Spirit

Chapter 21: Ability
“Now that your tranquilizer is out of the room, see if you can focus better.”
My face turned red again. Of course he was able to hear me. He had ‘super hearing’.
I closed my eyes and started to focus on all of my emotions at the same time. I grabbed a piece of every emotion I’ve experienced and clumped it together in a ball.
As I thought of my emotions and balanced them out evenly, the involuntary trembles turned from subtle to somewhat violent. Once the trembles reached it’s climax, the time intervals between each tremble lessened.
How much I was shaking frightened me. I’ve never shook this violently in my life. Now even when I was transforming. As frightening as it was, it was also electrifying. The adrenaline ran through my veins and I felt sudden burst of energy that led to the trembles.
This was the first time in my whole life that I was actually able to transform without worrying about anything. It made me want to smile but I knew if I would, I would loose concentration.
The shaking grew so strong, I was vibrating now. It felt like I was having a seizure but I was shaking much more vigorously.
I was completely out of control of my whole body. I couldn’t take a step forward, fall over, or even twitch my fingers. It felt like something was bursting out of me. Clarabelle was finally finding her way out.
The shaking gradually came to a stop. I shut my eyes tighter and cursed under my breath. How could I possibly have lost it? I was doing so well! What emotion did I let overwhelm the others? I shut my eyes tighter and balled my hands into fists to start concentrating all over again.
I waited for Sarah to make a rude remark about me being a failure but she never said anything nor did the trembles start.
“You can open your eyes, Natalia,” Keith chuckled.
I didn’t want to. I wanted to keep my eyes shut until I got this right.
“Open your eyes,” Nathan whispered in my ear from behind me. It made me shiver.
I slowly opened my eyes and sighed. I couldn’t see anything. Absolutely nothing. I couldn’t see the bright white room I was in, I couldn’t see Nathan or Keith or Sarah. I only saw nothing and little twinkling stars.
“Look at your hands,” Nathan chuckled.
I looked down at my hands. I couldn’t see them! “Oh my goodness!” I squealed. I opened my arms wide for Nathan to hug me since I couldn’t find him myself. Nathan found my arms and came into them. We embraced each other tightly.
“I did it!”
“Good job,” he said, struggling for air. I forgot I was extra strong.
“Sorry,” I said and let him go.
“So what do we do, Keith?” I asked. “Do I get to fight anyone?” I asked excitedly.
“So eager,” Keith said I heard his footsteps come closer and closer as he walked toward me. “First I need to teach you about your abilites and how to use them properly.”
I nodded my head. “Let’s get started.”
“First we’ll learn about how we are able to see things without our eyes,” Keith said.
“Okay.”
“The key is the earth. We use the ground below you to see. All you have to do is put all your energy into your feet. Later on when you get enough training, you’ll be able to do this without even thinking! Shall we start?”
“Yeah,” I said giving another simple answer.
I heard Keith starting to walk away from me; getting farther and farther. “Try to find me, Natalia!” He called. “Remember to use the earth!”
Although it was pointless, I closed my eyes to concentrate on putting all of the energy I had into my feet.
I waited for something to happen, to find Keith but there was no sign of him.
“What are you supposed to look like?” I asked with my eyes still closed.
“You’ll know when you see me.”
I sighed. That wasn’t much help.
“Just remember to put your energy into your feet.”
I followed his instructions and waited for something to happen.
Then I felt something radiate from my body. My feet to be exact. It was like I emitted a shock wave and I was the epicenter.
As I felt the wave travel farther and father away from me, I saw nothing. But then my wave hit something. Three of them actually. It was like when a huge wave hit a large boulder.
The first boulder was a boy who was standing quite close to me. He was looking straight at me with a smile and his arms folded across his chest. Definitely Nathan.
The next was a girl who was leaning on the door clearly filing her nails. That must’ve been Sarah.
And the last boulder was farther from the rest and he was standing at the end of the room, his hands behind his back.
A smile grew on my face and I started to walk toward him. I was confident I was doing this correctly.
I kept walking until I was at the end of the room where he was standing. I swung my hands around but I couldn’t find him. I sent out another wave to locate Keith.
I waited for the wave to collide with the correct boulder and once I found him standing next to Sarah, I started walking that way.
Just to be sure he wasn’t going to move, I sent out a wave every five seconds.
I started walking to the left when he started to walk away from Sarah. Then I changed my direction to the right then I started to walk to the end of the room where he was before. Keith didn’t move until I got there.
“Good job, Natalia!” Keith congratulated.
“Thank you,” I said and smiled.
“Now we will learn about your hearing. We’ve told you before that your hearing is very intensified. You may not have noticed it yet, but now that I bring it up you might notice how you can hear things beyond this house.”
I waited and tried to listen to things outside of the house.
I heard a boat zoom by. Then I heard a couple more. Now I heard the screaming and laughter of children on the beach join in with the motor boats. The cars passing by on the road joined in as well.
I cringed. “It’s so… loud.”
Keith smiled. “Try to concentrate on one sound,” Keith yelled so that I was able to hear his voice.
I decided to go up with a challenge. I was able to faintly hear two men probably on the other side of Lake Washington talking.
“Do you think she’ll want to?” One of the men asked. He sounded unsure.
“Dude, of course she will. That’s what I did to Megan and look where we are now! We’re getting married in five months. A secret vacation to an island to pop the question is the best idea yet.”
“It’ll be pretty pricey….”
“Do you love her?” The other man responded.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Then it’s worth it, bro!”
“What did you hear?” Keith asked, pulling me out of my eavesdropping.
“A man asked his friend for help to propose to his girlfriend so he’s going to take her to an island as a secret vacation do it there,” I said with a smile. “The girl must be really lucky to have a guy like him.”
“Ew,” mumbled Sarah.
“Good job, Natalia! You are doing exceptionally well.”
“Thank you,” I chirped.
“Now it’s time for your sense of smell. Having an intensified sense of smell is great and also bad in a way. Its great because you are able to smell such beautiful things you’ve never noticed before and bad because there are scents in the world that just makes you want to die,” Keith said and chuckled.
I wrinkled my nose.
“The scent would only be distinctive if you recognized the smell,” he added. “Are you ready?”
“Yup.”
“Sarah,” Keith called.
I heard Sarah’s stilettos walk toward us. Even though I couldn’t see, her walk still sounded powerful.
I sent out a wave and I saw Sarah standing right beside Keith starring right at me. Nathan was to my side.
“What’s that vile smell?” I shrieked and covered my nose.
“Very good, Natalia. Now tell me what you smell,” said Keith.
“It smells like rotten onions,” I said with my hands over my nose and mouth so my voice was muffled.
“And?”
“And vinegar. And… fresh milk?”
“Correct!” Keith cheered.
“Now I want you to try to find me using all of your senses. Combine your sense of smell with your sense of listening, and use your waves as well. I’m sure this will be easy for you.”
I nodded my head. “Try to find me!” Keith called. He was no longer standing in front of me.
I sniffed the air. It was so confusing with Nathan and Sarah in the room. But Nathan had his own scent I was familiar with and that was the scent of his delicious cologne. It smelled good with my human nose, but with this intensified ability, it smelled so much better. I was also able to smell his deodorant and shampoo.
Sarah’s scent was strong and edgy that matched her perfectly. It made me scared to dig deeper to find out her personal scent.
So now the only scent left was Keith’s and that his smell was of laundry detergent, shampoo, and deodorant. Nothing special but that was Keith. Never trying to impress anybody and by doing that, impressing so many.
Now I had to try to find him using my hearing which was completely difficult when everyone in the room was completely quiet. The only thing I was able to hear was breathing. Maybe if I combined smelling and hearing, I would be able to smell Keith’s breath and use my hearing to find him and send out a wave to be positive I was following the right person.
I followed my plan and I found Keith standing right at the door.
“You are doing to well!” Keith said. “I’m quite astonished.”
I laughed. “Thank you.”
“Now let’s learning about your strength,” Keith said. “Your strength needs to be constantly watched and on your mind. Us ghosts are so strong, we can easily crush a stone with just our two pinkies.
“Sarah.” Keith called again.
Sarah walked over to us creating the same noise.
“Take this rock,” Keith said.
I held out my hands so Keith could place the rock in them.
The rock was very large and smooth. Probably the size of a golf ball.
This was actually pretty easy, I thought to myself as I turned the rock in my hand.
“I did it, Keith!” I cheered after twenty seconds passed and the rock didn’t break.
“Did you really?” Keith asked with a smile in his voice.
The rock wasn’t in my hands anymore. “Where did it go?” I asked.
“Bend down and touch the area around your feet,” Nathan directed.
I was confused but I did it anyways I felt around on the ground until my hand touched something. I started to feel the substance and it felt very much like sand.
“Did I do this?” I gasped. I picked some of the rumble up and let it fall through my fingers.
This scared me. As I felt at the pile of sand, many thoughts ran through my head. What if I accidently transformed and hurt someone? Someone I loved? I crushed that rock so easily that I didn’t even notice that I did.
“I can’t do this,” I murmured and collapsed to my knees.
“Do what?” Nathan asked and knelt down next to me.
“I can’t. I can’t do this,” I repeated.
“Natalia?” Nathan said and put his arm around me.
“I can’t.”
“What can’t you do?”
I felt the tears flooding my eyes.
“Natalia?” Nathan said. There was frusteration and worry in his voice.
I shut my eyes tightly and the tears that were clinging to my eyelashes fell over. “I’m a monster.”
“You are not a monster,” Nathan said slowly.
“I can’t be like this,” I sobbed.
“Oh jeez,” Sarah sighed.
“Sarah,” Keith warned. “Natalia, do you want to stop for today?”
“Not just for today. There has to be a cure for this,” I hissed through my teeth.
“There is no cure, Natalia,” Nathan said.
“There has to be!” I shrieked and put my head in between my knees. I started to rock back and forth.
“I think this is enough for today,” Nathan whispered to Keith.
“Teach me how to control it,” I said loudly.
“Natalia, that takes a lot of time and practice. You can’t gain control over this in just one day.”
“Then I’ll train until I get it right! I’m not going to transfrom back until I learn how to control this!” I screamed and jumped up.
“Natalia, calm down,” Nathan said but for some reason it sounded like he was trying to calm himself down as well.
“I heard that so many times,” I hissed through my teeth. “Just go away!” I shrieked and ran until I hit a wall. I wanted to find a way out but I couldn’t find the door. I tried sending out a wave but I couldn’t.
As I cried, a picture came into my mind. It was a picture of me and Nathan laughing. I was happy. Nathan made me happy.
I pulled my head up from my knees and opened my eyes. My eyelids felt very heavy so I couldn’t open them all the way. I leaned my head against the cold concrete wall.
I no longer saw blackness but the complete opposite. I wasn’t white. I was human again. I looked around the room. I saw Keith and Sarah still in their ghost form conversating with one another. They kept their voice down because it was obvious they didn’t want me to hear.
“Nathan,” I squeaked and wiped the remaining tears from me face.
“He left,” Sarah said and walked toward me with Keith.
“Why?” I asked, bewildered. My eyes were wide open now but I was still awfully sleepy.
“Because you told him to!” She scoffed.
“Where did he go?” I asked. “I didn’t actually mean it,” I mumbled. That was supposed to have a lot more expression but I was barely even able to talk.
“He’s in his room,” Keith answered. “We know you didn’t mean it but he doesn’t.”
I looked at Keith confused. I reluctantly stood up because it was kind of scary looking up at two ghosts.
“You see, Natalia. Each ghost is different and alike. What makes us alike is our looks but what makes us different is the extra ability we all posess-”
“This just gets better and better!” I said sarcastically and walked away toward the door to find Nathan. I shook my head to wake myself up.
“Natalia wait,” Keith called. I just kept on walking to the door. All of a sudden, Keith was standing right in front of me.
I sighed.
“Natalia, having this extra ability is always bad-”
“Always means most of the time and in my case it is bad,” I said and walked around Keith. He was standing right in front of me again.
“You don’t even know what your ability is,” Keith pointed out. “So how are you going to know it’s bad?”
“Because this whole thing is! Everything about me is! How am I supposed to learn to accept the way I am when it’s just so… difficult?” I walked around Keith again and once again he was in front of me.
“Will you stop that?” I asked, irritated.
“Will you listen to what I have to say?”
I sighed. “Fine.”
“Your singular ability is the ability you and only yourself has. These abilites usually develop when you experience hightened emotional stress which I’m guessing you have already experienced since your singular ability has already manifested.”
“So what’s my singular ability?” I asked hoping he wouldn’t have a long explanation.
“Sarah, did he reply?” Keith asked.
“He just did,” Sarah said and while looking down at her phone walking toward us. Once she got here, she handed her phone to Keith.
I watched Keith as he read something on Sarah’s phone. A text message I was guessing. His eyes widened and it looked like he read the message one more time. And again. When he was done, he handed the phone back to Sarah who’s expression was the complete opposite of Keith’s.
“What?” I asked. I was really sleepy now and I felt like I’d fall over.
“Robert assumes your singular ability is to push and pull thoughts out of peoples minds which basically means you are able to control what people are thinking and command them to do what you want them to.”
“That’s really… powerful,” I mused.
“Yes it is. But with enough training, we can get your ability in check without harming anyone with it.”
“Another reason why I’m a monster,” I mumbled. I was barely capable of opening my mouth now. It felt like in the last hour and a half, my energy drained from one-hundred percent to less than one percent. Everytime I blinked, my eyes would stay shut and it would take up to much energy to open them again.
The last thing I remembered was blinking and keeping my eyes shut for I could no longer get them to open. I fell over but someone caught me and I drifted into a deep sleep in their arms.