden to the pale skin of a female human.
Her breath still condensed against the air, and the heat inside her body still bothered her. She threw Ramiel’s now oversized clothes on. “Okay, you can come back in,” She called out to Namon.
Namon peeked inside hesitantly before he fully entered.
“Do I look normal right now?”
“Normal like what? Like Ramiel Roice? Decisively not.” Namon commented on her change.
“You know what I mean. I don’t glow from my eyes, right? My skin looks, well, not like I am a lightbulb, correct?” Ravela elaborated, frustrated with her friend's passive remark.
“Hm, no, you don’t,” Namon said, looking her up and down.
She sighed in relief. “That’s at least something.” Ravela took Ramiel’s ring and put it on her middle finger before she pulled off the black ring stuffing it into her pocket. Ramiel’s transformation overwrote the other ring; thus, she avoided blinding Namon once again. Her size change immediately made her formerly loose clothing fit perfectly. “I am currently burning up inside. I need to work off some of this energy. Let’s get back to work, yeah?” She floated everything back into the suitcase except for Michael’s ring, which went back into the same pocket as the black ring.
Ravela floated the suitcase back up to the roof beams as they left the barn. The energy whirling inside her wanted to be used, and she had to stop steaming like a tea kettle before she started to whistle like one. She would have to expend some energy while working until, at the very least, her inner state wasn’t visible while she was breathing anymore.
She no longer felt quite as tired as she had on her drive here, and back inside the house, she told Namon more about the current state of things and what was going on. Her mood became more upbeat with every minute they shared. It felt liberating to receive input from an adult and someone who understood her situation.
Ravela and Namon stayed till midnight talking and working. Mostly, Ravela talked, and Namon counseled her as she worked on her home like a wind-up figurine as though someone had overspun her.
The progress on the master bedroom and the walk-in closet with the trap door showed when she saw off Namon, but the burning feeling in her body had not subsided.
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Markus woke up in a hospital bed. Confused, he looked around, spotting Safora lying on a bench she had dragged into the room from the hallway. His sister was soundly asleep. Glancing at the clock, Markus was surprised that she would sleep at three O’clock in the afternoon, but then his mind started to awaken properly, and looking at the window, he realized that it was three o’clock in the morning.
He wasn’t attached to any machines, which calmed him down. Just when he was about to get up, someone opened the door to the room. Markus froze mid-movement, even though he wasn’t doing anything wrong. His sister’s friend, Laena, walked in and saw him awake, sitting on his bed. He put his finger to his lips and pointed at his sleeping sister, to which Laena nodded.
They snuck outside and closed the door. Once they reached the visitor’s area, he asked the obvious question burning on his tongue. “So, how did I end up here?”
Laena scratched the back of her head. “Well, the teammate you told you’d be heading to the nurse's office was worried and went back after telling another teammate to pass on that you didn’t feel well and found you lying in the staircase. He got you the nurse, and they called the doctor over when you didn’t wake up. Then you got a ride here. Safora and I rushed here, and we got them to leave you be and chalk it up to a case of too little sleep. Well, they checked many other things but eventually agreed with us after all your vitals appeared normal. They drew some blood and allowed us to stay. Your parents will be here in the morning to get Safora back to school because she refused to leave your side unless they took over.”
He put his hand on the bridge of his nose, massaging it. Of course, Safora had caused some trouble as the occasion arose. “And you helped her by dragging a bench into my room?”
Laena looked oddly proud when she responded. “Naturally, I am on her side, and we were both worried about you.”
Markus relaxed a bit. He knew that his sister had done what he would have done in her shoes, but the big brother in him always wanted to keep her out of trouble. “Thank you for sticking with her and for looking out for me. How are you doing?”
“How am I doing? You’re kidding, right? I took the first nap on the bench in the afternoon, and now I am awake in the middle of the night, sneaking about with my best friend’s big brother, and….seriously, how do you feel what happened? Did you fall on your head asking me how I’m doing?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
He shrugged. “I’m okay; I'm feeling great.”
“You- The hell you’re okay, Markus. Come on, spill. What happened? Did you just overwork yourself, or what is it?” Laena burst out at him. She reminded him in many ways of his sister.
He had always appreciated the good influence she had on Safora. Smiling, he put up his hand open-palmed and shrugged. “Of course I’m fine. Just a bit overworked. What else could it be? Don’t worry about it.”
She looked at him with doubt and crossed her arms before her chest.
Markus changed the topic and said, “Come on, let’s wake up my sister and find me some proper clothing. This hospital garment is silly. Maybe let’s take care of the clothes first.”
“Your roommate let us in, and we got a bag with some clothes for you. That was sitting on the chair beside your bed, you know.” Laena said while he followed her back to the hospital room. He noticed she was taking a different route through the hospital this time, which was weird, but he didn’t call her out.
“Oh, now you tell me?! After I already walked bareassed through half the hospital?” Markus said, chuckling.
“You signaled me to be quiet, to let Safora sleep, didn’t you?” Laena shot back.
Markus shrugged at Laena, who had turned back to him offended. “I can’t quite remember. I am a patient who just woke up from an exhausted day-long sleep. So I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”
Laena moved with her head, reminding him of a startled chicken. He didn’t see her speechless often, and the sight was too funny not to laugh.
Her cheeks flushed visibly, even with her dark skin. Markus knew her long enough to spot it. She turned around, and he could still tell she was embarrassed about something by her burning ears though he didn’t quite know why she was blushing about this little joke between them.
“So, I missed a day in school. Tell me what I missed. Did the president visit? Did the Pliada Eagles' bus break down outside the training field, and they played the entire day with our teams? Come on, give me the bad news.”
“Um, yeah, no. Nothing like that. But they also took Beth from the Core Valley cheerleading team out of the school today. She is probably in this hospital too.” Laena told him.
Markus noticed that she was leaving out something. “Laena, you know you can tell me things, right? I am already well aware of the secrets you and Safora keep.”
Laena walked with him in silence for a while. “I met her today. She was exuding a strong smell. She smelled like a flower shop; I don’t mean just a bit. The girl flooded an entire hallway with a thick cloud of fragrance. I don’t believe it was because of perfume, and the fact that they took her to the hospital strengthens my belief.”
They walked past a police officer posted outside a room and shut up. Markus stopped giving the man a nod before moving on. Once they were way down the hall, they started talking again. “You believe that somehow smelling like spring is a power she awakened?” Markus followed along her trail of thought.
“That’s why Safora and I were so worried when Caleb told us he found you passed out. It seems like some of the changes take months to manifest. There was no telling what was going on with you.” Laena stopped in front of his hospital room. “So, you’re completely certain that nothing is different and that you’re okay?” She inquired, one hand on the door’s handle.
“Laena, come on, what is this? Do you think I wouldn’t tell you of all people? If I noticed a change, I would’ve told you, scout’s honor.” Markus said with a soft smile.
Laena clicked her tongue at him. “You never were in the scouts, Markus.” She stated before opening the door silently.
Markus shrugged. ‘Not like I ever lied to you either, so I don’t see how my word isn’t good enough here.’ But he didn’t tell her that now that the door was open.
He followed her inside and dug through the bag for some pants.
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Beth Nams sat in the hospital room, lost for words. She spent all day wholly lost for words.
This entire day started as a catastrophe, and she had no clue it would go so downhill after oversleeping and missing a crucial math test.
Outside of her room stood a police officer, and she just wanted to call her father to get her out of this stupid room. They said something was wrong with her.
She wasn’t even in a normal room. There was some sort of airlock with two doors, and she could only tell that the officer was still there because he occasionally walked from one side to the other.
When she arrived, Beth first thought she was sick with something, but a doctor quickly told her that she wasn’t in there because of an illness but because it was the only room that wouldn’t allow the smell she exuded to spread.
She had lost it then, throwing her pillow at the doctor. Thinking back to when she thought that man told her she smelled so bad they had to put her in some stupid bubble room.
There wasn’t really a reasonable explanation for the condition she was experiencing, but the doctor explained the situation afterward more thoroughly. The last time the doctor came in, he had told her that her parents were now here, and they were talking to them. She didn’t quite understand why there was a police officer posted outside her room, though.
Beth pressed the pillow on her face and shrieked into it in frustration. ‘They better fix this! I can’t miss Friday’s big game! I’ve trained myself to the bones for this choreography.’ She started kicking her feet at the mattress.
Rolling on her back again, she began studying the clock on the wall and its highly mobile and interesting seconds indicator. It was the only entertainment besides watching the police officer pace outside her door.
‘They could at least have given me some magazines or radio, OR heck, at this point, I’d have been glad about paper and some crayons.’
“UGH!” Beth’s eyes latched onto a person stopping in view of her window momentarily. She knew that boy! Markus! Beth jumped up from her bed, just about ready to call out to him, but the boy was already gone after she got up.
“Rargh, GOD DAMN IT! I AM BORING MYSELF TO DEATH IN HERE! HELLO? ANYONE!?” Beth yelled, throwing the pillow at the door.
She lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Beth wished she hadn’t snoozed in the afternoon because she was wide awake and about to walk up the walls.
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Troy Han’s alarm clock rang. He sat up. The room was less likable than his dorm room. The furniture was basic, and the fact that his parents had agreed to send him here had severely shattered his spirit.
It was five in the morning, and he was already completely done with the day. His parents had just shipped him off to some military camp when they saw how he had changed and spoke to that stupid man in his suit. They tried to talk to him, telling him it was best for all involved. That his friends shouldn’t see him like this, his parents didn’t even wait three days before they banished him to this camp. There were no other students there. He was alone among adults. His teachers were treating him like he was a physical danger to them. Troy could see it in their eyes.
Putting on clothes, Troy got ready for another day of lessons he should be taught in a classroom with his friends, but when he came out of his room, the man stood in the suit. Though just fourteen, he stood eye to eye with the man before him, who was by no means short.
Troy will never forget how the man talked to his father and how he had to watch the exact moment his parents gave up on him. That was how it felt when his father let his hand hang after five minutes of talking to this man.
“You? What do you want from me, man?”
“Now listen, I know you feel like I did you some terrible injustice by talking your parents into sending you here, but this is for your own good.” The man stopped him from walking away. “Matter of fact, allow me to introduce myself properly this time. What do you say? Let’s start over, and I promise you will see it my way in no time.”
Troy got angry for a second and opened his mouth to give him a piece of his mind, but then he changed. He reached out his hand with narrowed eyes and said, “Sure thing, partner. Let’s start over. Shake on it?”
The man in the suit gave him a cold smile daring him and said. “Glad you came around.” To Troy’s surprise, he actually shook his hand.
The teenager clamped down on his hand with all his strength. He wanted to make the man feel half the pain he was in. Troy was baffled when the man didn’t squirm or scream but held his hand with the same force he put into it.
“Now that you’ve decided to forgive me, it is high time I introduce myself.” The man calmly said. He didn’t even sound like he was straining himself in the slightest. “My name is Vex Buster. I am an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, but you may know me better as Mayor Buster. I convinced your parent to send you here so that you’d learn to live with the changes that happened to your body, learn to control whatever powers you may have gained, and last so that you become a law-abiding, productive member of society despite the other options that your incredible new strength may suggest you have. I assure you, I will get you on the right path in life, and once you are in full control of these impulses to use your strength for childish acts of revenge or ill purposes,” The pressure on his hands grew stronger. Troy tried to pull his hand away, but could not. “only then you may return to your school, pretending that you just suffered an incredible growth spurt.”
Troy stopped pressing against the man because the prospect of returning to his school had thrown him into a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts. They both now just stood there shaking hands.
“Uh, how did you know when to stop pressing my hand?” Troy awkwardly asked.
“By being perceptive and reacting very quickly. Also, don’t ever do something like that to someone again, here or elsewhere. I am the only superpowered teacher here, and you, my powerful young friend, need to learn to be far more mature than your age. From now till the day, you no longer have these powers. Outbursts and flares of emotion, you can no longer afford the way you’re now.” Vex Buster lectured him in a tone that showed he would move on from this if Troy were ready to see reason and listen.
Troy nodded vehemently and saw Vex smile wholeheartedly. “Great, then let’s get right to it.”
Troy followed his teacher down the hall with new enthusiasm.