by Caleb Karger
I saw a blotch of color approaching. Oh, that must be the ground. I was so distracted from overheating; I’d lost track of time. I shut my eyes and braced myself for the end. Then all of a sudden, a great gust of wind hit me and slowed me down but not enough to stop me.
SPLASH!!!
Icy, refreshing water slapped my back. My whole backside felt bruised. I sunk straight down to the bottom of a pool. I bonked my head pretty good.
The water churned around me in a chaotic mess. Millions of angry bubbles pushed me up towards the surface. I gasped for air and fought to plant my feet on the pool floor. I heard a loud hissing noise. Water shot up my nose. I was thrown every which way. Was this a pool, or a hot tub?
After a moment, I got my bearings. The water kept churning and evaporating. Steam flew away from me. I looked at my hands and saw they were lobster red. I could smell my clothes burning against my skin.
I spotted Katherine observing the water from a safe distance. I looked up to see I’d fallen forty stories. I wondered how fast she could move, or if she simply teleported.
“What happened?” I asked. I felt like I did something wrong. I kept looking at my hands and the boiling water. If the water was boiling, why wasn’t I? What caused it to go all crazy in the first place?
“Your powers surface the more you push your body to its limits,” she said. “You’re responding to extreme fright.” My face scrunched up as I tried to make sense of her words. I was the one who turned the water into a whirlpool? “You should get out of there before someone sees you.”
She held up what looked like a thick blanket. I slogged through the water to the ladder. The second I touched the metal it glowed orange. I moved quickly in case the ladder decided to melt. I stared at my hands. They felt like I had pressed them against a car on a scorching summer day. She wrapped the blanket around me. I vaguely noticed it was made out of the same material as oven mitts.
“You’re not gonna feel too good for a few hours,” she said. My eyes stung from being so hot and dry. I had to keep them closed. She was forced to guide me along.
She was right; I suddenly felt sick. I was going to vomit fire. Somehow, I made it back to the penthouse. She led me to the bathroom and pointed to the tub.
“It’s the only thing that won’t burn.”
“Mmph.”
I didn’t care. I was alive, and I was back on solid ground. I climbed into the tub and curled up. Occasionally, I ran the water to try and cool me off. It turned to steam the instant it touched my skin. The heat consumed my mind until that was all that existed. I couldn’t even imagine the sweet pleasure of a cold, snowy day.
Chapter 6
Perfection
I stirred as a ray of sunlight settled onto my eyelids. I slowly lifted my head and was greeted with pain as I knocked it against the faucet. Was I still in the bathtub? I felt like I’d been out for ages.
My body was still warm, but no longer trying to contain a raging inferno. My arms were weak and shaky, which made sitting up difficult. I hadn’t felt this drained since the last time I had the flu.
I tried to blink away the blurriness from my eyes but to no success. My glasses must’ve gotten dirty. I removed them and started to wipe the lenses with my shirt, then stopped. I could see my hands clearly as if I had the glasses on.
I shook my head and held my glasses up to my face, and everything went fuzzy again. I set them down to look around the bathroom. My vision was better than a mere 20/20. The colors were richer, and I could see details I wouldn’t have been able to before—like super HD. I waited to start seeing double of things, or for the edges to get blotchy. Any second my bad eyesight would return, right?
I climbed out of the tub to tell Katherine. I had to pass the mirror to get to the door. Even though I’d rather not look, my eyes went to the mirror anyway. I jumped back as I saw a stranger looking at me. There was no way that it was me.
I stepped closer and touched my cheek. The guy in the mirror did the same. I had to work to find any resemblance.
My eyes had gone from dark brown to amber. I could see my jaw line. Some of my features looked like they had rearranged to be unnaturally symmetrical. My skin was scar and acne free. My hair was tousled like the statue of David and had gone from a mud color to a rich brown color.
I glanced down at my body to make sure the mirror wasn’t lying to me. I touched my stomach, and the squishy bulge was gone. I could see the veins in my arms and the shapes of my muscles. I took my shirt off and grinned at the faint outline of a six pack.
Man, I looked good! I’d zipped out of the realm of magazine covers and movie posters. Not even elves or vampires were in my league. I wondered what else had changed.
“Enjoying the view?” Katherine asked with a smirk as she leaned against the door frame.
I whipped around. Out of habit, I crossed my arms over my chest; then I realized I didn’t have man boobs anymore. I didn’t have anything to hide. Awkwardly, I lowered my arms. I’d never been shirtless in front of anyone before.
“Um…y-yeah,” I said.
Of course, at that moment, my oversized pants began to free fall. I snatched them, but not before I felt a breeze on my bum. My ears grew hot. Katherine giggled and tossed some clothes at me.
“I figured you would need these,” she said and left me alone to get dressed.
She’d given me a dark gray T-shirt and jeans. They fit snugly which made me uneasy. I had avoided close-fitting clothes like the plague because no one needed to see my gut accentuated. I kept looking in the mirror to remind myself that I could relax about my appearance.
I kept flexing my arms. Was this permanent, or would it go away? I hoped it stayed this way. I felt good enough to stand up tall for once. I didn’t have to feel embarrassed or ashamed if Katherine looked at me.
When I finally emerged, I found her sitting at the dining table. She had a book in one hand while the other tried to dip a celery stick into a bowl of hummus, but she kept missing. Sprawled out in front of her was a feast. There were mountains of sautéed vegetables, steaming loaves of bread, fruit bouquets, potatoes heavy with gravy, and a colorful forest of salad. The aroma hit me all at once and my mouth watered. I became very aware of the gaping chasm in my stomach.
I staggered over to the table like I’d never seen food before. My eyes went back and forth between her and the food. Was I allowed to eat any of it?
“Knock yourself out,” she said.
With an animalistic grunt, I tore into the food. I didn’t bother with a plate or fork; I merely grabbed things and shoveled them into my mouth. No matter how much I ate, I couldn’t get full. I felt like a bottomless pit.
“What happened to me?” I asked in between a bite of watermelon and a pile of potatoes.
She stared at me with concern. “You’ve been out for two days. Without any food, your body burned through its fat stores. You’ll be hungry until you recover,” she said.
“Buff whaff abouff fuh offur stuff?” I swallowed a chunk of bread. “My teeth were crooked before, how’d they just fix themselves?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said the other night?”
I nodded. “The more I push my body, the better it will get. But I thought that only applied to strength and powers.”
“No, it applies to every part of you. You’ll grow immune to disease, have a better memory, and so on.” She sipped her tea. “I suppose being more attractive is a bonus.”
“So, basically, I’ll keep getting better until I’m perfect?”
“Physically, at least. You’ll still be prone to mistakes.”
I tried to conceal my growing smile as the information settled into my mind. How much better was life going to be without getting sick, or forgetting something?
“And these changes are because…?”
She slapped her book against the table. “Still? You still don’t think you have powers?”
I lowered my head. “It’s not that easy to accept, believe it or not.”
I chugged down a glass of water. “And you never explained how this all works. How do I have abilities in the first place? It’s impossible.”
“For most people, yes. You see, it all comes down to genetics. People like you and me can evolve to a higher state,” she said. “Think of it like…nano technology. Most people are like the first computers with lots of big, clunky equipment that’s slow and takes up a whole room. Meanwhile, we have ten times the amount of capabilities in the same amount of space.”
“And that’s why you can tear off the roof of a car without looking like the Terminator,” I said.
She laughed. “Exactly.”
“If I can evolve to some new level, how come in gym I was always the slowest runner?”
“It’s not enough to just run around and suddenly you’ll have super speed. To run faster than a standard human…you’ll have to literally run faster. People like us only discover their abilities on their own if they’re Olympic athletes because they’re constantly pushing their boundaries,” she said. “If you never push yourself that hard, you’ll never move faster than the average Joe.”
“What about the heat thing?” I said. “Why does my body feel like an oven sometimes?”
“It’s part of the process. We get to a state where we can do things no one thought people could do,” she said. “Me, for example, I’ve always had a strong connection to nature. I could sense when plants were thirsty. I could feel the caves underneath the mountains when I was hiking. When I became a ninja, I started focusing on that power until I could do this…”
She gestured to a decorative plant in the corner. The plant started shriveling like a time lapse video. The leaves changed colors and died. The stem wilted and disintegrated. Just as soon as it had begun to die, it came back to life.
“How’d you do that? With your mind?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “We don’t know how we do it if it’s our minds, our energy, or our spirit; our scientific understanding is too far behind to be able to explain it,” she said.
“It just seems so…out there,” I said. “There’s no way some cells wrapped in skin can manipulate something else like that.”
“I don’t think it’s too out there. I think God created us to be capable of performing miracles. I mean Jesus could walk on water and heal people. He told his followers that if they believed, they could do even greater things than he did. Superhuman or not, you’ll never be able to do something if you don’t believe you can,” she said.
“You believe God is real and all that?” I waved my hand in the air.
“You don’t survive as much as I have without a little faith.” She tapped a celery stick across the table like it was hopping. “Sometimes impossible things—things that seem like they were only a fantasy or a made-up story—stare you right in the face. Even though it’s hard, you just have to believe.” She nudged me with her elbow. “Hint, hint.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, someday I’ll get to that point.”
She stood up and stretched. “Well, you’ve managed to stall your training long enough. Now that you’re up, we shouldn’t waste any more time. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“We’re not going to the terrace again, are we?”
“No, we’re leaving the city,” she said.
I frowned and looked at all of the food I hadn’t gotten to yet. I started sampling the things I hadn’t tasted as she walked towards the door. I slowly got out of my chair, stuffing mounds of buffalo cauliflower bites into my mouth.
“I’m opening the door…” she said.
I didn’t want to leave any of it behind. I took a handful of green beans and walked away. My stomach rumbled at me to take more.
“I’m at the elevator…”
I gave in and grabbed the platter of burgers. I ran to the elevator as the doors were closing. I made it just in time. She hit the button to close the doors while I nibbled at a bun. She held her hands behind her back and looked at her feet to hide her smile.
“I’m desperate, don’t judge me,” I said.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
The elevator opened up to let in a teenage girl dressed for the pool. She stood so close to me our arms were touching. She twisted her hair around her finger.
“You must be pretty hungry,” she said.
“Oh, big time,” I replied. She giggled a little more than necessary.
“You’re funny.” The elevator reached her floor. “This is me.” She moved in slow motion as she made her way out. She turned back and waved. “I hope I see you around.”
Once the doors shut, Katherine pursed her lips and shook her head. “Not even a day and the wolves are descending…” she whispered.
“What?”
“She was trying to flirt with you.”
“Pfft!” I laughed. “No, she wasn’t. She was being friendly.”
We crossed the lobby to the front doors. The car was waiting for us. The valet fumbled to open Katherine’s door and ignored me. He flashed her his best smile.
“You’ve got a nice set of wheels, Ms. Carvosso. If there’s anywhere I could take you, maybe to dinner—?”
“No, I’m all set,” she said as we got in.
“Well, let me give you my number just in case—” She shut the door and sped out to the street.
“You know, most girls would be thrilled to have that kind of attention,” I said.
“I think it’s obvious I’m not most girls,” she said. The car drifted around a corner. “I’m not impressed when people turn into drooling apes.”
“You’re not even flattered?”
“When I first changed, I was. I was never horrible to look at, but I wasn’t anything special. So going from average to spectacular was like a dream come true. Eventually, I realized it wasn’t really me people were attracted to, it was the beautiful face,” she said. “But I’m more than my looks. I want to be liked for who I am.”
“It’s hard to believe that not a single guy has been swept off his feet by you.” Though, I wasn’t about to complain about that fact. “You’re sweet, and you’re smart. What more could they want?”
“I could name one thing, and it doesn’t require being nice, or smart,” she said.
“Oh…” I swallowed. The air in the car suddenly felt too warm. I was desperate to change the topic. “Is that why you don’t date?
“It’s one of the reasons.”
“What are the other reasons?”
“It’s insane to have a relationship while being a ninja; it’s reckless, and it makes you vulnerable. There’s no time to worry about someone else when you have to keep yourself alive. I’ve learned that if I want to save people, it means being alone,” she said.
She bit her lip, and her eyes started to water. Written on her face for one brief second was a lifetime of pain. Then she took a deep breath and buried it deep down in the place where she hid her weaknesses.
I didn’t like seeing her so upset because she didn’t deserve it. If anyone could understand that kind of longing to connect with another person, but being unable to, it was me. I puffed out my chest, determined to ensure she never felt that way again.
“Well, you don’t have to be alone anymore—I’ll keep you company,” I said.
“Is that so?”
“I mean, if y-you don’t think I would be too annoying to have around.”
A warm satisfaction filled her eyes. “No, not annoying at all,” she said.
We merged onto the highway. The mountains formed a craggy, blue wall in front of us. The clouds wrapped around their peaks like halos. I stretched my legs out and leaned my head against the seat belt. I watched the concrete city give way to grassy hills and woods. The highway soon condensed to two lanes. They slanted upwards and snaked into the mountains. My ears popped. Katherine didn’t let the sharp curves in the road slow her down—even though one mistake would send us flying off of the mountainside.
For a while, I could see houses poking through the trees, but
then they disappeared. Signs marking nearby towns evaporated. Soon we were the only car on the road.
There were no more paved exit ramps, just dirt roads. Katherine drove onto one. It was so steep; I was amazed we didn’t slide back down. Once we reached the top, the ground leveled out. The tires kicked up the dirt and formed a cloud behind us.
As we jostled along, we went by a NO TRESPASSING sign. She didn’t seem bothered by it, so I didn’t worry. Another mile passed, and there was another sign. She looked lost in her thoughts, so I didn’t want to bug her with questions. Finally, a gate made of thick steel poles blocked our way. The sign posted on it read: TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT.
“It’s only to scare people. I don’t actually shoot them.” She winked.
She waved her finger through the air. The chain on the gate unlatched and opened. Once we pulled through, it closed itself, and the chain returned to its locked position.
The road dipped down. The trees grew densely around us, blocking most of the view. I couldn’t tell where we were going now, or if there was anything we were heading towards.
We went around a bend and the trees scattered as we entered a valley. The entire basin was carpeted with lush grass and dotted with the kind of trees that people like to read underneath. We passed an expansive, sparkling lake. Surrounding the valley on all sides were pristine peaks tipped with white. I felt like we’d driven into a scenic calendar picture.
The centerpiece of the valley was an enormous house perched on a hill encircled by well-manicured lawns and gardens. It looked like a mountain lodge on steroids. It had beautiful stone work around the bottom and on the part of the log pillars supporting the roof. Rustic wood paneling and many windows covered the rest of the house.
“Home, sweet home,” she said. We drove onto the cobblestone driveway and into a round-a-bout. She parked in front of the door.
“This is your house?” I asked. It looked more like a high-end mall than a house. What would someone need all of that space for?