by Billy Miner
Just before the rain began to pour down, he stepped into the store.
Dingdong!
The bell rang.
“Hey, creeper. What are you doing here?” the lady at the store asked.
“I am just looking. Thank you,” Cayden answered.
“Okay, but if you’re not going to buy anything, then just leave. I don’t have time for leeches.”
What a hag. As soon as the rain would be over, he would get out of the store to avoid these evil old woman. Yuck. Could people be any more insulting?
He wasn’t really looking. He just wanted a place to hide from the rain, or better yet, to hide from the thunderbolts that gave him so much power. He had never caused such a big explosion before. This was dangerous.
4: City of Electricity
The rain was over. Cayden bought a small snack at the store and went outside. An electricity line was broken and a construction team, the fire department, and police officers had gathered around it to evaluate the situation.
It stood out. It made Cayden think. This whole city would be lost if the lights went out. Businesses would close, panic would arise, and nobody would be safe. He was sure that the stores would be robbed and that without alarms being able to go off, the crime rate would go up within moments. People run around, looking for a solution. Mayhem would be the constant companion of assaults and theft. It would be awful.
Such a delicate place, all based on the continuous flow from power plants. If all would collapse, would people show their true colors? Or would they be attracted to philanthropy and charity services? One could only wonder, he thought. Still, the question fascinated him.
He watched as a tram rode into a different direction, connecting to the opposite electricity cables. Somebody on the phone bumped into his shoulder.
“Watch where you’re going, pal!” the woman yelled. “No… it’s nothing,” she continued. “Just some loser who stood in my way. Now, what were you saying about the clothes that were on sale at the…?”
Cayden watched a boy playing a video game in the corner of a house. All the lights were on. His mother turned down the air-conditioning and pushed the button of the remote control for the television. He saw a woman cooking in a crockpot through a window while checking messages on her laptop. A car drove by with the heavy, loud base of a hip-hop song.
Everything was run electricity! It was all around him. How feeble… if the power turned off, what would people even be able to do anymore?
5: Confused
“Hey, you!” a voice shouted. It was an old man with a beard. He looked like he had lost his marbles long ago. His eyes were crossed and his coat was tattered. Not looking like the crème of the crop, or so Cayden concluded.
“Want to buy an electric blanket? That old piece of junk you have looks terrible. An electric blanket is lots warmer and all you have to do, is plug it in.”
“No, thank you,” Cayden said as he started walking away.
“Come back!” the man yelled. “You don’t know what you’re missing out on!”
“Oh, I know…” Cayden said.
This guy wouldn’t let go. How annoying. Cayden walked faster but the man kept following him. Eventually, the old man caught up with him and said in a stern voice, “Turn around.”
Cayden turned around. The man was holding a gun!
“Well, how about this, little creeper. Give me all your money or I’ll shoot you. You could have had it all, man. I offered you a great product, but you didn’t take it. And now you only have yourself to blame.”
“What?” Cayden said in disbelief.
“Come on,” the old man continued. “I don’t have all day. Hand me your wallet or I’ll kill you right here. Right now.”
Cayden reached for his wallet and grudgingly handed it over.
“Ha-ha-haa!” the man yelled as he ran away with his new possession.
Cayden stood there, robbed and discouraged. He came to his senses for a few seconds and then walked away. Should he call the police? The guy was long gone by now. There was nothing he thought he could do. He took his blanket out of his backpack again and set up a place where he could sleep on the sidewalk.
After about an hour, he woke up by severe pain in his stomach.
“Hey, dumb hobo,” a man in an ironed suit said, kicking the sleeping creeper. “Shouldn’t you be going to a homeless shelter and bug the social workers there instead of polluting the city with your foul stench? Get out of here. This is a decent neighborhood. We don’t want the likes of you. Go!”
Cayden was scared to death. The backlight behind the rich man made him appear even scarier, and it all happened so fast that Cayden had no clue how to react. So he picked up his stuff and ran off to a different location.
6: The Scary Woods
Days went by, and Cayden gradually became sick of the people in this city. He wanted to get out, but in order to do so, he had to go a long distance.
“Oh well, let’s just do it,” he decided as he hopped over the subway machines that actually needed a token. He knew it wasn’t legal to travel without paying, but he had nothing left and he wanted to leave more than anything.
Nobody came. He just sat there in the subway, with a dozen other people. No one suspected anything. Cayden sighed.
After an hour, he had reached the border of the city. He got out, walked upstairs with the crowd and set course to the woods. Passing a few more blocks, he reached the edge of town and ventured for the forest.
It was so peaceful. He loved it. The forest was full with green trees, fresh plants, and flowers in every color. He was so impressed that he decided to live here from now on.
“Yes, this is it,” he decided. “This is where I am going to live. I’ll survive by finding food here. It won’t be so hard.”
The trip had exhausted him and he fell asleep. He slept for hours, feeling that his energy got drained by the lack of food and sleep, as well as all the tension in his body by constantly being nervous because he travelled illegally. But now he was able to rest… finally.
He slept like a baby. It was all so serene and lovely in the woods. But there was something Cayden didn’t expect. He woke up. He yawned. Then he heard a loud “Meouw!”
“Oh no. It can’t be,” he thought. “Not cats. I hate cats. They hate me. We don’t get along.”
He looked at the trees around him, nervously fidgeting and tapping his feet.
There.
In the distance, a cat was slowly walking closer to him.
“Meouw!” the cat said.
“Meouw!” another went.
“Meouw!”
It was a whole pack of cats! Cayden stepped back and started sweating as he slowly walked backwards, not shifting his gaze from the approaching animals. He was so afraid of cats that he could explode right there, just because they agitated him. And was that an ocelot? Oh no! He hated those even more.
He counted them. There were five cats and three ocelots, all coming at him for some reason.
“Stay away!” Cayden yelled. “Leave me alone, stupid cats!”
“And ocelots,” one of the ocelots commented.
That’s right. Cayden forgot that he could speak with animals. He had been so caught up with everything else that this ability got lost in his memory.
“Yes, and ocelots,” he said. “So what? Now, stay over there and don’t come near me.”
“Why not?” one of the cats asked. “You seem pretty smart. You know we can’t do much to you. If we kill you, you will explode in our faces. Besides, what are you doing here anyway?”
“I wanted to leave the city. People are so mean there. I thought I would just reside in the woods instead.”
“What did they do to you?” an ocelot asked.
“Well, they robbed me, kicked me, yelled at me…” Cayden said before he got interrupted.
“Then what are you doing here?” the ocelot asked. “Shouldn’t you be doing something about it?”
“Ha! You don’t know what you’re ta
lking about,” Cayden answered. “What can I do about it? That’s just how people are.”
“All people?” one of the cats asked.
“Yes, all of them,” Cayden said in anger. “I’ve been treated like dirt. Nobody seems to care. And now I am broke too. I hate them! I hate all of them!”
“What are you waiting for then? Go get it,” the cat said.
“Get what?”
“Revenge,” the cats all said at the same time in an eerie tone.
7: Decisions
Cayden had been emotionally damaged, that was for sure. He was well aware of his state of mind, of his traumatic experiences. Shouldn’t this be a reason to stop thinking about it and not overestimate the clarity of his mind?
He shoved the thought away and got a raging look on his face. Here he was, talking to cats and ocelots, the scariest creatures on the planet, and they actually had a point!
“You’re right,” Cayden said with a bitter, determined face and a low tone. “Time for payback. They will suffer. Mark my words.”
He stepped forward and walked past the contrived creatures, feeling more courageous than ever before. In a resolute pace, he headed back to the city, ready to scheme against the entire metropolis that had hurt him so much.
As of now, he didn’t know what to do. He wanted something to do something big, something that would make them realize they couldn’t treat others like this. He was boiling up inside when he thought of the rude, inconsiderate monsters who had wronged him. For a few minutes, all that went through his mind were horrific images of vengeful hate. He steadied his pace and reached the bordering neighborhoods of the city.
Then he saw it.
He knew it.
This was his plan.
A few hundred feet away, he saw a power plant. That would be the perfect solution to his problem. He would turn off all electricity. It was brilliant. This is what he was going to do.
8: The Big Bang
Cayden realized it wasn’t as easy as he thought. How was he going to turn off the electricity in the city? Was there a central switch somewhere in the building? No. That would be too simple. Why would they have a switch that turned off all power? It was a ridiculous concept.
He went closer and saw a man standing guard. He didn’t expect that, but it made sense. Not too beneficial for him though. Now he needed away around him.
“Ah,” Cayden thought. “What better distraction than a little fire?”
With two branches, he rubbed off a spark and blew at it lightly to increase its range. Slowly but surely, Cayden managed to start a small fire. Then he took a heavy branch and held it in the flames. It was like a torch.
He snuck to the guard but kept his distance. Anyone else standing there? Not really. This was the only person there. Everything else was safe.
Then he threw the lit up torch in some bushes across from him.
“Hey, what the…?” the guard said.
The guard walked to the burning bushes. That was the moment Cayden ran as fast as his legs would carry him. The guard didn’t even notice him; his attention got caught by the fire.
Cayden approached the enormous building and climbed the outside stairs to the rooftop. Now what?
Again, a storm was raging, but it was still far away. However, this is exactly the idea that Cayden was looking for. Being a creeper, he had the perfect opportunity to blow up everything by becoming a lightning rod and redirecting that power to the power plant, causing it to break down, so that the city would be without electricity.
He waited and waited, feeling rather proud of himself because of his plan. The obscure clouds came closer and the heavy rain started.
Bombombombom!
The thunder was heavy and threatening, but Cayden was holding on to the cables and the lines of the power plant, awaiting the lightning to strike.
Bombombombom!
The sound of more heavy thunder tore the air. The rain soaked everything around him, even causing certain ditches and trenches to become flooded.
But then he heard a voice.
“Cayden, is that you?!”
The wet creeper had no clue who that could be. Who would follow him all the way up here, on the roof of a power plant, and in this weather?
Then he saw it.
What a coincidence.
It was Marley. Finishing his climb on the tall ladder, he stuck his head above the rooftop and shouted, “Cayden, don’t do it! Just think about it!”
The rain was loud and it was hard for Cayden to understand him completely, yet he still made sense out of what the friendly hobo was trying to say.
“I have thought about it!” Cayden yelled. “People are rude! They are mean! They deserve what was coming to them all along! Don’t try to talk me out of it! This must be done!”
“No, Cayden,” Marley said as he got closer to the desperate creeper. “You are better than that. I know you’ve been hurt. People have kicked me when I was down too. But you have to stand above that. You can’t let them determine who you are.”
He continued, “Listen to me, Cayden. When you showed me kindness by treating me dinner and giving me a quarter, you may have thought it didn’t mean much, but to me it meant the world. By the way, I got the job at the pizza place. I have an apartment now. Oh, and here is your quarter back. Thanks again, buddy.”
Cayden broke down and cried. He saw what he was about to do. Because of a series of unfortunate events and confrontations with the wrong people, he had a generalized view of the wickedness of the city which was simply wrong. There were good people in this city, including this sincere guy who used to be a beggar like him.
“Please let go of the cables,” Marley said as he stood within three feet distance from the upset creeper. “I will take you to my apartment.”
But it was too late.
Lightning struck.
“Aaaaaaah!” Cayden exclaimed, feeling the electricity flow through his body, fully charging him with phenomenal power.
9: The Mines
Luckily, Cayden had let go of the cables before he got struck by the thunderbolt. Marley leaped back, away from the creature that was ready to explode.
Cayden was shaking. He was full with electricity from the thunderclouds. He was blue and white all over, illuminating an area of 50 feet around him with intense, bright light. It was all in him. It needed to blow up somewhere, and he didn’t have much longer to decide where.
“Get out of here while you still can,” he encouraged Marley. “I can’t hold this back for much longer.”
Then Marley got an idea.
“How much longer do you think?” he asked.
“Five, maybe ten minutes,” the answer was.
“Perfect. Let’s go. I have an idea,” Marley said.
Cayden followed Marley down the ladder. Both of them jumped on the sand next to the building and started running towards an area Cayden had never been before. They pushed the guard over before shouting, “Excuse us, coming though” and arrived at a mountain range.
“See that?” Marley asked.
“What is it?” Cayden asked.
“It’s the boulder in front of the mines,” he said. “With all the explosive energy in you, I think you are allowed to blow your heart out. Go ahead and blow up that annoying boulder.”
Cayden squinted his eyes and with a determined expression he his mouth lifted a little on one side, portraying a sly smirk.
“Good idea,” he said in a low voice. “Let’s crack this thing and blow it to pieces.”
He stepped back, stroke his right foot on the floor as if he was a bull, ready to attack. Then he sprinted as fast as he could at the blocking boulder.
“You’re going dooooooown!” he yelled, taking courage.
He came closer and closer.
BAAAOOOOOOM!
It was such as big explosion that the ground shook all around him. People would later still discuss the strange earthquake feeling they had at that moment.
The rocks and bou
lder shattered into a thousand bits, freeing the entrance to the mine. Smoke evaporated from the scene, clouding Marley’s vision even more than the heavy rain and the grey sky.
“Ughh…” he coughed, moving his hand back and forth as to blow off the smoke from his face.
He watched the area where the boulder had been, and a newborn hero walked triumphantly through the rain, emerging from the thick vapor and smiling proudly.
“You did it, Cayden! You did it! You opened up the mine!” Marley cheered.
“Yeah, it seemed rather easy,” Cayden bragged. “I don’t know why you guys had such a hard time blowing it up.”
“Speaking of which,” Marley said, rubbing his chin. “I am sure you can find a job at the mines, working as an explosive tool. There are numerous moments when they need a good, powerful explosion to help their work progress. I will see the former boss of the mineworkers.”
No sooner said than done, the mines were open for exploration again. Marley went back to work at his old job, but this time as a highly paid project manager. And Cayden? Cayden had the time of his life blowing up whatever rocks would come his way. His passion had become his profession.
THE END
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