Status: Finished; working on the sequel
In The Dark
Chapter Five
We’re all sitting on sofas, chairs, stools, and the floor in my living room. We being: Michael and I, and our parents/foster parents, Ryan and his foster mom, and four other kids and their foster parents.
Confused? Well, here’s a quick rundown. [I will try to make it as simple as possible]
After Michael and I made our truce, I ate something, and we sat around and they told me about what happened last night while I was passed out.
After my ‘gentle’ landing from midair yesterday, Michael and Ryan had to deal with multiples of police, doctors, and reporters. The doctors took a blood sample from me, but when Michael told them my name, they’d pumped it right back to me.
The neighbors had swarmed around them, as did the reporters, until the police had broken them up, and Ryan gave us a ride to his house until everything calmed down.
Then our parents arrived, and took me to the hospital [apparently, the doctors from yesterday didn’t even notice my gash] and I’d gotten twelve stitches and a thin gauze wrapped around my arm.
The four kids had greeted Michael, Ryan, and I when we got home. There is a young girl, about eight, a girl about my age, and twin boys who are, like, three years older than I am.
The little girl had sprung up first and introduced herself. “I’m Zoë,” she had said, “and this is Jenna, Treyvon, and Leon.”
Zoë has dark brown skin like Ryan and I, and green eyes like me, but her hair is the opposite of mine. It’s a bright, shimmering gold, and stops at the middle of her neck.
Jenna is a slightly chubby girl with dark lavender eyes, tan skin, and hair the brightest orange I have ever seen. It hangs down to the middle of her back, and has streaks of black in it.
Treyvon and Leon, being twins, both have jet black hair, almost transparent ice blue eyes, and olive skin. They’re both at least a full five inches taller than I am, and I am 5’9.
Zoë breaks the silence between everyone. “What are we here for? Why isn’t anybody talking? What happened to your arm Kyra?”
Everyone looks at me expectantly, and I look at Ryan. He looks away. I narrow my eyes at him, thinking. If Ryan was there to wake me up, then he must have seen what happened.
I stand up quickly and drag Ryan to his. “Excuse us for a second. I have question for Ryan.”
I push Ryan down the hall to my room and shut the door behind us.
“You were there weren’t you Ryan?” He doesn’t answer, and that gives me my answer. “Spill what happened Ryan. And don’t even think about lying to me because I’m not in the mood.”
He crosses his arms, defiant. “No. I don’t think you deserve to know.”
I’m just about ready to slap him. I take a threatening step toward him. “What do you mean I don’t deserve to know? You’re not the one who’s hurt, I am, and…” My voice wavers slightly, and I want to cry, but I’m not going to.
I sniff loudly, straighten my posture like mom taught me, and walk out of the room. Back in the living room, I sit back in my spot next to the wall. Everyone is staring at me again.
“Can we please get on with this so I can leave? If we’re all here just to stare at each other, I think I’ll pass.” I look at the adults. “Come on, start already.”
They continue to stare at me. Furious, I leap up. “What is it with you freaks?! It’s obvious that you’re waiting for something to happen. Why won’t you tell me what it is?”
Ryan comes to me and puts a hand on my arm, but I shove him into the wall. “This is all your fault! Everything was just fine before I met you. Now nobody is talking to me, and they’re treating me like a total freak show. I hate you!”
He grabs my arms and twists them behind my back. “Calm down Kyra.” He starts to walk me outside.
I struggle and pull at my arms, trying to break free of his hold, but his grip is strong as iron. When we’re on the grass, I manage to jerk away from him, landing on my butt.
Scrambling up, I glare at him. He stares calmly back. That makes me even madder. Why won’t he get angry? How can he act so calm when he doesn’t know so much? He can’t be this calm on the inside…
“Are you going to calm down any time soon, Loli?” He smirks.
Loli? That’s not my name. I don’t care what anyone says.
“That is your name,” that voice again. “Your parents gave it to you before you were even born. It’s a blessing from them, and your only connection with them right now. You’ll learn to like it.”
I grab the sides of my head, as another headache starts up. {Stop it! What is going on? Why are you doing this to me?}
“I don’t mean to, Loli. It just happens sometimes.”
Ryan looks concerned now. “Loli? Are you okay? What’s going on…?” But I’m not listening anymore. I’m angry all over again.
“That’s not my name,” I say, my voice low.
“Yes it is. I don’t know why you dislike it so much,” he says.
“That’s not my name.”
“Yes it is.”
“…THAT NOT MY NAME!”
I squeeze my eyes shut and let out a bloodcurdling scream that seems to come from every part of me and goes on forever.
When I open my eyes again, I’m hundreds of feet above the ground. Adrenaline is pumping through every vein in my body, I let it. Every one of our neighbors has come out of his/her house, and is staring up at me.
Feeling extremely lightheaded, I reach up, to find that my hair is floating above my head in white flames. Looking down at myself, I find my arms and hands almost engulfed in elegant, tattoo-like designs. I lift my shirt lightly, to check, and… yep. The markings are covering my stomach too. I can see only small patches of my brown skin.
“Don’t fear your powers, Loli, Embrace them. They are what make you unique.” You can probably guess who said that.
{I have more powers than this?}
The voice laughs, I think. “Yes. This is only one ability out of the hundreds that you have access to. You just have to find them all.”
I meditate on this information for a minute, then [slowly this time] descend to the ground. My hair solidifies, and turns back to its natural [?] shade of silver and falls back onto my shoulders in a messy spill, and I’m instantly overcome with fatigue. Like I just ran a marathon.
I sink down to my knees, then lower until I’m laying on the grass, and am about to close my eyes, when I’m lifted up.
Ryan. I smile at him apologetically.
“Sorry I got so mad. I’m just really…” Too tired to finish, my head drops onto his chest heavily.
“Kyra? Are you okay?” He sounds nervous.
Not able to talk anymore, I nod faintly into his chest. All the people buzzing around us is hurting my head. I cover my ears with my hands.
Ryan sits me on the porch swing, and steps toward the crowd.
“Hey,” he says. Everyone keeps yelling. “Shut up! Can’t you see that she’s in pain? She’s trying to get peace and quiet, but she can’t do that with all you people giving her headaches with your shouting. Now go home!”
The crowd starts to leave, getting smaller and smaller until there’s no one left. Except the people who were here to begin with. They all crowd around me, but this time I don’t get mad. I understand.
“That was what you guys were waiting for wasn’t it?” They all nod slowly.
I look at Ryan. “Thanks.” He shrugs, embarrassed.
Then, mom starts crying. I try to sit up and comfort her, but her sobs just get harder, and she runs inside. Dad, Michael, and the other adults go after her.
I scoot over, and Jenna and Zoë sit down next to me. The boys hop up on the porch railing. I try hard not to fall asleep on this swing.
“Your parents haven’t told you yet have they?” Jenna looks at me expectantly. I shake my head slowly. She nods. “I didn’t think so.”
Leon jumps in. “We were going to tell you, but after that major scene you just made, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Treyvon punches his arm. “Ow! What was that for?”
I don’t even have the energy to get mad right now. Another pain starts up in my head, I groan. “Sorry Loli. I’m trying to stop this from happening, but the chip is still too unused to listen. This will stop eventually.”
"Yeah? Well why should I listen to you? I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing in my head, or if this is just some nightmare that I’m going to wake up screaming from!"
I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up. Its Ryan. “Are you okay?”
I stare at him in mortification. I just said that out loud. I look around at everyone. They look somewhat freaked. Ryan walks in the house, and emerges a few minutes later with a glass of foggy blue liquid. He hands it to me.
“What is this," I ask, sniffing it. I almost throw up on the spot. I try to hand it back, but he pushes my hand away.
“Drink it. It will help you get your strength back without having to go to sleep. It tastes better than it smells, trust me.”
With another skeptical glance, I gulp the foul smelling liquid down as quickly as possible. Looking up, I see that everyone has moved to the other side of the porch. “Go out on the grass,” they yell.
I hurry out onto the grass. What in the world is so terrible that I have to stand out here?
Nothing’s happening. Not one thing… wait. What in the world is that?
I feel hot. Really hot. Man… it feels like there’s pure fire in my stomach. I burp, accidentally, and a puff of black smoke comes out. Sounds like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon doesn’t it?
But I’m serious. A tingling sensation starts in my balled up fists. I open them, and an electricity-like power seems to surge through them. My palms start to glow white and the light spreads in until the entire surfaces of my palms are glowing.
The markings on the backs of my hands and arms are glowing the same white as my hands. In addition, I see a faint glow coming from underneath my shirt too. Storm clouds have gathered right above my head, and lightning is flashing out of them.
A round of thunder starts up like an exploding bomb and a bolt of lightning strikes down and I fell it hit me. I’m knocked to the ground, and I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the pain… but it doesn’t come.
Instead, the same tingling that I felt in my hands, have now spread to me entire body.
Everyone on the porch, especially Zoë, is watching me with looks of fear, mixed with excitement. “Go ahead, Kyra,” the voice says, “experiment.”
I rub my thumb and forefinger together, and watch the sparks fly. I have an idea now. I back up until I’m in the street, and stand with my legs spread slightly.
“Watch this!” Making sure not cars are coming, I clap my hands together as hared as possible. There’s a bright white flash, and then everything goes pitch black. The sun disappears or something, and I can’t see anything.
I don’t move for a minute, afraid of what I did, but then I pull my hands apart. Oh my gosh…
Hovering in between my hands is… some sort of… I cannot even explain it. It’s like a ball, but at the same time, its not…
Then the sun reappears, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
Did I do that? I couldn’t have done that. Right? That’s impossible; absolutely impossible. I’m not… God. The ball thing is slowly changing form between my hands. Now it looks to be filled with, like, lightning. I’m not crazy! Just picture one of those static ball things that when you touch them, the purple static clings to where your finger is.
It’s just like that, except this static is whitish-yellow. It falls into my hands, and I stare at it, unsure of what to do with it. Finally, I just walk back to the porch with it, a huge grin on my face.
“Did you guys see that? It was so cool. Right?”
Dad has come out on the porch, and he just stares at me. “It was not cool… it was just plain scary. Kyra, you’re holding enough energy to power a whole city for weeks. This could really help the economy. If you could do that again…”
He reaches out to take it, but receives a deadly shock, that makes his hair stick out at all angles. We all burst out laughing and he scowls, turning and going back into the house.
I sit down on the porch swing and admire my ball of energy. I can’t believe I just did that. Nobody has ever touched, or in my case, held lightning.”
Zoë sits next to me, fascinated with it. I finger the headband she’s wearing, and she shrieks.
“What happened?”
Her hair is sticking up strait up just like dad’s. “You shocked me!”
Now that I think about, I can feel myself almost vibrating with energy. Wait a minute. Looking around at everyone, trying to decipher this. “Does this mean I can’t touch anybody anymore? Not ever again?”
They don’t answer, or look at me. This isn’t fair! Why did I have to have these freaky powers? I would rather be normal like everyone else.
“Do not say that Loli.”
{Well, actually, I didn’t say it, I was thinking it. Why do you have to intrude on my personal feelings? Do you even have a name?}
The voice doesn’t answer, and I’m about to forget about it, when it says, “That’s not important. What is important is that you’re not alone. Ryan and the others all have powers too. Just different from yours. Your powers are what make you unique. You are not a freak. You and your teammates are more important than any regular humans on Earth are. They aren’t capable of doing half the things you can do. You should be grateful that I… we…they made you like this.”
I’m suspicious instantly. The had said ‘I’ and ‘we’, before deciding on ‘they’. Could the voice have something to do with why I’m like this?
Confused? Well, here’s a quick rundown. [I will try to make it as simple as possible]
After Michael and I made our truce, I ate something, and we sat around and they told me about what happened last night while I was passed out.
After my ‘gentle’ landing from midair yesterday, Michael and Ryan had to deal with multiples of police, doctors, and reporters. The doctors took a blood sample from me, but when Michael told them my name, they’d pumped it right back to me.
The neighbors had swarmed around them, as did the reporters, until the police had broken them up, and Ryan gave us a ride to his house until everything calmed down.
Then our parents arrived, and took me to the hospital [apparently, the doctors from yesterday didn’t even notice my gash] and I’d gotten twelve stitches and a thin gauze wrapped around my arm.
The four kids had greeted Michael, Ryan, and I when we got home. There is a young girl, about eight, a girl about my age, and twin boys who are, like, three years older than I am.
The little girl had sprung up first and introduced herself. “I’m Zoë,” she had said, “and this is Jenna, Treyvon, and Leon.”
Zoë has dark brown skin like Ryan and I, and green eyes like me, but her hair is the opposite of mine. It’s a bright, shimmering gold, and stops at the middle of her neck.
Jenna is a slightly chubby girl with dark lavender eyes, tan skin, and hair the brightest orange I have ever seen. It hangs down to the middle of her back, and has streaks of black in it.
Treyvon and Leon, being twins, both have jet black hair, almost transparent ice blue eyes, and olive skin. They’re both at least a full five inches taller than I am, and I am 5’9.
Zoë breaks the silence between everyone. “What are we here for? Why isn’t anybody talking? What happened to your arm Kyra?”
Everyone looks at me expectantly, and I look at Ryan. He looks away. I narrow my eyes at him, thinking. If Ryan was there to wake me up, then he must have seen what happened.
I stand up quickly and drag Ryan to his. “Excuse us for a second. I have question for Ryan.”
I push Ryan down the hall to my room and shut the door behind us.
“You were there weren’t you Ryan?” He doesn’t answer, and that gives me my answer. “Spill what happened Ryan. And don’t even think about lying to me because I’m not in the mood.”
He crosses his arms, defiant. “No. I don’t think you deserve to know.”
I’m just about ready to slap him. I take a threatening step toward him. “What do you mean I don’t deserve to know? You’re not the one who’s hurt, I am, and…” My voice wavers slightly, and I want to cry, but I’m not going to.
I sniff loudly, straighten my posture like mom taught me, and walk out of the room. Back in the living room, I sit back in my spot next to the wall. Everyone is staring at me again.
“Can we please get on with this so I can leave? If we’re all here just to stare at each other, I think I’ll pass.” I look at the adults. “Come on, start already.”
They continue to stare at me. Furious, I leap up. “What is it with you freaks?! It’s obvious that you’re waiting for something to happen. Why won’t you tell me what it is?”
Ryan comes to me and puts a hand on my arm, but I shove him into the wall. “This is all your fault! Everything was just fine before I met you. Now nobody is talking to me, and they’re treating me like a total freak show. I hate you!”
He grabs my arms and twists them behind my back. “Calm down Kyra.” He starts to walk me outside.
I struggle and pull at my arms, trying to break free of his hold, but his grip is strong as iron. When we’re on the grass, I manage to jerk away from him, landing on my butt.
Scrambling up, I glare at him. He stares calmly back. That makes me even madder. Why won’t he get angry? How can he act so calm when he doesn’t know so much? He can’t be this calm on the inside…
“Are you going to calm down any time soon, Loli?” He smirks.
Loli? That’s not my name. I don’t care what anyone says.
“That is your name,” that voice again. “Your parents gave it to you before you were even born. It’s a blessing from them, and your only connection with them right now. You’ll learn to like it.”
I grab the sides of my head, as another headache starts up. {Stop it! What is going on? Why are you doing this to me?}
“I don’t mean to, Loli. It just happens sometimes.”
Ryan looks concerned now. “Loli? Are you okay? What’s going on…?” But I’m not listening anymore. I’m angry all over again.
“That’s not my name,” I say, my voice low.
“Yes it is. I don’t know why you dislike it so much,” he says.
“That’s not my name.”
“Yes it is.”
“…THAT NOT MY NAME!”
I squeeze my eyes shut and let out a bloodcurdling scream that seems to come from every part of me and goes on forever.
When I open my eyes again, I’m hundreds of feet above the ground. Adrenaline is pumping through every vein in my body, I let it. Every one of our neighbors has come out of his/her house, and is staring up at me.
Feeling extremely lightheaded, I reach up, to find that my hair is floating above my head in white flames. Looking down at myself, I find my arms and hands almost engulfed in elegant, tattoo-like designs. I lift my shirt lightly, to check, and… yep. The markings are covering my stomach too. I can see only small patches of my brown skin.
“Don’t fear your powers, Loli, Embrace them. They are what make you unique.” You can probably guess who said that.
{I have more powers than this?}
The voice laughs, I think. “Yes. This is only one ability out of the hundreds that you have access to. You just have to find them all.”
I meditate on this information for a minute, then [slowly this time] descend to the ground. My hair solidifies, and turns back to its natural [?] shade of silver and falls back onto my shoulders in a messy spill, and I’m instantly overcome with fatigue. Like I just ran a marathon.
I sink down to my knees, then lower until I’m laying on the grass, and am about to close my eyes, when I’m lifted up.
Ryan. I smile at him apologetically.
“Sorry I got so mad. I’m just really…” Too tired to finish, my head drops onto his chest heavily.
“Kyra? Are you okay?” He sounds nervous.
Not able to talk anymore, I nod faintly into his chest. All the people buzzing around us is hurting my head. I cover my ears with my hands.
Ryan sits me on the porch swing, and steps toward the crowd.
“Hey,” he says. Everyone keeps yelling. “Shut up! Can’t you see that she’s in pain? She’s trying to get peace and quiet, but she can’t do that with all you people giving her headaches with your shouting. Now go home!”
The crowd starts to leave, getting smaller and smaller until there’s no one left. Except the people who were here to begin with. They all crowd around me, but this time I don’t get mad. I understand.
“That was what you guys were waiting for wasn’t it?” They all nod slowly.
I look at Ryan. “Thanks.” He shrugs, embarrassed.
Then, mom starts crying. I try to sit up and comfort her, but her sobs just get harder, and she runs inside. Dad, Michael, and the other adults go after her.
I scoot over, and Jenna and Zoë sit down next to me. The boys hop up on the porch railing. I try hard not to fall asleep on this swing.
“Your parents haven’t told you yet have they?” Jenna looks at me expectantly. I shake my head slowly. She nods. “I didn’t think so.”
Leon jumps in. “We were going to tell you, but after that major scene you just made, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Treyvon punches his arm. “Ow! What was that for?”
I don’t even have the energy to get mad right now. Another pain starts up in my head, I groan. “Sorry Loli. I’m trying to stop this from happening, but the chip is still too unused to listen. This will stop eventually.”
"Yeah? Well why should I listen to you? I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing in my head, or if this is just some nightmare that I’m going to wake up screaming from!"
I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up. Its Ryan. “Are you okay?”
I stare at him in mortification. I just said that out loud. I look around at everyone. They look somewhat freaked. Ryan walks in the house, and emerges a few minutes later with a glass of foggy blue liquid. He hands it to me.
“What is this," I ask, sniffing it. I almost throw up on the spot. I try to hand it back, but he pushes my hand away.
“Drink it. It will help you get your strength back without having to go to sleep. It tastes better than it smells, trust me.”
With another skeptical glance, I gulp the foul smelling liquid down as quickly as possible. Looking up, I see that everyone has moved to the other side of the porch. “Go out on the grass,” they yell.
I hurry out onto the grass. What in the world is so terrible that I have to stand out here?
Nothing’s happening. Not one thing… wait. What in the world is that?
I feel hot. Really hot. Man… it feels like there’s pure fire in my stomach. I burp, accidentally, and a puff of black smoke comes out. Sounds like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon doesn’t it?
But I’m serious. A tingling sensation starts in my balled up fists. I open them, and an electricity-like power seems to surge through them. My palms start to glow white and the light spreads in until the entire surfaces of my palms are glowing.
The markings on the backs of my hands and arms are glowing the same white as my hands. In addition, I see a faint glow coming from underneath my shirt too. Storm clouds have gathered right above my head, and lightning is flashing out of them.
A round of thunder starts up like an exploding bomb and a bolt of lightning strikes down and I fell it hit me. I’m knocked to the ground, and I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the pain… but it doesn’t come.
Instead, the same tingling that I felt in my hands, have now spread to me entire body.
Everyone on the porch, especially Zoë, is watching me with looks of fear, mixed with excitement. “Go ahead, Kyra,” the voice says, “experiment.”
I rub my thumb and forefinger together, and watch the sparks fly. I have an idea now. I back up until I’m in the street, and stand with my legs spread slightly.
“Watch this!” Making sure not cars are coming, I clap my hands together as hared as possible. There’s a bright white flash, and then everything goes pitch black. The sun disappears or something, and I can’t see anything.
I don’t move for a minute, afraid of what I did, but then I pull my hands apart. Oh my gosh…
Hovering in between my hands is… some sort of… I cannot even explain it. It’s like a ball, but at the same time, its not…
Then the sun reappears, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
Did I do that? I couldn’t have done that. Right? That’s impossible; absolutely impossible. I’m not… God. The ball thing is slowly changing form between my hands. Now it looks to be filled with, like, lightning. I’m not crazy! Just picture one of those static ball things that when you touch them, the purple static clings to where your finger is.
It’s just like that, except this static is whitish-yellow. It falls into my hands, and I stare at it, unsure of what to do with it. Finally, I just walk back to the porch with it, a huge grin on my face.
“Did you guys see that? It was so cool. Right?”
Dad has come out on the porch, and he just stares at me. “It was not cool… it was just plain scary. Kyra, you’re holding enough energy to power a whole city for weeks. This could really help the economy. If you could do that again…”
He reaches out to take it, but receives a deadly shock, that makes his hair stick out at all angles. We all burst out laughing and he scowls, turning and going back into the house.
I sit down on the porch swing and admire my ball of energy. I can’t believe I just did that. Nobody has ever touched, or in my case, held lightning.”
Zoë sits next to me, fascinated with it. I finger the headband she’s wearing, and she shrieks.
“What happened?”
Her hair is sticking up strait up just like dad’s. “You shocked me!”
Now that I think about, I can feel myself almost vibrating with energy. Wait a minute. Looking around at everyone, trying to decipher this. “Does this mean I can’t touch anybody anymore? Not ever again?”
They don’t answer, or look at me. This isn’t fair! Why did I have to have these freaky powers? I would rather be normal like everyone else.
“Do not say that Loli.”
{Well, actually, I didn’t say it, I was thinking it. Why do you have to intrude on my personal feelings? Do you even have a name?}
The voice doesn’t answer, and I’m about to forget about it, when it says, “That’s not important. What is important is that you’re not alone. Ryan and the others all have powers too. Just different from yours. Your powers are what make you unique. You are not a freak. You and your teammates are more important than any regular humans on Earth are. They aren’t capable of doing half the things you can do. You should be grateful that I… we…they made you like this.”
I’m suspicious instantly. The had said ‘I’ and ‘we’, before deciding on ‘they’. Could the voice have something to do with why I’m like this?
♠ ♠ ♠
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