"Henry, Jay, come look at what mommy can do! Isn't it incredible?" My mother stood transfixed as she moved her hand to and fro, the water pouring from the sink copying her movements.
My brother and I, just 8 year old boys at the time, watched amazed and yet terrified not of her gift but of the deranged look in her eye as she played with her new powers.
Then the door burst open. Our father had come home from work again, angry about something at work as per the usual. He was never physical with any of us but boy could he curse like a sailor fresh off of leave.
Today was the day my mother had had enough. Or maybe it was the power coursing through her blood. Now that I look back on that day it was most likely both. Sometimes reagents have major psychological changes after their powers are unlocked.
But theres absolutely no excuse for how my mother murdered my father right in front of our eyes. She pumped up his body like a balloon. She laughed like a goddamn clown as his stomach filled and his eyes burst out of his sockets. She plugged up his ears, eyes and mouth so the water couldn't escape.
My brother Jay ran towards her, begging her to stop. "Mama please! You're hurting daddy!" he pleaded.
Why wasn't it me who ran over? Why did I lack the courage to move…to let my little brother fight for us?
She turned her eyes on him. There were no emotions in them. She used her powers to spray a geyser of scalding hot water against my brother's chest so hard he crashed through a wall, knocked out cold. I heard a sickening pop and turned toward my father, a bloated bleeding pile of flesh. My mother laughed hysterically.
"Hahaha! I'm finally free of you Malcolm. No more hearing you wine and complain about every single thing Brighton does down at that goddamn factory." She walked over to his corpse and started stomping on it with hate and glee.
"You think I didn't know? How badly you wanted to fuck his wife Marcia and her stupid perfect apple pie. Fuck her. Fuck him and Fuck YOU! I give you ten years of my life, two beautiful children and NOTHING was ever good enough for your ass. I'm free. Jesus christ, i'm finally….free. Boys?"
She turned towards Jay who was pulling himself up from the wall. She smacked her lips and went over to him like nothing was wrong. Like it was just another fucking monday.
"Jay. What did I tell you about making a mess? Now you'll have to clean that up. What if your father saw?" She pointed at the blobby corpse of my father and glared at it. "Don't look at me like that. He's your son too. God, must I do everything around he-"
BLAM!
I still remember it like it was yesterday. A brand new whole in her belly. I could see Jay through it, his eyes widened at me. There was so much blood on his face.
I don't even know how the gun got in my hands…but it was there. I must have seen my father fire it when we'd gone hunting during the winter at least a hundred times. It was hidden above the fireplace. Did I move on auto-pilot and grab it when she turned her sights back onto Jay?
No. The answer crept up my arm and pulled me back to the present day. The inky blackness that comes from my body…my soul. It reached out and grabbed the gun. I couldn't lose my brother too that day. I'd already lost my father, had to put my mother down like a rabid dog.
And for what? These powers are a fucking curse. To anyone that gets them. Gets on my radar. If I find out about you I'm coming for you. I'd rather wipe them all out, myself included…all except one.
My beloved Nia. My precious daughter. She has the genetic markers but I've been giving her suppressants for years to keep them hidden. She doesn't need that stress…that curse. I'd give anything to keep her from going down the path my mother and others have gone down because she's already gone through so much.
Nia lost her mother…lost is too kind a word. Her mother was taken from her. Tara. Tara Callum was basically my C.I. I was once a cop, a detective in Chicago. Got in young because I had clear talent and I'd trained myself to never use my powers unless life or death.If I needed intel on the street I turned to Tara. She wasn't that much younger than me at the time but to me she was still a kid…and worse off a kid with something to prove.
I,unfortunately, gave her the opportunity to do so when I brought up a target that I had been chasing for months with no real leads to go on to bring him down, Iago Cortez. A drug lord who ran all coke and other drugs in and out of Chi town at the time. He was a kingpin, connected with too many resources. He bought almost half the police department and I don't know how many judges.
But he couldn't buy me.
I wanted his head on a pike. Taking him out would have made my career and it almost happened too. That is until Tara did more than I asked her to…she got close to Iago. Worked her way up his organization, fed me key information that helped me take down his organization brick by brick . And then…then she vanished.
The next time I heard from her, it was 4 years later on a postcard from Columbia with our phrase on it.
"The sun shines the brightest here." If either one of us ever said that it meant we were in real danger. I probably should have stayed away but I hopped on a plane and hunted her down.