No one ended up checking out the classroom we were in, so Lori and I had decided to head to our respective homes. She started to call her Luna people to try and figure out what she had to do next while I desperately wanted to get in touch with my sister. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do ourselves, and when I considered that Lori wanted to recruit me to her group’s side, I was feeling a little lost with what I should do. I really had no idea what that even meant in the present context. She had said to think of it like a Cold War tactic, yet I wasn’t sure how to take that.
I selected Shelly’s picture in my phonebook and waited for it to ring. I was hoping that it wasn’t busy at the office. How many people needed to have lawyer things done before nine in the morning on a Wednesday? Glancing over to the small lady keeping me company, Lori didn’t seem to be having much luck on her end. Probably lots of Luna members trying to sort everything out themselves. I guess that made us take a backseat to everything else happening.
Finally, right when I was about to give up, Shelly picked up her phone “Ethan? Ethan, is that you? Are you okay? I just saw the news. Do you know what happened? Vancouver is so close. Are you at school yet? Is it going to close down?”
“I’m okay, Shelly! I’m totally fine, promise.” I was trying to stop the barrage of questions before they could get worse. “It’s been a bad day, but I’m good. How about you? Are you holding up well?”
I heard a sniffle on the other side. “I’m good, I think. I just…when I thought about losing another family member…” She trailed off. I felt a lump form in my throat. The guilt I felt about our parents came back in full force. I must’ve been feeling pretty bad on account of the concerned glance that Lori threw my way. I tried to nonchalantly wave it off, though if she could truly see emotions, it wasn’t going to do any good.
“Don’t worry, no one’s going anywhere. We need each other, you and me. We’re all we have left.” I tried to whisper. Lori seemed involved in her own conversation, so I hoped she couldn’t hear me. I wasn’t comfortable sharing my family history unless it was necessary. “I promise, I’m okay. We’re not that close to Vancouver.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that, but I’m always going to worry. Did you see them? These guys were floating, Ethan. There was blue fire everywhere and a building fell. What the hell was that?” I heard something on the other side that sounded like her shaking her head. It was difficult to tell over the phone, but she sounded both amazed and horrified. I felt like most of the world had a reaction like that.
“About that...” I tried to find the best way to explain everything I learned to my sister, but it just wasn’t coming to me. “Uh, can you pick me up from school? Like, as soon as possible? They’re closing it down until further notice, and I have a friend who also needs a ride.”
I could practically see her skeptical look on the other end of the phone. “You’ve never asked me to give a friend a ride. In fact, I’ve never seen nor heard you interact with another student before. Why all of a sudden?”
“It’s a long, complicated story. This is something we need to discuss in person. I don’t know what’s really going on. Can you pick us up?” I had no idea if I was giving away too much over the phone. My paranoia that someone might be listening in on me started to pick up again.
“Definitely. I’ll let my boss know. He saw the news, so I’m sure he’ll understand. I’ll be there soon. Love you, stay safe.” Shelly hung up the phone, leaving me with a small feeling of relief. That was easier than I thought it’d be.
I put my phone away and turned to see Lori finishing up her call. She looked slightly frustrated and tired. She put her phone on a desk, sat down, and looked at the ceiling. She let out a long sigh and ran tiny fingers through her short hair.
“Know what I need? I need a nice, hot bath. My first assignment...and this has already been more than I could handle. At least you seem like a nice guy.” She shook her head and tapped her fingers on the desk, clearly deep in thought.
“My sister said she could pick us up. It doesn’t seem like you’re under as much of a time constraint as you thought, so why don’t we all talk this over? We can go to a diner or something. Get some food and try to make some sense of what’s going on. I’m getting a huge headache from this.”
“You know what? That sounds great. I’m going to see if Mrs. Carmichael wants to join us. If anyone can help make sense of this, it’s her.” Lori’s mood swiftly turned around at the mention of greasy diner food. Her sudden mood shift worried me a little, though given her powers, it made some degree of sense.
“Who now?” I asked. Too many names and too much information are being thrown at me without enough clarity.
Lori glanced at me and gave a weak shrug. “Sorry, forgot to mention. She’s kind of like my boss, I’d say. She’s the head of the Luna facility where I’m from and she can be a little scary. She’s very strong and efficient.”
She went about trying to call her boss, and I just stared out the window. The school already seemed so lonely. Most of the students took the buses normally, so they were already gone. Only a few stragglers remained. It felt strange to see a school so empty right after it had been bustling with life. Schools have often been criticized, but they were a huge part of forming bonds, some of them being lifelong. Perhaps it was because of Vancouver, but I was feeling oddly sad about seeing Wheeler High so empty.
A hand on my shoulder nearly made me jump out of my seat. It was just Lori, and I knew that, but I was starting to learn I really couldn’t handle people touching me when I wasn’t expecting it. Part of me always thought it was something more sinister. I really hated that part of me, and seeing Lori’s reaction of guilt and regret made me feel even worse. The overwhelming majority of people on Earth weren’t out to get me.
An awkward silence filled the space between us. I’m pretty sure we were both feeling bad. Her for startling me on accident, and me for being so easily startled. I felt myself cringing as neither of us could figure out exactly what to say. Thankfully, Lori finally broke that silence for both of us.
“I, uh, Mrs. Carmichael said that she can afford two hours. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t, but since finding new recruits is somewhat rare, I think this is her way of rolling out the red carpet for you.” Embarrassed, Lori turned her head to the side.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
I tried to calm down my heart rate by taking a couple of deep breaths. “Great, that’s great. This is good. I can finally get some answers and we can all talk about what to do. Good, this is progress.” My nerves were still a little rattled and I was a bit jumpy. Part of that was also meeting this Mrs. Carmichael person. If she was as important as Lori made her out to be, then she could clear some things up for me and my sister.
I motioned for her to follow me. The law firm Shelly worked at wasn’t too far away from the school, so I knew it wouldn’t take her long to come to pick us up. The elementary, middle, and high schools were all close to each other, so my sister wanted to get a job close by after our parents died. It made sense, thinking about it. If something were to happen to my mental state, having her nearby would make everyone’s lives a little bit easier. While I never had a breakdown at school, there wasn’t any need to make things harder or riskier than they had to be.
We walked in silence through the eerily quiet school. The only sound came from our shoes hitting the waxed floor. I peered into some of the windows on the classroom doors. There wasn’t a soul to be found in any of them. The silence of the building was really starting to get to me. I needed to get out of there. I was getting too creeped out. I picked up my pace and got out of the school as quickly as possible.
Once I threw open the door, I felt a little bit better. I no longer felt like I was trapped inside an abandoned prison. I put my hands on my knees, focused on a single spot on the ground, and tried to catch my breath. I hadn’t realized that I’d been sweating. Sweating a lot, actually. It ran down my face and dripped to the ground. I felt damp under my armpits. Had a cute girl not told me I was a superhuman, I wouldn’t have cared about my sudden perspiration.
Lori was outside soon after I was. That time, to my credit, I did not get startled by her. I did feel really embarrassed, though. I guessed that she felt as awkward as I did, considering she wasn’t saying or doing anything. Things like that made it difficult for me to socialize with people. I was usually just a bit too jumpy and skittish; a little too much for most to handle being around. I tried to not let it get me down, but it really did suck to be eighteen and not have any true friends. Thankfully, I had just enough social skills to navigate conversations when I wasn’t overwhelmed.
Instead of trying to explain myself, something that would have probably gone poorly, I walked over to the bench in front of the school and slumped down. The fresh air was really starting to help. I felt like I could breathe freely and easily again. My mind was at ease seeing all the open area surrounding me. The grass gently blowing in the cool breeze put my mind at ease, reminding me that I could run if I had to. There were no walls to constrict me out here.
“Officially, we call them Anomalies,” Lori said, breaking the silence. She sat down on the opposite end of the bench before continuing. “The powers we possess, I mean. Many people think they’re something right of comic books when they first realize they possess Anomalies, and they’re not that far off with that assumption. They’re not just things out of a story, though. They’re part of us. They’re things we’re born with.”
“Why ‘Anomaly’ in particular? You called them abilities before, right?” I craned my neck to look at the blue morning sky. Any clouds that might’ve been there earlier were gone.
“Easier for most people to digest. A lot of people don’t like to be considered an anomaly in any form, but that name’s been around since Elizabeth Luna founded her society.” Lori was mindlessly swinging her short legs back and forth. “She claimed that with their gifts, they were the ‘anomalies’ of humanity, and the name just kind of stuck. That’s what Luna members referred to their gifts as, and the regular humans called them anomalies because they believed their existence to be wrong. Those with an Anomaly were often hunted if their abilities were revealed.”
“That’s right, you mentioned things like witch hunts in the classroom.”
She snapped her fingers. “Exactly like witch hunts. Granted, not everyone suspected of witchcraft had an Anomaly, but many did. We’re able to keep ourselves hidden a bit better now, being much more organized and prepared. Anyway, I just didn’t want you to be confused when someone asks you what your Anomaly is. When you discover it, I mean. That probably isn’t going to be pleasant, by the way.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, growing concerned. I leaned against the bench’s railing away from Lori.
“Anomalies are usually first activated under extreme emotional duress. Some people activate their powers on the verge of death. Of course, there are always anomalies regarding Anomalies with some activating without any duress at all. Still, count on it not being a fun time. It can be scary, so I want you to be a little ready for it.”
That made me think about how I still didn’t know what my power was. Or Anomaly, whatever. When I watched my parents die, I couldn’t call anything I experienced less than agonizing duress, yet I didn’t have any powers then. At least, not that I could remember. I sure couldn’t bring anyone back from the dead.
I curled my fingers into a fist and relaxed them into an open palm a few times to see if anything would happen. I didn’t know exactly what I was trying to make happen, I was just hoping something with my Anomaly would happen. Nothing appeared. I wasn’t lifting rocks off the ground with just a thought. I just looked like some weirdo flexing his hand on a bench.
Before I could let myself get frustrated with it, Shelly pulled up in her car and waved at us from inside. I didn’t realize just how much I was dreading trying to explain everything. Where would I start? That a girl I happened to meet on the same day a superpowered terrorist attack took place informed me that I have a power like theirs, only hidden away? That she wants to recruit me to her secret group of people with powers? I winced as I made my way into the passenger seat, Lori climbing in the seat behind me.
“I’m like the people that attacked Vancouver, and so is your brother!” Lori shouted from behind the two of us. Panicking, she took a deep breath. “Well, we’re not exactly like them. We’re not terrorists. At least I’m not, but we both have superpowers. We just don’t know what Ethan’s is yet.”
“What now?” Shelly asked, clearly baffled. “Ethan, is your new friend, uh, okay? I know it’s been a hell of a morning.”
“There are people with superpowers, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now,” Lori said, sounding nervous. “Those were the bad ones. Very bad ones. I can only see emotions, and I can see that anger is setting in for you. I’m part of the good guys, and one of our trackers figured out that your brother is like us. I read emotions, that’s why I was sent here!”
I was wincing again at Lori’s choice of words. “Tracker” wasn’t going to win any favors with my sister who took her family’s safety extremely seriously. I could feel Shelly’s gaze, so I pretended to be very interested in the button that controlled the window. Considering my information on everything wasn’t exactly deep or robust, I wasn’t in the best position to try and explain or clarify anything.
“And Ethan’s feeling fear and anxiety!” Lori chimed in again, really making me regret letting her into the car.
“Ethan, what is she talking about?” my sister asked. I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw her knuckles turning white from her fierce grip on the steering wheel. It had been a while since I’d seen Shelly genuinely angry at something or someone, and I was not thrilled to be in an enclosed space with her now.
“I, uh, met Lori here at the bus stop earlier,” I said, wiping my palms on my pants. “She, um, she told me that there were others out there with these superhuman abilities, some good and some bad, just like she told you. I have an ability too, I think. At least according to her tracker. Shelly, let’s just be calm about this, okay?”
Ignoring my wishes, Shelly put the car in drive and sped out of the school’s parking lot. Trees and buildings whizzed by as I felt a knot form in my chest. I was feeling entirely out of the loop and powerless. Lori was spot on about my feelings of fear and anxiety. Who just blurts out something that sounds so ridiculous like that? And because of that, I had no idea what my sister was doing or where she was planning on taking us.