by K. T. Hanna
“I’m good, Jacob. Thanks, though. It looked far worse than it was. Just had to go get checked out.” I hope my smile seemed genuine and I shrugged into my jacket more hoping to conceal the scar.
I couldn’t very well tell him that I was great after my brain restarted and plunged me straight into bizarro land. He’d have me over to the counseling office in no time flat.
“Okay, but let me know if you need anything. You might still be in shock.” He reached forward and ruffled my hair. It wasn’t my fault he was taller than me. Stupid genetics. He’d done that since I was about ten, so I couldn’t really complain. “I have to head into work in a few. Will you be okay alone here tonight?”
I glanced at my watch, trying to brush off his concern. I wasn’t that fragile, I just got electrocuted, that’s all. But I didn’t say that out loud. Instead, I began to wonder where Orion was. I usually knew what was going on, but today had been an odd day. “I’ll be fine. Just going to lie down, probably sleep a bit.”
I could dream, right? Jacob nodded and wandered back to the living area, leaving me to stand there watching him. People always seemed to salivate after the good-looking people. Jacob wasn’t ugly, but he wasn’t gorgeous. Soft brown hair with a hint of curl, amber brown eyes that sometimes looked gold in the sunlight. Just tall enough to annoy me at around six feet tall, yet short enough that he got irritated when he couldn’t reach something.
Absentminded though he was, Jacob was a good guy. More beautiful than ninety percent of the world because of his heart.
My heart, on the other hand, had stopped today. Literally. With both of my roommates out of the house, now was the perfect time for me to figure out how it had started again, and just what I had to do to keep it that way. Because apparently the system’s judgement was beyond reproach.
Resuming Tutorial
This information is vital to your participation in the Second Chance Program. It would be best to remain undisturbed.
The words weren’t ominous in themselves, but their context, that the program was watching my every move. That was pretty bloody spooky. Since I was fairly sure now that I wasn’t having a weird dream, this whole situation left me with an overwhelming sense of curiosity tempered by the fact that I hadn’t asked to be brought back to life. Consent obviously wasn’t its consideration.
I took a deep breath and figured I may as well get it over with. As if reading my thoughts, which it likely was, the tutorial began again, but this time it skipped over the accident, and went back to the diagram.
Fingers. Okay, I could live with that. I could activate electrical impulses through touch. At least theoretically. It would allow me to circumvent electrical locks, bypass computer protections, and basically disrupt anything that relied on either of those for monitoring and security.
Great. I was going to be a master thief. It felt a little anti-climactic, and I had to wonder if it was going to interfere with my IT career. I’d been fighting through my studies for over two years already. For this to halt my progress—that would piss me off.
As if to answer my disgruntled question, the next prompt showed how to control this power.
I had to will it to happen. No one ever wished for anything bad when they were feeling hot headed, did they now? This meant I was going to have to get a better handle on my temper, which my parents had been trying to get me to do for the last almost twenty-one years, so good luck on that, Second Chance Program.
Willing, and specifically focusing. I had to touch the object I needed to access and will the energy through my fingers to perform whatever action was needed. It felt so rudimentary, like it wasn’t a special power at all, but a sort of stopgap measure. I guess getting electrocuted to death didn’t make me a superhero. The disappointment was real.
Frowning, I motioned with my mind, if that’s even a thing, for more information. But the next section had a lock hanging over it, like I needed to go and learn how to use what it had taught me first before it would allow me to access other tutorials for my more advanced abilities. Pay to play in my head. Fantastic.
Here I was going to college and having courses about electricity manipulation in my head at the same time. Unlocking new chapters felt like I had to study. What if I accidentally triggered something they hadn’t taught me yet? Brilliant idea, right?
I sighed and gave in to reviewing the information available to me. If I concentrated, I could turn the image around and view my body from all different angles, visualize the flow of power as it accumulated in my fingertips. I frowned. While technically it made sense, there seemed to be other avenues that it could travel, other ways for me to expel that force. Didn’t the human body run on electricity? A minuscule amount, at any rate. I wasn’t an electrical engineer or pre-med student though, so my thoughts on the matter were purely speculative.
The electricity in the human body might only be low voltage and small, but that didn’t negate the fact that neurons and synapse function relied on the element. Surely that gave rise to far more fascinating things than had been in the tutorial so far.
Skill acquired: Rudimentary Electrical Pulse Control
Still. I couldn’t help feeling underwhelmed at the whole idea. This computer in my head acted like it knew everything, yet this whole Second Chance thing was decidedly duller than anticipated. Electricity ran everything. Whether it was solar powered, wind or water powered, or even coal… electricity was life. Now it had effectively saved mine. Food for brain thought.
Saving the world from itself. What a crock of crap.
Second Chance Terms of Service Accepted. Please direct any inquiries in specific terms.
I raised an eyebrow and opened my eyes, the words now hazier, but still present. Specific terms, eh? Apart from asking it what the hell type of practical joke it thought it was, I did actually have questions about mechanics and development.
“Do the powers increase? Or is this all they are?”
Please rephrase the inquiry.
Rolling my eyes wasn’t going to work against whatever this was, but oh how I wanted it to. “Is this all there is to my powers?”
In order to prevent fatal errors, SC has determined that starting with basic releases of power is the best course of action. Some abilities, when used before control has been gained, can burn their host from the inside out.
Well, I guess I was lucky the system was on my side. It wasn’t exactly something I’d thought of in my few hours of a second life.
“Thanks,” I said awkwardly, not really expecting a response but not sure of what else to say.
Silence followed, and I thought it best to get up so I could rummage around the kitchen before I gave in and made ramen to appease my grumbling stomach. Whatever anyone else said, apparently dying made me really hungry.
You are welcome.
Somehow the voice in my head, the words in front of my eyes, they sounded hesitant. Like the program wasn’t sure what to make of someone thanking it. I didn’t respond further—it wasn’t necessary—but since this whole thing started, it was the first moment I thought things might turn out okay.
The kitchen was clean, again. Jacob often got into bouts of insomnia and spent all of his time cleaning. I wished I could say the same for Orion, and yet cleanliness wasn’t in the top of my criteria for being a best friend. Being there to talk to was, and right now I couldn’t even share anything with Orion, so it was better for him not to be here.
Peanut butter and jelly for a very late lunch. Good ole PB&J. It was my go-to, along with a small, elementary school lunch-box-sized gala apple that I could get for a whopping fifty cents each. Dinner would be the ramen stacked in my room that I got on sale when Jacob’s parents took us all to the local bulk order store. Their use by date was well into the future, although now that I’d died, I did wonder if anything could kill me.
You can technically die again. Be cautious.
Second Chance doesn’t provide invulnerability. It might take more to kill you, but you can still die.
I bent my knee and straightened it again, noticing that the scrape I got on the way can home was non-existent now. At least insofar as feeling it went. I hadn’t had the courage to look yet. That was a better explanation than I’d had for most of anything since entering this, second state of my life. So I smiled, sending thanking thoughts. Perhaps it was a machine, a computer, a chip, or I was losing my shit, but either way, it seemed to react well to being treated with respect. That and it appeared we were quite literally stuck together.
PB&Js should have some sort of award. The way it mingles in my mouth, triggering saliva and generally making me a happy person for a few moments. Usually that small glee lasts a lot longer, but not every day involves death, learning you have powers, and then the words: FIRST ASSIGNMENT flashing across your eyes.
What the—
Location: Heavenly Dough on the corner of West and Main.
Objective: This task must be performed without being noticed before, during, or after. Do not disturb anything unnecessarily. You will be required to utilize your abilities for the first time. Leave the target object in your apartment mailbox once you are done.
Target: Retrieve a file from the office marked “Accounts Receivable: Dionce”
Time Limit: 7:30pm today.
Reward: Progression experience. Monetary compensation. Both of these are dependent on the quality of performance.
My thoughts rushed through my head so fast it was hard to grab hold of one. The most astonishing thing to me was: wait, what? Why the fuck was I breaking into a bakery? Then I focused on the fact that I might get paid for this. So while I had to keep up appearances in my normal life, I’d be getting paid for my work in the program. Or maybe I’d gain Second Chance coins I could save and use to unlock abilities.
Sometimes sarcasm was my only friend.
Stealing a file sounded far more like petty theft, and less like: oh hi, you have superpowers. Make sure you pursue a life of crime. It made even less sense to be stealing something from a bakery.
Assignments are allocated based on the skills required to perform them. The lock will require that you unlock it using your abilities. It is an initial test of your control. This task must be completed, not questioned.
What, so I have to make sure the dough rises? But the system gave me no response. Obviously it didn’t have a sense of humor. I guess that told me. I didn’t thank the system this time but glanced at my phone to see what time it was. Didn’t the program know anything about me? Don’t tell me not to do something; it’s paramount to egging me on to do that exact thing.
It was already four o’clock in the afternoon. Damn it. If I didn’t want to fail my first task, I was going to have to leave shortly. Just to make sure I made it with plenty of time to spare. Being late to anything was one of my pet peeves.
In the back of my mind I couldn’t help thinking this was a test. A test of what, I had no idea. How this file was going to save humanity from itself and other threats wasn’t obvious in any way either. If I could do this, they’d let me stay in the program, they’d let me live.
No, that wasn’t creepy at all.
It also didn’t make any sense. I finished shoving the sandwich into my mouth, not taking the time to enjoy the texture or taste. Next I grabbed a damned light jacket. It was only going to get colder between the concrete buildings, and the dip in temperature that accompanied the close onset of spring in the evening. It was light weight, and yet zipped up into a black hoodie. The extra paneling on the outside would help me stay warm and hopefully incognito. Although, depending on how badly I did, it could yield the opposite results. Still, I didn’t have another option.
My phone was at fifty percent battery, which gave me a good few hours even if I practiced my nervous habit of surfing on it all the way to my destination. I needed to keep my fingers busy. Maybe the program knew that; perhaps that’s why it made them the channeling source for my ability, skill, whatever.
I had no clue, and if the system could hear my inner monologue it wasn’t giving me any signs of it. It left me alone. With my thoughts. Running rampant through my mind.
Fantastic.
Grabbing my wallet, I pulled the zipper up on my jacket and shoved my hands into my pockets. No, I didn’t look suspicious at all. Maybe the system was ignoring me because of the constant sarcasm in my head.
Closing my door, I headed out into the living area, checking myself for the keys. How I wished I could have coded entry like I knew some of the newer apartment complexes had. Still, I loved the charm of this old brick townhome. Just as I was reaching for the door, it opened toward me.
I had a moment of panic, of complete surety that I was about to get robbed, that I was here at the wrong time. My fingers crackled, and I glanced down at them, shocked to see tiny remnants of what appeared to be mini lightning strikes coating them.
I had to clench my fingers into fists when I realized that it wasn’t a robber—it was Orion.
He glanced up at me, surprise on his face. His almost black hair fell forward from the sides of his head where I knew he’d pushed it impatiently behind his ears. “Aren’t you usually at the library?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t know what to say. He sounded so concerned, and I was drawing a blank. Then I remembered Jacob’s worry. Clutching to it like a lifeline, I forced a smile. “Had a bit of an accident, but they took me to the hospital and had me checked out, so I’m okay. Hungry though, so I’m off to grab some food.”
Orion raised an eyebrow, and I could see the cogs whirring in his brain. Knowing my luck, I probably had the remnants of that damned PB&J on my face. Or else, he’d known me since I could remember and knew my budgetary requirements were definitely on a par with his. He also knew about my ramen stash, because he had an almost identical one. Eating out just wasn’t my thing. It was a luxury I wouldn’t usually afford.
Well done with the thinking on my feet there, self.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” His voice was softer than usual. Lulling with the concern that was so real it was poignant. “You seem pale. You should sit down. I can order us something in.”
“No. It’s okay.” The words almost choked me, because I realized as he asked that question, I was anything but okay. There was nothing right then that I didn’t want more than to sit down with him and feel safe. But I couldn’t tell him, I couldn’t tell anyone. So I forced another smile. “It’s just been one of those days, you know? I think I deserve a treat.”
His eyes lit up, like he understood that sentiment, and he probably did, because I knew he’d had a good few of those days himself. Always there for me, like I tried to be for him. One of the most selfless people I knew, as he demonstrated with his next words. “If you wait a few minutes, I’ll come with you.”
It took all my strength to deny him, all my strength to force myself to make hurt appear in those blue eyes. From the reflection of our entire history together, to the intelligence in them. “I kind of just want to be alone right now. Lots of mortality shit taking up my mind. But can we hang when I get back?”
I desperately wanted that pain to go away, wanted to make sure he realized I wasn’t just blowing him off. That I’d rather sit down and goof off discussing our days and the latest fads we’d grown too old for.
He nodded, even though his expression was more wary than usual. I knew he’d come around eventually. He just had to.
“Sure thing. Just be careful out there. No more accidents. Stay sharp out there.”
“Like a knife.” I said, pushing my way out of the apartment before I could change my mind. No more accidents was my fucking middle name from now on.
I’m not sure why I still felt chilly as I stepped out onto the street. With my jacket pulled tightly around
me, it should have warded off most of it. While it wasn’t quite spring yet, the days weren’t cold as such. Perhaps the shadows exacerbated the fact that I hate the cold. Or that whole death thing. Give me sunshine any day of the week. Cold and dreary made me want to sleep and never wake up. And today there seemed to be shadows at every corner.
Even those thoughts felt too close to home, and I glanced at the cheap step counter my older brother, Davin, had gotten me for Christmas. It did the job, even had an app thing it could hook to on my phone, but it wasn’t working. Hell, I think I was lucky my phone was working after being hit by that much electricity.
I still had a few hours before the deadline, but the sense of urgency I felt tried to choke me. Heavenly Dough was one of the best bakeries in town. In the afternoons it swapped over to shepherd pies, casseroles, stews, and other amazing food for those who didn’t have time to cook or had stayed late at work. It was perilously close to the areas that gentrification wasn’t quite brave enough to tackle yet. Of course, it wasn’t as bad as the open air drug market up in Kensington, but you could still mostly tell where the boundary lines were drawn.
It was a good twenty-minute walk north, and right then I didn’t feel like taking anything powered by electricity. Call me paranoid, but I thought I’d avoid subways and cable cars for a while lest some random power surges derailed them.
My fingers crackled at the thought, and I hugged my arms around my chest, wishing my jeans were warmer and that I’d chosen a winter jacket instead of my hoodie. Maybe the cold seeping through to me was a remnant of death.
I was more than half way to the bakery before I realized the one big flaw in my rushed exit. I didn’t bring a backpack, so this file folder thing, which sounded very papery and not as digital as I’d expected, was going to have to fit under my jacket. Maybe I could stuff it in the waistband of my jeans. Next time, if I made it through this time, I’d have to brain more.
Still though, this task, mission, whatever it was, bothered me. Maybe the system would react to a direct question.