For a second, there was nothing. Just pitch-black nothingness, feeling only pulsating energy flow through my veins until, abruptly, light punched its way back through my eyelids. I blinked, stunned, as shapes started reassembling around me. Ouch. I just got flashbanged.

Once the shapes sorted themselves, I took a look at what's around me. Rocks. Trees. My friends. Right. We were… in a cave? A cavern? I sat up and rubbed my head, trying to shake off a splitting headache that felt like someone had shoved a lightning bolt straight through my brain.

Also, why do I feel like someone is messing with my mind right now?

Doesn’t matter. “Ugh… does anyone else feel like they just got slammed with a freight train?” I mumbled, hoping someone would confirm that, yes, they too felt like roadkill.

One by one, the others stirred, each looking as dazed as I felt. Everett was first to respond, his voice echoing faintly off the cavern walls. “I thought… I thought we got vaporised or something,” he muttered, half-awake. His usual energy was nowhere to be found.

“Wait… so we’re alive?” Noah asked, a little too hopeful for my taste.

“Barely,” I replied, standing up a bit shakily. “And I don’t know if it counts as ‘alive’ when you feel this terrible.”

Liam chuckled, still rubbing his temples. “Grayson, you look like you went headfirst into a brick wall.”

“Thanks, Liam. That’s comforting,” I replied dryly, glancing around. “Whatever just happened wasn’t a nap. Did we… did we actually just black out?”

Everyone’s expressions quickly sobered as they processed that. Tristan looked around, wide-eyed, and Steven was fidgeting with his glasses, glancing back at the tunnel as if expecting answers to materialise.

“What do we do?” Steven asked, still clearly rattled.

“Uh, go home?” I shrugged, looking at the others. “I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but if I black out in a random cave, my first instinct is to run back to civilization and pretend none of it happened.”

There was a silent agreement in the air, and within minutes, we’d regrouped and started our way out of the forest. No one spoke much. I think we were all too focused on the ache pounding in our skulls and the fact that we’d all just… blacked out together.

~ ~ ~

Once I was home, relief flooded through me at the sight of my house still standing there, as normal as ever. I’d half-expected it to be in ruins or on fire after everything that had just happened. It was a small, comfortable two-story place, painted a faded blue, with flowers lining the walkway—Mom’s pet project. She’d planted them last spring, hoping they’d bring a little “life” to the place, she’d said. I hadn’t noticed much, but they were her pride and joy.

Inside, the smell of her favourite lavender candle drifted faintly from the living room. Mom was at the dining table, her back to me, dressed in her usual navy-blue sweater, with her auburn hair pinned up in a loose bun. She had this habit of scrunching her nose when concentrating, and I could tell she was lost in thought, tapping away on her laptop without looking up. She was always so focused, especially with her work; some kind of freelance researcher, though I could never keep track of the projects. Her soft, warm presence made the house feel like a safe, quiet place.

“Hey, Mom,” I greeted, trying to sound casual.

She didn’t even look up. “Hey, honey. How was your little ‘expedition’?”

“Oh, you know, the usual. A little hike, a little blacking out, a little waking up in the middle of nowhere.” I smirked, hoping she’d catch on.

“Very funny, Grayson,” she replied, clearly not getting it. Figures.

I shrugged, heading up to my room, already feeling the exhaustion pull me under. Something felt odd today, I’ll admit. But how odd was it?

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

~ ~ ~

After that whole cave fiasco, it felt strangely nice to just be… home. My room was my own personal lair, a chaotic mix of colours and objects thrown together. Posters of my favourite games and movies covered nearly every inch of the walls, edges peeling slightly from when I’d tried (and failed) to stick them back with tape. The desk was a battlefield of half-finished school assignments, books stacked at impossible angles, and a couple of game controllers that had seen better days. My bubble tea cup from yesterday sat on the nightstand, straw bent, a reminder of my last escape from reality.

On the shelves were little action figures, trophies from a long summer of winning street soccer games and arcade battles with Noah. One of the walls had a crack in it I’d meant to fix ages ago, but it didn’t bother me much; it was part of the room now. The tangled mess of cables under my desk, the sneakers kicked off at the foot of my bed, and my old hoodie tossed in the corner—everything was just as it had always been.

I lay down, gazing up at a single glow-in-the-dark star sticker my little sister Emma had given me when we were little, promising it would keep me safe. Her black hair and kawaii face always lighted up my day, and her voice always made me think of "home". I’d kept it up there, and sometimes, in moments like this, it really did make me feel better.

As I was getting lost in memories, a weird sensation crept over me, like static building up under my skin. A tingling in my fingers and toes, not painful but… charged, somehow. I tried to shake it off, but the feeling only grew stronger, spreading up my arms, through my chest, and down to my legs until it felt like my whole body was buzzing.

Then, without warning, the world went transparent. I blinked, and my hand seemed to flicker, barely visible, like I was halfway between here and somewhere else. My skin shimmered, each particle feeling as if it were floating, separating, turning… lighter. This weird feeling of weightlessness washed over me as I felt myself practically evaporate.

And in that same second, I was moving. Or was I? It felt like nothing and everything at once, as though I was streaming through space faster than my brain could process. My atoms—if that’s what they were—shifted through whatever distance separated me from my door, but I never felt them move. All I knew was that one moment, I was on my bed, and the next… I was at my bedroom door, heart hammering in my chest.

I blinked. Slowly, I looked back at my bed, the confusion thick in my mind. Did I just… teleport?

I stood frozen by my door, half expecting someone to barge in and tell me it was all a trick, some dream I’d wake up from any second. My head was spinning. I mean, teleporting? How was that even possible?

I took a shaky step back and glanced around my room again, as if to reassure myself it was real. The game controllers, the cluttered desk, the familiar mess—everything was just as it had been a minute ago. But… something had changed. It was like a spark had been lit somewhere deep inside me, a hum of energy just beneath the surface, ready to explode again at any moment.

Without really thinking, I held out my hand, almost daring myself to feel that tingle again. And sure enough, there it was—a buzz that ran from my fingertips down my arm, a kind of electric rush that was both exhilarating and terrifying. Could I… could I control this?

Part of me wanted to try it again, just to prove I could, but another part, a quieter, more cautious part, was urging me to wait. I had no idea how any of this worked, or why it was happening. And if I wasn’t careful, I could end up somewhere far worse than my bedroom door.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. "Alright, Grayson," I muttered to myself, pacing a little. "So you can… teleport now. Great. Totally normal." I rubbed my temples, still half-convinced I was imagining things. "This has to be some kind of joke."

But even as I said it, I knew that wasn’t true. I’d felt it—the rush, the tingling, the impossible pull of my atoms scattering and reforming. It was as real as anything else in this room.

I could only think of one thing to do now: tell the others. I’d have to see if they felt anything similar, if they’d had any weird experiences since waking up in that cave. I grabbed my phone and sent a quick message to the group chat, trying to sound casual.

“Anyone else feel… different since the blackout?”

It didn’t take long for replies to start rolling in. First was Noah.

“Uh, yeah? Like, I’ve got this insane energy rush. Hard to explain, but it’s like I can feel my heartbeat in my entire body.”

Next was Steven.

“I thought it was just me, but I’ve been getting these weird flashes. Like, I can see things in such detail it’s almost like I’m zooming in on them.”

Everett chimed in, too.

“I was messing around with my lights earlier, and they started flickering. Like, actually sparking. Do you guys think this has something to do with… that cave?”

That cave. I shivered, remembering the darkness, the strange, heavy silence just before everything went black. Whatever had happened there, it had clearly messed with all of us.

Liam’s message came in last, a simple, “Meet tomorrow?” He didn’t elaborate, but I could tell he was just as eager to figure things out as the rest of us.

I put down my phone, staring out the window at the darkening sky. Tomorrow, we’d meet up, share what we’d discovered, and hopefully piece together whatever was going on. But until then, I was left alone with my thoughts, my new, strange power still buzzing faintly beneath my skin.

And as I lay back on my bed, the realisation hit me: life was never going to be the same.