Aiden turned to Hellen who had one of her eyebrows raised as she gazed at him with a questioning look. He knew she wanted answers regarding why he had chosen to expose the matter of specters.
He quickly relayed their conversation to her, who had a surprised look on her face towards the end. Turning her body completely to face him, she remarked,
“He might have joined the Bureau. Or at least be in a collaborative relationship with them like how I was. That’s the only way he could’ve known about this. Or at least that’s the only way I know.”
Aiden's expression morphed to one of surprise as he exclaimed, “Holy damn! Do you think he is a super now?”
Hellen quickly shot him down. “I wouldn’t jump to such a conclusion so fast, young man. But yea, there’s a possibility. And a rather considerable one.”
Aiden nodded, coming down from his high as he asked, “Why do you think so?”
Hellen once again took that as an opportunity to explain to him about the workings of the Bureau in case he came in contact with them in the future. It was good to know who you were dealing with.
“The Bureau usually doesn’t send a single person to deal with a situation which involves ghosts. At least never a single normal human. They always send a team. But when it comes to supers, they sometimes only dispatch one to take care of the situation as it’s more often than not enough. Did you ask him if he was alone though?”
“Oops. I didn’t. How would I be in the mind to ask that anyway? So do you mean if he has come alone, there’s a higher chance of him being a super?”
“Yes.”
Aiden raised both of his eyebrows as his face betrayed his excitement over his childhood close friend’s possibility of being a super.
And I am one too!
Hellen then commented, “I must say, it’s a good thing that he is here now though. Would be so much better for you now.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? It’s simply better to have a teammate, especially when dealing with ghosts. You want someone you can banter with and maintain a light hearted environment so the stress doesn’t accumulate, which would result in decline of mental capabilities.
“I’ve seen people lose their mind and forget to analyze the situation when it becomes too difficult for them. It’s necessary to have a teammate, preferably a friend so you can share the burden.”
“Weren’t you there though?”
“Do you not yourself agree that you would be much more stress free with Lucas though?”
Aiden shot her a look and shrugged as he said, “Can’t deny.”
“See?”
She glanced at her laptop, then continued addressing him.
“I like how you said specter instead of ghosts. When you are dealing with people who are in the know, it’s better first to say specter. When you’re sure after recognizing some clues if the other person deals with ghosts then you can switch to ghost. If the other person does indeed deal with ghosts and is from the Bureau, they would be doing the same, so you be sure to drop clues for the other person to recognise. It’s an unspoken rule.”
Aiden complained as he listened to her, “Why such complication over naming?”
Hellen simply shrugged as she turned back towards her laptop.
“Don’t know. But it’s important, at least according to the Bureau. We used to get reminded of it constantly. It was literally hammered into us with how many times they’ve repeated it and drove home the fact.”
Hellen herself had a look of resignation and complaint on her face, letting Aiden know she wasn’t doing it out of her own will but continuing what the Bureau did by assuming it was really important.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
After going through his phone once for messages and updates, he went back to sleep after reminding Hellen to wake him when it was his time to keep watch.
*****
Aiden gargled the water in his mouth and spit it in the basin after brushing his teeth as he checked his appearance in the mirror. It was 10 in the morning and he had gotten a nice 6 hour sleep. Aunt Hellen, who only got 4 hours of sleep, was much more energetic than him, already going through exercises in her lawn.
He approached her laptop and looked through the live feed of her home. They had gone back and installed the equipment in the room they fought in, since that was the only one left.
Looking through all the squares, he finally noticed the ghost in one of them. It was hiding in a closet again, but this time in some other room though. Aunt hellen had already removed all the necessary items from storages and transported them into his house. She didn’t want to dirty her clothes and other items in the process of dealing with the ghost.
He looked away and entered the kitchen where breakfast was already ready. It took him twenty minutes to finish it before cleaning the plates and placing them in their rack nearby.
Taking off the apron, he opened the fridge to have some juice then seated himself on the sofa and took out his phone. There were a few missed calls from Lucas which Aiden had ignored last night. He first saved his number by Crybaby, then thought for a second and called.
He should be awake right? Most probably. It’s 10 in the morning.
The call was picked up quickly on the second ring.
“You fucker, leaving me like that.”
Aiden first had a good laugh in his face then asked his location.
“Checking out of the inn. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Lucas cut the call after Aiden informed him that he was temporarily at aunt Hellen’s home, and once again checked his call logs just to be sure.
No one called back. Did no one except me accept Evander’s invitation to save Aiden? Even Evander himself didn’t come. Could he have been caught up somewhere?
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Lucas heaved a heavy sigh as the prospect of never meeting his rest of the childhood friends again. He was extremely jubilant and worried when he got the letter, the former so he could meet his friends and the latter for Aiden. Ironically, the situation seemed to have been flipped. Aiden was safe and even capable of battling a specter but there were no signs of the rest of their group of friends.
Is Evander safe?
Unlike the rest of the group, Evander was the one who sent the message and now couldn’t be contacted. He had called once when he got the letter, it was at least ringing then. Now it simply didn’t even connect. Shaking his head, he left the inn and headed towards their parking lot.
Aiden had already taken aunt Hellen’s permission if Lucas was allowed in here so he just gave her a heads up about expecting him anytime soon.
He took the time when Hellen was out exercising and no one was around to try and imagine the sensation of using the ability again. Maybe because of the past experience of the consequences which came along with it, it was a lot difficult this time. It didn’t help that his mind wasn’t completely relaxed as the ghost was still in the house, with aunt Hellen out in the lawn. It would be far-fetched for her to immediately rescue him if something happened right this instant. He also couldn’t have done it in the night as that would mean risking both his and aunt Hellen’s — who was sleeping then — safety.
He eventually gave up a dozen minutes later when he heard the sound of a car pulling up in their neighborhood. Aiden got up from the sofa and approached the open door, just in time to see a young man closing the door of his car.
The face definitely hasn’t changed much.
Aiden had a wide smile on his face as he opened his arms wide and walked towards the young man, only to see him doing the same, only that he was grinning madly and running. Running fast.
Aiden stood and braced for impact, keeping his arms wide.
“Oomph.”
A small groan escaped his mouth as Lucas jumped onto him, hugging him tightly. It was a little too much enthusiasm and physical contact than he was used to. He laughed as he patted Lucas on the back,
“Are you planning to stay like this all day? You’re heavy, you know.”
Lucas still had a tight grip around Aiden as he yelled into his ears,
“BRO! It’s been years! Do you realize how much I’ve missed you?”
Aiden gently pulled his arms away, content with letting Lucas hang onto him and replied,
“Of course, I’ve missed you too. But we suddenly lost contact. I lost contact with all of them in fact. I thought we would never meet again.”
Lucas released his hold on him and backed off before saying, “Yep, I got a new number, some accidents happened and we lost contact. Actually, I lost contact with all of them too.”
Aiden shot him a wry smile, finding the whole situation perplexing.
Lucas had grown up to be a handsome young man, leaning more on the cute side rather. Coupled with blond hair and his innocent smile, he could be easily popular among women older than him.
Lucas looked around and spotted Hellen who was approaching them and quickly did a short bow.
“Thanks for having me here.”
Hellen’s ever scrutinizing eyes swiftly did a scan and smiled, “Must’ve been surrounded with girls growing up, no?”
Lucas only managed to give her a shy look as he denied her. Quickly switching the topic, he addressed with concern, “What about the specter?”
It was Hellen who replied as he entered the house first while dabbing away her towel at the sweat from her exercise.
“Follow me inside boys. You know what the topic is.”
Lucas looked around the house before following Aiden to the sofa. Hellen was quick to bring a few cans of energy drink as she sat opposite them in freshly changed clothes. Popping open her can, she took a huge gulp before putting it down and explaining.
“We currently have the situation under control with even cameras to monitor the specter in the house. You can find it on that laptop over there. Setting that aside, I’d like to ask you something else.”
Lucas put down his can and nodded to indicate her to continue.
“Are you from the Bureau?”
Lucas hesitated for a second to form his response before explaining, “Since you know about the Bureau, you know they only handle things related to specters right. I don’t deal with the specters. So I technically don’t come under them. I work in society to resolve threats to children. But I still have the specialized phone and license from the Bureau. Their agents also call me from time to time depending on my circumstances and if I need any help, all within my allowed authority of course.”
Hellen patiently listened to him before questioning him directly, “Are you a super?”
Lucas’ eyes shot up in surprise before turning proud. He flicked back his hair with his hand, exaggerating a few more actions before he replied,
“Of course, I, Lucas the great, am a super.”
Hellen had an amusing smile on her face as she reprimanded him, “Rule 1: Unless you completely trust the other party, do not expose your status as a super. Do so only if you’re completely confident in yourself.”
“But I trust you guys!”
Hellen and Aiden shared a look, exasperated at the naivety of the young man. But it could also really mean that he trusted both of them completely. It warmed their hearts a bit. Aiden's eyes glazed over as he thought,
And here I am, keeping it a secret. Am I deserving of his trust? Do my actions of not trusting someone make me a worthy receiver of their trust?
He didn’t know. He didn’t know a lot of things. Leaning back into the sofa with the can still in his hand, he audibly heaved a sigh, drawing from both of them. Lucas was the first to chip in, patting him on his shoulder as he consoled, “Hey, don’t worry if you don’t have an ability. I am there to protect you now.”
Hellen followed in after taking another big gulp from her can, which produced a much lighter sound than before. It was already almost empty.
“Not having an ability isn’t that big of an issue. Like I said, once you get hold of the details of their abilities, it would be much easier to deal with supers. Information is the key.”
Aiden knew they must have misinterpreted his words, but offered no explanation and simply nodded to them.
Lucas once again spoke, with a proud look and enthusiasm packed in his voice.
“Want to know what my ability is? Ask me, quick.”
Hellen had a genuinely tired look on her face. Instead of explaining to him again about the drawbacks of his actions, she simply gestured for him to continue, knowing that he would repeat the same thing again.
Lucas smirked, and began explaining about his ability.
“Look, it might not be much but I feel it’s still a great ability. Don’t laugh at it , okay? I was extremely excited when I got the ability and have found some great uses for it. I even helped rescue some children which wouldn’t have been possible without the ability, so no matter what, it holds a lot of significance to me.
“It lets me control light. Literal light. The range of colors, intensity and duration, size, every other aspect of light you can think of depends on the size of crystals I use. It’s a part of the condition.
“The entire condition is: I need to hold the crystal in hand, and block out all noises around me, even if only for a moment. All the while with the intention to activate the ability. Even if it’s noisy around me, as long as I can mentally tune out everything and imagine complete silence even for a moment, my ability will activate.”
Aiden and Hellen listened with rapt attention as they heard Lucas describe his ability. He took a sip from his can and continued,
“As for side effects. Well, again, depending on the aspects and intensity of light used, my eyes will have heightened sensitivity to it.”
Hellen nodded and commented, willing to let the young man indulge in his happiness,
“It’s a great ability. Abilities are often judged by the versatility of powers, conditions and the price of side effects contrary to what many might think. Considering those factors, your is definitely a great ability. Have you told the Bureau about this?”
Lucas beamed at her praise. It made him happy she was genuinely positive about his ability rather than empty compliments. When he heard her question he quickly shook his head. As much as he was quick to trust her and Aiden, it was because Aiden would have stopped him immediately if he didn’t trust Hellen already. He had blind trust in Aiden. But that didn’t mean he would trust just anyone about. He had never told the bureau about the specifics of his ability.
Hellen’s brows furrowed as she sat there in thought. Aiden noticed it, concerned if something was wrong.
Please. We literally just met, I hope nothing’s wrong.