Bolt

The moment I first used my power, was indeed the most important time of my life, and if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here writing this today. You see, the moment I could use my power, was the precise nanosecond before my time to be killed. No one was murdering me, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, except I couldn’t have got it so perfect.

I was on my way home, and my car was in the garage due to a problem with the exhaust. I had to get the bus, however they were running late so I decided to walk. It wasn’t far, maybe a mile or so however I would take a different route to the bus. About 20 minutes into my journey, it started to rain. It had been a very grey day, with scattered showers all afternoon, however it was much darker now and you could feel the weather changing. I got out my umbrella, and pulled up my collar on my jacket to protect myself from the winds. It was fine until the thunder came, but I had to continue on, as there would be no shelter until I got home. I could hear the thunder from what seemed like miles away and the lightning sheets could be seen across the sky, however there were no fork bolts to be seen. The rain started to get heavier as the wind started to pick up speed. My useless umbrella was blowing against the wind, to and fro until finally it slipped from my grip. I jumped to catch it but suddenly there was a flash of light and I fell to the ground. As I looked up from the floor, white light was emitting from behind me, and everything was stopped still. Frozen in mid air, raindrops appeared as small spears hovering in the air. Then I saw the bright light. Suspended in front of me, was my umbrella, engulfed in white flames, charring in slow motion. The light however was not emitting from the fire but instead the lighting fork hitting the umbrella and sparking off each of the spikes of the arms. A jittering electrical bolt rooted from the clouds and splitting down through the umbrella and attempting to reach the ground to singe that too.

That’s when the realisation has occurred to me. There were stories of people getting extraordinary gifts at random times in their lives, but the thought still hadn’t occurred to me that I would be one of them. Had I not have got this power, I would have been that connection between the umbrella and the ground, and be surrounded in flames too. A moment like this, one could not forget, but in that moment, it’s so alien, it’s unbelievable. Especially when there were questions now filling my head. I had to get out of there.

Using the light from the bolt I continued my path towards my home. The light cast shadows and beams of light further than my sight, and walking through the still rain kept me wet. I had got about 200m up the road and looked back, only to see the umbrella separated, singed and scattered in the air, the bolt now reaching the floor, but providing a stronger light force than before as the bolt became thicker. Despite my power slowing the time down to an extremely slow rate, I still would not have much time until the bolt would disappear and darkness should fill the streets again. I started to pick up some speed, however I also accidentally kicked a stone, which to me, was travelling at normal pace. The stone dragged along the ground, etching its path in the road.

The light of the bolt went out and the world around me plunged back into darkness. The stone was now smoking above the earth due to its high velocity. I continued homeward in hope I would not be hit by lightning again and told my wife as soon as I got in. She wouldn’t believe me, but after many arguments and opinions, and an attempt to fully prove it, she soon came round, but that was to be expected. This was not the end however…