Lightning Struck

Billie was woken up by Jakob poking him. He looked around, expecting to find himself face to face with somebody dangerous, maybe a burglar, or a kidnapper, or somebody who was armed and wanting to kill him. When he saw his son, he relaxed.

"Hey Daddy, why are you asleep down here?" Jakob asked innocently.

"I, er, I dunno," Billie answered, trying to remember. "Oh, wait, I was busy working on something, and I fell asleep." It was the truth, even if it was only part of it.

"Okay," Jakob said, giving him a hug. Billie hugged him back.

Billie released Jakob. "Want some cereal for breakfast?"

"Sure!" Jakob went over to the table and sat down while Billie went over to the cabinets to get out some cereal. He poured it into a bowl and added milk. He then grabbed a spoon and served the breakfast to Jakob. After he was done, he checked the clock. It was a bit past 9.

'God does Jakob get up early,' Billie thought to himself as he watched him eat. He loved times like these when he was home with his sons and being a father to them. He always hated going away. 'And soon I'll probably be gone for forever,' he thought. Then he shook his head. 'No, I shouldn't think about that, at least not right now.'

Billie got up and made his way upstairs. He went into his room, being as quiet as he could, trying to make sure he didn't wake up Adie. He opened the door slowly so it wouldn't squeak. He succeeded. Then he silently went into their bathroom to take a shower. On his way, though, he stepped on something, something hard and sharp.

"Oh my God, ow!" he shouted, forgetting about being quiet. He held his foot and fell backwards with surprise and bad balance. There was the black gem. "What the fuck is this? A freakin' boomerang? Why does it keep coming back to me?" he yelled before calming down. He delicately removed the gem.

He got up, rubbing his now sore back end and gingerly stepping on his hurt foot. Adie had woken up.

"What happened?" she asked, wide awake now.

"I stepped on this thing again," Billie told her, showing her the culprit.

Joey barged into their room. "What happened?"

"I just stepped on something sharp, that's all," Billie replied. "I'm okay."

Joey gave a sigh of relief before leaving.

When he was gone, Adie said, "Don't forget Mike and Tré are coming over today."

"Oh, yeah, right," Billie said distractedly. He was busy thinking about how he hadn't almost died or died that time. He didn't know whether he liked that or not. He guessed he did, but that also meant that Death was probably planning something, something big, that would end up with him dead for once, instead of narrowly escaping his clutches.

She looked at him, concerned. "You okay?"

"Yeah...just thinking." He went into the bathroom and took his shower, leaving his wife to wonder about him. When he was done, he dried off and started getting changed.

As he was putting on his shirt, a sudden thought crossed his mind. 'What would it be like to have four arms?' It was a bit random, yes, but he was curious none the less. He concentrated on having four arms. He slowly felt two more limbs growing out of his abdomen, below the ones he already had. He made it halfway through before having to sit and rest. It felt awkward, but he couldn't stop now.

After regaining some of his energy, he continued until he had four arms and two new holes in his shirt. He flexed and stretched them. It was weird, but he wanted to try doing something.

He went downstairs and heard that everyone was in the kitchen, eating breakfast, except Jakob who was playing some video game in the family room. He didn't look up as his father passed through and said, "Hey Dad," before returning all his concentration to his game.

Billie walked downstairs and closed the door behind him with two hands and stretched out one other to a two-necked guitar-that he didn't even know why he had-that was lying around. It came to him and he grasped it by one of its necks. He put it on and started to play "Jesus of Suburbia".

About halfway through the song, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Mike and Tré burst into the room and both froze.

"Oh my gosh, you're a Hindu god and you never told me?" Tré cried out indignantly.

Billie stopped playing and gave Tré a look. "No...I just have four arms." Then he continued where he had stopped off.

"Quit showing off," Mike kidded.

Tré pouted, "Yeah."

Billie finished the song and returned to having just two arms. "Well that was fun," he said, taking off the guitar and setting it back down where he had found it.

"Well are we gonna practice now, or what?" Mike asked.

"Yep," Billie replied.

Tré kept giving Billie glances that told him that he was still feeling indignant at the fact that Billie had never told him that he was a Hindu god. Billie made him stop by making Tré have four arms, but ended up having to sit for awhile before being able to play guitar again.