Who was Thomas Gray truly?
A joking, funny husband? A strict but kind father? A drunkard drowning his worries in the bottle? A judging, uncaring individual?
Perhaps a grieving parent?
Honestly, Norman didn’t know his father very well. Which of him was really him? Or were all just facets and masks he used to hide himself? The more he tried to remember, the more confusing everything became.
He didn’t hate him really. Sure, he held contempt for the man who forced him down, but ‘hate’ was too strong for a word. He still provided for his family, kept his mother away from harm, and still gave some time to his wife despite the busy schedule he had.
He acknowledged him, but he didn’t quite care.
So Norman ignored the man he’d become now, and let him submerge himself in his dreams, reminding himself of the man his father once was.
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Steven Jones was a kind man.
Norman had come to better know the man in his days resting in the hospital. He was an early graduate from medical school, and he now works as both a doctor and a surgeon. He was very respected in the industry, with most of the doctors and nurses he’d met having only good things to say about him.
He’d adopted a daughter a couple years back, a girl with natural white hair. She was diagnosed early with lung cancer, but was also gifted with a ‘Gift’, allowing her body to heal and causing a battle within both forces in her body.
Gabriel Jones lived in constant pain, and Steven had made it his task to help her.
What spurred his decision to do so, Norman didn’t know, but he could easily see how much he cared for his adopted daughter. Currently, just like he was, Gabriel was resting in her own room. He asked the man if he knew why she was kidnapped, but he shook his head, not having a clue why the relatively unknown girl was targeted by those armed thugs.
But just as he learned a lot about Steven, so did he learn about himself.
His body was constantly burning. Each cell he had was working on overdrive, creating more energy than anyone else, and that was why his body was in a constant fever. He didn’t feel it because, perhaps due to the new development, his body had adapted to become heat resistant. However, more research was needed to find out how and why his body had changed so drastically overnight.
Overall, his stay at the hospital was a nice change. He didn’t have any school, no one he needed to look out for, and nothing much to worry about. It did leave him quite bored, but the sole TV in the room provided some enjoyment for him.
Then, three days after he first woke, the news came up with the worrying news of the recent Singularity he visited starting to destabilize. It wasn’t the most worrying news, especially since the hospital he’s in was a town away, but further inspection revealed that the Singularity was evolving at a rapid pace, and if left unchecked, it might increase a rank or two in danger.
(Apparently his wounds had contracted several nasty infections, and Steven called an ambulance to bring me to the closest hospital with intensive care, which was a town away from his home)
As expected, the media went wild, and worry began to spread about his town being the ‘next Greenland’ and how the new evolved Singularity will ‘start the apocalypse’, but he saw that the government was sending out several professional divers to take care of his town’s evolving Singularity, so he didn’t worry too much.
And, hey, if it explodes, stupid James would die in the explosion, right?
That morbid thought aside, after another uneventful three days of rest, he’s finally allowed to walk around. He wasn’t quite allowed to leave just yet, and even if he did, he didn’t have a way of getting home anyways. Not that he wanted to go back now though, especially with the current buzz going around about his town.
So he spent that time wandering, taking a look at the new town he’d ended up in, and occasionally paid visits to the girl he saved.
Gabriel was…familiar. He didn’t know her before their meeting, nor were they familiar with one another, but her situation was something he could sympathize with. She didn’t have bullies, a broken family, or a missing right arm, but her everyday life is a struggle against her ailing body, a fight against the cancer that ravaged her body.
It was nice to have someone to relate to, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.
It was also the first time he got to see her gift do its work. A familiar golden glow shined from her body, but instead of forming a dome around her, it gently flowed in and out of her, tending to the parts it needed to heal. Fittingly, the name of its gift was also ’Gabriel’, named after the archangel Gabriel.
The gift does two simple things: Healing and Protecting. If she desires it, she can form a golden dome of light around her or create a gentle glow that heals anyone in a certain vicinity. If she so happens to become seriously ill or injured, the gift will act on its own and begin healing her, though at the cost of neglecting the others.
Either ways, Norman now spent most of his time in the hospital, idly wandering as he waited for Gabriel to heal. It’d take a while, but after she’s recovered, Steven promised to bring him back home to his town. The news didn’t bring much comfort to him, but his parents were going to come back in a month’s time, so it wouldn’t do any good for him to be missing when they returned, right?
A part of him hoped to stay with Steven and Gabriel actually, but he was couldn’t get enough courage to ask him so.
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It’s in those idle days that he discovered something else about his gift.
He first noticed it when he overheard one of the nurses calling him ‘a spirited boy’. The sentence immediately didn’t sit right with him. He wasn’t enthusiastic or spirited by any means. He’d always resorted to staying silent, hiding his presence until what was bothering him disappears from his line of sight.
…right?
A day of observation proved it quite wrong. He’d realized just how animated he’d become when he talked to Steven or Gabriel, and how easily it came to him to smile. He’d become slightly more sarcastic, if a little bit morbid. He found himself wishing that he could go out and jog once or twice.
He finally found confirmation from Steven when he went and asked about it.
“Those who are gifted usually begin to change to better accommodate it. It…doesn’t make them completely different, but more like…enhancing their personalities?” Steven had explained, before admitting that he didn’t know too much about it either. It wasn’t very well documented apparently, mostly because those with gifts usually didn’t want to participate in the research.
And with his heightened ‘enthusiasm’ comes something…quite awesome, to say the least.
He didn’t have complete control over it, but when he wanted to, he could overheat his body and even transfer the gathered heat into another object. Doing so tires him out rather quickly though, and his heat resistance doesn’t transfer to the object he’s transferring his heat into, so he’ll need to be careful to not melt whatever he heated up.
Just like Gabriel, his gift occasionally acted out on its own, mostly when he’s rather stressed, and his body just begins to produce a large amount of heat.
It’s why the steel railings on the side of his hospital bed were melted, though he decided not to admit that to others.
Overall, it was simply put, awesome, but it was something he’d need to train further to make use of.
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But the day of dread didn’t wait.
After another month or so of check-ups and recovery, Gabriel was finally healthy enough to be released, and as promised, Steven drove him back home. They exchanged phone numbers, just in case something happened, and they both bid farewell before parting ways.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
It hurt slightly to separate from the people he’d gotten so close to, but he drove the feeling down.
So now he stood before his house, warily staring at the door at its front. His parents’ car was already parked in the garage, and though he couldn’t wait to meet his mother, his father was there as well. How would they react? He wondered as he looked to his missing right arm, the once ugly mess now neatly wrapped up in sterile bandages.
Slowly, he took a deep breath, then another, and with a key in hand he unlocked the door and stepped through.
And there, sitting by the dining table, were his parents, both their eyes turned to the sudden opening of the door. His mother’s eyes widened immediately, tears gathering in her eyes as a smile began to tug on her lips, but-
“Norman.”
His father wasn’t smiling, face carefully still. Then, as he stood, his eyes began to narrow, and inklings of the rage he’d come to know well began to show on his face.
“The school called about your absence last month. What were you-“
Really?
“Shut. Up.” He bit out through gritted teeth. The olden gray visible flinched back, his eyes wide in surprise, but Norman didn’t care.
Out of everything you can say, that’s the first?
“Shut. Up. Dad.” He vomited the last word out with far more contempt than he’d ever had, and he could see his father’s face beginning to slip back in anger. But he didn’t care for what he wanted to say and walked forward, bumping to his side with enough force to send him crashing down onto the wooden floor.
Silently, he walked up the stairs, not seeing the blackened wood of the floor he stood upon.
And slowly, as his anger gave away, Thomas realized in growing horror that his son was missing an arm.
But it was too late to say anything. Far too late.
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Norman didn’t want to go back to school. He really didn’t, but his mom wasn’t having it, and with all the force a mother has on her loving child, she drove him to his school and proceeded to drop him there. Thankfully, she was mindful enough to drop him at the back of school, where fewer students would come through.
It was somewhat of a blessing though. His situation at home was…torn. He reconciled easily enough with his mother, and he gave a brief and slightly altered story of everything that happened, while also hiding his and Gabriel’s gifts.
His father was silent. Not that he cared however. He ate his breakfast as quickly as he could and waited outside for his mother to finish hers. He truly wanted to break the man, but he settled for silent indifference instead.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The janitors that saw him were obviously shocked to see him missing an arm, and he could only dread the teachers and the students’ reactions to his missing limb. With another sigh, he entered the school building and began making his way to his classroom, ignoring all the looks and whispers around him.
(Apparently the school thought he was dead, and they were shocked to see him alive. Funny)
Just as the bell rang, he slid his classroom door opened and stepped in, drawing the eyes from everyone in the room. Their eyes were comically wide, and some students even had their mouths hanging open, but all sense of shock withered when their eyes landed on his missing limb, and stifling silence reigned.
He smiled internally.
That was fine. He much preferred silence.
So he sat at his desk, and slowly, the teacher began the class, still stuttering and shocked from the appearance of the student she thought was dead. Almost everyone knew what happened to him by this point, and that put James and his friends in massive trouble and potential lawsuits.
So, as normal as it could possibly be, the class began.
And it was…nice. He liked learning in general, and without the worry of a certain gang beating him up he could fully enjoy the experience. He did wonder where James and his friends were, seeing as they were absent, but he filed the thought away for later. It was also quite amusing seeing the teacher being all careful around him, occasionally apologizing as she forgot about his missing arm.
The teacher was oddly skittish around him. It confused him actually.
The day soon ended without much disturbance. The other students went quiet around him, and the only one he truly interacted with today was the teacher. With no further tasks needed to be finished, he left the school and went west, though not towards his house. He’d already said to his mother that he’d be running late to check the Singularity he recently went into. Naturally, she disagreed, but after a while of convincing and promising that he wouldn’t go in, she relented.
As expected, the entire area was being barricaded, with several men and women standing by the shifting portal. The Singularity was now classified as C-000981. The Singularity made a whopping double rank leap, and it understandably put the country in dangerous waters. The world government quickly went to work though, and despite not being a complete diver fanboy like some of his other classmates, he could definitely identify several of the people standing there.
They weren’t super big shots like Fujiwara Yumi from Japan or Aleksandre Nikslov from Russia, but definitely powerful enough to handle a Rank C Singularity. Or so he hoped at least.
Fortunately, no one spotted him, and he easily made his way back to his house in relative silence.
And so another month went by with relative silence. He’d spend the day in school, the afternoon secretly training in the unclaimed wood not far from his school, before heading back to his home for dinner and sleep. The monotony of it all was pleasing, and he quickly found time passing by as he went through his days.
His life at home wasn’t doing any better, nor did he make any effort to improve it. It was clear his father now held some caution around him, especially after seeing him accidentally light a plank on fire, but they remained always at arm’s length, never communicating with one another.
Though his mother was still her old, worrying self, and he much preferred it that way.
All that aside, Gabriel’s officially become what his mother called a ‘callpal’. It…was understandable, seeing as they could spend nearly an hour on the phone just talking about random things in their lives. She was his first friend, much like he was hers, which was why he could only sigh when he noticed the gleam in her eyes as she occasionally watched some of our talk sessions.
“We’re friends.” I calmly reasoned, but my mother only laughed, much to my amused annoyance.
On a much more exciting note, his body was making leaps and bounds. He could reasonably match the speed of a motorbike, though he was still learning how to control his steps, since he more often than not unknowingly cracked the ground he ran on and promptly face-planted onto the dirt.
He couldn’t quite test how strong he was, but he could at least lift a large metal pipe with some effort. He really strained his left hand however.
His heat, or his ‘flare’ as he liked to call it, was…missing something. Sure, he had a better grasp on it, and he could will it better than before (though he still tended to lose control when his feelings take over), but there was just something missing about it, like seeing a puzzle missing several of its pieces. Which was understandable, considering how this was a relic from the heavens and all, but damn if it wasn’t frustrating for him.
Though with the recently evolved Singularity cleared by the professional divers and no new Singularities forming, he couldn’t test out how much he’d improved over the last month or so.
But what surprised him the most was his quickly developing relation with Ms. Demora.
She was his mathematics and homeroom teacher. They had no relation, no prior experience with one another, and so it was so shocking to suddenly get called into her office to see her break down in tears and apologize. As his homeroom teacher, it greatly weighed on her that she couldn’t save him from James and his friends, who were now promptly in jail for attempted murder and violating human rights.
Serves them right.
Norman didn’t know what to do then, but he couldn’t help but see a little bit of his mother inside her, and any gnawing feelings he had on her faded away. She failed to help him, he lost an arm for it, and she was clearly regretting it.
What else could he do but forgive?
He was never one to hold grudges (though there were some clear exceptions), so he simply smiled and forgave her. The woman went still for a moment, but her stream of apologies quickly turned into a wave of relieved gratitude.
And everything basically evolved from there.
His life at the school became brighter with another person he could share with. They couldn’t spend much time together, but when they did, they mostly discussed about Singularities; their histories, their types, their dangers, and all that. She was a massive Singularity nerd apparently.
He didn’t waste any time and swiftly introduced her to his mother, and as he expected, the two hit it off near instantly. It was amazing actually, seeing the two women become instant friends the moment they shook hands.
It was also at that moment that Norman realized the extent of his gift’s effect on him.
(He had never been an outgoing person)
But calm times would never last.
“Gabriel?” Norman asked through the phone as he wrote down the last answers to his homework. He leaned back slightly, loosing himself for the hour long conversations he had come to expect from the girl.
“Hey there, Norman!” He heard her say in her usual cheery self. “How have you been doing?”
“It’s been fine. You?” He heard her hum in agreement. “I’m still having trouble moving, but I’m getting better! My gift apparently got stronger, and it’s making my cancer go…apoptosis?” She said uncertainly, before humming again. “Un. Apoptosis!”
“What’s that mean?”
“Um…dad says it’s when cells begin to kill itself.”
“Ah. That’s…good, right?” After all, wouldn’t her cancer cells begin to commit suicide as well?
“Yes! The cancer in my body has been going down! Dad says I’ll be able to start recovery soon!” His eyes widened at that, followed by a wide smile. “Congratulations.” He heard a happy hum on the other side, and he laughed slightly.
But then he heard the door on Gabriel’s side open, and the phone went silent. “Gabriel?” He asked, but no reply came. He began to worry slightly, his eyes trailing to the kitchen knife he’d hidden in his bag, but he then heard Steven’s voice coming through. “Hello? Norman, are you there?”
“Yeah?” He heard Steven sigh. “I…know that you weren’t planning on reporting your status to the government and all, but…it seems like they managed to track you down first.”
“…what?”
“One of the divers that went in was curious over the remains you left behind and went around asking, and managed to track down both you and Gabriel.” Norman was understandably miffed. He knew it was inevitable to be found out, but he wasn’t expecting it to be so fast.
Or did time just fly past so quickly?
“So, what should I do?”
“I’ll…pick you up, and I’ll drive you there.” He then added. “And don’t worry, Gabriel will be with us as well.”
“…right.” With that, he closed the call and promptly flopped onto the bed, already feeling the tire of the future weighing him down.