Nick
The boy who had broke into my place not too long ago sat across from me on the bed, looking at me with utter fascination. He didn’t say anything, he just stared like a schoolgirl.
“How can you do that?” he asked, still googly eyed. I eyed at him.
“Stop changing the subject,” I snapped. “What the hell are you doing breaking in here?”
He kind of looked around and back at the window. A long, low sigh seeped through his lips as he looked back at me.
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” He started clicking his teeth together, looking at me nervously. I scoffed.
“Kid, I just made fire disappear in front of your eyes. Anything you tell me, it’s very unlikely I won’t believe you.” The kid sat up and ran his fingers through his hair.
“Well,” he started, “it all started last night. It was a football game and halftime had just started. The cheerleaders ran out into the field and started to-”
“How the hell does this have to do with anything? I’m asking why you broke into my motel room. I didn’t ask about your stupid football game.”
“If you just give me a-”
I grabbed his shirt collar and created fire in the palm of my hand, shoving it very close to his face. He stared at it, instantly becoming scared.
“You better tell me in the next twenty seconds, or I’m gonna burn your face off. Now, start talking.” I threw him away from me, making him fall onto the bed.
“Umm...” he stuttered. “I don’t really... I don’t know where to start.”
“Start with the question I’ve asked you before. Why are you here?” The fire in my hand grew bigger and hotter. The kid started to back away from it.
“This kid... he was pissing me off. So I.... I somehow shot electricity from my hand. It hit him. My friends saw. They... they flipped out. I ran away. I didn’t go home. I came here, needing... needing a place to stay.” He didn’t take his eyes off of the flame. I closed my hand, making it disappear.
“Hmm. Interesting. Are there others like you?” I asked. The kid quickly shook his head, staring at my hands as if there were flames in them.
“Not that I know of...” he said. “Hell. I only found out about it today.” I studied him.
“Can you control it?” I asked. He nodded his head.
“Kind of. I literally just learned how to maybe ten minutes ago.” I started to run my fingers through my hair. I needed him to prove it. That’s the only way I could kind of trust him.
“I need you to prove it.” He shot a looked at me.
“Prove it? You can shoot fire from your hands. I can shoot electricity. Why do I need to prove it?” He stood back up, but tried to stay away from me a little.
“I don’t ‘shoot it from my hands’,” I said. “I can create it.” I lifted my hands towards the wall and made a small circle of fire spread across it. The kid yelped, backing away from it. I quickly made it vanish, leaving a burn mark on the wall. “There’s a difference, kid.”
“Look. I’m asking you with as much passion as I can. You and I, we’re the same in a way. So, please, can I stay here? I’ll even sleep in the bathtub.” The kid gave me a sympathy filled look. “I know I don’t know you, and this is asking a lot. But it’s just for tonight.”
I thought about it, and was about to answer. But then I saw the red and blue lights flashing through the window. They were here.
I walked over to the window and peeked through. Cops stood in the parking lot, talking to people. I didn’t have to be smart to know what they were asking. I saw one of them pull out a picture and show it to someone. A picture of me.
“We gotta go!” I said, making the kid jump.
“What?” he asked, walking towards the window. “Why? What’s wrong?” I walked over to him, grabbed his shirt, and lead him to the back of the room into the bathroom. I threw him in there, not even caring about his confusion.
“Crawl out of the bathroom window. I’ll meet you out there. Don’t be seen by anybody.” I slammed the door shut and turned towards the front door. Then, I waited.
I heard footsteps getting closer to the door. They were coming for me. But I was ready. First came the knock. Then came the voice.
“Nick? We know you’re in there. We don’t want to barge in there. But we will if we have to.” I didn’t respond. I only slowly lifted my hand at the door.
“On the count of three, we’re kicking down this door! One! Two! Thre-”
The door caught flame in matter of milliseconds. I heard the cops yelp and back away from the burning door. They smashed the window, but a wall of fire replaced the glass. That’s when they started shooting. Bullets whizzed passed me, hitting the wall. I turned around and went into the bathroom, noticing that the kid had done what I said.
I slipped through the window, landing softly on the grass. The kid was sitting in front of me, looking terrified and confused, but stayed where he was.
“What the hell’s going on?” he hissed. Bullets were still being shot behind us. They thought I was still in there. Perfect.
“Long story, kid. And you may not even live to hear it.” I walked passed him, letting him get up and follow me. He didn’t ask anything after that. He just looked back and listened to the firing of bullets.
We hid in the trees, walking in the shadows. We did that until we were about a mile away from the motel. Then we started walking in the streets. I was surprised the kid hadn’t said anything for this long.
“Well,” I said, “it seems like we’re gonna have to get used to each other. What’s your name, kid?”
“It’s Luke. And don’t call me kid. From what I see, we’re the same age.” I laughed. Fire spread over my whole arm and stopped at my shoulder. Luke stopped and stared at it.
“You apparently just learned how to use your power. From my point of view, you’re the kid.” I turned to him and put the fire out. “So, Luke, how’s about you show me that power of yours now?” Luke looked into my eyes disappointed. He knew I hadn’t forgot.
“I don’t know where to do it at or what to shoot at.” He looked around, stalling. I looked around with him.
“Well, you could shoot up in the sky, but that’d be too noticeable from far away.” I looked at a tree. “You could shoot at that tree, but I don’t know how to put out fires I didn’t create.” I looked around some more, and found nothing. Then I got an idea.
“Do you have to shoot it?” I asked. Luke thought for a moment.
“I never thought about that.” He looked at his hands and studied them. “I mean, I guess I could try. Let’s just hope it doesn’t explode in my face.” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. His muscles relaxed and shoulders slouched down.
A sudden, blue glow started to rise up from his forearm, as if it was riding in his bloodstream. Small, electrical bolts followed the glow, then it made a pattern. Glow, bolt, glow, bolt, and so on. Then, a small ball of electricity started to form in the palm of his hands, slowly growing in size.
“Woah...” I said. Luke opened his eyes, and lost all focus.
“Holy... look at this!” His muscles tensed and the flow of glow and spark in his arm started to speed up. The ball of electricity shot from his hand and went high up into the sky.
“Umm...” I said as the ball disappeared. But it didn’t stay unnoticed. All of a sudden, a gigantic explosion of electricity shot out in the darkness of the sky. It made the stars seem to disappear. Luke fell to the ground in shock, staring up at the big, blue explosion. I stood there, watching it as it evaporated in the sky.
“That... was amazing.” I heard Luke say. He started laughing hysterically, jumping up and down. Then faint sirens started to come from the distance.
“Yeah,” I said, sort of smiling with amazement. “But it was also noticeable.” Luke and I disappeared in the trees, but I didn’t care about the cops. I wasn’t alone anymore.
After the longest time of being s
cared and lonely, I had someone with me. Someone who was like me. I found someone else. Someone else... that was special.
…..
Shadows in the Dark Page 10