I hate my parents.
I hate these monsters.
I hate this world.
But above all, I hate my life.
Every day I get berated and beat. No matter what I do, I’m always considered a failure in the eyes of my parents.
My little sister, bless her soul, also gets beat. I try my hardest to protect her, but it’s never enough.
Why do we get beat? Simple.
Powers.
Powers run this world, and everything in it.
You have a powerful ability? You’re instantly rich. You have a poor ability? You’re spat at.
I was born a Biological, or shapeshifter, an ability that went practically extinct due to its uselessness. It’s looked down upon as the worst ability ever. What’s even worst worse is that my shapeshifting ability is practically useless. My sister isn’t showing signs of her power either.
Unlike other shapeshifters, who can at least transform into a single different animal, I can only change my eye color. That’s it.
My life must be a joke. heh.
“Sorax Kyzar! Get your ass back here NOW!” My mom, my monster, yelled from the kitchen.
We live in a rundown apartment with just two bedrooms and one bathroom. My sister and I in one room, while my monsters are in the other. She and I are 8 and 10 respectively.
“You little shit! Listen to your mother before I beat your face black and blue!” My dad, my other monster added in. He was sitting on a couch in front of the TV watching the news.
These are my parents. These are my monsters.
“O-Okay c-coming” I responded frightfully. I knew what this was. This was another beating in the waiting.
I slowly approached my monster with my head hung low.
Once I reached her, I felt a sudden tug at my head that forced me to look up into her eyes. This was my monster's ability. Telekinesis. You’d expect it to be powerful but in reality, all she can do is small tugs.
Slap
Ouch. That hurt.
“What did I tell you about leaving the dishes in the sink? I told you they should be spotless!” They were. She only just added a new plate.
“B-b-but I did! They w-were c-clea-”
Slap
“Why are you talking back?! David, deal with your useless ass son this instant!” She ordered my other monster.
“What the hell did I tell you about talking back to your mother?! I warned you before! You don’t listen, you never do…” My other monster told me as he approached me, belt in hand. My other monster’s ability revolved around manipulating people’s emotions. Very weak though. Not enough to cause anything major. But enough to make me feel like shit.
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As soon as he got to me, he smacked his belt into my face.
Ouch.
…
…
…
Let 'em beat you, at least they won't touch Hyla.
I could hear the voices again. They never stop. At first, they were quiet, but as time went on, as the abuse raged on, they only grew louder and louder.
Most of them are an incomprehensible mess. But some of them, some of them actually offer relatively good advice.
Look on the bright side: get beat now, and maybe they won't later!
When they want to…
My other monster was still beating me across the face with the belt.
That’s fine… at least Hyla isn’t here…
Creak
My eyes pop open in sheer terror. Please, not her… anybody but her…
"...Bro? You oka-?" Before she can finish her sentence, an invisible force shoves her to the ground, her head smacking the floor.
"And you thought you could hide, bitch? You didn't do jack shit for the house today!" My other monster scolds her.
She isn’t getting back up.
"Aww, Did I hit you too hard? You know, even if you died from that, we could always make another one..."
I couldn’t hear anything else. My ears were ringing.
She isn’t… No way she’s…
Why?
Why me?
Why her?
What did we ever do to receive this?
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why.
Ẅ̸̰h̴̥͝y̵̞͒.̷̡͒
Then, everything went black.
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I awoke in the middle of a crater underneath debris and rubble. My body was in pain. I was in pain.
I could hear sirens wailing in the distance. I could see people yelling nearby. I saw the tear-stricken face of parents holding their children in arms trying to rush them to the ambulance. I could see firefighters trying to put out flames. I could smell blood littering the ground. I saw police trying to evacuate people. I saw “Heroes” Lifting rubble and healing people.
Where am I?
Where is my house?
Where is Sorax?
Before I could try to come up with an explanation, I heard a groan beside me. I looked off to the side.
I saw Sorax.
He was completely naked. Otherwise, he looked completely fine.
What had happened?
Why was my brother naked?
I started looking around to find some answers. My hands were shaking.
I was terrified. Fear-stricken.
I couldn’t breathe. I needed to get out here. I needed out. Out. OUT.
Suddenly, I felt all the pain across my body disappear.
Then, out of nowhere, crystals popped out of existence. Pink in color. They were of all sizes and shapes.
I could feel a… link to them.
I don’t know why, But I just knew I could control them.
So, in a panicked state, I ordered the crystals to get us out of the ruble in any way they can.
Surprisingly, they responded.
Some combined together, some grew out of the ground, and some even grew in size. In the end they all formed one massive crystal hand.
That wasn’t even the craziest part. They all FLEXED like muscles.
Was this… my ability?
No. no. No time to think about this. I needed to get myself and my unconscious brother out of here.
The crystal arm began to move, slowly lifting the debris off of me.
I could finally breathe.
I slowly got up, taking in deep breaths. I noticed that some parts of my clothes were torn and bloodied. But, surprisingly, were I expected wounds to be, All I saw was crystals in their place. They looked like they were covering them. They also feel warm to the touch. Like human skin. But much stronger. How? Why? When?
Later. I needed to get Sorax out first.
Using the same crystal hand, I lifted the debris off of him. He also didn’t have any wounds. Weird.
I could hear the police sirens approaching. We needed to get out of here fast. If they caught us, they would return us to mom and dad, wherever they were, and that wasn’t good.
I knew I couldn’t lift my brother. He was too heavy.
However, my crystal hand could.
So, I ordered it to lift my brother and follow me.
It surprised me for the second time today, by carrying my brother gently before ripping its self out of the ground and levitating there.
I guess it would follow me then.
As I started to move it moved with me. Good.
When I raised my hands to wipe the beads of sweat that formed on my forehead, I noticed something.
My hands were still shacking.
Steeling myself, I decided to run out of the crater with my brother in tow into the streets before anybody could reach us. Heroes and people were too preoccupied with themselves and saving other to really notice us leaving.
I kept going and didn’t look back till I reached a nearby alleyway. I then gently laid down my brother before disabling my power.
Now that I laid him down, I could get a proper look at him.
He looked pale. Unusually so. I could still see the scars our parents left behind.
He was also grunting and whimpering while unconscious.
What happened?