by Rose Shababy
I thought about the fat man and his leering eyes, and I found myself back in the moment.
“Good,” Kasey breathed. “Stay there, in that moment.”
I nodded, feeling the fat man’s eyes on my chest, and the shame and rage of the moment flared hot.
“Avery,” Kasey whispered, “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” he answered. “I can see it.”
“Now, Avery!” Kasey said with urgency, and the events of the day rushed through my mind like a dam bursting. It felt like I watched a movie starring me, and the memories flowed unbidden, of their own accord.
No, I realized. Kasey was the one controlling the memories.
It felt like it took only seconds to relive the whole day, and suddenly we reached the moment when I threw myself at Kasey in the shower. The flow of memories stopped as abruptly as they started.
Grateful that he stopped at that moment, I opened my eyes to look at him.
He smiled his gentle smile and got up from the floor to take a seat next to me. He took my hand in his and I was glad to have the comforting touch.
Val whistled again. “That really was some freaky shit.” She looked at me with new appreciation. “You should have punched that douchebag manager in the throat before you left.”
I grinned at her for the first time. Maybe we could be friends after all. Who knew?
“I believe this is the same as what occurred the night we met at the club,” Kasey said thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?” Avery asked.
Kasey looked at me when he answered. “At both places, you wanted everything around you to go away. You focused on that thought with such intensity that you made it happen.”
I shook my head. “Not really. Nothing disappeared. It stopped.”
“The effect is the same,” Esme said. “You’re ability doesn’t let you manipulate matter. It lets you manipulate time, just like Val’s ability lets her manipulate energy. Although,” she looked thoughtful for a moment, “if you can manipulate time, theoretically you should be able to manipulate space.”
I gawked. “What the hell does that mean?”
“If you can learn to control your ability, maybe you can look through the layers of reality, to where time and space become one.”
“I don’t understand,” Ash looked at her with a puzzled expression. “What are you trying to say?”
“Teleportation,” Esme said, waving her hands for emphasis. “Not to mention time travel. The things you could do are amazing to think about!”
I continued to gawk.
“Do you truly think that is possible?” Kasey asked and something in his voice made me look at him. His eyes were shining bright with excitement.
“Who knows what’s possible?” she answered. “The five of us have only met each other, and now Blue. There’s no telling how many of our kind are out there. I have no way of predicting the variety of abilities our kind could possess. But yes, I do think it’s very possible. If Blue can stop time in its tracks, it’s logical to conclude she can control time and space in a variety of other ways.”
“You said ‘our kind.’” I gestured for her to continue. “What exactly does that mean?”
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” Avery asked with a scornful look on his face.
Great. I thought we were past him acting like a complete jerk, but apparently I was mistaken. “No, you dysfunctional beaver, I haven’t figured it out yet.” I sneered back. “But I have figured one thing out. I am so over this shitty attitude of yours. I don’t know what I did to piss you off so much, but I’d really appreciate it if you came out with it. Why do you hate me so much?”
Avery reddened and I saw his jaw working for a moment before he spoke, his voice harsh and low. “I don’t hate you.”
“Well, you sure as hell don’t like me.”
“Jesus!” Val exploded and we all jumped. “This is so stupid.” She looked me squarely in the eye. “Isn’t it obvious? He knows you and Kasey have a thing and he’s jealous.”
An uncomfortable silence settled on the room as everyone avoided making eye contact with anyone else. Shock ran through me. Of course. How had I missed it? Avery refused to look at me, and Kasey gave me a sad little smile. I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Avery and I decided to rescue him. At least a little.
“Jealous?” I scoffed.” That’s such bullshit,” I lied and waved it away with a hand. “Avery, I don’t care if you have to pretend. You don’t have to like me and I may not be the kind of person you wanted to join your little group, but I’m here now. You better figure out a way to treat me halfway decent because I’ve had about as much as I’m going to take.” His eyes met mine and I refused to look away as I watched him struggle with himself. Take the fucking olive branch, I thought as I lifted my eyebrows and nodded almost imperceptibly at him.
He gave me an equally imperceptible nod and I turned back to Esme.
“Anyway, you never answered my question.” I gave her an inquiring look.
She nodded sagely and quickly redirected the subject back to a science lesson. “You want to know about our kind. I think it’s time you checked out my lab.”
We all followed her down the hallway, Avery trailing behind probably so he could recover his dignity. Esme paused at a door and glanced back at me. “Please don’t touch anything unless I give you the okay.”
I nodded and she opened the door and I got a much better look than the first time when I arrived and burst into the room looking for Kasey.
Un-fucking-believable. I whistled, long and low. “Holy shit. This is amazing.”
If the upstairs had as much floor space as the main floor of the warehouse, Esme’s lab probably took at least a third of it, and all available space was utilized to the fullest extent. I tried to take it all in but it was like trying to read a foreign language. I didn’t understand what half the shit was for.
One side of the room had over a dozen large monitors mounted on the wall, a long table filled with computers and keyboards and other electronics I didn’t recognize.
There were huge dry erase boards with mathematical computations and formulas and diagrams scattered across any available surface.
The counters were littered with beakers and Bunsen burners and liquids and chemicals and petri dishes and what I could only guess were science experiments brewing on shelves above the counters.
The only personal items in the room were a mattress on a pallet shoved into a corner, a lamp and nightstand next to it. I could see a book on the nightstand. Curious, I wandered over to glance at the cover. Fifty Shades of Grey. I grinned. It was nice to see our super genius wasn’t a total machine. There was a woman tucked away in there too. A slightly perverted woman, but that just made me like her even more.
I turned to grin at Esme. “This is incredible. What do you use all this for?”
“Research mostly,” she answered. She pointed at the wall of computers. “I’m tapped into local police, FBI, CIA, military intelligence, NASA.”
I whistled. “How do you manage that without getting caught?”
She smiled proudly. “It’s easier than you think. We need access to information so we can not only help protect people, but keep ourselves safe.” She tried to look modest. “I’m a pretty decent computer engineer and I built everything myself. It’s smaller, quicker and more efficient than anything the government has. I’m a pretty decent hacker too.”
Val snorted. “Pretty decent?” she mocked, her voice as scornful as the look she shot her sister before she turned to me. “There’s no one better than her. Never doubt it. There’s not an engineer or hacker in the world better than her.”
Esme blushed a little and ignored her sister, moving on. She pointed to a dry erase board. “I’ve been working on relativity theories and the concept of warp speed,” she pointed to another board, “as well as trying to formulate a material that can withstand the stress of that type of space travel. When we have time, I’d like to cond
uct some experiments with you.” She looked almost gleeful as she said it. “Your abilities are directly linked to some of the theories I’ve been working on. I’m sure we could find a way to monitor you while you’re projecting.” Kasey cleared his throat slightly and she glanced at him before continuing with her explanations.
She pointed to the counters. “I’ve also been studying our DNA and learning as much as I can about our species.”
Our species? The idea seemed unreal. “Our species?” I couldn’t hide my tone of disbelief.
“Yes, Blue.” Kasey took my hand and stroked my palm with his thumb in a soothing gesture. “We’re not human.”
If you have enjoyed this episode of The Blue Effect please consider leaving a review and pick up Episode Two: The Revelation.
Turn the page for an exclusive Renegade Heroes short story!
The Human Computer
A Renegade Heroes Short Story
Looking back on my life, I always knew I’d end up alone.
It isn’t because I’m unattractive. I’m aware of my looks and I don’t have self-esteem issues. Besides, if I ever needed reminding of what I look like, my twin sister, Val, lives with me. She’s a gorgeous Nubian princess. Hence, so am I.
And it isn’t as if I’m a jerk, or some kind of sociopath. In fact, quite the opposite. Sometimes, I think I care too much about other people.
The problem arises when I try to find commonalities with a potential mate.
It’s not easy when you’re a genius.
I know how conceited that sounds, but it doesn’t negate the fact that I am what I am.
I made it through high school by the time I was seven, then graduated from Cal Tech when I was ten years old with a double major in quantum physics and molecular biology. On the verge of my sixteenth birthday, my career was on the fast track as one of the youngest scientist’s to ever work for NASA.
How many people can relate to that kind of childhood?
Plus, I have a secret about my school years, one I’ve never shared with anyone. Not even my sister, who is my best friend. The secret is that, even while I raced through school in a fraction of the time it takes most people, I was holding back.
It’s one hundred percent true. If I’d wanted, I could have whizzed through everything in half the time. But I didn’t.
Even at three years old I knew how different I really was. I also knew if anyone else found out how different, I would risk being put under a very uncomfortable microscope. A thoroughly unappealing thought.
Sometimes, when I look at people, I feel like I’m looking at an alien species. I know all the biology of how their bodies work, what makes their minds tick, but I will never be able to relate to them. I will always be standing on the outside looking in. Always the odd man out. Always alone.
At least, that’s what I used to think.
A few years ago, my sister and I moved to Washington State. We found a piece of property on Bainbridge Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle. At night, you can watch the city lights from the shore as they wink on, one by one. It’s a beautiful tribute to the ingenuity of man.
My hope was that Val could escape the memories of home, but as it turns out, you can never really escape your own mind.
Turns out, Val has special abilities of her own, and as smart as I am, I only realized it the day she manifested. Which also happened to be the day she accidentally killed our mother.
Val can absorb energy from pretty much anything, even the static electricity in the air. She stores it like a battery, only releasing it when she becomes highly emotional, or with deliberate effort, although that took time to develop.
That’s what happened to our mother. She and Val argued, and Val lost control. She hates it, and has never forgiven herself for what she did to our mother.
For my part, I only felt sorry for her, never angry or bitter. I miss our mother, but I can rationalize it better than Val can. In the moment the accident happened, Val was akin to a broken live wire, twisting and wriggling on the ground, no thought or control present. You can’t be angry at a tornado or an earthquake.
After the accident, I hid what she had done and quit my job with NASA to move to the northwest where no one knew us. That’s where I began the research that would change my life forever.
I knew the moment the accident happened that Val was different, and it finally occurred to me that maybe I wasn’t as odd as I’d thought. Maybe there was a reason for what I could do, and perhaps it was the same reason Val could do what she could do.
Since then, I’ve spent as much time as possible studying Val and trying to decipher why she’s able to do what she can do.
As it turned out, moving to Seattle was the best course of action for both of us.
If we hadn’t moved to Seattle, we never would have met Ash. Or Kasey and Avery.
Can you imagine what it meant to find someone else who could do things no other human could? To realize we weren’t alone?
About the author:
Rose Shababy and her family reside in eastern Washington State. Rose grew up in the Northwest but swears she’s going to move to warmer climates someday. She’s claimed this for over 20 years, however, and has yet to move more than 75 miles away from her mother.
Rose has a deep love of all things Star Trek and yearns to travel the heavens, as well as an intense desire to be bitten by a radioactive spider. Unfortunately she sucks at science and math so she hasn’t been able bring her dreams to life, instead living vicariously through books, comics, television and film. She hopes to someday make a million dollars so she can afford to buy her way to the international space station, but she’d settle for being able to fly around the world and leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Rose also loves to cook and worked for years in a gourmet Italian grocery and deli where she learned to hone her skills. She prepares culinary masterpieces for her family, but fervently wishes the dishes would wash themselves. Especially now that her dishwashers/children are nearly grown and only one still lives at home.
Rose likes to use her free time wisely. For instance, she likes to daydream, will often read for hours until she falls asleep on the couch with an electric blanket and a warm tabby cat curled up on her hip, as well as spending cozy weekend days watching Syfy movies like Sharknado and Mega Piranha with her husband.
If Rose were a cartoon animal, she’d prefer to be a wise old owl or a sleek and sexy jaguar, but in reality she’d probably be a myopic mole with coke-bottle glasses.
Visit Rose’s Website: www.roseshababy.com
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