Retaliation

Everyone cheered for Luke Skywalker and booed the Empire when it “struck back”. But did anyone ever stop to think that made the Empire was just fed up of a kid running around with a light saber causing trouble? It’s really hard not to crush bugs when you know that you are fully capable of doing so. That’s exactly how I felt when I came up against Ethan. And lets just say that the Sith would be very proud of me.

It was the Thursday before the school dance, and I was psyched. Despite all of the craziness of my life, nothing could smother my enthusiasm about going out with Erica. I couldn’t stop picturing the girl of my dreams resting in my arms as we slowly swayed to the music. I lifted my hand and pushed away a bang that had fallen across her face. She gave a contented sigh and locked her beautiful eyes with mine. “Oh Alex,” she said. “This is awesome. It’s more fun than I thought.”

“Of course it’s awesome.” I replied. “I’m in an awesome school, at an awesome dance, dancing to awesome music, and” I looked directly into her eyes, “I’m doing it in the company of an awesome girl.” She blushed and looked away. I touched here chin and raised her head, so that our faces were mere inches apart. Slowly, we moved closer together. I could feel the moisture of her breath. My entire body was tingling with anticipation. I could feel her lips on mine and… “Mr. Peterson, could you please draw your crown out of the cumulonimbus mass?”

“Huh?” I said, shaking the daydream out of my head. I looked up at Mr. Grignard, the Geography teacher. “What did you say Sir?”

“Get you head out of the clouds.” He replied. “Or is the special girl behind your eyelids more important than my class?” The entire class snickered. I felt my cheeks burn as I sunk lower down in my seat.

“Sorry Sir.” I replied. “I’ll try to pay more attention.”

“I’m sure you will.” He answered. “Now,” he said addressing the class, “Let us look at the eroding effect of denudation.” I looked around and caught Allison’s eyes. She shook her head at me and looked away. Behind her, Ethan was trying hard not to burst out in full laughter. “He must be loving this.” I thought in disgust. I had the sudden urge to freeze his face that way. I shook the thought from my head. I gave Allison a hard enough time about misusing her powers. I shouldn’t be doing the same thing.

I barely managed to get by the rest of the Geography class without thinking about Erica. I walked out of the class as if I were in a dream. Allison fell in line with me. “Can’t stop thinking about the dream girl, can you?” she said with her trademark malicious Allison grin.

“Bug off,” I growled playfully. “You of all people should know how I feel about Erica.”

She shook her head. “All to well unfortunately.” She looked away. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t.” she added, with a catch in her voice. Before I could ask her what that meant, she stopped me and said, “I also know how you felt about Ethan after you saw his face in class.” She stopped me before I could protest. “Alex, just because you could doesn’t mean you should.” She said. “We shouldn’t risk any ability screw ups, especially since you chased away our guardian angel.”

“He wasn’t our guardian angel.” I complained loudly. “He was just an advanced Peeping Tom.”

“He got us out of the lab, didn’t he?” I couldn’t argue with her there. “Besides, I know you. You’re a sissy lover, not a fighter.”

“Thanks for the compliment.” I retorted. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt Ethan.”

“Good.” She replied. “See you later?”

I raised my hand. “Later.” As she walked away, a sudden thought struck me. I never did ask Allison who she was going to the dance with. Allison didn’t have all that much friends, which raised the question if she was going at all. I thought that I should call her later and find out.

The last bell of the day sounded, quickening my pulse. One day down, one more to go. I raced outside to meet my parents. Halfway out, I realized that I had left my math book in my locker. My mind was so occupied with Erica that I started forgetting even simple things. I ran back to my locker and started rummaging through it. My head seared with a sudden jolt. The whispers clouded my head more thickly than ever. That voice! I know that voice! It was trying to say something. Something urgent. “Hey stranger. “A voice said. The whispers dissipated. I stopped and took my head out of my locker. Erica was standing in the hall, all smiles. Most of the kids were already gone, so it was just to two of us. I had to constantly remind myself that this was no daydream. “What’re up to?” she asked.

“Trying to find my math book in all this mess.” I said poking my head back into the locker, in an attempt to hide my blushing. “I know I left it here somewhere. Not that I’ll have time to do the homework, I f you get what I mean.” I snickered. She didn’t answer. “Erica?” I pulled my head out of the locker. She wasn’t smiling anymore, nor was she looking at me. She was staring behind me, with a sort of frightened look on her face. I barely spun around in time to see a fist barreling towards me. I ducked as the fist slammed into my locker door. It door closed to reveal Ethan standing behind it. His face was red with anger. “Hey Peterson, you wanna hear a story?” he said. “There once was this boy who asked a girl out to the dance,” he started, not even waiting for me to say that I wanted to hear the story. “And it so happened that the girl told him no, because she was already going to the dance with a dweeb.” He grabbed my shoulder and pinned me against the wall. “So the boy thought that he’d meet the dweeb after school and get his permission to take the girl to the dance instead, because,” he said balling his hand into a fist, “he could make the dweeb’s life miserable.”

“Stop Ethan!” Erica shouted, “This is exactly why I won’t go out with you!” Wait. Ethan liked Erica? That would explain the dagger looks he gave me when Erica hugged me on my first day back. It was enough to turn me into Swiss cheese. “So what do you say dweeb?”Ethan asked.

“No.” I blurted out before I could stop myself. Did I have a death wish?

Ethan’s eyes widened. “What?!” He punched me in the face. “Wrong answer Peterson.”

“Stop it Ethan!” Erica screamed. “Now!” she grabbed his hand.

“Buzz off.” He answered harshly. He turned and pushed her away. Hard. Erica stumbled back, grasping the locker for support. That boiled my blood. Ethan had been picking on me since I came to this school and I really didn’t care. But not Erica. No way was he getting away with this. “What’s the right answer Peterson?”

“No.” I answered, anger swelling inside of me.

“I don’t think you heard me…” Ethan started.

“No, I think I heard you perfectly fine, and the answer is no. I also suggest that you let go of me before turn you into a human popsicle!”

“What are you babbling about?”
I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. Cold. All the anger that I had stored up inside of me came rushing out. I forgot completely about my promise to Allison. A white patch of ice began to grow on his arm. “What the hell?!” he asked in shock.

“No.” I replied. “Hell is hot. This is cold.” I could hear the venom dripping from my own voice. I grabbed his chin. “That’s a good look for you. Maybe I should keep it that way.” I started freezing his face.

“Alex, stop!!” Erica’s voice hit me like a cold bucket of water. What was I doing? I let go of Ethan. He fell to the ground dazed. Erica looked at me in shock.

“Erica, please, I can explain.” She shook her head and turned and ran towards the exit. I ran after her. “No, Erica wait!” I caught up with her just before she reached the door. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. I looked her eyes. They were wild, darting all over the place. “She’s afraid of me.” I thought. “Erica let me explain.”

“How did you do that?” she questioned. “Who are you?”

“Erica, the day I disappeared I realized that I had the ability to freeze things. After my disappearance, I realized that I could control it and I’ve been using it ever since.” I let go of her arm. “But I’m still Alex.” She just stared at me. “Say something, Erica.” No response. “Say something please. Call me monster, call me alien, but please, say something.”

She took a deep breath. “Saturday at seven, right?” she asked.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Saturday at seven.”

She gave me a small smile and walked out the door. When I was sure she was gone, I pumped my fist into the air. “Yes!!” Our date was still on, and Ethan would never bug me again. But most of all, Erica knew the truth now. I wouldn’t have to sneak around her anymore, and I had someone else to confide in. I couldn’t wait for Saturday to come. It was going to be the day my new life began. But in reality, it became the worst day of my life. That night my whole life came crashing down around me.

Evanescence

Do you listen to Evanescence? I used to, until I saw their album cover covered in occult symbols. That freaked me out a tad bit. Anyway, the Encarta dictionary defines the word ‘evanescence’ as “disappearing after only a short time.” That’s probably a good name for a fantasy rock band. But what about a person?

It was about a week after the physics lab incident. We didn’t have any Physics classes, but that didn’t stop Mrs. Havelock from marking our lab reports. And well, let’s just say that Allison and I are no longer in the running to becoming honor students. Allison insists that it was my fault. As if I told her not to do her reports. My mind was however was occupied with more grave issues. Allison and I still hadn’t figured out how we got form the Physics lab to our rooms. Allison swore that it wasn’t one of her haywire abilities. To reinforce that, she began training with her new ability. Telekinesis she called it. Something she had found on Google. She practiced with mixed results. The Dagger’s had quite a few wares the broke under questionable circumstances. I told Allison about the handprint, but not about the opening and closing door. I figured I was probably just freaked at the moment. I was also unable to reproduce the steel wall that protected me in the lab. No matter how hard I concentrated, all that formed was ice. I was on the verge of believing that I wasn’t the one responsible for it. My life was awfully complicated.

Math period had just finished and I was walking through the crowded halls towards my locker, when I ran into the one person that I really didn’t want to see just then. Erica picked me out of the crowd and waved. “Hey Alex,” she called out and began to make her way over. Don’t get my wrong. I really like Erica, maybe even love Erica, but as I said before I had a lot of stuff going on, coupled with the fact that our relationship kinda disturbed the school’s status quo. I looked around. No exits. No choice but to strike up a conversation. “Hey Erica,” I replied, “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” she replied, “Just wondering when I would get time to do all this homework. I don’t even have this weekend free.” she said. She turned and gave me a knowing glance. I met it with a blank stare. “I mean,” she said “with the dance this Saturday and all.”

“Oh,” I replied, somewhat shamefacedly. I had completely forgotten the dance in the midst of all the chaos. “I can see how that could be a problem.”

“So,” she asked, “You going with anyone?”

I heard Allison’s words repeated in my head, “…I also know that she’s dying for you to ask her to the dance…”

“No,” I muttered. I stopped and took a deep breath. “Um actually Erica…” She looked at me expectantly, “I wanted to know… I mean I was hoping that…um… maybe… we could go together?” I let the end hang.

“Um, yeah,” she replied, smiling, “That would be cool.”

“So I’ll pick you up around 7?”

“Ah… well my dad said the only way I could go is if our driver took me in the limo.” she replied ruefully. “So is it ok if I pick you up?”

“Not a problem.” I answered. The bell rang, signaling the beginning of the next period.

“Well, I’ve got Biology now.” She said grabbing her books. “See you later.” The shock of the conversation had tied my tongue so all that I could manage was a nod. “Ok then. Bye” she said smiling. She turned and walked off. I stood where I was for a few seconds, allowing the shock to wear off. Then it hit me. I was going to the dance with Erica Simmons! I felt as if I was floating. This was actually happening! I could barely believe it. The world had suddenly taken on a rosy dreamlike quality. “Need me to pinch you?” said a voice, snapping me out of my delightful reverie. I didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was. “Like a cloud on a sunny day. You never cease to dampen my spirits, Allison.”

“Thank you” she replied. “It’s one of my finer attributes. And oh, I’m pretty sure that the water balloon dampened you more than I could.”

“What water balloon?” A wet mass connected with the back of my head, spewing water all over me.

“That one.” she answered. A group from the soccer team walked pass, snickering and giving each other high fives. “How’s the pool, Alex?” asked Ethan, the squad’s captain. This sent them into hysterics. I waited until Ethan had walked pass, and froze the ground beneath him. His laughter was cut short by his butt slamming against the ground. His face went red with embarrassment as the rest of the squad helped to his feet. “Developed a mean streak, have we?” Allison asked.

“Thank Ms. Moral, but that wouldn’t have been necessary if you had given me a heads up.

“Nah,” Allison said, shaking her head. “It’s more fun this way.”

“And I’m the one with the mean streak.” The second bell went, telling me that class had already started. I took my time taking out my books. I had no desire to get to Chemistry on time. “So, you finally asked Erica to the dance.” Allison said. She patted me on my shoulder. “You’re a big boy now.” she added sarcastically.

“Thanks.” I replied. “I would have never guessed that she wanted to go with me if you hadn’t said so.” I turned and looked at her. “I appreciate it.”

“Anytime.” she replied, smiling. We didn’t say anything for a moment. We just stared at each other. Then Allison got this weird look on her face, like someone gets when their disappointed about something. “What’s with the face?” I asked, breaking the awkward silence.

“Nothing.” she replied. “It’s just all this insanity with our powers. I feel as if I’m in way over my head.”

“I know the feeling.” I replied, knowing fully well that that wasn’t the reason for Allison’s sudden change of demeanor.

“Well,” she said, shouldering her backpack, “I’ve got a study period now. See you later.” She turned and walked off. I watched her go. Something was definitely bothering her. She didn’t even give me her cursory sharp tongue remark. I held my books and made my way to the Chemistry lab. Today was supposed to be my crown day, the day I finally asked Erica to go out with me. But for some reason Allison’s attitude had disturbed me greatly. Allison wasn’t really my friend. In fact, I barely even used to speak to her before this whole thing with our powers came up. I guess that it bothered me that the one person I could confide in was having a hard time.

I pondered on these things as I walked pass an empty classroom. I stopped suddenly and looked around. I could have sworn that I heard footsteps behind me. No one was there. The hall was empty since most of the kids were already in class. I shrugged and continued walking. I heard the door to the room behind me open. I spun around just in time to see the door close. What the heck was going on? Was someone following me? “Must be Ethan and his goons again.” I thought. I walked up to the door and opened it. It was the door to the AV room. I stepped inside and looked around. No one. “Whoa Alex,” I thought, “You’re losing it man.” I turned to leave. Suddenly, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I spun around. A bump. Coming from the back of the room. I strained my eyes to see. No one was there. “At least no one you can see.” The thought struck me as absurd. An invisible man? Please, be real. But it gave me an idea. If there was someone in the room, they’d frost over if the room got cold enough. I pulled a chair under the air conditioning unit and placed my hand on it. I focused on making the room as cold as possible without freezing everything. The temperature of the room dropped rapidly, till I could see my breathe coming out in little clouds in front of me. I looked around the room, not knowing what I was even looking for. I scanned the back of the classroom. My eyes froze on a disturbingly shocking sight. Right there, in the back of the room, puffs of breath, just like mine, were coming out of thin air. “Good God!” I thought. There really was an invisible man! I focused even more power on freezing the room. I could feel ice crystals forming on my arms. Gradually, ice crystals formed a humanoid shape at the back of the room. I stared in shock. There, in the back of the classroom was another human with abilities. The ability to become invisible. Whoever it was standing there must have seen me staring at him, because he suddenly began running for the door. I jumped off the chair and began running to cut him off. I froze the ground beneath him, causing him to lose his footing for a second. He got up and continued his mad dash. When he was almost to the door, I froze the ground again. This time he went down hard. When he was about to get up, grabbed one of his legs and froze it. He let out a scream and materialized. He was white, with dirty blonde hair and looked in his late twenties. He wore shirt and pants made out of a black, soft but rugged material. “Who are you?” I asked. He struggled to move, but I held fast to his foot. “Who are you?” I asked again.

“Someone whose been saving your butt for quite a while, Alex.” He sneered. “You could at least show some respect.” He spoke with an American accent.

“Saved me? You’ve been stalking me since the hospital! Why are you following me?”

“I wasn’t following you! I was following Allison!”

“What!?” I looked at him in disbelief. I thought back. Every time I had gotten the feeling that someone was watching me, Allison was there. Except now.

“Well I don’t see Allison here, so that must mean that you were following me. And why in the first place were you following Allison?”

“Because there are people who are interested in our abilities and in protecting people like us. Allison was developing and interesting ability and recently, multiple abilities. They sent me to observe her.”

“And why were you following me?” He began struggling without warning, forcing me to grab on to his foot more tightly. “Why were you following me?”

“Cause I took a sample of your DNA after I saw you use your ability and sent it back to the people I work for. They said that it was possible that you might be developing multiple abilities too.” I looked him in astonishment. Multiple Abilities!? Out of the corner of my eye I saw his hand twitch. As I turned to see what he was doing, he whipped out a canister and sprayed its contents into my eyes. “Arrggghh!!!” I screamed. I let go of his leg and tore at my eyes. “You messed up big time Alex.” I heard him say. “You blew my cover. Next time you decide to trash a lab, I won’t be there to bail you out.” I heard him open the door and leave. I rolled on the floor, trying to use my ability to soothe my burning eyes. I heard the door open again. “Alex?!” a familiar voice said. I opened my eyes. I my vision was blurred, but I could make out Drake’s outline. “Alex, man, what’s happening?” he asked his voice on the verge of hysterics. I looked around. In my pain, I had instinctively frozen the area around me. I sat up, my eyes still aching. “Drake.” I held out my hand. “Help me up.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

“How did you do that?” he asked in amazement. I didn’t answer. I was thinking about what the invisible man had told me. There were others. I was sure of it now. And there were people out there who knew about us. About what Allison and I could do, with enough money and technology to have agents and analyze DNA. And was the invisible man the on who rescued us from the lab? This was way bigger than two high school kids. I looked at Drake. “Drake, you’re my best friend. Can you keep a secret?”

“Of course.” He said instinctively.

I shook my head. “This isn’t like any secret like you’ve kept before. You have to guard this with your life. Literally.” I saw a cloud of worry pass across his face.

“Sure Alex.” He replied. I looked at him full in the face. “I have special abilities Drake.” I was going to tell him the truth. This was spiraling out of control, and it was way more than Allison and I could handle. But had I known what was going to happen over the course of the next week, I would have never told him what I could do.