Chapter Two

 

There were voices somewhere. Male voices. They spoke quietly, in hushed tones as if trying to avoid waking a sleeping infant. They sounded so far away, the sounds fading in and out. Everything was fading in and out. Sensations of touch came and went, the sounds of the voices rising and falling. 

            The darkness. I sensed somehow I had beaten it but it still vied for me. It’s cold fingers racked along my back as it tried to drag be into its belly yet I knew now that it would never have me. Never. I had made it through the long night and would never look back into its ugly, hungry face.

            Yes, the voices were growing louder. I desired to call out to them, to demand to know who they were and where I was. As I tried to form the words my lips were unyielding. I tried to move my body, to wander blind and mute to find those who were out there. Something was wrong. My body felt wrong. It felt stiff, ridged, yet utterly controllable once I was able to find it. Had I indeed been beaten by the darkness? Was I now among the dead? Were the voices I heard the voices of others who had been damned?

            No, surely if I were in hell those voices would be screams, shrieks of agony, remorse, and pain. No, this was something else. I must still be alive. I felt alive.

            What was happening? I felt like screaming it, shouting it at the next invisible person I detected but still my lips and eyes were unyielding. I realized there was a large gap in my memory. Something very big and important had conspired and I had not the faintest inkling of what it was.

            The sudden image of my mother’s huddled form rushed up at me and hit me in the face like an iron fist. Her screams rang vividly in my head but this was nothing compared to remembering the sickening silence that quickly stopped it. I recalled the pain that consumed and ripped through my body and the blood on my hands after I had been so viscously attacked.

            Another internal kind of agony raced through my veins. What had I done? My attempts to save my mother had been in vain. I had failed her. The agony was suddenly combined with terror. Eli. What had become of my brother? Had he remained hidden or had the intruder found him and silenced him forever as well. Surely I could not live with the guilt of having both my mother and my brother’s deaths upon my head.

            I lay there being tortured by my swirling uncertain thoughts for days being unable to cry aloud, to call to the voices I could hear. Surely the feelings of guilt and loss were going to finish me off. 

            Eventually I sensed that the immobility was wearing off. I became aware of my fingertips as I flexed them, curling them in and out. My toes gradually unthawed and the sensation was slowly creeping up my legs. My grasp on reality was strengthening with each passing moment. I had a greater sense of my surroundings and knew that I was now tied to the present. The darkness would never cling to me again.

            Slowly, ever so slowly my entire body was unthawed and I opened my eyes for the first time.

            Something was very wrong with me. My eyes, what had happened? 

            My eyes first met the ceiling. At least that was what I assumed it was as I gauged that it was exactly six feet above me. But the lines that ran back and forth across it, one blended into another, whirled and encircled, some ending abruptly. Wood. Yes it was the ceiling but what had happened to my eyes? I had never seen anything like this before. Everything was painfully sharp and clear. No details of the surface above me escaped my eyes. It should have been disorienting and yet somehow it wasn’t. Like my eyes were always meant to function like this but had been covered with a murky film my entire existence.

            I became suddenly aware that I was alone in the room and suddenly realized that this was actually my room. The sent was familiar in here. It smelled of old cotton, dirt, sweat and leather. Yes this was my room. Another scent caught my nose and an image of my brother immediately filled my head.

            I turned my head to the right and saw Eli’s bed, two feet three inches away. There was the same simple blue cotton blanket atop it yet it looked completely different. My eyes took in every fiber there, every piece of lint, every thread that wove the pattern that created the whole. There was the same dresser between our beds. I took in every direction of the grain of the wood, tracing the patterns and irregularities with my eyes, made of the same wood as the ceiling above my head. 

            My eyes fell on the floor below me and I suddenly felt revolted and disgusted. It was covered with patterns of drops and smears of sweat, mingled with dirt and other debris. I had thought we kept a fairly clean room for two young men but this was absolutely revolting!

            A sudden thundering penetrated my ears and I would have jumped had this strange body not been so in control. There was a rhythmic thump, thump, thump and I knew the sound was coming closer. Seven feet away, five feet, three. There was a terrible screeching sound and the door whined as it was pushed open.

            A face appeared cautiously in the door, as if trying not to make any sound. He was holding his breath. 

            Could that truly be Eli? He too seemed permanently rearranged to obscure my strange vision. He seemed so different. No matter, he was alive!

            “Father!” he suddenly shouted. “Father, William is awake!”

            The sound of his voice pierced into my ears and rattled in my brain and throughout my core. I comprehended every syllable, every vibration it sent off. If I had not seen him in the door frame I would have believed he had just screamed his words straight into my ear at the capacity of his lungs.

            This very detailed and loud person suddenly bounded through the door and knelt on the crusted floor next to me. My initial reaction was to stop him from getting the filth on him but in the same thought I registered that it probably would seem no different to him.

            Eli remained silent but his eyes seemed to be trying to comprehend something as he looked me over, studying my face at first and then letting them move across my torso, arms. Why did he look so frightened? Terrified even? Perhaps I had been mangled so horribly that my own brother could not even stand the sight of me.

            Internally I was begging Eli to say something, anything, yet I myself was afraid to speak. To have him confirm the damage that had been done. What else could I really say to him? Yes, I had a million questions, gaps in memory I needed to fill in. But the way he was looking at me, I felt both frightened and angry at the same time. The anger was starting to build without my permission to do so, a hot flame that licked at my insides, irritating everything inside of me.

            As I lay there in my silent torture I tried to focus on what damage could have done to my body. I tried to do a physical assessment of myself, become aware of everything, figure what now felt different, what possibly might be missing now. Everything felt utterly wrong, like I had been shoved into someone else’s body. And impossibly at the same time everything felt fine. More than fine, my body felt great. It felt strong, agile, and most importantly, intact. It held a certain confidence all of its own, this only increasing the feeling that it was another’s body.

            The sound of heavy footsteps interrupted my thoughts and instantly I knew that they were my father’s from the slight shuffle he still used to take care for his bad leg. The door wined again as he entered the room. He sat carefully on Eli’s bed, as if unsure if it was safe to do so. He too began the torturous staring.

            I took in my father’s face as I waited for him to say something. There were deep canyons in his forehead, evidence of the long hours spent in the sun, the years of worry, worry over his family, worry over his farm, worry over money, worry over his livelihood. His skin was rough, weathered like old leather put to good use. I received my dark color from him. He was darker than most people in this area and it contrasted greatly against his sun bleached hair which danced intricately with evidence of gray.

            There could not be more of a difference from my father’s face than Eli’s. It still held the smoothness of youth, yet had somehow remained untouched by adolescences’ scaring red spots. His eyes were bright, yet concerned, a heavy sadness hidden well. Yet I still found it there. There was something different about him that I had not noticed before. It was not physical; it seemed to be held in his countenance. I had noticed before that Eli was changing into a man, yet he was one now. Somehow in the time that my memory had lost my baby brother had grown up and become a man. It was tragic, the loss of childhood and the ability to be carefree. I was proud of him yet mourned over his loss.

            The silence was becoming unbearable. That flame that had started in the pit of my stomach before now grew, the heat begging to be released from it’s containment. The desire to withhold it was burned away in a short moment. “Well say something!” I finally exploded but found that there was little relief found. 

            My voice, it too was different. It was still my voice, husky as ever but the authoritive, commanding, confidant tone there both amazed and frightened me, let alone the way it affected those left of my family.

            The expression on their faces was haunting. The look of terror in their eyes. The look on Eli’s face before was nothing to the way he looked at me now. He looked ready to run from the room and never look back. 

            The unquenchable flame died away to just an ember as quickly as it had flared up. What had happened to me?

            “I…” my voice quiet, barely above a whisper. “I am sorry. So sorry.” For everything, I thought to myself.

            The frightened and worried creases in their faces eased just a bit yet they both still looked ready to flee, to run away at the slightest sign of threat.

            My father cleared his throat and I did not miss the fact that he would not look me in the eye. “You have nothing to apologize for son,” he said as he leaned forward, his forearms resting on his thighs. He did not look up from the floor as he spoke. “You’ve been through a lot, we weren’t sure you were going to make it.”

            Trust it to Francis to be painfully honest. He would tell it like it was, for which I was grateful. I deserved far worse.

            “What happened? I don’t remember what happened after…” I struggled to continue. “After mother,” was all I was able to manage. Oh, that strange yet familiar voice that was my own now.

            Francis let out a slow breath as he finally looked me in the eye. He was gauging me, trying to get a feel for my temperament in this moment, debating if I was stable enough to hear what he had to say. With the slightest nod of his head he spoke.

            “Eli heard all the commotion going on and managed to get out of the cellar you locked him in. By the time he got out the intruder had left. Your mother…” I could tell he was trying to hold back tears now. I had never before seen my father cry. “Your mother was gone and you were unconscious, barely alive. He came to find me and I thank God that I was nearly home.”

            Francis shook his head from side to side and his head sagged lower towards his knees. He was really struggling with this. Never before had I seen my father display such emotion. “We loaded you into the wagon and hurried as fast as possible back to town. We took you to the doctor there, Zachariah Paddock. He told us that he would try but he was not sure if he would be able to save you.”

            He took a deep breath, slow and deliberate and looked back up into my face. His eyes were bloodshot and swollen. “At first it was really bad Will, you only seemed to be getting worse. You lay like the dead for weeks. And then suddenly a few days ago I came to check in on you and you were like this,” he held his hands out towards me, a look of shock, fear, and awe on his face.

            I squeezed my eyes tight as an emotion close to fear and disgust spread through me. I did not want to look and see for myself what he was indicating. What would I find?

            “It’s truly a miracle Will!” he exclaimed. “The good doctor saved your life, there is no question about that.”

            Perhaps I was not as bad as I was thinking. A miracle? Slowly, ever so slowly I raised my right arm. It felt heavy but utterly under my control. It was indeed my arm; I knew that it was attached to the rest of this strange body. The scar I received last summer that ran from my wrist to elbow was still there, painfully obvious to my alien eyes. It was distinctly different however; the muscles were much more defined, larger. I was not a small man before but I had never even hoped to become this defined.

            “I don’t understand what happened, Will,” Francis continued. “I don’t know what the doctor gave you to make your body do this. But the important thing is that you are alive, son.”

            Not a single word he spoke escaped my ears yet I paid little attention as I examined my other arm. It too was strangely oversized. I slowly pulled my weight forward to sit up and nearly flew off the end of the bed. The movement had been much faster and more forceful than I had intended for it to be. I silently calculated exactly how much force I would need to exert next time I made a similar movement and pushed it to the back of my mind without a second thought. 

            Again my family’s expressions became fearful for a slight moment but I ignored them. What had happened? I thought again for the hundredth time.

            “We’ll, uh, give you a few minutes alone,” Francis said as he stood, the floorboards crying out against the weight placed against them. Strange, I had never noticed that sound before. I had thought the house had been built fairly solid.

            The two of them hurried from the room, closing the door behind them with an ear splitting creak. With little doubt I knew that it was more out of fear that they left the room than the desire to give me privacy.

            I swung my legs off the edge of the bed, again moving faster than I tried to but not over doing it so much this time. 

            My bottom half was thankfully, covered with a pair of my normal trousers, my chest bare and exposed. It too seemed impossibly expanded and swollen. I noticed a heavy scar in the center of my stomach, roughly four inches long and only about one inch wide. The skin was still a little redder than my other scars, evidence that it was still a fairly fresh wound.

            I stood; the motion was over just a fraction of a second after I processed the thought to do so. I flexed my arms, utterly aware of every muscle as it moved at my command. A hundred different ways to use and move these arms flashed through my thoughts, yet I was barely conscious of this. I could not explain the sensations that were consuming my body. There was an overwhelming sense of power, confidence, of complete awareness for everything.

            Absentmindedly I looked out the window and was surprised at the change in the closest field, an indicator of how long I had been in the darkness. A sudden desire to not be alone filled me. I needed more answers. There were still too many gaps, things I couldn’t explain. There had to be something here we were missing.

            First I needed to cover myself, seeing the physical changes could only frighten them more. I went to the dresser and placed a hand on the handle of a drawer. I did not think I had exerted any more force than I normally would have but it suddenly went crashing across the room as I pulled.

            With shock and confusion rising rapidly I looked from the dresser to the now loose drawer. It was across the room, against the far wall. I walked over to it and swallowed hard. The handle in the center of it had been replaced with tiny splinters that stuck out in every direction.

            Terror now spreading through my system I quickly grabbed the first shirt I came to and crossed the room. The world was moving much to fast and my reactions were just not quite caught up to the speed. I caught the corner of the door with an earsplitting crack. The room came to an instant halt, as I looked around to find the source of the noise. A shallow echo of what should have been pain registered in my shoulder.

            The door to our room had been shattered into four larger pieces and hundreds of splinters were scattered across the floor, just like the handle of the drawer.

            I froze in fear. This should not be possible. People did not move at these speeds, suddenly gain muscle mass that should take years. No normal person should be making these constant calculations and adjustments, be readying themselves for anything and everything possible. And while I would never be able to see through another persons eyes I was sure no one had ever seen the detail of everything my eyes took in.

            There was a sudden thudding of footsteps on stairs, this time at an accelerated speed.  Eli burst around the corner and walked cautiously towards me, a wary eye on the shattered form of what had been our door. He placed a shaky hand on my arm, flinching slightly as he touched me. 

            “Come downstairs, Will,” he encouraged, his voice barely above a whisper. “We will fix it later.” I registered in the back of my mind that he muttered, “Leaving you alone wasn’t such a good idea.”

            Slowly I raised my hands before my face and simply stared at them and felt the fire starting to build within me but this time it was directed internally. These hands, yes they were my hands, they at least did not appear any different. But I could feel the power that was contained in them. They contained certain abilities that I could not have even imagined before.  Again, a hundred different ways to yield and use these hands surged through the back of my mind.

            I looked over at my brother, realizing that he had been tugging on my arm. What if I hurt him somehow? He suddenly looked very fragile, breakable. I had no idea how to control this new body, if he were to accidentally get in my way… I shuttered at the thought.

            “Come on, Will!” he begged me again as he pulled at my arm. Feeling numb with my churning thoughts I followed him down the short hall and to the stairs. They groaned and complained loudly as we came down them and I unconsciously prepared to grab Eli and leap should they fail. But they did not and we both made it down safely and into the living room.

            I was suddenly confronted with a scene I was not yet prepared to face as the room came into full view. Images of that night rushed back at me as my eyes took in every detail of the two red stains on the hardwood floors. One that had been my mothers and one that had been my own. My eyes could pick out where every drop of blood had fallen, every smear. The sound of my mother’s screams and shrieks, the blood on her face and cloths. The feeling of helplessness as the sword ran through me.

            I collapsed to the floor as everything washed over me. It was not a unconscious movement of human weakness, it was simply because I knew that was the normal response my body should have had. 

            How could I have failed my mother?! I should have been able to save her. I should have been stronger. If I were smarter about it I would have found myself a weapon before I rushed into the living room. And now she was… I could not even bring myself to think the word.

            “Don’t look at it William,” my father’s voice came soothingly at my ear as he tugged me to my feet and into the kitchen. As I walked right over the large blood stain where my mother had taken her last breath I felt a faint echo of my old self and it wanted to spew any contents that might be in my stomach. The smell of dried blood filled my nose.

            “I am sorry, Father,” I muttered, my thoughts barely coherent anymore. My thoughts swirled and agony ate at my insides. I found myself wishing I could simply pass into unconsciousness now but could not will it to happen. “I should have stopped him. I should have saved her!” My hands covered my eyes and I briefly wondered why there were not tears to meet the anguish I felt.

            “It isn’t your fault son,” Francis said as he pulled me into his arms. He wrapped me into his firm grasp though for some reason I could not feel the force of it. I felt my face become wet but realized that it was not with my own tears but those of my father.

            “It will be alright William,” he choked out and I knew he was trying to comfort himself as much as he was comforting me. “It will be alright.”

 

            That first night I had lain in my bed and was anxious and greedy for unconsciousness to wash over me. My thoughts were torture and I was not sure how much longer I would be able to bear it all. I did not want to have to see the horrifying images that ran through my head over and over again. But sleep never came for me. It seemed to have passed over me and I lay there forgotten and unclaimed. I simply lay there, staring up at the ceiling simply trying to numb my mind and body and wishing for the relief of tears to come. They never did.

            As the sun finally rose in the sky the next morning I found that I was not tired. After laying awake all night I had as much energy as I had ever had in my entire life. I felt I could run to the end of the world and back and not need to sleep for weeks on end.

            That first day I did not eat anything. I simply never got hungry and so I refused any meals. Francis had let this pass, he did not want to push me as I was already on edge. The following morning however he practically shoved the food down my throat.

            “You must eat something William!” he demanded. “I don’t know how you have not simply starved to death these last few weeks but you must eat something now!”

            I had been insisting for the last five minutes that I was not hungry nor did I feel like eating. But, deciding that eating would not kill me I finally accepted the bowl he was shoving in my face. I raised the spoon to my mouth and caught a whiff of the stuff. It smelled awful. Reluctantly I took a bite of the mush. Everything that was within range was instantly covered with the brown goop. I quickly looked down at my bowl certain I would find it filled with tiny white grains. I could have sworn I had just eaten a spoonful of pure salt.

            “What the…” Francis bellowed as he wiped some of my mess off his face and shirt. He looked over at me just in time to see me spit another mouthful back into my bowl.

            In one nearly instantaneous movement I stood. “I’m not hungry!” I shouted with force in my voice before I barreled out the back door.

            I paused on the back porch for a moment, taking a deep breath and trying to calm the flames that licked at my insides. I must keep calm. Should I explode who knew what could happen, what damage I could cause. What was wrong with me? Would I ever gain the answer to that question?

            Trying to gather my wits about me again I looked out towards the fields. I could see little tufts of green sticking up out of the ground everywhere. Just exactly how long had I been out? It must have been nearly a month if everything was already coming up. And to think it was just Eli and Francis trying to manage everything, short another set of hands all that time.

            With the intention of checking on the other fields I stepped away from the bottom step. The world was an instant brown and green blur. The air whipped through my hair, it and my clothes flapping around me. The air gave way to my force as I pressed through it.

            I halted almost instantly and the wind ceased. What just happened?  I thought to myself. I could not even begin to guess. This was impossible yet I was positive it had just happened. 

            Cautious I took an unsure step forward, then another, and then another.

            The speed was exhilarating. The greatest sense of freedom I had ever experienced. The feel of the wind as it wrapped and caressed around my body. I could sense the wake I left behind me as my presence parted the little particles that swirled around in the air. The pounding of my feet against the dry dirt nearly matched the pounding of my heart as I flew over the earth. I felt like an unstoppable force and realized I probably was if I wanted to be. I would be able to run like this for days, weeks, knowing I would never, ever tire.

            It took me less than half a minute to reach the furthest field.

            The next morning brought another unexpected change. I had gone out to the barn just as the sun was starting to grace the earth with its heavenly light, again bewildered by the incredible amounts of energy considering my utter lack of sleep. The barn had always been a peaceful place to me. Life was simple in here, the animals there had no cares at all, everything was calm. I sought solitude and longed for quiet. Considering the wind however, it was in vain.

            I had heard the wind howl most of the night. It rattled at the door and forced its way into every crack and opening. The barn was no different. It whistled through the walls and I could smell the sea salt in the air. The barn creaked and groaned under the unstoppable force.

            The animals were restless and I could not blame them. The strange noises were eerie and disconcerting. Hoping food in their bellies might calm them I had them all fed in less than a quarter of the time it would normally have taken.

            Everything seemed to be suddenly switched into slowed time as the wind screamed into the barn and was followed by a loud crack. I felt the entire barn shutter and make a slight shift. I whirled around and my eyes were drawn upward towards the cracking sound. I immediately found the fracture in the large beam that held up the loft area on the far wall. An echo sounded in my head and told me to move out of the way for surely the beam weighed nearly half a ton. Yet the stronger, more alert part was undaunted, unafraid.

            Everything suddenly sped up again as one end of the beam came hurtling towards my body. It met my right shoulder and both of my hands clasped on either side of it, my knees bending slightly as its weight settled on me.

            My eyes widened as I realized that I was still alive. The beam should have easily crushed even the strongest man yet it felt no heavier than a bale of hay. It must have been twelve feet long and three feet thick yet somehow it had not crushed me.

            Very carefully I lowered the beam to the floor and looked up. Somehow the small supports still held the loft in its place. I was silently grateful we had cleaned most everything out over the spring.

            Francis and Eli were just running out to the barn in little but their underclothes when I just finished making the repairs, the beam back in its place, now more secure than ever.

            “What was that awful noise?” Francis demanded as he looked all around the barn.

            “Just the wind,” I said, trying to hide a smile as I dropped down the last few rungs of the ladder. 

            “The wind?” my father’s expression was doubtful but he did not question any further. They simply returned to the house and prepared for the day’s work.

 

            The silence of the night had grown unbearable. I longed to escape everything, my terrifying and impossible new life. I needed to do something different. In my haste and impatience I had actually come to a familiar place. The city of Swansea was quiet at least it did not remind me of every impossible thing I was able to do like the farm did.

            The desire to see Elizabeth was nearly overpowering but I knew I could not go to her. First off everyone in her household would be sleeping at this time of night. And secondly I knew I was not prepared mentally or physically to see her. I still did not entirely know how to control this body and I worried that I might hurt her entirely by accident. Or worse. And I was unsure of what to even say to her. I hoped that she would be worried over me but I did not even know if she had come to see me while I was consumed by the darkness.

            Instead I found myself at the ocean. It’s comforting sounds lulled me into near numbness but it was not an effect of the cold.

            Without thinking I walked into the water until it came up to my chest. I closed my eyes and breathed in the heavily salted air. I could hear a change in the wind somewhere out on the water and felt the current change under its surface. Within a few minutes the waves started, crashing over my head rhythmically.

            All this seemed to sum up my life over the past week. The ocean that was my life threatened to overwhelm me and I nearly wished it would. The waters of my life were getting harder and harder to tread. I felt as if I had been dragged ten feet under and turned upside down to try and find the surface. Barely surviving was becoming my only thought. But perhaps I was just going to have to get used to living underneath the surface. 

 

            Farm life should have seemed very easy after that. I never tired, the sun never seemed too hot, I worked ten times faster than the others, and nothing was ever too heavy, at least that was not solidly grounded. I tried to hide my newfound abilities from them but I knew they suspected that something was amiss. I could work one field in a day what would take them a week.

            Yes, life should have seemed great if I could have kept my temper in check. Everyone’s emotions were fragile and on edge mourning Mother’s death and the extreme heat of summer certainly were not helping but I could not seem to keep my emotions under control. I exploded at anything and everything. There were daily fights, always started by me. Francis somehow managed to calm everything before things could turn physical.

            I had always been a fairly even tempered person. I had never started a fight before, never spoken unkind words out of place. Yet this fire, burning within me, I did not know how to control it. It swelled within me, threatening to consume me wholly. It licked at my insides, irritating anything and everything until I exploded.

            The moon was shining through our small window as I sat on my bed contemplating all this. It was a full moon, casting its eerie glow upon the still, quiet world. I had been listening to Eli’s quiet mutterings as he talked in his sleep. He had never done that before Ann was killed. Even though he would never say anything I knew the loss of his mother affected him more deeply than he would ever admit. He was her baby. My parents had tried for years after they had me to have another child. She had had half a dozen miscarriages and had lost three children in infancy. She had called Eli her miracle child, a blessing from God. I could not deny this. I could not have asked for a more caring brother.

            “Will?” I was slightly startled when I heard his voice. I had not noticed he had stopped sleep talking. “Is something wrong?”

            “Can’t sleep tonight,” I said simply. “Go back to sleep.”

            Eli rubbed his eyes and sat up. He leaned his back to the wall and looked at me. “You’re lying.”

            I was taken aback by his statement. How did he know? “What do you mean?”

            “You haven’t slept in ages,” he said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes again. “You either lie awake and just stare at the ceiling all night or you leave. I wake up all the time and you’re gone.”

            What was I to say to that? I wasn’t going to lie to him.

            “Am I right?” he questioned. He was amazingly insightful for a fifteen year old boy. “How long has it been since you’ve slept Will?”

            I did not answer him for a moment as I gauged how much I dared tell him. Eli deserved my trust and I did not doubt that he could handle the truth. “Since I woke from my… accident.”

            “That’s what I thought,” he nodded. There was no surprise or shock in his voice as I had expected there would be. “And eating?”

            “The same,” I said and was again surprised by his calm reaction.

            “What else?” he questioned. “You are a different person Will. Of course there is still a part of you that is defiantly still you but I feel like I hardly know you anymore.”

            A sense of relief settled throughout me as I told him about laying in the dark torture of immobility. I told him of the strange things I was able to see and hear and how to him they still appeared normal. His eyes widened as I recounted what had happened in the barn and as I told him of the speed I was capable of. To finally tell someone, I could not explain how wonderful it felt. Like the burden I was now forced to carry was slightly less heavy.

            “Show me,” he said. To this his demeanor became less confident, cautious.

            A slight smile spread on my lips at this. “Are you sure you can handle this?”

            His eyes betrayed him slightly but he simply nodded once.

            I rose and motioned for him to follow me. The door and stairs creaked and groaned loudly but I knew it was only audible to my ears as we slid out the back door.

            “Climb on,” I said quietly as we stood in the back yard and I squatted down.

            “What?” Eli said as he gave me a strange look. “That’s weird.”

            “Look,” I said as I straightened from my slight crouch, trying to ignore the flames that started to flare up. “You said you wanted to see. I’m showing you. Now climb on.”

            Rolling his eyes he climbed onto my back. “Now, hang on as tight as you can.” Another smile spread on my lips.

            I shot towards the north field with as much speed as I could muster. Eli gave a yelp of surprise and clutched onto me with what I imagined was all his strength. I flew over the narrow path that lead between fields, moonlight revealing the way, my brothers weight nothing at all. A strange spark lighted in me, different from the others. Happiness, something I had not felt in what felt like such a long time. 

            I stopped at the edge of the far field and in the back of my mind registered it had only taken forty-two seconds to do so. Eli slid off my back and plopped on his rear into the dirt.

            “Fast?” I said with a slight chuckle.

            “Fast,” he said, sounding slightly winded and dazed.

            I extended a hand to him and pulled, tossing him a good five feet before he landed on his feet. “Watch this,” I said as I bent down and picked up a rock that took up most of my fist. Clutching it tightly I prepared to lob it into the night air when I heard the sound of dirt falling to the ground and the rock became soft in my hand. I opened my fist and saw a pile of rubble in my palm.

            “Holy…” Eli whispered as he saw what had become of the rock. 

            I stopped and found another rock. Being careful to not exert so much strength I pulled my arm back and hurtled it into the glowing sky. We both stood frozen for several long moments before I heard it land three thousand, four hundred and six feet away.

            “Did it land yet?” Eli whispered.

            “You didn’t hear it?” I said in surprise.

            He shook his head. “Huh,” I said simply as I shrugged my shoulders.

            We turned back in the direction of the house and started walking at a slow pace. 

            “So what are you exactly?” he said.

            I had never thought to put a specific name to what I had become. This seemed strange but I was not sure I really wanted to know. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

            We walked in silence for several minutes before a thought occurred to me. “You won’t tell Father about what I have showed you tonight will you? He comes from a generation that likes things simple and easily explained. He wouldn’t be able to handle the truth and full extent of what I have become. Promise me you will not say a word?” The subject seemed suddenly very important and I needed his promise.

            “I am your brother Will,” he said softly. “I won’t tell a sole your secrets.”

            I gave a half smile as I put an arm across his shoulders and gave a very careful squeeze. “Thank you. It is a huge relief to tell someone of all of this.”

            “Any time,” he said as he gave a careful smile.

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I really like the exploration of the super powers here and I get the feeling of seeing this person trodden underfoot and then winding up at the top of the food chain, interested to see with how well he deals with his new found powers and if he is able to control the demons of his tortured past. great stuff.