Gasp... *Heavy Breathing *
Isaac openes his eyes wide, gasping for breath and taking big gulps of air.
"haaah, haah, hmmm"
He blinks rapidly, eyes darting towards all obscure corners in the dark room in alert subconsciously, even as he brings his breath under control with familiar ease and roused himself from his subconscious alert, recognizing the familiar plain brown wallpaper of his room from the early sunlight filtering into the modest modern room.
"phew, oh boy, all these kind of dreams I have, when would it stop"
Thinking and deciding against going back to sleep, since from the apparent sunlight it is almost time for his 7 am alarm to ring.
He works himself out of his bed and on his feet, dragging his feet to the bathroom and rubbing off the remaining sleep from his eyes, he comes to bear in front of the mirror to reflect back to himself, a 6ft 3 inches tall young male of apparent African-American descent, with piercing brown eyes and an unconscious scowl etched across his face, once he sports his rough hair clearly overgrown.
"I thought I wouldn't be visiting the barbers salon for the next week! Ugh"
Isaac sighs in frustration and quickly performs his morning ablutions.
Dressing up and getting ready for his day at the office. Working as a data analyst was not the most fanciful job, but it was a safe one for Isaac, or so he considered.
'Just another day of acting normal' He thought.
You see, Isaac was an oddity and the fact that he cannot remember anything about his 9th birthday or 9th year of his life is not the only odd thing about him.
From when he could remember, he could see farther and hear keener sounds than those around him and most importantly, he could see people's aura. Yes, that is the only way he could describe his second sight.
He remembers when he was 6 years old and he asks his father why his hands are dripping with blood continuously and why mummy's left hand had a disgusting dark mass spreading all over it slowly?
It was a shocker for both parents. The look on their face was something memorable.
He chuckles as he recalls it, thanks to his much enhanced memory. But that turns into a wry smile as he also recall the second part of that memory. After a somewhat panicked questioning by his parents, of him convincing them that he could somehow just see these things, he learnt that his mom had a very rare bone cancer that was proving very difficult to treat, and his father was not a serial killer as he thought, no he was a less active member of a special marine squad and talking about his job would prove dangerous.
The conclusion of that eventful night was an earful of advice from his parents to never reveal this to anyone! He should try to act as normal as he could.
Fast forward 3 days later when his pet dog had a forelegs fracture, he intuitively put his hands on the injured leg and after willing it to heal, his hands glowed a blue light for a while and he passed out in his yard.
Waking up the next morning with weakness and a headache he finds his puppy perfectly healthy and glaring but worried parents who outright banned him from ever using that ability, both to keep it a secret and also for his safety.
Isaac sighs in reminisce as he puts on his shoe in his apartment, absently clenching his hand that gives off a lighter blue color which increases up to his elbow, shining through his long-sleeved work shirt.
"Surely there's a correlation between my dreams and this freak powers?"
he mutters as he raised his head to look at his reflection on the full-body mirror, gazing at himself with eyes completely illuminated light blue with cracks of light extending from his eyes to the sides of his head on his skin and his hair sparking with tiny flashes of light blue.
"Apart from looking cool and feeling like captain atom, I haven't found a used for this freakish ability, sigh"
He mutters again as he exhales and all manifestations of his powers recedes, leaving his hair standing like an electrocuted patient.
"Ugh, now I've got to spend extra time combing my hair down!" He facepalms and he laments.
"Good morning Isaac" Micheal greets him with a fist bump as Isaac stepped into his work cubicle.
"Morning bro" Isaac reciprocates as he sets his bag down and takes a seat on his ergonomic chair, swerving it to face Michael. "Going by that huge grin on your face, I would say you had a really groovy weekend, Mike" He says to Michael.
"Dude, you sound like an 80's hipster, with you throwing around that ancient word 'groovy'. Who the hell uses the word groovy in 2020? And yes, the party was a lucky break, though I don't know why the most promising young tech wiz would decide not to attend" Michael rebuts "It's not like you're an introvert, you're just weird" He also teases Isaac as he begins to move from his desk "And as your best friend, I know you won't be having more than 3 sentences in this conversation until afternoon, Mr 'Work Ethics'"
"You know me too well, I'm weird" Isaac chuckles as he replies, turning back to his workstation.
It's not like his interpersonal relationship with people is bad, but he has always been a conservative person and now was never the best conversationalist. Michael being his childhood friend was the only person who understood him best. Working in the same place had nothing to do with setting goals together, it was just a happy coincidence, he's that conservative. You could call him a loner. You could also throw in the fact that he could see the heavy shackles attached to the limbs of Michael dragging behind him as he walked, yeah he's conservative alright.
During lunch as promised, Michael popped into his workstation and practically dragged him to the canteen downstairs, boasting and bragging about how he bested all those drinking contenders and wooed a pretty damsel who he goy laid during the weekend. Isaac was just going with the motions responding with short phrases or chuckles as Micheal spoke of his antics, when he felt it.
A presence. One that induced dread! Abruptly turning towards the source, he locks eyes with a giant of a man, with blood red eyes and bald head, sitting down but estimated to be almost 7ft and made of rock hard muscles and wearing leather like black pants and sleeveless leather shirt!
He blinks and the sight is gone, replaced with the image of his new colleague, Jameson, who smiles seemingly harmless to him when he sees Isaac looking over and goes back to eating his food.
"It can't be..." he mutters, as the shock of his abrupt feeling and sight leaves him shaken. "It's supposed to be a dream, goddammit! I just feel like my whole world is going to get more miserable" he mutters and laments ss he sighs.
"Hey man, what's going on with you? You look like you've just seen a ghost, looking all pale and shit" Micheal asks in concerning as he notices Isaac looking over at Jameson's table, "Oh, are you thinking of the new guy? I don't think he should be a need for concern for you, you're like the best data analyst we've got and due to receive a promotion in some months, he's still learning the ropes, what his name again... Jameson, yes! Has a somewhat similar loner attitude to you, *chuckles* " Michael says as he takes mouthful of food.
"Yeah, he's not even what I'm thinking of. Hey let me quickly relieve myself" He says as he recovers standing up and heading to the direction of the restroom.
When he steps into the corridor, he stops out of room and turns to face Jameson, concentrating his powers on his eyes, as his eyes gain a blue sheen and begins to glow a little, he sees him again, with the same bloodthirsty feeling accompanying the sight, somehow increasing as the mini-giant turns his head towards him, his blood red eyes glaring and gives Isaac a terrifying smile and stands up with a grace not fit for his terrifying Visage, even as he takes his first step towards Isaac.
"Oh fuck, it was supposed to be a dream..." Isaac weakly laments