My eyes are drawn toward the dark night's sky with not a star in sight. Despite wearing extra layers, the cold chills me to my bones.
I need to get home and get to bed already.
The soft crunch of snow beneath my feet is contrasted by the occasional car whizzing by. The snow fell in sheets, making it almost impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.
As I approached a crosswalk on the street right before my home, I glanced to my left to see the faint silhouette created by the headlights of a car barreling out of control towards a young girl.
Had she done something wrong? Was she bad? Then why? Why must her life come to an end in such a meaningless way?
Before I knew it, my legs were carrying me towards the distant silhouette. The cold snow and winds pelted my face. The crunches of snow grew louder as I picked up pace. Despite my effort, how am I supposed to make it there before she gets hit? I'm useless. As far from a hero as you can get.
A sudden strength coursed through my body. With one kick off of the ground, I closed the distance between us in a second.
Blinded by headlights, I reached out and gently shoved the girl away from the vehicle, taking her place.
The light engulfed me and right before the impact,
"Bzzzzt… Bzzzzt… Bzzzzt…"
I blink open my eyes just to shut them again. I roll over and cover my ears with my pillow, desperately trying to finish my dream.
"Bzzzzt… Bzzzzt… Bzzzzt…"
I groaned as I sat up and hit my alarm clock. It was time for school already.
I wonder if I saved that girl, in my dream.
When I stood up out of my bed to get ready for class, a weight left my lap and hit the floor. A strange yellow rock lay on the ground. I inspected the odd rock which seemed to be more of a gem. It appeared to be very valuable. Inside the gem was a glitter-like glow. It shimmered and sparkled like nothing I had seen before. It was oval in shape and about the size of your fingertip.
My appraisal was interrupted by my mom yelling to make sure I was awake.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I hollered back, stuffing the gem into my pocket.
Quickly changing into my uniform, I brushed my teeth and headed downstairs. My mom had already prepared a nice breakfast for me. It was eggs and bacon. A standard meal for any occasion.
Scarfing down my meal so I wouldn't be late, I thanked my mom and headed out the door.
I hopped on my bike and flung my bag over my shoulder. I took off and went straight to school.
I've never been a big fan of school. I'm not the smartest or most sociable. I don't have a tight group of friends and mostly just have acquaintances. By not sociable, I mean that I get into a lot of fights. When people are wrong I feel a need to speak up, that little habit has been a major reason I don't have any friends. My fights are usually physical and I don't have a great win rate either. It's fifty-fifty at best.
Slowing to a stop, I locked my bike onto a rack and prepared myself for another slow day at school.
The high school buses, having just dropped off the last set of students, began to drive away. I hurriedly jogged to catch up with the last crowd.
Mixing in with the people, I directed my gaze to my feet and kept to myself. The kids around me were loud. They talked of their upcoming sports game and asked each other if they had heard about what that cheerleader did. All pointless conversation as they padded out their bland days. Not that I'm any better. I'm worse. I call my days bland while doing nothing to change that.
The day passed as I had expected, slow and filled with tedium. As the last bell rang the whole class filed out the door, I looked out the window and patiently waited for the hallway to clear. It's hard enough going through the crowd in the morning, in the afternoon it's even worse. Kids are desperate to get home, some of them are even coming straight from P.E. It's just awful.
When the sound dies down and I know the halls are clear, I get out of my chair and head back to the entrance of the building, or rather, my exit. My mind wandered on my way through the empty corridors as I meaninglessly thought about entrances and exits. An entrance for one is an exit for another. When you exit a building, you enter the outside. Two seemingly opposites can mean the exact same thing, it just depends who's looking.
Thud.
While I was distracted by silly wordplay, I walked straight into someone. It was a pretty hard impact too, I hope they're all right.
I opened my eyes to see the still empty hall. For a few moments, it almost feels like I imagined the whole event. I glance around and just as I get ready to continue walking, a girl around my age appears on the floor.
How could I have not seen her? She was there the whole time but I just now picked up on her.
The girl was short with wavy hair that stretched down past her shoulders. Her bangs were long and reached just above her light brown eyes that matched her hair. She's thin and seems to be in the same grade as me.
The girl looked up at me in surprise. She scrambled onto her feet and turned to run away.
"Wait!" I shouted without thinking, "Are you alright? I didn't see you there."
She slowly turned around but only wordlessly shook her head up and down in response to my question. She must be really shy. She even waited for the halls to clear like I did, although I didn't do it for the same reason.
The girl opened her mouth and hesitated for a moment, "… You see me?"
"Of course. Was I not supposed to?" That had to be the weirdest question I've ever heard. Did she mean to ask if I already saw her somewhere else? She probably meant to say 'did you see me,' "Did you do something embarrassing in class?"
"Of course not!" Her voice shot up for a moment but then quieted down and she blushed, "No… it's just that I had a series of strange occurrences today."
"Like what? Maybe I could help."
"…" She hesitated to confide in a stranger she just met. Understandable. Surprisingly, she went on. "Well, maybe it's my imagination, but it seemed like everyone was ignoring me. Normally that wouldn't be such a bad thing, but coming out of nowhere like this it was really frightening. I… it felt like… I think I might have been invisible."
This girl bumped into me and is now claiming to have been invisible. As crazy as that sounds, there was that moment when I couldn't tell what I bumped into. Well, no matter what, this seems pretty interesting. Even if I end up being unable to help, I think that I do need to at least try and solve her problem.
"If you want, I could try and help you out. I doubt any of this is more than a coincidence, but I would like to put it out there that I didn't see you for the first few seconds after we bumped."
The girl didn't seem surprised by this. She really must've endured being ignored all day. She spoke in her shy quiet tone, "Who are you?"
Who am I? Oh, my name.
"I'm Allen, and what's your name?" I rephrased her question the proper way.
"Sarah."
"…"
That conversation died fast! I knew that I wasn't great at socializing, but talking to someone who is even worse at it is hard!
"So… Do you want to talk about it more outside? We should get out of here before the school closes."
We passed through the entrance-turned-exit and re-positioned ourselves on the side of the school. On our way out, Sarah was extremely quiet and I couldn't think of any small talk to make before we started our real discussion.
Walking around the school, we paused just before turning the corner. There was a bit of yelling and it sounded like a fight was going to break out. The sounds were coming from along the wall on the side of the building. It was a good place to cause trouble because it was hard to see through the relatively large amounts of trees around this area. It was almost like a forest that stopped against the side of the school. I knew this place a little too well as it was the go-to for settling one of my 'discussions.'
"What'd ya just say, punk?" A deep voice threatened from around the corner.
I peaked around to see what was going on. Three guys surrounded another one backed against a wall.
I need to help him! It felt weird thinking that because the man against the wall was clearly bigger and stronger than I was. Not that that mattered when you were outnumbered.
The cornered man brushed back his medium length black hair with his fingers. He seemed calm and collected despite the equally strong looking guys around him. He inhaled slowly and then let out a large sigh. Suddenly, his face boiled red as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "I said you better apologize before I count to ten or I'll beat your ass!"
The three bullies laughed as they considered their odds of winning against the cornered boy. No doubt they would take him down with minimal effort.
Through their laughter they taunted him, "Awwww, is someone mad that we called them 'poverty'?"
Another wail of laughter took them over at the sound of the childish and strange insult. It ended as quickly as it started when the victim threw a punch straight in the gut of one of his perpetrators. He collapsed and was immediately out of the fight.
"Hey!" One of the lackey's tried to send a right hook at the 'victim' who swiftly dodged despite his large stature. He got down on the ground and threw a sweeping kick to take down the attacker.
Stomping on the man's stomach, he slowly turned to the last one standing.
The final member of their crew was almost shaking. He took two steps back before regaining his confidence. A knife flips out of his pocket and gleams in the light.
This is dangerous! Someone's going to get hurt!
The knifer let out a last chuckle as he brandished his weapon. The strong one who had just regained his composure after stomping that goon suddenly had another fit of rage at the sight of the knife.
The air started to feel warmer and the powerful man's body seemed to warp in a haze of heat. In the blink of an eye, he charges the knife wielding delinquent.
With a thrust of his knife, he barely misses his mark.
The man charging with his full force, dodges the knife and nails a large uppercut on the chin of the now humiliated child.
I had just watched something amazing. It was three on one and yet they were dominated. And from the looks of it, they deserved what was coming to them. I'm almost ashamed to have considered helping. I probably would've held him back.
"Hey mister! That was amazing!" I called out from around the corner. Sarah turned pale like I had just called for the attention of the devil.
"Eh? Who are you? Wanna piece of me too, is that it?"
"Eek. Of course not. I just couldn't help but notice that you literally heated up the battlefield. What was that?"
He looked genuinely confused, "I did what now?"
"You know. The warmth and the haze and all that. Just look at that guy's chin, he got burnt," I pointed to the knife wielding kid who had a red mark under his face.
There was silence and then an unexpectedly upbeat answer.
"I have no clue!" A large grin was smeared across his face.
These cases may very well be related. The invisible girl and the flaming delinquent. Puzzled, I place my hands into my pockets looking for an answer. Oh, right. I had that gem in there. It had completely slipped my mind. Did I not check my pockets all day?
Momentarily forgetting the mysterious super powers, I continue my exam on the gem-like rock.
The muscular man looked intrigued, "Hey, you've got one of those too?"
He pulled out another similar looking gem. They both glittered in the same exact way and were the same size. The main difference was the color. Instead of yellow, it was a light shade of red.
Sarah followed suit and stumbled through her bag to reveal a gem of deep purple.
Well isn't this a strange occurrence? I immediately put two and two together. What're the odds that I meet two people with the same mysterious gem as me and they both have had some type of supernatural occurrence. Might I have a super power too?
"While you went on fire, it seems that Sarah here turned invisible earlier today," I informed the man, wait do I even know his name? I asked him the proper way, "Um… what's your name?"
"Name's Dylan. Nice to meet you…"
"Allen," I finished his sentence.
We went to a local cafe together and talked for a while.
"So it seems that you two have some sort of ability. If the stone has anything to do with it, I probably have it as well. On the other hand, these may not be abilities, but something else. Anything else strange with you two?"
They both shook their heads. Despite the vast differences between them, they got along well.
We also talked about the powers themselves and tried to recreate the ability. Something weird definitely happened with those two. I really hope that it's superpowers, but what're the odds of that?
To my surprise, Sarah managed to turn invisible again. One moment she was there, and then before our eyes, she vanished entirely. Her weight still imprinted on the cafe chair, but her body was nowhere to be seen. There was a shocked look on Dylan's face and I bet there was one on mine too. I couldn't tell what Sarah's face looked like, because, well, you know.
It took Sarah a few minutes, but she got the hang of turning invisible at will. Dylan however, wasn't able to activate the heat again at all. Interesting.
He probably can't use his power because it has some kind of trigger that we don't know. If we assume that is true and assume that everyone who has a stone has a power, I wonder what mine is and the trigger would be. It doesn't seem that Sarah's invisibility has any conditions on it so maybe only some are like that. There are still so many unanswered questions but that just means we need more tests!
"Let's try to figure out your ability, Allen. Mine seems like a lost cause for now," Dylan looked a bit disappointed. He probably wants to see fire magic as much as I do. Especially because it's his.
"Well, what do you suppose I should try? We don't have a clue as to what mine even is. We are only assuming that I have one in the first place, it's never been seen," I try to hide my excitement and anticipation of having magical abilities.
Sarah looks thoughtfully in the corner while me and Dylan discuss possibilities. She seems like more of a thinker and observer type.
"Speed?"
"Electricity?"
"Flight?"
Me and Dylan traded ideas about what I might have.
"Fire!"
"No, you already have that."
"Oh right," Dylan chuckled with a big smile on his face. "I thought that one'd suit you too."
Wait. Who's to say two people can't have the same ability? Sure that might be how it works in comics, but this is real life. As real as invisibility and fire magic is anyway. What if everyone with a stone has the same set of abilities?
"Hey, Sarah," I call out to the most powerful magic user I know. She sounds like a wizard when I say it like that, "How do you use invisibility? Is there some trick to it? How does it feel to be invisible?"
Suddenly barraged with questions, Sarah wincingly tries to put her thoughts into words, "U-Um- well- it's kind of like-"
She takes a deep breath and collects her thoughts. She thinks for a moment and then opens her mouth again, "It activates when I don't want to be seen. To go invisible, I have to deeply wish that no one can see me. Or maybe I believe that no one sees me," She stops to think again, "As for how it feels, I don't like it. Maybe it's because the first time I used it I couldn't stop. It feels like I'm all alone, even when everyone is there. It isn't a bad feeling, but I don't like it."
Wow. That was a lot more than I thought coming from her. Maybe that quiet thinking type causes her thoughts to be a lot more fleshed out.
Dylan blinks a few times in confusion, "I see. I don't get it."
Sarah probably said more at once than he could take in. On the other hand, I close my eyes before responding and try to imagine the feeling of invisibility that she had described. The world turns black and I am left alone in my mind. I feel the loneliness of a world without me.
Reopening my eyes, I am met with the sight of Sarah staring at me with anticipation and Dylan holding his eyes closed tight and almost popping a blood vessel trying to imagine what Sarah had said. But, because Sarah is making direct eye contact with me, it seems I can't turn invisible.
"Well I guess I don't have invisibility."
"Huh?"
I had forgotten to even tell everyone my idea because I was lost in thought. I should fill them in, "I thought maybe we all had the same powers. Or that maybe I also had the same ability as someone else. At the very least, I don't have invisibility."
"Oh, that was a good idea. I'm surprised I didn't consider it," Sarah quietly announces her appreciation of my failed idea.
Dylan is concentrating so hard his face has turned red. He suddenly opened his eyes and held up a three on his hand.
"How many fingers!?"
"Wow! Where did he go?" I looked just over his shoulder.
"Yes! Mission success!" He seemed really happy and now I felt bad.
Sarah couldn't contain herself and started laughing. This was the loudest I have ever heard her so far.
Dylan looked at me in realization. He seemed a bit disappointed at first. I was starting to feel even worse. Then, a big smile appeared. He started laughing at the prank that I had felt bad about. Relieved, I joined the laughter.
We all laughed so much we had tears in our eyes. We stopped and looked at each other silently, holding back the giggles. Dylan was the first to crack, sending us all back into hilarity.
After a while, we all settled back down. I haven't talked to friends like this in a long time. I've been missing out. I hope that I can talk to these two more often.
Getting back on track, I said, "I guarantee that we aren't the only ones who've had supernatural experiences. To learn more about these powers, we're going to need to find others like us."
Dylan asks, "How're we supposed to do that, though?"
Sarah speaks up after a few seconds. She's been thinking about something for a while, "… What if we started a new club at our school? I mean, like, what if we put up posters for our club around school and subtly mention the gems. Uh… we could be the geology club? Then we could put a picture of our rocks with it."
That was genius. If there were others like those two, they would be sure to notice their abilities and the stone after a while. If they ever seek answers, they would be led to the geology club. Maybe we could learn from whoever joined too! Hopefully we don't get any people who are simply interested in the dirt.
It was unanimous. That's what we were going with. Sarah blushed when we praised her idea and she claimed it wasn't that good.
The three of us continued to talk and mess around. I had lost track of time and Dylan said he had to go home soon. I waved goodbye to Dylan and Sarah shortly after.
I biked my way home realizing that for the first time in a while, I had fun interacting with friends. I usually would have avoided someone like Dylan but he's pretty nice.
I made myself a frozen dinner and then watched some television before bed. My parents are police officers who work late hours. I don't see them much other than before school and on weekends.
Laying down, I yawned and started drifting to sleep. Sarah said that she would take care of the posters so I didn't have anything to worry about. Actually, I'm rather excited! This is going to be fun. My final year of high school is going to be action packed with superpowers!
A few days passed and they were uneventful. A couple of people tried joining our club, but they just liked rocks. We mostly spent time messing around after school, trying to activate Dylan's power and playing with invisibility.
Sigh… We can't discover anything new unless we have more occurrences of these powers! We need to find a new person.
"Bzzzzt…"
"Pling Pling Pling"
"Ba-ding!"
The three of our phones got notifications simultaneously. They all had an email from the same address. This had to be a response to our poster!
Dylan was beaming. Even Sarah couldn't hide her excitement. I opened my phone and read the mail aloud. Even though they had it too, it would be the most fun to read it together.
"Have you had any supernatural occurrences lately? If not then please ignore this message. I am contacting all three members of the 'Geology' club to ask if you would like to meet up with some other people in similar predicaments. A conference, if you will. We would like to meet up tomorrow, Saturday. I know that is soon but it seems this is an important matter. We will try to discover as much about those gems as possible. I look forward to seeing you there." There was an address, meeting time, and picture of a gray gem attached.
Dylan immediately expresses his position, "We're definitely going, right?"
"Of course!"
Sarah nodded in agreement as well.
I replied to the email and informed the sender that we were free to go.
Later that night, I roll over in my bed. I can't sleep. I can't tell if I'm excited or scared. Super powers are awesome, but they could be scary, especially considering that I can't even use them. Maybe I've been watching too much television but I feel like this meeting may go south.
Lost in my thoughts, I roll out of bed and put on a jacket. I leave my house and step out into the cold air. It was the beginning of spring so it was still really chilly. I take a deep breath in and out.
I wonder if I could use magic to become a hero? I've never been able to be one before. All I'm capable of is petty fisticuffs. I argue with those who are wrong to show them the truth. If I was stronger, I could protect all that is good. That is the person I aspire to be. One who protects good, no matter the cost. One who has the power to be righteous. All of that is just a silly dream though.
My eyes are drawn towards the bright night's sky. A million stars lined the cosmos. I take another deep breath and raise my hand towards the stars. Grasping at them, I decide to return to my slumber.