by Aaron Slade
“What’s this?” I asked.
“This is what everyone reads when they get old enough to start developing their ability. I found it in your dad’s books. Usually by the time a child is twelve they’ve read this. Dr. Miller is an expert on extra-human traits. The book helps and teaches people to understand their abilities. Control takes time. You’re a few years late, so get reading.”
I examined the book. The cover had a picture of a girl using her telekinesis to lift several marbles in front of her. I opened the cover to several pages of brain diagrams, charts, and tables. It looked incredibly boring, and I had a hard time believing many people had read it.
“How am I supposed to read this book on top of my school work?” I still had English Lit assignments to read before school tomorrow.
“You don’t have to read the whole book,” he said, “just the chapters that apply to you. Each chapter is about a particular type of extra-human trait. I’ve been reading it all night, and it doesn’t list anything similar to your ability.”
I closed the useless book and rolled my eyes. “How’s it supposed to help if it doesn’t say anything about my ability?”
“It’s better than nothing,” he said. “Look at page twelve.”
I opened the book to the page and read it to myself. The title of the chapter was Your Brain and You. Below the title was a cartoon brain smiling. I felt the tickle in my head of Uncle Jesse reading along with me:
The secret to the brain’s gifts is locked in our DNA. One gene in particular allows for a portion of the brain to develop differently from the rest of the brain, creating what the scientific community calls “Ghost Matter.” Ghost matter, named for its white and translucent color in neuroimaging, allows neural cells to function at a higher level than normal brain cells. The phenomenon is simple: mind over matter. Ghost matter allows the brain to interact with the environment around us.
One way to determine an extra-human trait is to identify which part of the brain is specially developed. Every ability correlates with a particular area of the brain. For example, areas highly developed in the occipital lobe of the brain often result in telekinetic abilities. Highly developed parietal lobes in the brain often allow a person to teleport. Each chapter in this book will focus on a specific area of the brain, and the extra-human traits that I have linked to those areas.
With neuroimaging, medical doctors can now give parents an idea of what their child’s ability will be by simply analyzing the brain scans. The area of the brain that is specially developed will appear brighter than the rest of the brain. The ghost matter collects in one area of the brain. Ghost matter will appear white, pearl, or even silvery on brain scans.
It should be noted that this is not a perfect system. Lobes and glands in the brain can vary in size. Detecting some of the nooks and crevices of the organ can be a challenge. Neuroimaging of the brain is not always the easiest way to determine a person’s extra-human trait type.
I read the page several times, hoping some sentence would lead me to an answer I’d missed the first time. It was all general and vague, but not a complete waste.
“So if we can find out what part of my brain controls my ability, we might be able to understand more about it?” I asked.
“That’s just it,” Uncle Jesse replied. “From the time you were three, your parents had you in and out of hospitals and research facilities at the Military Base. Neuroimaging of your brain never revealed anything. You must have had dozens of brain scans, but the doctors never found anything.” He stood up from my desk chair.
Everything seemed so complicated and scientific. I’d always thought an EHT would make things easier. Last night I’d been happy just to have an ability, but now I felt overwhelmed by it.
“So what do I do?” I asked. “I need to know what it is.”
“There’s a chapter in the book about heightened senses.” He paced the area in front of my bed. “These people have either enhanced hearing, smell, or sight. That chapter might help since your ability helps you see something that others can’t see. But you have to understand that it takes time. It took me years to control my mind reading. I used to hear everyone around me. But I practiced enough that eventually I could focus on one person. It’s not always easy, Casper. Having an ability can be scary and even dangerous.”
I remembered Colonel Ford telling me that he would cover the floor in ice when he was a toddler. Evee mentioned several times that her ability was difficult to get a grip on as well. Growing up with Adam, I witnessed on several occasions him teleporting us somewhere other than our destination.
“So what do I do for answers in the mean time?”
“Read the book,” he said. “But I have a few answers already… I think Evee has more to do with this than we realize. All of this seems to be timed perfectly with her arrival.”
“Evee thinks I’m seeing emotions,” I said. I wanted him to agree or disagree– to say something helpful.
He scratched his head. “I’ve been trying to make sense of it all night. I think she might be right. Until now, your own emotions have been in your way. Your classmates treated you horribly, and you hated them for it. You’ve hated Randy Alcott and everything his gang has done to you. I’ve seen it in your head all these years. Hate stopped you from discovering your ability before now. And Evee helped you let go.” He positioned himself in front of the window, looking out at the early grey morning. “She showed you a love that allowed you to love yourself. That’s what’s unlocked your ability. What if what we call love is an energy, and that’s what you’re seeing?”
“Love isn’t something physical that can be seen, though,” I said.
“You feel something deep for Evee, don’t you?” he asked. “What you feel is what you see.”
The more he spoke, the more I was able to put little bits and pieces together. “Negative emotions keep me from seeing it.” I suddenly realized why Adam didn’t have an aura. He was afraid of something, and I knew why, but I couldn’t let Uncle Jesse see that information. I tried to think of other things, wondering if it was too late.
“There’s one more thing,” Uncle Jesse said. He paused, and I knew he was listening in his head to see if Mom and Dad were awake yet, which he only did if he needed me to keep a secret. “You can’t tell anyone about your ability yet. Not even your parents, and I need you to trust me on this. We’ll tell your parents after graduation.”
“Why?”
“I need you to trust me, Casper.” His youthful face turned desperate, and his dark eyes quivered.
I agreed not to tell anyone else. Only Adam, Uncle Jesse, Evee, and I would know for now.
We spent the next hour fumbling through Dr. Miller’s book of EHTs. The chapter on heightened senses was a waste of time. It didn’t say anything about seeing colors or people glowing. We searched the word Aura in the index, but it wasn’t there. There was a brief section in the book where some psychics could manipulate peoples’ emotions, but nothing about seeing emotions. When the book started to seem useless, Uncle Jesse suggested that I document my ability in my journal.
I spent the whole day hovering over my journal, recording every miniscule detail and speculation I had about my extra-human trait. I made a list of positive emotions and negative emotions. If Evee and Uncle Jesse were right, I had to let go of all the bad that had happened to me. This wasn’t going to be easy.
Evee:
Casper moved with a new attitude. The way he walked was different, as if he took pleasure in each individual step. The smile that he usually forced into an emotionless scowl now seemed natural and genuine. This was the Casper I’d seen in my vision. Did Shannon know that Casper would have an extra-human trait? I originally thought being human is what made Casper special, but maybe Shannon meant something else.
It was our first day of school as an official couple, and we wanted to arrive together. Dad dropped me off at Casper’s house on his way to work. After I stole the car last week and discovered that Zana was in Fallon, Dad h
ad been more inclined to let me have my way about a few things. He’d been away from the house more than usual lately. I didn’t know when he was sleeping because he never came home at night. It was like I lived by myself at the base. Just like Seattle, Portland, and San Diego. Why would Fallon be any different? But none of that mattered, because now I had Casper, and his family almost felt like my family.
“I have some new developments about my ability,” Casper said, opening the car door for me.
Casper closed my door, and ran around the car to the driver’s seat. The wind blew his hair straight up, and once he got in the car, I tried to flatten it, but it refused, standing right back up. His scent of cedar and desert lingered in the car.
Casper told me that his uncle had read his mind, and found out everything. They had a plan to record everything they observed about Casper’s ability. He showed me the dozen pages in his journal he had written the night before. The pages were hard to read as if he had sped through writing them. His handwriting couldn’t be worse.
“I’ve come to one conclusion,” Casper said. “If I am angry, afraid, sad, or feel pain it’s impossible for me to see my aura or anyone else’s. I think that’s why Adam doesn’t have an aura.” He sounded certain.
We pulled out of Casper’s driveway and headed to the school. Fallon was brighter today than usual. I found a list in Casper’s journal, and read my name on it. Casper listed the colors of people’s auras in his journal. Mine was listed as cyan– which I knew was a blue like my eyes. Casper’s parents both had the same ruby-colored aura and Uncle Jesse a silvery aura, but the space next to Adam’s name was blank.
“You think Adam is upset about something?” I asked. I wondered if it was because I now took up so much of Casper’s time. Adam, the brother and best friend, might have felt left out lately.
“I know Adam is afraid,” Casper said. He kept his eyes focused on the road as we drove down Main Street towards the school. “I wasn’t going to tell you this because I didn’t want to scare you. Adam is in trouble. This woman named Zana Marcelo is recruiting Adam after graduation, and he doesn’t want to go with her. He wants to go to the Texas University that accepted him, but this Zana-woman is forcing him to go with her.”
All the brightness disappeared from of the environment when Casper said Zana’s name. Everything froze and I spaced out, staring at the dash of Casper’s car. Zana and Casper were two parts of my life I wanted to keep completely separate, but now they had crashed together without me knowing. He knew Zana’s name, and for some reason she wanted Adam. Did he know if my dad was involved with Zana? If Casper knew everything I did, he would never speak to me again. The last thing I wanted was for my new life here in Fallon to fall apart before it began.
Casper continued. “Adam is trying to be strong, but I know him. He’s wanted to go to college as long as I have. He’s not supposed to be involved with Military service or elite groups. He’s too smart for that.”
Everything he said confirmed all my fears. Fallon wasn’t safe if Zana was here. She was already targeting people. There would be more unexplained disappearances, more Military authority, and more violence. How could I tell Casper? I was just as bad as my father for staying quiet this long. I had to hope that nothing bad would happen, which was difficult considering my death had been predicted. I felt sure Zana would be connected to my death if she had the chance. She hated me.
“You alright?” Casper asked.
“Yeah… why?” I asked immediately.
He squinted, trying to see something. “Your aura disappeared.” His eyes scanned me up and down.
Of course he could see my fear and worry. There was something he could see that I couldn’t, and it betrayed my thoughts. I had to lie to him. Lying was natural after growing up around Dad– it was as simple as not saying anything.
“I’m just worried for Adam,” I lied.
Casper smiled and tried to be reassuring. “Adam says he’ll be fine. Zana might be able to force Adam to go with her, but the job she’s offering him might actually be good. I think Adam is mostly sad that he’ll miss college. Both of us worked hard to go.”
I knew how competitive university placement could be. Getting accepted was a huge honor, but Zana was powerful enough to make anyone do anything she wanted, and those things were never good.
Casper grabbed my hand. His touch soothed my anxiety. He laced his fingers through mine, keeping one hand on the steering wheel. He raised our intertwined hands up to his face, examining something I couldn’t see. Casper struggled to keep his eyes on the road and nearly ran a stop sign. When the car abruptly stopped I had to know what he was doing.
“What are you seeing?” I asked. I wonder if I should be worried.
“Something new,” he said, focusing at our hands. He squinted, letting go of my hand, and then gripping it again. “The light changes colors when we touch. Our auras blend, creating a new shade… it’s white– maybe pearl.”
He made me write it down in his journal.
I smiled, hoping that he would believe it was a genuine smile. I worried for Adam the rest of the ride to school. My list of worries added up in the back of my head: my death, Casper’s secret ability, Adam and Zana, and what might happen to Fallon now that Zana was here. She and Dad were responsible for all sorts of destruction in the Western Territories. As we pulled into the school, it was easy to pretend that everything was fine– that I was a seventeen-year-old girl without a care in my life, who would graduate high school soon– and a girl with a new boyfriend to show off.
“That’s more like it,” Casper said. “Your aura’s back. It was dim there for a minute.”
Casper parked his car in the vacant parking lot behind the school. A chain link fence separated the area for cars from the place students congregated in the morning under some giant oak trees. The students called this area the Oasis– the strong oaks provided shade from the already scorching Nevada sun. I’d been dropped off near the oasis every day since I arrived to Fallon, but I’d never made an entrance quite like today. All the students were staring at me– and Casper. None of them moved, but they slowly began to whisper to each other.
“Why are they staring?” I asked.
“They’re not used to seeing me pull up with a stunning girl.”
I wondered if Casper had anticipated this reaction. He sarcastically waved to the crowd of staggered students, who looked more like a crowd of zombies from a movie Casper gave me to watch the previous week. They looked confused, slack-jawed and frozen. We laughed, making our way toward the back entrance. I took his hand, and to my surprise their eyes opened even wider. They never expected to see Casper with a girl– the idea was so outlandish to them.
“I guess they don’t approve,” Casper said. “Or they’re jealous.”
We walked to our first period class talking about term papers that weren’t due for another two weeks. Mrs. White stood at the door of her class handing out graded papers as her students entered. She searched through the pile to find Casper’s and mine. She handed us our papers, which both received top marks with smiley faces next to our grades. When the bell rang, Mrs. White closed the door.
“Casper,” Mrs. White said. “Your dad needs to see you in his office.”
Casper rolled his eyes– a bad habit he had. “Yes, ma’am.”
Since I’d been in Fallon, it wasn’t unusual for Casper’s dad to pull him out of class. Casper told me he thought it was his dad’s way of spending more time together before graduation. His dad was letting go slowly.
Casper left the classroom, leaving the area around me somewhat empty. Sara sat on the row next to me, but several desks up. The other desks around me were all empty– I’d never noticed until Casper was gone.
“Everyone turn to page two-fifty-four,” Mrs. White said. “Today we begin talking about a time in history that most historians are ashamed to mention. History is not always pleasant to hear, but we have to be willing to learn the darker events of history, or
we’ll condemn ourselves to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
It was rare for Mrs. White’s lecture to capture the entire class, but today everyone was listening. She hadn’t assigned reading over the weekend, which was unusual. Mrs. White stood at the front near the chalk board, wearing a green blouse with her arms folded. She looked stressed, but after a second of concentration, the piece of chalk lifted into the air and wrote the subject of today’s lecture on the board.
THE HUMAN TRIALS
“When the Blight ended, eight percent of the surviving population was human, or Homo sapien,” Mrs. White said. “In almost every survival city, humans gathered and formed treasonous groups that provoked violence. Can anyone tell me why?”
Sara shot her hand in the air faster than anyone around her. I’d never seen this confidence in her. Her only usual competition in class was Casper.
“According to our textbook, all the officials of the Military were extra-human,” Sara began. “The Homo sapiens resented that they had become the minority, and were forced to accept the authority of extra-humans. For them, the violence wasn’t over. They planted bombs, caused riots, and it’s said that they even held private executions of Homo evalescos. Humans formed supremacy groups, and killed hundreds. Their most effective weapons were guns, and not all extra-humans could defend themselves against guns.”
Mrs. White beamed at Sara’s response with a gracious smile. “Who can tell me how the Military responded to the violence of the Homo sapiens?”
One of the twins raised her hand. I couldn’t tell Kristy and Kelly apart, and I didn’t care to put in the time to do so. It was the first time I’d seen her active in class since I’d arrived. She had short, brown hair and a nasally voice. Her sister sat next to her, wearing the same low-cut shirt but a different color.
“The Military arrested all of the humans, and put them on trial,” she said with a smug grin.
“Thank you, Kelly.” Mrs. White said. “And, of course, you all know what happened next. The trials found the humans guilty, and they were all branded with the mark. The Military officials decided that Homo sapiens couldn’t be trusted. The Military’s goal has always been to rebuild society– make it better than it was, and the humans stood against that. Human women gave birth to extra-human children, but many of those infants were abandoned… or killed by their parents.”