Chapter 1: Awake

Cynthia wakes up from a coma to discover she's not quite the same person.

Chapter 1: Awake

Cynthia:

                My mom looked up at me, disbelief in her eyes. What once was relief had turned into shock, then into anguish. My hands were emanating a jet black smoke from small flicks of fire that danced across my fingertips. She stared at me like I was a monster wearing her daughter’s face. I pulled back my hands and wiped them on my hospital gown, trying to put out the flames. As though sensing my repulsion at their presence, they vanished into nothingness. Her hand covered her mouth as she began to cry.
                “What the hell was that?” I asked myself.
                “Oh my poor baby. What did they do to you?” She sobbed. I had no idea what she was talking about, and I had so many questions. Who did what to me? What had happened that day? Where is Eugene? That question lingered in my mind most of all.
                “Mom, look at me.” I said, finding my voice. “Mom, please, don’t cry. Look, I’m fine, see?” I said, holding up my hands for her to see. “No fire.”
                Almost instantly my hands were set ablaze again, reeling my mother backwards and onto the floor.
                “S**T! Sorry!” I yelled, putting out the flames again. I reached my hand out to pick her up off the floor, but she flinched away. I realized how stupid I was for offering a hand that randomly combusts and pulled it back. This was probably the best and worst day of her life. I needed to keep her mind off whatever was happening to me.
                “What happened? Why am I here?”
                She remained on the floor, staring at me with wide eyes.
                “Mom?” I said.
                Without missing a beat, her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she passed out cold, hitting her head on the floor. A nurse entered the room casually, her eyes on a clipboard. When she looked up to see my mother on the ground unconscious, her eyes flicked up to me, then back to my mom before calling for help. Multiple nurses came in to take her away. One of them came up to me.
                “What happened?” She asked.
                I thought for a moment about what I was going to say. I couldn’t tell her that I had suddenly woken up with fire powers. My own mother had been terrified of me the second she saw what I had become, so it was only natural to assume that this nurse would be 10x worse.
                “When I woke up, she was just lying there, mumbling about fire and stuff. I think she hit her head on the floor. Is she going to be ok?”
                The nurse nodded at me and gave me a comforting smile.
                “We’ll take care of her. In the meantime, you get some rest.” She said. Turning away, she left the room, leaving me all alone.
                I looked at my hands, entranced by this newfound gift. I found it kind of ironic at the time in multiple ways. Here I am, an apparent hothead keeping cool. Here I am, a creator with the power to destroy. Here I am, world. Here I am.
                I flicked my hands, urging the flames to come, but they didn’t. Confused, I flicked them again. Nothing. Had I lost my powers already? I laid back in my bed and stared at the ceiling, grinning like an idiot. I just had to jinx it.
                The door opened again, and in came Eugene. I shot up once again, unplugging one of the numerous tubs stuck in my arm. Eugene’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as he rushed towards me and gave me the longest and warmest hug I had ever been given. I hugged him back, happy to see him again. Reluctantly, he pulled back, holding my shoulders, a smile splitting the tears rolling down his face.
                “I can’t believe it! You’re awake!” He said, sniffling and wiping the tears out of his eyes. Looking around, his happiness transformed into confusion as he looked around the room. “Where’s your mom?” he asked.
                “She uh… she passed out. They took her to the Emergency Room.” I answered.
                Eugene stared at me for a while, as though contemplating something. He looked around the room again before seeing something on the roof in the corner. It was a camera.
                While I sat there having a panic attack about what it may have seen, Eugene climbed up to it and pointed it away from us. He got back down and came over to me, taking a deep breath and clearing his throat.
                “Do you know what happened, yet?” He asked.
                “No.”
                Then he told me. When the first explosion hit, I had been knocked unconscious under burning debris. Eugene, with a sudden surge of adrenaline had tried to lift it off of me, to get me to safety. However, the second explosion shook the compound, and what he described as a veil of green swept through the corridors and hit everyone. Most people were knocked out during this, but a few were shouting in agony as the radiation had seeped into their bodies and was destroying them from the inside. Eugene was one of them.
                “That’s horrible.” I said.
                “It’s fine. I’m kinda glad I was awake during it.” He responded.
                I was baffled. Why would anyone want to be conscious while being killed from the inside by radiation? I asked him this.
                “Because now I can do this.” He said, taking a small chunk of metal out of his pocket. “Try to squeeze this.” He said.
                I took it from him and squeezed with all my might. Nothing happened.
                “What was the point of that?” I asked, handing it back to him.
                “Just watch.” He answered
                Taking the chunk from me, he held it in an open hand. Suddenly, he closed it, and crushed the object without effort. He dropped it onto the bed, a now misshapen blob.
                “Cool, huh?” He said, a s**t-eating grin on his face.
                “How the hell…?” I began to ask before drifting off. I looked back at my hands and remembered my own gift. Should I tell him? I mean he did tell me about his ability. I decided against it. After all, I didn’t even know if I still had my powers.
                “I guess it was the radiation.” He said. “I’ve always wanted to be a superhero. What do you think I should call myself?”
                “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. Being a superhero in real life is different from in the comics. There are no rewrites or resurrections. If someone dies, they actually stay dead, Eugene. That means you, too.” I told him. He was my best friend; the last thing I wanted was for him to get himself killed. He looked at the ground, disappointment on his face.
                “But… this is my chance, Cynthia, to actually do something good for the people. Shouldn’t I be obligated to help them? I mean… I have to try. There’s so much I can do with this gift.” He pleaded. I had a feeling that no matter what I told him, he wouldn’t listen. I supposed I sort of admired that about him, but my fear of losing him to some random thugs down an alley while he tried to play hero outweighed my respect.
                “Please. For me.” I begged.
                He stood there motionless for a few seconds before answering.
                “Fine. But if I run into someone that needs my powers, I’m helping them, no matter what.”
                I supposed that’s better than actually running out and looking for trouble. I nodded and shook his hand in agreement. When we let go, he began walking to the door.
                “I should go. You get some rest, ok?” With that, he closed the door.
                I immediately tossed the covers off of me and began unplugging the rest of the tubes. I needed to find the security room and erase the footage of my abilities.
                

Reviews

[Lulu]

Really interesting, I like the pacing and the detail you fit into the story. I really appreciated the ways you described the blast, not from her point of view but from her friend's once she had been woken. I think the hospital staff should have been more concerned or at the very least done a few checkups on her, but that was a pretty minor error for the most part. Good job! looking forward to the next chapter!

[Jacob Clifford]

That was a good way to end the chapter: a mission in sight.
This is great. It has so many places it could go from here.

I certainly feel there should have been/should be more concern coming from the hospital staff. Cynthia was comatose for a year and hasn't had any doctors or nurses talk to her about her condition yet.
Grammar wise, something came up a few times in this chapter. When ending quotes that are followed by "She said" or something to that affect, it should look like this: "For me," I begged. The comma should be inside the quotes, and the first word after the quotes shouldn't be capitalized unless it is a proper noun.

Ciao! Looking forward to the next chapter.