(Day 4): Display of Power
We all walk through the forest together, and I use this time to catch up with Louie and Angel. I ask about how they managed to help Mia and Vick save my life, although they both refuse to say anything until after they have demonstrated their powers. It probably has to do with superpowers, that much is obvious.
"So, Angel, who should show their ability first?" Louie asks, as we all emerge from the forest. Angel shrugs.
"You can start, Louie." Louie simply nods. The air around him seems to vibrate slightly, as if something is heating it. Louie turns around and looks directly into the high, bright sun. What is he doing? Surely he's blinding himself by doing that. Louie outstretches his arm towards the sky. A thin beam of yellow pulsating light forms between him and the sun. His arm lights up a bright pulsating yellow, the same colour of his eyes. His face appears to be emitting light, his arm growing brighter, and brighter. Suddenly, he turns around and makes a large slicing motion with his hand, sending a lightning-fast beam of hot yellow plasma rocketing across the green plain. Shadows form in places they shouldn't as the area lights up from Louie's blast of powerful energy. In the somewhat-close distance, A large oak tree slowly slides sideways off its stump, the wood bark smoking slightly at the cutline. It collapses over sideways, sending a brown dust cloud billowing into the atmosphere on impact with the ground. The smell of burnt wood and charcoal wafts across the field towards us, being carried by the wind, along with a mass of the accumulated dust. Louie looks between us all and blows the top fingers in a gun-like shape for dramatic effect. We all applaud him in between hacking our lungs to clear the fine granules of dust from our airways. Louie smiles at us all. I just stare on at him with a mix of awe and suspicion. Good show, Louie. Louie seems to know what I'm thinking, as he just shrugs, all the while still smiling. It no longer reaches his eyes. Arctic lets out a soft howl of enthusiasm. We all chuckle slightly.
"I have to admit, that was pretty cool." I exclaim, clapping Louie on the back as he walks over to me. With my left hand though, I'm not taking any chances with my right. I turn to Vick, Mia, and Angel. "You all need to remind me not to get on Louie's bad side," I simply state. I will trust Louie and Angel, only because Vick and Mia do. But, either way, there is no harm in getting on his 'good side.'
"Agreed," Vick replies to me. Louie looks at all of us as his smile creeps impossibly farther up his face. Underneath the surface, I can't help but feel jealous. How come he gets such a cool – and powerful – ability? All I can do is accidentally make my arm disappear, all the while almost getting overwhelmed with pain. Nonetheless, I hide my true emotions from them.
"It isn't all good. I need to, like, 'charge up' with sunlight otherwise I can't use it. Well, I can, but it isn't anywhere near as powerful that way." Still better than what I have. I turn back to Louie.
"How did you discover it in the first place? Like your power, I mean." I ask Louie. He smiles at me, grimly this time.
"I accidentally burnt hole through the centre of someone's chest while trying to defend myself," Louie says, laughing slightly. I sarcastically roll my eyes, laughing without emotion. I don't know what to think about him at this point.
"Of course, you did," I sarcastically exclaim. "How else would you have stumbled across a magic power, except for you managing bend sunlight and shoot plasma at someone, killing them instantly. Very generic." Louie shrugs at me, trying to appear innocent. I chuckle, rolling my eyes at him. "Okay Angel, your turn." I say, turning to face her. Angel smiles at me. She seems a nicer character than Louie. More genuine, I mean.
"Aiden, pass me your hand," she says calmly, sounding a little evil at the same time. I furrow my brows in the tell-tale expression of confusion. However, I do what she asks, extending my left hand out. She reaches out and firmly grasps my wrist. Before I can react, she pulls out her knife and cuts my middle finger clean off, right above the knuckle bone. I cry out in pain, my face hardening with anguish. I take it back. Without regard for myself, I reach down with my right hand and draw my new pistol. To my bitter surprise, my arm allows me this. Angel starts backwards a few paces, in shock and fear. I point the end of the steel barrel directly towards Angel's forehead, who has suddenly turned very pale.
"Aiden! Stop!" Louie yells out. Vick and Mia just watch the events unfold. I press the hammer of the firearm backwards, creating a satisfying "Click!" noise. I clutch my hand against my chest, pressing my hard against my bloodied shirt to staunch the flow of blood.
"You better have a very good explanation for that," I say in a cold, determined, and hard voice. In my peripheral vision, I see a yellow glow radiating from Louie's eyes and fists. I flare my nostrils; I was right not to trust them. Arctic darts over to my feet, bracing his paws on the floor in a protective stance. He faces Louie growling loudly at him. Baring his teeth in anger. The fur on his back rippling dangerously, his ears pressed flat against his scalp. If Arctic thinks for a second that Louie is going to attack me, Arctic will end him.
"Aiden, lower the firearm." Louie's voice tone matches mine, if not colder. I glance over at him; his arms and face are steadily growing brighter. I can't win this fight, I think, disgusted with my new 'allies.' I hesitantly lower the point of the pistol. To my appreciation, Louie's skin begins to diminish in brightness. Arctic's fur stops rippling, and the growl ceases. He still braces his legs at my feet, though. Angel begins to approach me again, very slowly this time.
"I can explain, I promise. You just need to trust me," she says slowly, forcing every word out of her mouth. I snicker.
"Yeah, because I have so many reasons to!" Angel just stares on at me, hope and fear shining in her eyes. Another strange combination. Slowly, I return the pistol to my belt, outstretching my hand. Angel carefully takes my hand with her left, gently holding mine up underneath hers. Her eyes close, and she hovers her right hand above my finger, making a weaving motion with her fingers. An orange glaze appears over the top of her closed eyelids, some sort of crystal structure hovering in front of them. Her eyes begin to glow through the glaze, and so do the tips of her fingers. A strange tingling sensation materialises where my finger should be. Small tendrils of energy form between her fingers and my hand. I gasp in shock and awe, as my finger gets reconstructed in front of me. First, the reddish-pink bone marrow starts forming, like a 3D printer it pops up in layers. A bone casing forms around it, hiding the bone marrow from view. Ligaments and tendons pop into existence, fitting themselves into the designated area that they belong. Then the veins begin to spread, and it is all wrapped up in a flow of skin which sets itself in the correct position. Everything fits perfectly in the right place and feels fine. My finger has been restored to its regular functioning self. Angel quickly steps back, and the glaze in her eye's fades. She seems slightly weaker than before, though. Slightly more slumped down in her stance and hunched over. I look at her and nod. Arctic finally relaxes his position and sits down normally. Tilting his head, with his tongue lolling out of his jaw as if trying to prove he is innocent of something.
"Thanks." I say simply, trying to hide as much emotion from entering my speech as possible. "Though wouldn't it have just been simpler to explain it, rather than go through all that?" I ask. Angel shrugs, smiling slightly.
"Yeah, but that was more dramatic." I have no reply to that, so I return the slight smile.
"I'm sorry for pointing a gun at you, by the way. I just didn't understand the situation." I apologise, allowing my voice to sound sincere and genuinely apologetic. My true emotions are once again hidden. Angel shrugs it off.
"It's fine. I can see why you would be concerned and confused." I smile at her. She smiles back.
"And thanks for not incinerating me," I say as I turn to Louie. He just nods simply. We stare into each other's eyes, unflinching. His cold eyes speak all I need to hear. I need to be careful around here. This world just got a whole lot smaller. We stay engaged in this stance until Vick finally breaks the moment.
"Sooooo, now that it is over, who is hungry?" Vick asks. Even after only knowing him for a few short days, I can see that this is a definite part of his personality. "There is still some deer meat left, I do believe." Vick licks his lips and claps his hands together. We all laugh at his impatient stomach. "Or there is this delicious infinite food source," Vick happily exclaims, picking up my piece of finger from the floor.
"Eww," Mia exclaims, eyeing Vick with a strong look of disgust. We all laugh, except for Louie – who is still eyeing me suspiciously. Right back at you, 'friend.' The finger Vick is holding suddenly, disintegrates, making him step back in shock. The particles float to the ground in a pile of ash and dust. Then, of course, Vick takes the liberty of jumping into the pile of finger ash. The fine dust particles scatter everywhere through the air. Everyone immediately covers their airways with their shirts, determined to not breathe in any of my finger. Once the particles have dissipated in the air, we all dust off our clothes to make sure we are free of the particles. I turn back to Vick.
"Lead the way, my friend. I don't fancy any 'finger,' but I like the sounds of venison." I exclaim, smiling slightly. Vick grins back at me, begins to walk back towards the hidden forest base as Mia calls out behind me.
"Aiden, if your arm can phase, do you think you can make your whole body do it too?" I turn around in utter shock at what was spoken. I think for a second. Is it possible? I ask myself. If it is, that could be a huge advantage for me in battle. I look down at the unknown gloop embedded in my arm, wincing slightly as I visualise wracks of agonising pain shooting through my whole body. I don't think I want to risk it. So, I just innocently shrug.
"Possibly, but I don't want to try today. Who knows? Maybe it will show itself in my time of need. But I don't want to go through the pain of that again today." Mia just nods at me, disappointment imprinted clearly across her face. The look in her eyes sends hurt flaring through my gut, like I failed her. I hate myself for feeling that way.
"I figured as much." She starts walking forwards with us, and I turn around to continue walking next to Vick. I don't think I will ever be able to try. I don't know how it works, how to trigger it, or anything like that. And I don't think that I want to, either. Not after last time. I know in my heart that I can never live like this. I'm always going to be haunted by myself and the pain that I inflict upon my own body. It's just like your heartbeat. You know that it belongs to you, and how could it not? Yet there's nothing that you can do to control it, it just happens. I sigh as I ponder this, still walking next to Vick. I open my mouth to ask a question, when suddenly my instincts cry out, telling me to move or die. A gut feeling, more than anything. Without hesitation I abide to my instincts. In this world, instincts mean survival. I drop flat to the ground, landing on my stomach and winding myself slightly. A high velocity piece of lead whizzes over my head, ripples of air reverberate over me as the bullet's slipstream disturbs the particles around it. Vick looks at me with confusion while his flight or fight response kicks in. After a moment of hesitation, he notices what occurs.
"To the base!'' Vick yells loudly. All around me my friends charge past me as I scramble to my feet. The hair on the back of my neck stands up. This is it. The end of my life…