My name is Kyri Carson, and I am far from normal. Everything was fine until my thirteenth birthday. I was just your average, run-of-the-mill kid, living my blissfully normal life. That is of course, until that day, the day everything changed.
Something you should know about me; I'm not exactly outstanding in particularly anything. While my grades aren't failing, I would hardly call them award winning either. Of course, on the other end of things, my athletic abilities are nothing but a big, fat, joke. This to me, like any other teen, was a point of shame. I desperately want to be a star in something that my peers would admire me for. Yet, try as I might, I can't hold a candle to the geniuses of my class. Effort may improve ability, but talent is the cheat code to life.
All of this combined, you'd think I was a perfectly average kid, right? Well that's where you would be wrong. You see, underneath all my awkward teenage tendencies, lies something that would put my life on the fast track. The truth is, I'm cursed. Now, I know what you're thinking, but believe me, I have absolutely no experience with the occult. Hell, I'd quicker trip over something like that before I'd know what it was.
While I bet that you're wondering if this curse of mine is fatal or expect my tale to be some horrifying story of how I got into an accident that changed my life, but nope. My curse has always been with me and I can't die from it… Well, perhaps that last one isn't entirely true, but it's close enough.
You see, I, like many on this wonderfully exciting world of ours, was given the opportunity to do something great with my life. Unfortunately, in my case, there's nothing that comes without a cost. What others may call a gift; I believe is the worst thing that could possibly have happened to me.
In this world filled with incredible powers and abilities, mine has to be the most dangerous one to possess. Now, I don't say this out of some inflated ego or anything like that. My power, my curse, could destroy the world if I'm not careful. But enough of this cliffhanger nonsense.
I first learned of my curse when I was five years old. While most abilities appear around puberty, mine decided to rear its ugly head early. Uncommon as the timing was, it was the power that scared me the most.
It was late afternoon on a hot, summer day,(you know one of those days where you are out on a wild adventure with your best friends in the whole wide world without a care at all) when the wonderful music of an ice cream truck caused a stampede of children towards the street. Ever one for the chance to score a sweet treat, like most children are at my age, I joined in the stampede of kiddos begging their frazzled parents to spare a couple of bucks to get the thing we could now not live without.
Unlike most of my peers though, I had a bizarre thought pop into my head, why bother my mother who would just scold me for trying to ruin my dinner, when I could just go straight to the source?
While normally this tactic would just cause a person to be shut down immediately, I was just a kid so I didn't have the shame required to stop myself. I pushed myself to the front of the line and looked the ice cream man in the eye. "I'll take one soft serve twist with chocolate sprinkles."
"Coming right up, young lady" the man taking my order replied. Everything seemed normal in that moment. Yet what was about to happen would shock everyone, including myself.
When my ice cream arrived, I took the cone and smiled. "Thank you!"
As I started to head off, the man called out to me in a rather annoyed tone, "Hey, wait a second, you have to pay for that!"
I proceeded to stare at him with confusion. I had to have this treat, but I had no money. He must believe me, he must. "But I did pay, everyone saw me. I'm not paying twice for one ice cream."
As I said this, I expected to be called out by the next person in line. After all, I had very clearly not paid for the delicious treat. Yet to my surprise, Sally Jameson, my childhood nemesis, the person who would have sold me out to anyone, chimed right in, "Yeah, Kyri already paid. Who are you trying to kid, mister? Pretty low blow, trying to steal from a little girl." My blond haired enemy gave the poor man a dirty look of disgust. She truly believed that he was in the wrong.
With the ice cream man staring in confusion, a dozen kids chimed in that they too had seen me pay. While he was thinking for a second, a strange look came over his face. "Oh, yeah that's right. I'm sorry about that young lady. How about I make you another one to apologize?"
That day, I walked away with two ice creams for no money whatsoever. Of course, that was only the beginning of my power. I soon found out that I could convince anyone of anything. I could get out of any trouble with just a couple of words, have people hand over their lunch at school, or even convince my mother that I didn't have school during final exam week. This is my power, my curse, I can control people. Their thoughts, their beliefs, their actions, they can all be change by me.
Scary stuff, huh? Not convinced? Well, this almighty power has a problem. Once I overwrite someone, my change simply cannot be undone. While there are limits to what I can do, such as I can't give someone superpowers with my desires. I can very literally unmake someone in a fit of rage and be unable to fix my mistake once I come to my senses. If I tell someone that their greatest desire in life is to jump off a bridge, they will and there is nothing that I can do to stop it.
Luckily, I learned the dangers of my curse early on in life. If I hadn't, I don't even want to consider the possibilities. A world ruled by a twisted version of me would not be something that anyone would want. With everything around me subject to change at a moment's notice, I decided that I would suppress my curse as best as I could. My life would be uneventful, if it killed me! Better I spent my life bored out of my mind, then someone get hurt or worse because of this curse ever again.
You might be wondering what brought about this change of heart. I went from a spoiled brat, to someone who was responsible in a heartbreaking instant. When I was seven years old, my father was scolding me for breaking the neighbor's window with a baseball, and the words just flowed out of my mouth. Horrible words, words that I wish I could bury down deep in my soul and never let them see the light of day.
"Dad, I hate you! All you ever do is yell at me for things that aren't my fault! Why won't you ever listen to me? Can't you ever take my side? All you ever care about is what other people may think. I never want to see you again..."
In that moment, I realized what I said, and what was about to happen. I knew that there was nothing that I could do, but I still tried. Oh, how I tried. I spent the rest of the day absolutely glued to his side, but come morning, he was gone. I never saw my father again.
My mother cried for months after he left us. She didn't understand why her loving husband had up and disappeared. The police and multiple superhero organizations spend countless hours searching the globe for him. But it was as if Rex Carson had never existed.
While I know that my father is still alive, he will never be in my sight again. The Hero League of Granite City ended up finding a man who looked just like him, but he was called Bob Novak and had no recollection of having a family in Mitt City. My words had undid his personality, changing Rex into Bob, never to be reversed.
After that, I swore I would never use my power. My curse would not ruin anyone else's life. While I couldn't bring myself to confess to my mother what I had done, I would make sure that I couldn't hurt anyone again. I would pay for my crime, I would spend the rest of my life powerless.
Yet try as I might to be normal, it seems that the universe had a different fate in store for me. Recently I became the superhero known as Misdireck, despite my every intention to stay in the shadows where it was safe. I hope that I made the right decision. For everyone's sake.