The Awakening

Will has always been different. An oddity. He knows it. However, one morning, he finds a strange color shifting stone. Little does he know, his life is about to change forever...

I owed my 14 years of carefree boyhood to my older sister. However, on that fateful day, life took an unexpected turn for the better or worse. I was a ninth grader at Plainview Middle School, living what seemed like an ordinary life. But deep down, I knew I was anything but ordinary�"like an unexplored, yet ordinary-looking sea. On the surface, I was just your typical classmate: hanging out with friends, decent at sports, dealing with exams, crushes, and homework(Now there's something I don't miss) like everyone else.

But under the surface, where fewer divers choose to venture, I was nothing but ordinary. If all life forms had a color, and everyone else was white, I was black. There are the occasional people who are unusual, but they all appear as a face in the history book, with paragraphs on paragraphs singing to their accomplishments. Their lives shine bright silver. Me? I was the odd creature. The unwanted creature. However, thanks to my sister, I was able to blend in.

My sister Bella. She was three years older than me and somewhat withdrawn yet a socially comfortable person. She was to most people a normal student, one of the people that blends with the background when brainiacs and troublemakers are discussed. However, to me, she was nothing less than my best friend. Ever since my childhood, she had covered up my suspicious behavior, coming up with reasons for why unusual occurrences took place in my presence. She was uncanny in making people believe her. After all, with her genuine and vulnerable expression, who wouldn’t?

The day began with a pounding headache that woke me up at 4 AM. I frowned. Headaches for me were not uncommon, however such harsh ones usually meant something unusual was about to happen. Last time, I saved a boy in my apartment complex from being hit by a glass bottle some drunk had hurled into the road. Why? No idea. The boy’s parents were grateful to no bounds, and I was praised for my quick thinking. But the praise didn’t bring me much satisfaction, not when I knew it wasn’t quick thinking at all. No one would believe me if I told them the truth�"that I had known, just before it happened, that the bottle was going to fall.

I stumbled into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water. Its cold, jarring flavor brought me to my senses. My headache subsided somewhat. I downed another cup because hey, two is always better than one. I walked to the chair overlooking the balcony view and settled. I managed to doze off for a blissful moment. When I awoke, dawn had arisen, turning the sky a tapestry of orange-yellow and blue. I stretched and yawned. It was still quite early, but the sound of K-pop coming from a room decorated with the names of bands told me that my sister was awake. 

The next couple of hours passed quite quickly. I got ready for school. After the usual bids of farewell, I set off with my dad, a modern-day history fanatic�"“Did you know son, another relic from Alexander’s reign has been found! A drinking pitcher, with engravings of men in thrones on it!” I just nodded absentmindedly, thinking about school. After another eternity, we reached a road crossing about half a mile from the school. I waved to my dad and joined my best friend Goukal going towards the two big blocks of white off in the distance that was the Plainview Middle School. 

“Hiya man,” I said and got a hey back. “Did you do the chemistry worksheet?” “Oh crap I did most of it but left the last two,” I said. “Ah I know right,” Said Goukal. “I also got stuck there, dude…” We chatted some more for a bit and I completely forgot about my headache. A minute later, we fell silent and the pounding had returned.

A gleam caught my eye. A green speck, about a meter in front of me. “Huh. Very shiny rock, that” I remarked, pointing at it. “Shiny?” Goukal looked skeptical. “Well if you say so I guess, but it looks just like an ordinary piece of cement, though kinda smooth and looks like a sphere that was battered cleanly.” “Awfully green piece of cement I’d say.” I said. “What do you mean Will? It is a literal piece of grey stone” Goukal said, puzzled. “What? Okay, leave it I guess. I have a slight headache.” However, as I passed it, I discreetly picked up the rock and slipped it into my shirt pocket. 

We were just a bit late, however Ms Gladys, thankfully, turned a blind eye to the fact that two students had just stumbled into her classroom five minutes after the class had started. I fumbled for my books, all the while conscious of the green rock in my bag. Taking them out, I opened my notebook and began to write, conscious of a dull ache in my temple.

Ms. Gladys droned on and on about electrolysis. I started to zone out. I was never good at listening to long speeches with every word sounding the same and all the sentences blending into one long buzz. “In this example, sodium goes to the cathode�"” Why does it pain so much? “chlorine in the anode�"” I should have stayed at home.”Will are you okay?” Could have been sleeping. “Will?” Without this pain… “WILL!!!” 

A crack. Like lightning on my skull. Searing my brain. Slicing through everything. Splitting my world apart. A gasp reached my ears. It was my own. I was breathing fast. Panicked. Yet somehow I was conscious of the damn stone, glowing fierce red in my pocket.

I screamed inside. Pain. Vague terror. I seemed to be looking at the world from a different body, at the anxious faces of my classmates swimming in and out of my view. A lined face appeared. Ms Gladys. She was saying something. I could see her lips framing words. 

And then�"nothing

The next I knew, I was in the school infirmary.

The dull ache was still there. In my stupor, I had turned and was resting head-down on the sheets.  A sharp pressure on my chest had awakened me. The stone. Turning and sitting up, I took a deep breath and took an analysis of my body and surroundings. I took out the stone and gazed at it. In a different light, the patterns were different, a more blueish tinge now met my eyes. A cloud shifted over the sun. The stone turned yellow. Ms Gladys would most definitely be interested, in what sort of element caused such an effect, however, something told me to keep it close.

I got up and went out of the resting room. Rahul uncle sat at a desk outside. A 35-year-old man who had been in the school for 6 years, he was more or less used to and more concerned about students than most other teachers. I’d taken to him since I first met him when I bruised my knee from a fall.

“How are you feeling now Will?” He asked, a faint concerned tone visible in his voice. I told him I was fine. “We can call your parents,” Rahul suggested. I shook my head. “No, I’m alright, really,” I said, forcing a smile. But the truth was, I wasn’t alright. My chest felt heavy, and the strange shifting colors of the stone had left me more unnerved than I admit. Rahul studied my face for a moment longer, but he let it go with a soft nod. “Alright, but come back here if you feel worse, okay?”

I nodded and walked out of the infirmary, clutching the stone tighter in my pocket. My headache had lessened, but a nagging sensation remained, like something important was slipping through my grasp.

The rest of the day passed in a haze. I couldn’t focus in class, not even when Ms. Gladys gave us a pop quiz, something I usually hated but could manage. Goukal poked me a couple of times, trying to get me to talk about football, but I barely registered his words. My mind kept drifting back to the stone, to the way it changed colors, and to the pounding in my head that seemed to sync with it.

When the final bell rang, I practically bolted out of the classroom. I was silent on the way back. It was like my whole body was frozen, and my consciousness lingered faintly within. My lips were parched and my arms were crossed. When I had to get out of the car, it was a rusty feeling. My dad noticed. “Are you okay son?” He asked. “Yeah I am,”  I said. “Are you sure your headache is better?” I waved away his concerns “Yes It is.” He had to go for some work, so I walked to my house, just around the corner.

When I got home, I shoved my bag on my bed, came to the living room, and plopped myself on the sofa. My mom wasn’t home. Then I remembered that she had gone to her office for a meeting that afternoon and would be back at night. I sighed and looked at the colorful images flashing on the television screen. Someone had put on ‘20th Century Girl’ on the TV.  My sister probably. I thought.

As if on cue, my sister’s face appeared out of the kitchen door. “Hey, Will! How was school?” Mechanically, I responded that it was okay. “You sure? You don't look that okay.” She said as she came into the living room. I could never hide things from my sister. I told her about my day, plagues with headaches, and topped off with a weird feeling. I left the part about the stone. I was not ready to reveal it. Not yet. 

Bella sat with me on the sofa and put an arm on my shoulders. “Well, if you want anything, tell me. I’ll be in my bedroom.” She stood and went to her room. I stared at the television for a few minutes. I pulled out the stone in my pocket. It was blue. The color of the evening sea. Maybe it reacts to daylight I wondered. Or maybe my emotions… but I was too tired to test my theory. Instead, I stuffed it back in my pocket and went to my room. 

I picked up the novel I was reading the night before. Amazonia. I was about two-thirds done with the book. The next hour passed with me reading the book. The knowledge of the stone gleaming in my pocket increased the effect of fantasy in the book. By the time I finished, the sunset was around the corner. The book had given me a yearning to enter a spot of nature myself. Since the sun was setting fast, I went to the woods behind my house. 

It was a place I used to play in when I was younger, but now it was mostly forgotten, except for when I needed to bring a part of a plant to school or wanted to search for deer. Fortunately, no hostile predators roamed these woods. It was just a secluded corridor of nature. A quiet, hidden spot seemed perfect for sorting out what happened today.

I found a large rock to sit on and pulled out the stone again, holding it up to the fading sunlight. The greenish hue was back, swirling with faint traces of blue. It didn’t make sense. I turned it over in my hand, hoping for some logical explanation. Maybe it was some kind of weird mineral, or maybe my headache was making me imagine things.

Suddenly, the stone grew brighter in my palm. A bright red glow. A sudden warmth. I dropped it instinctively, watching it roll away. The warmth spread, not just in my hand, but up my arm, into my chest, and through my body. I gasped. I felt the air thicken around me. The light in the clearing seemed to bend, twisting and swirling, as if reality itself was warping. I tensed. This had never happened before, this was new.

Then I heard the hum.

I looked around wildly, but there was no one there. Just the trees, the stone, and me. My heart pounded against my ribcage. The rustling sound of the canopy above me, struck by a sudden wind, seemed to pulse into my mind.

Then, I heard it�"a faint, high-pitched squeak. Without knowing why, I was certain it was a field mouse in the pile of leaves in front of me. The thought didn’t make sense. I had never seen a field mouse before, or any kind of mouse, for that matter. And yet, in my mind’s eye, I could picture it perfectly�"small, nimble, scurrying through the leaf-strewn forest floor and my instincts tracked it as it scurried through the leaves.

I can feel it darting about. I wonder what it looks like.

As if on cue, the mouse emerged from the forest floor. But it wasn’t the mouse that made me flinch. It was the fact that I knew, a second before it exited, that it was going to emerge, similar to how I rescued that boy in my apartment that day. However, this time, my senses were not restrained to a single life form, rather I could sense the entire jungle. Tiny ants. Beautiful peacocks. Magnificent deer. I could hear them all.

You’ve felt it before. You’ve seen what others cannot. This is only the beginning.

I tried doing it again. I stretched my focus around the area. A colony of black ants marched in a steady procession off into the distance. Hundreds and thousands of little creatures, in sync, like one huge snake. Speaking of snakes, a green one curled up on the branch behind me. I stood up calmly and looked above me. I knew it meant no harm. A thin, green ribbon with 2 eyes. Normally I would not have seen it, camouflaged in the canopy.

Shock erupted through my brain as I fully soaked in everything that was happening. I tried to speak, to call out, but no sound came. The warmth in my body was heat. A fire spreading through my veins. I stumbled backward, hitting the ground hard as the world around me seemed to stretch and compress all at once. A whoosh of air filled my ears. I could taste the air in the back of my throat. My nose. My lungs.

It stopped.

I lay on the ground, panting, the stone glowing faintly beside me. The heat was gone, the light had returned to normal, but something had changed. I felt it in my bones. In my mind. The headache was completely gone now, but in its place, there was something else�"something more. I was so much more awake than I had ever been before, so much more present than I think anyone has ever been. 

I reached for the stone. No fear this time. My fingers closed around it. A pulse. Like a heartbeat.

I stood up, brushed the dirt off my pants, and pocketed the stone. I had to tell someone�"maybe my sister. I probably should have told her before, but I had a feeling this would not have happened if I had done that. However, now there was no more reason not to tell her, so I strode back towards my house She was the only one who might understand. 

As I started to make my way back to my home, I realized that everything around me felt different�"clearer and sharper. The sounds of the forest, the rustling of leaves, and even the distant hum of the traffic seemed to sync with something inside me like I was connected to everything in a way I hadn’t been before.

Worry gnawed at my consciousness. Wasn’t this usually supposed to happen when people go insane, and start fanatising? Was I okay? Was I just imagining this? I watched�"no, felt a crow fly back to the tree above me, feeding his hungry chicks and his mate. 

A voice echoed faintly in my mind once more before fading into silence.

You are more than you know.

I didn’t understand what had just happened, but I knew one thing for sure. No longer was I an oddity.

My life was turning silver.

Author's Note

I just wrote this story on a whim. I don't write stories much so I would love to hear your opinion on how I can improve.

Reviews

[MelGo30~]

This is a good one and it's nicely written. I really like how description is so casually part of the story.

One thing that wasn't great was the dialog. Look up how to format dialog in story writing to learn how to make it better; but basically, each character saying something should have its own line/paragraph. Having them all clumped together is pretty hard to get through.

Other than that, nice job!

[Adhwaith DS]

Thank you! I will most certainly work on that!