Ascension (Powered)

by Zachary Stone

  “Yes, I’m Megan, you can call me Meg.” she said

  “Did you turn her or was she born a vampire?” I asked.

  “I gave birth to her,” she said.

  About two dozen of us crowded around a large table in the dining room. Everyone was hungry and wanted to eat. I realized that a lot of my life now would revolve around food.

  I sat down between Cathy and Lizzie.

  “So where would you like to get married, Eli?” asked Lizzie. “I know a beautiful chapel on Hilton Head.”

  “Well, I can’t think about that right now. We first need to find a way to defeat the queen,” I said.

  “Loosen up a little!” she said. “You’re engaged to a beautiful woman and have eternal life. Be happy!”

  Lizzie seemed much more fun loving and bubbly than Cathy. Although Cathy didn’t have a gloomy personality, she was more quiet and reserved. Lizzie was much more of a socialite. In a way it was attractive to me, but in another way she seemed a little shallow.

  “Okay, I'll try,” I told her.

  She reached towards me and gave me a hug.

  “I'm so glad you’re marrying my sister,” she said.

  “Hey, hands off,” Cathy said.

  “I'm just giving him a hug,” she said.

  “Well, that’s your one hug for the night,” she said.

  Lizzie let go and Cathy took my hand. I enjoyed holding her hand in mine. It made me feel like I had a connection to her. Although holding hands could seem trivial to some people, it meant something to me.

  Minutes later a large turkey was placed on the table along with a ham, a pot roast, liver, and several other dishes.

  I reached to grab a drumstick when Meg interrupted me.

  “Not before we say grace,” she said.

  I found it odd that a vampire would want to say a prayer before a meal.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Would you like to say the blessing?” her grandmother asked.

  “Alright,” I said.

  I hadn’t prayed before a meal in quite a while. I used to do it all the time when I was frequently attending church and visiting the Baptist Student Union. However, although I still considered myself a good person, I had backslidden. But I’d give it my best shot.

  “Dear God,” I said. “I want to thank you for helping us survive the battle at the beach house. I also want to thank you for everything you have done for us. To be honest, I don't know if I should be praying to you or not. I'm some kind of vampire-alien hybrid now, and I don't even know if you listen to our prayers. But I have faith that you are listening. Thank you so much for my beautiful new girlfriend and my new family. I feel that I’m blessed beyond measure. Please bless this food and help us as we try to fight the queen.”

  I opened my eyes and I felt Cathy holding my hand even tighter. It was a wonderful feeling. I had only held a girl's hand a couple of times before I met Cathy. Being able to hold her hand was a special feeling for me. I squeezed her hand, and I felt her squeeze back.

  As I reached for the drumstick again Ruby spoke up.

  “Everyone, I want all of you to eat as much as you can, because tomorrow we’re all going to start training,” she said.

  I grabbed the drumstick and began to eat. In a half hour, I’d eaten a huge amount of food. Looking around the table, I could count twenty six people. A few others were actually eating on smaller tables in the corners of the room.

  A voice called out from behind me.

  “Your training starts tonight, Eli,” Meg said. “You’re coming with me.”

  “Let me finish my meal first,” I said.

  “No, you’re coming now,” she said.

  I looked at Cathy and she motioned for me to go with her grandmother.

  “We have a long few days ahead of us, son,” she said. “Do you see that backpack over there?”

  She pointed to a large back pack on the floor.

  “Put it on,” she said. “We’re going out.”

  I grabbed the gray backpack and we walked outside. Meg was no longer wearing an apron, but blue jeans and a black t-shirt. She looked so much like Ruby it was uncanny.

  As we crossed the yard I could see thousands of stars in the sky – we were far away from any town or city.

  “I've been told all about you,” she told me.

  “You have?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “You’re not a pure vampire.”

  “No, I'm not,” I said. “I'm part griffin.”

  “I’ve met one of your kind before,” she said.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “She was a peasant living in what is now Germany. When a vampire bit her she started developing her powers rapidly. When the queen of that area found out that she would be more powerful than herself, she ordered her killed. Because she wasn’t trained and her powers hadn’t fully developed, the queen was able to kill her,” she said. “I’m not going to let that happen to you,” she said.

  Meg explained that this girl had been more developed than me when she was killed. She was fast, strong, and highly telekinetic. It took a half dozen vampires to kill her.

  “Do you know how old I am?” she asked.

  “No,” I said.

  “I'm fifteen hundred years old,” she said.

  “Wow, shouldn't you be a queen?”

  “It was a long time ago,” she said. “But I didn’t like the politics.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked as we began to walk down a trail.

  “You’ll find out,” she said.

  We continued to walk down a long trail. We went up and down hills as we transversed the countryside. The moon was bright, and illuminated the landscape. I intentionally turned off my night vision abilities so I could see it all as a human would.

  Before long, Meg stopped.

  “We leave the trail here. Follow me, and be careful – don’t get ahead of me.”

  I followed Meg as she pulled off the trail and through some brush. Before long we were in a rocky clearing. Meg motioned for me to stop and took me by the arm. I looked ahead and saw that we were standing on the edge of a cliff. I peered over the edge and saw it was a long way down.

  “Have you heard the rumor that vampires can fly?” Meg asked.

  “Yes, someone said the queen could fly.”

  “Well, it's true,” she said.

  Meg proceeded to jump off the cliff. She dropped rapidly but soon began to hover in mid-air, then quickly swooped upwards and returned and floated before me next to the edge of the cliff.

  “Amazing!” I exclaimed.

  “Not many of us can do this,” she said. “Only the ones of us with the most developed powers.”

  “If you’re that powerful you could help us fight the queen,” I said.

  “No, I don't fight anymore,” she said. “I gave up years ago – I've taken too many lives. But I will teach you how to fight,” she added.

  I was amazed to see her floating there. I knew I was already capable of floating; I’d done it at the beach house. But I wasn’t sure about flying.

  “I want you to raise your power level and jump off this cliff,” she said.

  I concentrated hard and felt the power level rising inside me. As I walked to the edge of the cliff, I decided I wasn’t going to be scared. I’d just do it – I felt I could do anything.

  “Jump,” she said.

  I leaped off the cliff, and I was falling, but not as fast as I should have been. I summoned all my power and suddenly my descent stopped completely; I was hovering. I looked to my right and saw Meg hovering beside me.

  “Now come to me,” she said.

  She reached out her hand and I floated towards her.

  “Take my hand,” she said.

  I took her hand and she pulled me through the air.

  “Increase your power as high as you can,” she said. “I'm going to let go in a moment.”

  Suddenly, she let go and I was still flying under my own power.
/>   It was an amazing feeling. It was as if I could go anywhere.

  I chased after Meg as we flew through the night air. We began to gain altitude, and I could see the lights of a city in the distance.

  “Are you getting tired?” she asked.

  “No,” I said.

  “Good,” she said. “We’re going to go higher.”

  She took my hand and we began to soar into the sky. Before long, I could see the curvature of the Earth. A few moments later, we were above the clouds.

  I then saw her change into her vampire form. She pointed upwards. I changed into my vampire form and followed her.

  As we reached the edge of space I could feel that it was getting cold. I looked down and I could see the earth and when I looked up I could see the most brilliant full moon I’d ever seen.

  I could see that her skin was starting to burn – moonlight was reflected sunlight.

  She changed into her human form and we hung there together for some time.

  Because the air was so thin we couldn’t speak to each other. Meg pointed downward and we started to descend. When the air became thicker I was able to speak.

  “That was amazing!” I said. “I can't believe I'm flying.”

  “It's time for a break,” she said.

  We flew to a mountain peak, took off our back packs, and sat down. Inside my back pack I found a bag of beef jerky and some canned meats.

  “Eat,” she said. “You need to keep your strength up.”

  We sat on the mountain top and ate.

  “You’re very powerful,” she said. “But you need to be trained.”

  “You have already taught me how to fly,” I said.

  “There’s more,” she said.

  We finished eating and walked to an open field close to the mountain’s summit.

  “I want to see just how powerful you are,” she said.

  “Catch this with your mind,” she added.

  She threw a rock at me. By just looking at it and thinking to stop it came to a halt and hung in the air in front of me.”

  “Now, catch every rock I throw at you,” she said.

  At high speed, she proceeded to find every rock in the field and throw them at me. In a few minutes, hundreds of small rocks were floating in the air in front of me.

  “That's pretty good,” she said. “Now, let’s see how high you can take them.”

  I focused on the rocks and pushed them higher. At about a few hundred feet, it became difficult to move them up any further.

  “You can do better than that,” she said.

  I tried harder, and managed to push the rocks a little higher.

  “What if you had to do it for Cathy,” she said. “What if her life depended on it?”

  I focused harder and moved the rocks even higher.

  “What if there was a knife at her throat and your power was the only thing that could save her?” she asked.

  The thought of Cathy with a knife to her throat made me want to explode with rage. The rocks were pushed up even higher.

  “That's good,” she said.

  Suddenly, the rocks started raining down.

  “Now,” Meg said. “I want you to slash my throat.”

  “I can’t do that,” I protested.

  “Yes you can,” she said. “Imagine that I’m the queen.”

  “You’re my future wife's grandmother. I’m not going to attack you,” I said.

  I felt a claw swipe my face – the blow came out of nowhere.

  “Fight me,” she said.

  The pain of her claw ripping my flesh made me angry, but I refused to fight her.

  “We can train some other way,” I said.

  “No, you’re going to fight me,” she said.

  I decided that I wouldn’t argue with her. If she wanted a fight, I’d give her one.

  She was standing in the distance and I rushed towards her but she disappeared before I could touch her.

  “You have to be faster than that,” she said.

  By the sound of her voice I knew that she was behind me so I turned around. I lunged at her, but she vanished before I could get near her.

  “Focus,” she said. “Let time slow down.”

  I called forth all my power and tried to do as she said. All of the chirping of cicadas in the woods seemed to come to a halt as time slowed down.

  To my far right, I saw her. I rushed towards her, but before I could reach her she slashed my face and then disappeared.

  My concentration was broken and time seemed to restart again.

  For hours I tried to catch her, but she was too fast. Every time I got close to her she vanished. I felt embarrassed at my lack of ability.

  “If you can't catch me you won't be able to defeat the queen,” she said.

  I tried to focus one more time. From deep inside me I tried summon all my powers. To motivate myself, I tried to imagine the queen attacking Cathy.

  “Come get me,” Meg said.

  In one split second I rushed up to her and slashed her face. I saw her flesh rip and blood start running out.

  “Good!” she said. “You’re getting faster.”

  In seconds her wound had healed.

  For the entire night we played all sorts of training games. Some of them taught me how to increase my speed and others showed me how to increase my telekinetic ability.

  As morning approached, Meg called the training to an end. It was time to get back to the house. As we walked along the trail home, Meg stopped.

  “I think it's time I taught you something else,” she said.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Do you know what pyrokinesis is?” she asked.

  “Is it starting fires with your mind?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Look at the log over there.”

  I saw her focus her eyes a large log next to the trail in front of us. It suddenly burst into flames.

  “Now,” she said. “Turn it over with your mind, put it out, and catch it on fire again.”

  The log was the largest object I’d ever tried to move with my mind.

  I looked at the log and tried to focus. Slowly, it started to rotate and spin. The dirt under the log put the fire out.

  “Now ignite it,” she said.

  “How?” I asked.

  “Look deeply into the log,” she said. “Try to imagine all the molecules of it. Make them move faster.”

  I looked at the log and tried to imagine the molecules moving around. Suddenly, a vision came into my mind. I could see the molecules. They were bouncing around.

  “What's happening? I can see the molecules.”

  “You have learned how to remote view,” she said. “Now, speed them up.”

  I focused on the molecules and they started to bounce around faster. All of a sudden, I could see the log catch fire.

  “You’re doing great!” Meg said.

  “Now, I want you to put it out,” she said.

  “Do you want me to move the log with my mind?” I asked.

  “No, I want you to slow the molecules down,” she said.

  I looked at the log once again. It was in flames. I focused on the molecules and they appeared in my mind – they were bouncing around at high speed. I tried to slow them down. Almost immediately, the log stopped burning. I kept on concentrating and soon a frost covered the log.

  “Excellent! Good work, Eli. Now let’s get back to the house,” Meg said.

  I followed her and we walked back to the house. When we got there, Cathy was waiting at the door. When she saw us coming she ran towards me.

  “You dirty, rotten freak!” she said.

  I was shocked. I didn't know what to say.

  “How could you?!” she yelled.

  “What did I do?” I asked.

  She ripped into my face with her claw.

  “I trusted you,” she said.

  Lizzie came running outside.

  “Stop Cathy,” she said.