Chapter 25 - What Happened To The Chain?

He walked to the cashier, where he found a girl about his age, with black make-up and a colorful mess of hair. Her face was not very inviting.

"Good afternoon!" Ethan said, placing the groceries on the counter.

She stared at him from top to bottom and began to pass the groceries, quietly.

"You gave $10! Do you want anything else?". She asked, as she chewed a piece of gum and waited for him to give her the money right away.

Ethan took a crumpled note from his pocket and handed it to the girl on the other side of the counter.

"No, thank you!". Ethan replied dryly, but still politely.

The girl put the groceries in the bag and handed it to him, without staring too hard. Ethan took the bag and left, without much sympathy.

Upon arriving at his house, Ethan walked into the living room, kicked off his shoes, tossed them aside, and sprawled out on the couch in the living room. He turned on the television, looking for something interesting to watch while eating the snacks he had bought.

It had been a while since Ethan had just sat down and turned his mind off. He always had something scheduled for the evening or some business to take care of, so he just wanted to be relaxed.

Flipping through the channels on the television, he found a series playing. It was called 'Everybody Hates Chris'. It looked like a simple comedy show that would keep him entertained for the next few hours. Ethan opened the snacks and drink and rested.

A few hours later, he heard his cell phone vibrate. He thought it might be Jessica who had answered his message, but it was actually his mother who had sent a message.

"Hi Ethan. It's okay! I had some unforeseen events at work, but everything is fine. Don't worry about me. I left some money in the box on the bookshelf in the living room. You can use it to order pizza tonight. I don't think I'll be home until after you're asleep!"

"I bought some snacks to eat now. Is everything okay there? You're never this late...". Ethan sent, concerned.

"Yes, it is, honey! I'll explain it to you better later.". Ethan's mother sent it back.

"Right! Anything at all, let me know.". He sent.

"Okay! I love you, Ethan! Don't leave the house today!". She sent it back.

"Okay! I love you too!". Ethan replied.

The message from his mother reinforcing that he should not leave the house as she was too busy made him a little worried. He knew that some accident would happen in the next few days, according to the movie, he just couldn't remember exactly which one and how it would happen.

It was then that he remembered what had happened in the morning with him and Mike.

- What was that shit that was running after us? Were they training or something? - Ethan thought, as he finished his soda.

- But wasn't it too risky to be so close to people? Especially at that time. Like... they wouldn't kill us there. It was too close to the boulevard... - Ethan wondered, as he got up from the couch with the packet of teddy bear candy.

- And the Cullens own that area. Killing two teenagers would be declaring war on them... And isn't there that whole vampire council? With rules... I don't really remember the rules," Ethan thought, pacing back and forth while eating his teddy bear candies.

- Wait a minute! - Ethan stopped in the middle of the room, wide-eyed, poking his head out of one of the teddy bear candies.

- James has a sense of tracking... I wonder if he tracked us? Maybe he wanted to attack. He expected us to go in another direction or something, but he was going to attack two at once? - Ethan thought, that was the only logical explanation for him at the moment.

Thinking about it brought deeper thoughts to him. He was not immune like Bella was to vampire powers. Maybe he could train enough that he could somehow become immune. Apparently, his powers had no limits, he just needed to have enough energy for it.

Ethan finished eating the candies, turned off the television, and went upstairs to his room. It seemed like a good time to improve his skills.

He closed the door to his room and did the same routine as always, putting an old shirt on the door frame and putting the blanket on the window to make it darker.

Ethan sat down in the center of the room and began to concentrate. After a few minutes of feeling the energy enter his body, Ethan stood up and began to test how his new power was evolving.

He raised his arm in front of him and instead of trying to pull the particles out with one hand, he concentrated enough for the particles to come out on their own.

It was a little tricky at first, he had a slight headache, but as time went on, he felt it got easier and easier.

Ethan stretched his arm toward the closet door, causing his energy to walk to the door. He made the holding motion with his hand, and the energy mimicked him. Now, the energy didn't just look like a spot in the air. As Ethan made movements with his hands, the energy took on a definite shape, as if it was actually copying his hand and fingers.

The shadow of energy held the door, like a hand, and when Ethan pulled back, the shadow hand copied him, but with much more force than he imagined it would be, causing the closet to wobble a bit.

Ethan was startled by the movement of the closet, putting his hands forward, as if he wanted to run to hold it, but it was unnecessary since the closet wasn't really going to fall.

Ethan tried to repeat that two shadow hands left his body. He stood there with his hands stretched out on the side of his body, eyes closed, trying to throw the energy he felt into his arms, but he was still weak. He even managed to get two little balls to stay in both hands simultaneously, but they were too small, almost unable to move. This ended up only causing him a little headache.

- Maybe training their endurance is a good way to strengthen their energy - Ethan thought.

Then he took the blanket off the window, making the room a little brighter than before.

Ethan felt the particles getting brighter than normal, as if they were being blotted out by the little light there. He concentrated and tried to make them stronger.

He felt his body heat up, and that comfortable embrace that had felt like dense smoke on his body now felt like a stream of air swirling in random directions inside his body. It was a little uncomfortable, but even unbearable.

Ethan raised his left arm, leaving it straight in front of his own body, and pointed with his hand toward the glass that he had not yet lowered into the kitchen.

His plan was just to get the shadow to touch the glass. He didn't have to knock it over like last time, but just touching it with a little light entering the room would be a great improvement.

The particles spread over his body began to tremble, like particles of water in a glass that was beginning to heat up.

Ethan began to feel his arm tremble a little as if he was nervous about something, but he remained steady and still, just concentrating on his mind.

Suddenly, a small patch of shadow began to come off his arm again and, still connected to his arm, began to stretch slowly toward the glass that was on the dresser.

As the messy patch of shadow stretched out, Ethan felt his arms shaking more and his legs going limp, as well as his body getting too hot.

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly and pushed his arm forward, pushing harder. Then the shadow stretched further and a little faster, hitting the glass and causing it to stagger from side to side until it fell to the floor and broke

Ethan fell off the ground with his knees propped up, sweating and tired as if he had just run a marathon. He had fallen too close to the glass, which had hurt the boy's knees a little, but, even though he was tired, and his knees hurt a little from the shards of glass, Ethan had a huge smile on his face.

As Ethan looked to the side, where his bedroom mirror was, he was able to notice something strange.

The chain around his neck was completely black.

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