Jump to content

Beware the Uncorrupted (Epilogue Added 05/28/22)


Philosopher

Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...

PART 10

Hated this.

She hated this so much it had been difficult to put it in words.

Sitting on the opposite side of a metal table, Seattle’s Province Director shifting through her papers. It reminded her of the times her mother would order to open her backpack so she could test her on the subjects she learned at school and her homework. If she found her to not know the subjects, then punishment would ensue, and there would be no dinner that day.

“Amanda, are you sure this is the latest scan for Spring 2021? The data hasn’t changed that much since last year. I expected more from him,” the Director commented as she continued reading her report. Amanda had stayed up an entire week putting it all together, her bloodshot eyes and disheveled hair making her look like a homeless, deranged woman.

“Yes, ma’am. I run the data again and again through the scanner, and there has been no mistake. Despite the changes in weight and height, there doesn’t seem to be a particular growth in Class. Perhaps his power has found a limit. After all, it’s not like there are many threats that can defeat him if you don’t count the Corruption or the Otherworlders from the parallel universe. The Otherworlders in particular have decided to abandon our universe, but we did manage to secure their technology to assist us with Timebreaker’s trinket.  Both of these threats have been classified as deactivated.” Amanda felt her hands tremble slightly as she explained the results to the Director, careful to make it as digestible as she could without ‘dumbing it down’. The last time she had done it, the Director almost kicked her out of the room.

“Yes, yes, I know all that,” the Director played with her long, white hair. She was an old-fashioned woman, nearing seventy, but her demeanor and overall personality made her appear like twenty or so. She was still beautiful and rather well-kept if her expensive clothes and immaculate hairstyle had anything to say. “I just expected… more from him. He was rather hard to make, you know.”

Amanda felt her entire body tense in a single moment. Did the Director’s tongue accidentally slip?

No. The woman was too cunning, too vigilant for that.

The Director raised her blue eyes to stare at Amanda, a slight smirk on her face. Strangely, there were very few wrinkles on it. “Well. I’m sure you’ve gone through the Province’s data. The earlier or the latter an individual awakens their powers, the stronger they are. When Sam awakened his Adaptability at such a young age, I was so thrilled. Really thought he’d grown to take anything we threw at him.”

“Miss Addams, I-,” Amanda opened her mouth to protest at the assault of unwanted information, but the older woman raised her hand. It was filled with wonderful rings, massive gemstones on every finger.

“Hush, child. You’ve stayed in this project for too long, so I believe it’s time you know our subject’s origins.”

Why? I can just continue working! I’ll keep my head down, I’ll do the extended hours, anything!” Amanda pleaded. She knew what was going on, and she desperately tried to do anything to stop it.

“Of course,” the Director continued, as if she didn’t hear the junior researcher, “me telling you all this new, classified information means exactly what you’re thinking right now. You will be in this gig for life.”

“No,” Amanda gasped, her entire body shaking with fear.

“Yes. And you know what happens to little tattletales who open their mouth outside these very walls? They get terminated by our very own!” the Director laughed, a rich laugh that didn’t seem connected to this conversation. “I have some videos to show you regarding the fate of our last researcher if you like. Make sure you don’t eat before watching them, though.”

“B-but I thought she had gone on to pursue her PhD in Unhuman Physiology?” Amanda trembled, her voice barely a whisper.

The Director’s smile grew, as if she enjoyed the conversation. “She didn’t want to work with us, but she knew our secrets. There was a conflict of interest, although we solved that pesky little problem,” she waved her hands.

The old crone was about to continue sealing Amanda’s fate, when something broke her concentration. “Yes?” she said, putting her hand on her ear. “I’m here. What? Portland? I see. Be there in five,” she talked to someone, and then looked back at Amanda. “There’s been an incident at Portland, Oregon. Intense readings of gamma radiation, cause unknown. I’ll tell our little lapdog to go have a look. Maybe it will give him some resistance to radiation?” she wondered, not really paying attention to Amanda anymore.

“Yes, it is possible that he would adapt to it, but I don’t know how much he can-,” Amanda started explaining. She always defaulted to basic explanation when her stress levels reached new heights. It helped her understand the world around her better, make the bad things smaller and more manageable.

Unfortunately, the Director was no small thing to digest.

“I’ll be in touch with you regarding your full-time position. You won’t even have to sign a non-disclosure agreement,” the Director smiled again. It was almost as if she wanted Amanda to go outside and tell the world about the Director’s practices. “I enjoyed our little conversation. Now then, boys? Let’s go!” she then ordered, and instantly, two different agents materialized next to her, appearing out of nowhere.

Invisibility belts. God knew how many times she had accidentally bumped to an invisible agent when she was walking down the lab from the cafeteria. It didn’t seem weird then, but now she realized that she would likely be spied on for the rest of her time here.

In and out of the Province Headquarters.

Amanda gulped. If she hated this before, now she was deathly afraid of it.

^ ^ ^

I didn’t know how long I stayed in the garden, because when I opened my eyes again, I was resting on the dusty couch inside the house, a blanket pulled over me. I quickly got it of it, instantly on high alert. Someone had placed a large flashlight next to me, still on. Perhaps Julia, as she couldn’t turn on the power for the house.

My brain kindly reminded me of what happened before I lost consciousness.

The Corruption had found me, and it had made me use my powers again. I didn’t know whether I should feel relieved or terrified for my life.

“Hey. Are you awake?” a deep voice originated from the other side of the couch, and I screamed, jumping up and almost tumbling to the floor. I didn’t recognize the voice; it was certainly not Julia’s.

Trying to banish the motes of sleep still blinding me, I thought I could see a large, intimidating shadow on the other side of the room. It was tall and wide, like a refrigerator but with human characteristics.

“Ju-Ju-Julia, is t-that y-you?” I trembled, not knowing whether I should bolt for the door or try to summon my power again.

The shadow somehow rose taller than it was before, head and shoulders above me. I unconsciously gulped from the signals of fear coursing through my mind, screaming at me to get out of there, but as the shadow came to the middle of the room, its more human traits began to show.

I almost cried when I saw Sam’s blue eyes staring at me. Even in the darkness, they were glowing like shining sapphires, their elegance unparalleled and almost too perfect. His face was just as beautiful as I remembered, his angular features and sharp jawline creating a bigger shadow through the illumination of the light. Sam’s big hands were raised to the level his musclebound pecs. I idly wondered how a man’s hands could be so big, he could probably palm a basketball with ease. As more and more of Sam’s massive body was revealed into the light, I saw just how much more the teen titan had grown the past few weeks. He was definitely standing taller, although his tall stature was almost eclipsed by the amount of muscle he had put on. No matter where I tried to look, there were giant bulges of pecs, abs, groin, the superhero’s black suit leaving little to the imagination.

“You’re not Julia,” my mouth was faster than my brain, and I almost slapped himself right there and then.

Sam snorted and gave a chuckle, and I found himself smiling a bit as well. It was refreshing after these horrible weeks I had been through.

To my surprise, I wasn’t mad at him. I didn’t realize how much I missed Sam, despite everything that had happened.

“How-,” I started asking, but he stopped me.

“An unrelated event, not too far away from here. Although something tells me that it’s not as unrelated as I originally thought,” he commented as he grabbed something from under the couch.

It was my backpack. Sam opened the zipper, putting his hand in it as he searched for something. He then fished out a small metal pen, the letters on it being too small to read.

“I found you through this. It’s a GPS tracker. I put it on your backpack the day I met you, even though you had forgotten it in that park. I… thought I should take it back.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You were… spying on me?” I asked him, not betraying any emotion on my face.

Sam fumbled with the pen a bit, trying to come up with a believable excuse. “I wouldn’t have done it if the higher-ups hadn’t asked me. You need to understand that the Province treats your family like walking, breathing nukes, especially after what happened with your father. They gave him a Classification of 9, Percy. He is capable of leveling down an entire city in a matter of hours, and nothing would be able to stop him… except me, and maybe Timebreaker or Wannabe Girl. Mister Superior wouldn’t get a chance to get close to him.”

Nobody knew what Wannabe Girl’s power was exactly, but it seemed that Sam knew her. I couldn’t help but wonder how powerful Sam truly was. If he was able to go against a matter manipulator like my father, then there were few things that could stop him. Moreover, to my small surprise, I wasn’t mad at him for spying on me. It made sense on the grand scheme of things; I would probably have done the same thing in his place, although I couldn’t see myself become a hero for the Province.

And yet, Sam kept looking at me like I had caught him stealing cookies from the jar and was about to scold him. “I’m not that mad,” I said as I grabbed the pen from his him. I slowly started touching his hands, marveling how soft they felt.

Normally, to get Sam’s physique, someone would have to spend countless hours in the gym, their hands becoming rough and calloused in the process. But Sam’s hands were so perfect that it was like he was dipping them in moisturizer every day. Moreover, their size put my average hands to shame. It was like someone was comparing the hands of a child to a full adult.

Sam stirred in my grasp, and reality snapped back to me. Crap. I must have looked like a total weirdo, obsessing over his hands, but when I met his eyes, there was only a smile waiting for me.

A deep feeling of awkwardness washed over me, and I pulled my hands behind. “Sorry, don’t know what happened there. Brain fart?” I tried to smile, but Sam’s grin told me everything I needed to know. “So why did you come to freaking Portland, from all places? Are you sure you didn’t come just for me?” I shot back, and his grin melted away into mild uncertainty.

“Oh, nothing too bad. Our satellites picked elevated levels of gamma radiation in the nearby forest, high enough that it could pose a threat to the wildlife. I scooped through the forest, but it doesn’t seem that there are any animals around, so I assumed it was safe to leave it like that. I also found a human skeleton of some sorts, but it was so old that it nearly turned to dust the moment I landed next to it. My current theory is that some kind of Unhuman awakened their powers and they literally burned themselves alive, but I won’t know until I go back to the HQ.”

I was still smiling when Sam gave me his explanation, trying desperately to not show any other emotions. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what, or who had caused this radiation spike. It had to be the explosion I had caused with my power. The skeleton part was a bit more concerning to me, but if I had to guess, it had to be the person that the Corruption had possessed at the time. I desperately hoped that their death had been a blessing compared to being used as a meat-puppet by an eldritch abomination.

The repercussions didn’t fail to dawn on me. Did that mean I was also a weapon of mass destruction like my dad, only with radiation? It didn’t seem to me that my power generated radiation, but rather, it was a byproduct of it. This newfound information put a stop to my urges to test it even more. I certainly didn’t want to radiate myself or my surroundings.

Now, the question was, should I tell Sam about my powers, or just leave him in the dark? Telling him would be the ‘right’ thing to do, only that it would probably result in a one-way trip to the Mountain.

On the other hand, telling him would also inform him of the Corruption’s presence, and how the very thing that had haunted my dad had now returned for seconds.

No. If I asked Sam not to tell the Province, it would only brew trouble for him down the line. I was not about to ask him to choose between loyalty to his cause or me.

I was about to ask the young superhero if he wanted to hang around some more before leaving, when the house’s door slammed open, revealing the heaving figure of Julia. She was mumbling something incomprehensible, altering between sobs and whispers, her hands on her face. She was standing in the doorway like a banshee, going left and right without balance. Before she fell down, Sam quickly burst to the door and swooped her in his arms, lifting her up like a feather.

“JULIA?! What are-what happened?!” I scrambled towards them. “Put her in the sofa!” I ordered Sam, and he did so, letting her down gently on the old, dusty covers. Julia was near catatonic, only sobs and small cries coming out of her trembling mouth. “Julia…” I put my hand on her forehead, surprised by how warm she felt.

Julia suddenly stopped and stared at me. “She’s dead.”

Sam and I gave each other a look of confusion, and Julia took the opportunity to grab both of our hands and dig her nails in them. “SHE’S DEAD. MY AUNT IS DEAD. SHE WAS TAKEN, USURPED. AND IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU TWO!” she wailed and screamed, and just like that, she passed out.

Several minutes passed in complete silence. Julia’s nails were so sharp that she managed to draw blood from my arm. Sam didn’t even have a mark. I looked at him, and my previous plan of keeping him in the dark crumbled to dust. I placed my bleeding arm on his wide back, and he turned, his attention fully on me.

“There’s something you need to know.”

^ ^ ^

If Sam’s flight speed was fast before, now he was flying so fast that I honestly thought I had forgotten my stomach back to Portland, along with Julia. I had begged him to take her with us, but he had adamantly refused. “I can’t carry more than one person with me. Can’t keep track of all of the variables,” he had explained when he lifted me in his arms and placed me in his arms, his biceps swelling into the size of melons. It was so natural for him, to lift me up as if I weighed little more than a balloon. Sam was going through the movements mechanically, his mind seemingly in another world. I couldn’t tell whether he was angry, sad, or afraid. His face was a mask of tranquility, beautiful as ever, but also unreachable.

Did I mess up by telling him?

No, I couldn’t start second-guessing myself now that I had made my decision. I was beginning to understand what had happened in the forest. The Corruption had possessed Julia’s aunt, based on the height and overall frame of the body I had seen in that clearing. As to how, I was as clueless as everyone else. I briefly wondered if it was the aunt that had sent the email to Julia, or the Corruption itself. Did that mean that its victims had some sense of individuality before they were consumed by the horror? Or was it something entirely else, something that my human mind couldn’t even begin to understand?

Sam continued with his overwhelming speed. Somehow, despite the sheer cold atmosphere around us, his body produced more than enough heat to warm and prevent me from freezing to death. It even managed to calm me somewhat, make me feel safe. I didn’t know if there was a safer place on the planet other than Sam’s embrace. Even though I had to hold his chest and neck for dear life, I was certain that he wouldn’t let me fall down.

A sudden wave of wind made Sam lose a bit of his balance. I held him for dear life as he wobbled thousands of feet above the ground. I tried to get a grip on his neck, but that only made it more difficult for the rest of me to get on top of his hands again. My blood turned to ice when I felt something heavy on my back become loose, before eventually falling down.

“My backpack!” I yelled, but Sam either couldn’t hear me or he didn’t want to stop. It didn’t have anything important inside it in particular, but the backpack itself was important to me.

Eventually, he started slowing down, descending to an acrid wasteland of a desert that I had never seen before. “Where are we?!” I shouted at his ear, the gusts of winds making it near impossible for my voice to travel as fast as he did.

“Mojave Desert. The government used it to test their bombs here,” he answered with apparent ease. “Parts of it are still deemed radioactive, but we know that the levels of radioactivity have considerably dropped over the years. It should be safe for normal-,“ Sam started explaining as we descended down, but he stopped himself. “Huh. I guess you’re not a normal person anymore, are you Percy?” he finally said as we touched the dried ground.

“I guess I’m not.”

The desert expanded all around us. I could see mountains far away from the horizon, seemingly impossible to reach. The wind howled above me, sending hot shivers all over my body. It was warm, but not as warm as I would have expected. The desert’s ground was cracked like broken skin, fissures littering the surface. More importantly, there was nothing alive around us. No people, no animals, not even trees or bushes. Sam had probably chosen this place for that exact reason.

“I really, really hope you’re pulling a very stupid prank right now,” he spoke, his voice more like a growl than human speech.

He was angry.

“I’m really not.”

“If you’re not pulling my leg, then it means you’re capable of catastrophic levels of destruction, just like your-“

I know.”

I desperately hoped that all this was some off-shoot, a side-effect before my real power kicked in. Creating orbs of devastating explosions did not seem to connect with the overarching theme of my family. Electromagnetic Aura for my mom, Electricity Manipulation for my brother, and Materiokinesis for dear old dad. If Johnny had taken after our mom, then did that mean I had taken after our father? I had wanted, needed, sought a power for so long, that I hadn’t thought about the consequences of having one.

And this? Destroying things? I did not want that.

Sam cleared his throat and spoke again. “Well? Are you not going to show me how you killed Julia’s aunt?” he said, his words dripping with disdain.

“I did not- I did NOT kill her. She was already dead by that freakshow! Do not put this on me,” I pointed at him, and to my surprise, Sam took a step away from me, as if I were a bomb about to go off.

Was he afraid of me?

I snorted. “Please. We both know you can survive radiation, and definitely explosions. If you wanted to put me down, there’d be nothing I could do.”

Sam didn’t respond to that. I took his silence as my answer.

Looking next to him, I spotted a large boulder a few hundred feet away from us. That would be my target practice. The problem rested on how I would activate my power again. It had activated the exact moment I was about to be maimed by the Corruption, my body high on adrenaline and fear.

Fear.

It was fear that had made me awaken to my powers the first place. Fear for myself, for my family, my future. The fear that came from your entire life being swooped away by secrets and revelations.

And it had been fear for my life that activated my powers again, but on a more literal sense. Fear that the alien entity would jump into my body and control it, doing god knows what to my friends and family until it was satisfied.  

I looked over at Sam. It was becoming increasingly clear for me that I had fallen for him, hard. I mean, who wouldn’t? He was the tallest, biggest, most handsome guy that I had seen, ever. And he was nice, too. He was a hero, with powers that could grow with seemingly no limits. He had the whole package, literally and figuratively. That prodigious bulge in his pants hadn’t gotten unnoticed from my hungry eyes.

I tried to put on a shell around these feelings of attraction, make it so that if I ignored them, they would go away. It would’ve been better than the inevitable rejection I’d face if I ever came clean to him. I wasn’t tall, I wasn’t muscular or shredded, I didn’t have good looks. The situation had turned even worse now because he’d probably have to report me to the Province, and it was either joining them or going to see Daddy and Mommy dear in the Mountain, forever.

I was afraid of this rejection, afraid for what awaited me in the future, afraid that Sam would never look at me the same way again. I’d be another freak, another supervillain with a horrible power. Even if I ever became a hero, the people would look at me with suspicion and distress.

I focused on that, and the orb appeared in my hand. The same white particle surrounded by that grey field, as if it were protecting the tiny light.

“Holy shit. You weren’t kidding,” Sam stared at the orb in my hand. I gave him a nod, before throwing the orb at the general direction of the boulder like a grenade. The particle flew across the air, before landing a few feet away from the rock.

It didn’t explode. The grey energy hadn’t disappeared like before. Sam and I waited a few seconds, expecting something, anything to happen. I started going closer to the orb, but he appeared next to me, too fast for my eyes to see him move, putting a giant, long hand in front of me to stop me. I couldn’t help but trace all the veins bulging in his forearm with my eyes.

“I think it’s waiting for you,” he told me as he stared at the orb. “Perhaps it needs to activate somehow, like a trigger.”

A trigger? I couldn’t think of anything I did before. Maybe I had the ability to choose what the trigger would be?

I snapped my hands, deep in thought.

At that moment, the grey field around the white particle dissolved, and air started getting sucked in, as if in a vacuum. The force was getting stronger with each second, and I could even see the boulder itself begin to move towards the particle. Soon enough, bits of the rock started breaking, absorbed in the light that was getting brighter and brighter, a new star being born.

I instantly felt Sam’s body turn rigid. “Get back. Get back!” Sam told me as he grabbed and hugged me, careful not to break any bones with his sudden movements. He then jumped off the ground, floating in the air and beginning to fly far away from the boulder, that had now been completely eaten by the light. “It’s my danger sense! It’s screaming at me to evacuate. Percy, just what the fuck is your power?!” he yelled, his voice muffled. I couldn’t even begin to answer, my mind too overwhelmed by being surrounded by muscle upon muscle. His suit felt soft on my skin, but his muscles made everything beneath it hard like steel. It made me hard, despite my attempts to stop it from happening.

Below us, a wave of scorching heat flew outwards forcefully. I could feel the intense warmth even with Sam protecting my body. An intense sound, like shattering glass, followed, along with a squall of violent airstream made Sam lose his balance, threatening to make both of us fall. I knew he’d easily survive it, but I wasn’t so sure about myself.

It seemed like ages before Sam finally stabilized himself enough for me to feel safe again. I pressed on his arms, motioning that I wanted to see, and he opened a tiny space between them, allowing me a glimpse of the desert below.

Where we stood mere seconds ago was now a crater the size of an entire neighborhood. There was nothing, absolutely nothing inside the crater. No rocks, no debris, no matter. As if a section of the desert itself had been deleted from the map.

Sam murmured next to me. “Radiation. I can feel it. It’s too much for you, maybe even for me. We need to get out of here,” he declared, not letting room for discussion.

Throughout our way back, I tried to ask him what he would do with me, what would happen to Julia, whether the Mountain had a teens section or if I would be left with the big bad wolves. Even without seeing his face, I knew he was in no mood to talk. He did however make it easier for me to move around his body and hands, his grip not so steel-like as before.

The earth beneath us stretched as we flew faster and faster.

The view was serene, and almost hypnotizing to look at. I focused on myself and my newfound powers, trying to form a theory at what exactly I was capable of.

Destruction and radiation. No, not destruction. The matter within that crater hadn’t been simply destroyed, it had been erased.

Annihilated.

I remembered that particular combination in my physics class. Annihilation, coupled with an intense burst of gamma radiation. Only one force in the universe was capable of doing that. Something that was partly matter, but with opposite charge. Capable of converting matter into pure, undiluted energy, obliterating everything on its path.

Antimatter.

Fuck.

^ ^ ^

Eternia Woods.

One of the oldest forests of the state, spanning across the wider region of Oregon. The yew trees grown here were famous for their branches. The way the wind flew through them produced an interesting quality, a thin whisper that permeated the forest. Many were the times where people believed that the forest was haunted, attracting the spirits of the dead or malevolent forces from the depths of Hell. Interestingly, that had increased the popularity of the forest, and many people would visit it just to hear the haunting whispers. That, and the woods were beautiful in their own way, almost fairylike.

Few people were brave enough to visit the heart of the forest, but if they did, they would come across a peculiar discovery.

In the center of the forest laid a skeleton. The skeleton of a woman, short and petite. Flesh had been stripped from it, revealing nothing but charred, black bones beneath.

All around the remains of the unfortunate woman stood a tiny crater, as if matter itself did not want to touch the skeleton. The surrounding, rotten trees further accentuated the chilling atmosphere surrounding the bones, causing anyone who found it to think twice before approaching. Not that someone had found it, except a strapping hero flying across the crater, only staying for a few minutes before departing.

The skeleton had felt power from that hero, near limitless power. It was addictive how that man leaked energy around him. Not as addictive as the aura of that other human, the one who had just awakened their wonderful powers, but the skeleton absorbed enough ambient energy to stir from its sleep.

The skeleton was standing up now, the bones creaking. Parts of the legs dissolved into fine ash, but most were able to sustain the combined weight. It would have to do, for now. The skeleton began crawling from the crater, a slow process that caused more of the body to break down.

It needed to find a new host, and fast. Several hours passed before it finally reached the entrance of the clearing, most of the skeleton having been reduced to dust.

Hello? Is someone there?” someone said, and the skeleton snapped its skull towards the source of the noise. It couldn’t see who it was, as its eyes had melted off from the explosion, but it felt that wonderful, delicious taste of life permeating close. It was an older man, along with his family. Perhaps they had come here to visit the forest, or maybe they had heard the explosion.

The skeleton did not particularly care. However, if it had any skin or lips left, it would smile.

A new host, someone healthy and virile. Nothing compared to the feast that the boy with the new powers would be in the end, but a snack, nevertheless.

The skeleton reached with whatever remained of its hand and grabbed the wonderful energy. The man shrieked, a tiny yelp, and then there was silence.

The Corruption smiled with its newfound mouth.

Soon there would be nothing but silence.

  • Like 21
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What an emotional rollercoaster! Whew! Seeing the extent of Percy's powers was awesome and scary alike. And the ending? Straight out of a horror movie. Now, my excitement for the next chapter is through the roof. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story! I'm estimating that there will be another 5-6 Parts for this story, although each one will probably be longer than the rest :)

  • Like 10
  • Thanks 1
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

PART 11

Seattle’s downtown buzzed with the everyday activity of the average citizen. Tall skyscrapers littered most of Seattle’s skyline, housing companies related to advertisement, insurance, and business management. Three extremely important sectors for a city where every hero amounted to five villains running around and exploding things, from garbage cans to entire malls full of people. Casualties were rarer these days thanks to the sudden influx of heroes, courtesy of the Province, but people still died in various appealing ways, from being pulverized by boulders to having the water from their bodies stripped away, resulting in human-shaped raisins. It was bad, but not so bad compared to other cities, were villains essentially ruled them.

However, and to their fortune, Seattle’s citizens were not aware that a Class 7 hero with the power of Adaptability was currently flying through their skies, making their lives a tad-bit better without them knowing so.

Sam had already met his daily quota of capturing fifteen thugs from the numerous gangs on the poorer districts of the city. From anarchist groups hellbent of eradicating every semblance of control from the Province, to purist psychopaths that murdered every person who was not an Unhuman, believing that they were making ‘room’ for more superpowered individuals to appear, marking the evolution of humankind. These were the worst in particular, because they wanted to fight heroes and lose. Every gang member caught or killed would be hailed as a martyr by the rest of them, and their beliefs would fester and grow.

The last and newest gang in the city were the brainwashed citizens amassing Princess’ army. They called themselves ‘Servants’, their individuality surgically removed from their minds and replaced with a complete obsession over the wellbeing of the infamous Class 8 supervillain, Princess.

Sam hated the last group the most. He was forced to beat innocent people who would do the best to hurt him, but always to no avail. He couldn’t count how many times their fists had shattered against his impenetrable skin and muscles; he didn’t want to remember how many times he had to fly them to a high-security hospital to treat their mind control.

Right now, as he flew among the bright sky of Seattle, catching Princess was the best thing he could do for his own wellbeing. He couldn’t, wouldn’t sit down and think about the revelations of the past few days. How Percy, of all people, had awakened to one of the worst powers he could imagine, capable of immeasurable destruction with just a flick of the kid’s wrist. Even he didn’t know if he would be able to stop Percy if he suddenly turned bad and decided to go around and nuke cities out of existence. Sam needed to think of something else, and catching Princess had provided him with the necessary stimuli to put his thoughts into a gradual order.

It didn’t take long before he found her. His danger sense kept spiking when he passed over an abandoned bank, the company deciding to close down the building after being robbed by supervillains too many times. This particular subset of his power seemed to act as a radar towards any kind of danger, but it lacked accuracy. Right now, he felt two different beeps on this side of the town. The first one was closer, but the other one was far away, towards his own apartment.

That would have been Percy.

Shaking his thoughts out of his mind, Sam plunged down with incredible speed, wisping away the white clouds and slamming down the roof of the abandoned bank. Brick, concrete, and steel gave way as Sam tore through the roof of the building, demolishing the metal-fortified walls as if they were tissue papers. A heavy haze of dust accumulated on the surrounding streets, and people froze on their tracks for a single moment, before beginning to evacuate the area. The routes of evacuation had been ingrained in their memories; it was almost second nature now for the veteran citizens of Seattle.

Sam found himself standing before a gargantuan vault door. All around him laid bits and pieces of caved metal and broken stone, the result of his extreme descent from the sky. Normally he would make sure to do as little damage as possible to the environment, but he was not in the mood to be careful now.

On the other side of the expansive room, people began stirring from the sudden noise and the light that had gotten into from the giant hole in the roof. Sam’s eyes instantly adapted to the darker regions of the room, his hands turning into fists at the sight of Princess’ work.

Men, women, and even children. All looked so weak, so pathetic. Sam could see how the skin sagged from their bones, the lack of weight in their figures, most of them resembling more skeletons than humans. They moaned, beginning to move towards him like zombies, crawling in the marble ground, nails breaking as they desperately tried to get closer to him.

“Get out!” a woman screamed at him, her voice rough and fractured.

“Leave us alone!” a man next to her wailed, stumbling towards him, his body incapable of controlling itself.

They all had been left to starve by Princess. The supervillain was known to forget to feed her subjects, instead ordering them to ‘not feel hunger anymore’. The command worked on a conscious level, and so the subjects were left to starve themselves.

Sam thought of himself as a calm, collected individual. His psyche was exceptional, considering his volatile, traumatizing past.

But as he dug his fingers into the vault door, the metal caving in as if it were made of hot butter, Sam did his best to control his strength, knowing that if his emotions won, the end result would be far more catastrophic than anything Princess could have ever done. Instead, he gripped the vault door, the metal groaning as it bent in unnatural ways, before snapping off like a twig. Sam grabbed the broken part of the door and squeezed, the steel bending and heating up under the strength of his grip. He then flung it towards the opposite wall of the vault room, the rod of metal embedding itself deep within the stone.

Feeling his anger swell despite his best intentions, Sam instead chose to just walk through the remaining of the door. Its hinges broke down the moment his body began exerting pressure, it being too big to pass through the hole he had made before. The metal and steel further caved in, the screeching noises producing sounds of pain from the fragile people behind him. Most had given up trying to fight him, their own frail bodies being too weak to move. He didn’t mind them, and more importantly, wouldn’t hurt them. Even if he had used a fraction of a fraction of his strength to put them down, he wasn’t sure that their bodies could handle that.

Now, as he went through the nearly seven feet hole that had the particular shape of a giant bodybuilder, he felt sorry for them. Their families must have been going crazy without them, and staying under Princess’ mind control for so long usually brought permanent changes in brain function and personality.

He saw her the moment he entered the small space behind the vault door. It had probably housed gold, money, and jewelry before, but now the shelves were empty, save for a few empty bottles of water and many pre-heated meals littering around the room.

Princess was standing on the top of a table in the middle of the room, her feet going forwards and backwards as if she were bored out of her mind. Her expression, however, betrayed that she was very much interested at the giant man that had simply waded through several inches of reinforced metal. Her face was young and beautiful, but whatever makeup she had once put had dried away, giving her an almost alien look.

Took you long enough,” she sung. Sam could feel the initial tendrils of her power trying to take a hold of his mind and make him hers. In response, his brain simply refused to accept the signal, having been adapted from the last time he had been exposed to her sire. A few seconds passed with nothing happening, the silence only ending with Princess’ sigh. She hopped off the table, taking a few steps to the other end of the room.

Princess. You are under arrest for your crimes against humanity,” Sam cracked his knuckles, “and for being a nasty piece of work. Don’t do anything stupid, you know there’s nowhere to run anymore.”

Rather than give up, Princess simply ignored him, instead beginning to comb through her blonde hair. “Where’s the fun in that? People have told me that I only learn the hard way. And you seem like the hardest person there is, no?” she gave him a shining smile, fluttering her eyelashes.

Sam did his best not to groan. He had run to the same problem before, particularly with women villains or criminals who thought they could just seduce him and run away. “I’m sorry, but you’re not my type,” Sam grunted and started to move closer, his much larger body almost blocking the hole he had made in the door.

You’re so nice,” Princess cackled. Her demeanor was that of a small child that had been grounded for staying up too long; her words dripped in sarcasm. “You’re not good, you know. You’re not bad either. You’re just nice.

“We are heroes,” Sam responded as he inched a bit closer. “It’s our job to be nice.”

This is precisely my point. All of you goddamn heroes thinking that you’re the gift of god in this world! Just look at the lot of you, dressing in stupid suits to sell your brands to the masses like you’re the heralds of god! You’re just so nice,” she repeated, her mouth trembling into a forced smile. “But we don’t fool ourselves with play-pretend. Its in our nature to use our powers. We were born to them.

“If this is some pathetic excuse of a monologue-,” Sam started moving closer, only for Princess to reveal a tiny handgun in her palm. To his surprise, he didn’t point it at him, but to her own head.

You don’t seem to understand what’s happening here, hero. You won. You’ve driven me into a corner, and I can’t use my power on you. My subjects are out there being useless and dying. All that awaits me now is a life sentence to the Mountain. Even I am not crazy enough to go there. I’d be killed off in a week, maybe turn into a zombie by that supervillain Grotesque. The things they would do to my glorious body!

Sam hadn’t been into this kind of situation before. He was flying solo, to say at least, without the backup of Province’s support. He always had an agent or his boss to tell him what to do. Miss Addams was a tough, harsh woman, but her advice was gold. He cursed himself for his stupidity. “Look Princess, I’m not here to watch you paint that wall behind you red. I’m just going to deliver you to the Province, and then they’ll decide what to do with you. If they think you’re more useful here than the Mountain, they could give you a less harsh sentence. Given your past, I’m sure they can make an exception,” He chose his words carefully, and his voice was calm.

Princess shook her head. “White lies. They’re the worst kind,” she murmured. A tiny smile crept on her doll-like face now, and it wasn’t forced. “Do you really want to talk about the past, Sam?

Sam stared at her. She couldn’t possibly learn his name. He didn’t even have an actual hero name, and he had made sure not to tell anyone. Had Percy accidentally told Princess his name when she had controlled him?

Princess’ smile widened. “Every time I control someone, I get a glimpse of their inner world, their psyche. I learn many things about my subjects, their likes, dislikes, fears,” she grinned. “Even if I didn’t manage to control you, I was still able to snoop into your mind. Oh, the things I saw, Sammy. You would make me look like Gandhi.

“Shut your damn mouth,” Sam seethed, inching a bit closer at her now. He was barely in control of his own body; his instincts screamed at him to fly into her and pulverize her tiny body until nothing, but bits and guts remained. He could do it; he knew he could do it.

Why? Are you still guilty at what happened at school? Are you sad that you broke every single bone of that quarterback that disabled him for the rest of his life? Or are you happy that it happened, enjoyed that every kid in that school learned their true place in their world? The way they looked at you while you walked down the halls, knowing that you could end their miserable lives with a snap of your fingers?” Princess bombarded him with questions, waving the gun left and right.

Sam quickly realized that his feet were sinking into the marble. He was getting so angry that he was literally pushing himself into the floor, condensing the material below him to its breaking point. His mind had lost the battle against his body before, and he remembered all too well the consequences of his actions. “If you’ve seen the things in my head, then you would know that you should zip it,” he growled, his voice resembling an angry bear.

Well, it’s either that or the Mountain. Death by a hero is a far better alternative, don’t you think? Then I should definitely not remind you about the orphanage, right? The fires, the embers of wood digging into your skin, all your little friends around you screaming for something, anything to save them!

“STOP IT!” Sam wailed, feeling his body temperature rise, preparing for a fight.

Princess continued. “But nobody came. In the end, it was just you, apparently immune to fire. Or you could say, adapted to it. All the others weren’t so lucky, I presume,” Princess nodded her head in fake sympathy. Her face then lit up. “Oh, and all that drama with Percy! How he makes you feel good, feel needed, despite knowing that he’s-“ she started ranting again, but something stopped her.

It was Sam, now holding her from the throat, almost seven feet off the ground. She coughed, her face turning pink, and then red, her polished nails digging on Sam’s muscular arm and failing to do any sense of damage. The giant in front of her moved his wrist a tad bit, and Princess felt something give inside her throat. Sam dropped her down, and she struggled to breathe.

He waited a few seconds, studying her in order to make sure that she wouldn’t suffocate. “I collapsed your trachea. It probably did irreparable damage to your vocal cords too,” he said as he tapped at a nearby wall, his fingers digging into the bricks. “Killing you would be a mercy for you, Princess. What awaits you is the Mountain, where you will stay until you go insane or get offed by one of the better killers than you. Frankly, I hope it’s Grotesque.”

Princess blinked at him before jumping for the gun. It had dropped on the ground the moment Sam had grabbed her. However, the hero was once again too fast for her, grabbing the gun with his meaty hands and crushing it into a fine paste. His grip was so strong that the gun literally melted by the massive damage it received, bits of molten metal dripping on the floor and solidifying as it cooled down again.

Princess screamed, both in pain and in mindless anger. He half-expected her to lunge at him once again, but she didn’t. Instead, she took a few seconds to calm down, breathing in. Her breath sounded old, creaking with every gasp in. She then looked up at him and smiled. Her head tilted, showing her teeth, droplets of blood staining against the white. She mouthed something at him, her voice gone forever.

Sam understood.

Masquerade.

He might have disabled her power permanently, but Princess had gotten into his head, showed him that the past cannot be so easily buried. His lack of control was a testament to that.

She had won.

He quickly ascended in the air once again, through the hole he had made in the roof. His next station would be the Province, where he would alert them of the Class 8 supervillain and all her starving victims. Something told him that Princess wouldn’t run.

Still, he trembled as he nearly broke the sound barrier with his speed, she had won.

^ ^ ^

Sam had dropped me off a few blocks away from my apartment, nearly throwing me down the pavement like a sack of potatoes. After I saw him fly away at speeds I could barely comprehend, I fidgeted with the insides of my pockets, finding the second key he had given me for his own place. I was surprised at his gesture, but he told me to meet him there after he was done with his patrol. Then, we would talk through this problem of mine like two proper adults.

The problem being my power.

How was I supposed to work with this?

In our world, powers were divided between good and bad. Good powers involved the likes of healing, light manipulation, precognition, flying, super strength. All were considered your usual superhero abilities, the ones that good guys used to defeat the terrible, scary villains. On the other hand, we had bad powers. Arthropodkinesis, darkness generation, possession, madness inducement, disease proliferation.

Antimatter manipulation.

So many insane, outright frightening abilities. These powers were only used by the baddies, made to spread fear and death to the innocent civilians that had made the mistake to come across the paths of a supervillain. It was a true exception to see a hero having one of these powers, and it normally took the entire strength of Province’s PR to even begin to change the view of the public towards that particular hero. A grand example would be Balancer, a support hero who had the ability to transfer any injury or illness from one person to another. While he had originally worked as a corrupt doctor in Los Angeles, the Province soon made him change his ways by making him heal heroes after a fight and using volunteers to take their injuries, only applicable after the volunteer signed a thousand tons of paperwork and received a massive grand on their bank accounts. The Province had done an excellent job at scrubbing the man’s records clean, but the Unhumans forum had more than enough information regarding the hero.

As for the rest of the villains who wanted to become heroes, the Province simply ignored them. It would take too much time, too much money to create an entire new identity for these people, and it would be exceedingly difficult to hide one of the more ‘malevolent’ powers. That rule would only be waived in the case of exceedingly particular individuals, or the ones who would swear the utmost loyalty to the Province.

It wasn’t a surprise that there were more villains than superheroes.

It had never crossed my mind that I would have gotten one of the bad powers. My imagination would fill the gaps of my power with dreams of superhuman strength, the ability to shoot lasers out of my eyes, or even control the timeline like Timebreaker did to a minor effect.

But no.

Antimatter manipulation.

The ability to generate and control particles of antimatter. It sounded cool, powerful, and it was. The potential of antimatter was well-known to the scientific community. Matter would always annihilate with antimatter in an extreme explosion that produced high levels of energy, and thus radiation. One gram of antimatter was capable of producing trillions upon trillions of Joules, energy that was equivalent to almost three Hiroshima bombs being dropped off at the same time. The biggest laboratories in the planet had only managed to produce mere nanograms of the substance, and the potential of antimatter to be used as warfare was miniscule.

Until now, that was.

I slowly walked back to my neighborhood, but didn’t stop to my apartment. I couldn’t see my brother, not right now. He still thought we were at Portland, and I didn’t want to mess up his weekend. Instead, I quickly made my way towards Sam’s place and started running up the stairs, taking a peek behind me to be sure that nobody was following me. I was becoming increasingly paranoid that Sam had already reported me to the Province, and now they would come to take me for questioning and perhaps imprisonment for life.

Finding the door, I quickly unlocked it and hopped in his place. He hadn’t come back home yet, and that was perfectly fine with me. Closing the door and locking it behind me, I willed the energy to flow in my palm. The white particle appeared in an instant, always protected by the field of energy. Perhaps it was a failsafe of some sorts, a mechanism for my power to not annihilate me as well. It was probably the same reason why pyrokinetics were immune to fire and heat damage, or why superstrength did not always end with crushed bones and flattened spines. Our powers made us resistant, so we would be able to use them. I briefly wondered if I was resistant to radiation poisoning as well. It would make sense with the set of my powers.

I willed the particle to become bigger, and it obeyed, its size increasing from the tip of a pin prick to a cherry. I estimated it to be half a gram, more than enough to level down the better part of Seattle in one swift, silent explosion.

Chills ran down my back, the cold sweat making me feel clammy and disgusting, and I willed the energy to return to the rest of my body. It only took a few seconds for the cherry of antimatter to be reduced to motes of grey light, never to be seen again.

Holy shit. Sam had proven to be right, once again. I was a weapon of mass destruction. I had one of the very bad powers, the kind that either sent you to the Province forever, or to the Mountain, where you’d never be able to hurt anyone again. I didn’t know how a mere prison would be able to hold someone like me who could just nuke everything, but they probably had their ways. Lobotomization? Amputation? There was something for everyone.

I briefly wondered how they would decide to incarcerate me, slowly realizing that they couldn’t. I doubted the Province had a prison to another planet that they wouldn’t mind being annihilated by antimatter. The other option would be ‘termination’. A bullet in the head and the problem goes away as if it never existed. My power didn’t make me immune to general fireweapons like Sam. I was just a kid, way over my head.

Could I run away? Disappear from the Province’s grid?

I momentarily entertained the idea, before dropping it. The Province had more resources and manpower than the entire US government. I still remembered when they had caught Chameleon, a Class 7 supervillain with the ability to shapeshift into any human, animal, and even plant species he wanted. How they had caught someone who could hide in plain sight, they never told. If they could catch her, then I would be child’s play to deal with.

I decided to take my mind off the horrible fate awaiting me by snooping around Sam’s place. It seemed so small, so compact for a guy his size. Even I felt a bit claustrophobic in here, the numerous piles of pizza boxes stacked above each other, towering above me. I was both amazed and slightly disturbed at Sam’s appetite, but it made sense. Having such a large body required a substantial number of calories to operate. I carefully made my way around them, and walked towards the living room, which was nothing more than a glorified sofa and a flatscreen TV hinging on the wall. The TV had a large crack running from its center, and I didn’t even bother to turn it on. Sam had probably broken it an accident, perhaps a result of his increasing physical strength.

I sighed, sitting down the sofa. It had seen better days and based on the squawk it made when I sat down, I was amazed that Sam hadn’t broken through it already.

Such a spartan way of lifestyle. He hadn’t even bothered to decorate the place a bit. It was an empty white canvas, unspoiled and left alone. Nothing here would ever make me think that Sam had lived here before.

But then again, how much did I know about him? Maybe he liked it that way.

I slowly realized that while I had been friends with him for a few months, I knew next to nothing regarding the hero. Only that he was working with the Province, and that he had powers. Every time I had asked him about any other friends or his family, he would only give him a flashing smile and tell me not to worry about it. After all, you’re the only person I care about right now, Percy, he had told me some weeks ago when the matter of his family had come up again during our conversation.

I had blushed at the comment back then, before burying it back in my mind. I continued snooping around, entering the only door that the apartment had other than the bathroom.

His bedroom resembled the rest of his home; a blank canvas, waiting for someone to fill it in. His bed was small compared to Sam’s proportions. If I were his size, I’d be putting myself in great discomfort to fit in it. Next to his bed was a similarly small bookshelf, only containing a few books along with some rocks, some kind of paperweight. I took notice of the titles, recognizing some of them from when I was researching into powers.

Becoming a Superhero: A guide for dummies.

The Official Biography of Mister Superior; from Rags to Freedom.

Otherworlders: A Cosmic Apocalypse from a Parallel Earth.

I was surprised from the recognition that Sam could have been a superpower geek like me. That particular book regarding the Otherworlders was rare to find, and only someone who truly wanted information on the subject would find it. The Province had tried to censor all information regarding the threat that originated from a parallel Earth, which tried to eliminate the entire human race in order to have double the resources for their own world. It was scary to think of; a human race, almost identical to ours and hellbent on annihilating all of us for land, mass, and energy.

They were gone now, but it had been a scary year, according to my brother anyways. I was too young to remember, but apparently, they had decided that we weren’t worth the trouble in the end, leaving fragments of their technology as they hopped back to their own dimension.

Other than the books, there was nothing else that picked my interest. No photos of friends or family, no letters from home, not a shred of individuality.

Jesus. Does he really have no connections to anyone but the Province?

I was about to continue looking into Sam’s stuff, when I felt a small shockwave permeate the building. I knew better than to think of it as a small earthquake; he had arrived. Running out of his bedroom and slamming the door behind me, I made my way down to the living room, just in time to see him open the main door. He had to duck his head down in order not to slam it on the doorframe, another sign of his vertical growth, while the rest of his body had grown horizontally as well, only packed with muscle. He always retained his natural proportions, everything getting bigger at a similar rate.

His eyes, though, were the same sapphire blue, drilling into mine. We started at each other, enveloped by a familiar awkward silence.

“Can your growth be reversed? You’re getting too big to fit in our humble, mortal world,” I blurted after a few seconds of enduring the awkwardness, and I mentally slapped myself.

“Not to my knowledge, no,” he said as he crept closer. His black bodysuit appeared to be painted on his Adonis-like body, and yet it never tore. Probably provided by the Province. “I believe there is someone with the ability to shrink objects and people working with us, however, so if I continue growing at this rate, I can call them to fix me up really quick,” he explained as he passed me and sat at the sofa. It squealed much harder than it had done under my weight.

“Wouldn’t your power counteract theirs though?”

Sam looked at me again, and I could see him frowning. “Shit. I never thought of that. I do think it would work at least once, so maybe I’ll tell them to make me really small, like you.”

“Hey! I’m not small! I have a perfectly average height,” I grumbled. “Maybe tell the shrinking guy to work with your ego as well,” I added before my mind registered what my mouth had blurted out.

Sam rose from the sofa and approached me, taking big steps with his legs. They seemed as wide as my torso, and as I saw him towering over me, my own chicken legs took a few steps back.

“Don’t test me, Percy,” he grunted with such a low voice that I felt it in my bones. “I have put up with you far longer than I should have. And now that you have dangerous, unpredictable powers, it’s taking everything from me not to send you into a Province cell and have them go at you. If the freaking Corruption, from all the horrors out there, wasn’t coming after you, you’d be getting interrogated right now as we speak.”

“Do… do they know?” I asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

“About you? No. The Corruption? Our systems are recording every trace of interdimensional disruption using Otherworlder technology, and the Corruption fucks with pretty much all the dimensions, so yes. They are fully aware that the planet-killing machine is here.” He seemed that he wanted to say something else as well, but he stopped himself.

“So, what are they going to do? Can’t they go back to Portland and blast the thing out of existence? I’m sure Mister Superior can haul it on the other side of the galaxy. Or have Wannabee Girl do her mojo at it and make it go to sleep again or something.”

“We can’t risk having one of our top heroes infected by the menace! Can you imagine Mister Superior becoming the Corruption’s host? He’d find a way to go to the moon and throw it at us!” Sam half said and half shouted, his voice ringing in my ears. He was right, however. Mister Superior’s power was to lift anything, no matter how heavy it was. To him, it would be like lifting a feather. If he could somehow travel to the moon, he could simply fling it on Earth, effectively ending all civilization on the planet.

The silence came back with a vengeance, only that Sam was now staring down at me, as if I were a child getting punished from their parents. Sam finally diverted his eyes away from me, looking outside the window.

It was turning out to be a rather sunny day outside.

“We can’t risk anything with this, Percy. If the Corruption somehow manages to get a hold of you, then… then I’m not sure what it’s going to happen.”

I could easily tell him. It would probably make me go supernova, generating enough antimatter to make our entire solar system an abstraction of the past, and nothing more. He was right, I knew he was, and yet I feared the Province more than the interdimensional abomination.

I took a deep breath, and I approached him closer. Even as we approached summer, his body was still radiating heat like a second sun. “What… what if I willingly went with you to the Province? Not as a prisoner, but someone who wanted to… join it?”

Sam actually laughed when I said that, but as he saw my face, his laugh stopped. “Wait, you’re not kidding? You hate the Province; you’ve told me countless of times.”

“I know, but it beats getting sent off to the Mountain, right?” I smiled at him, giving off the most honest and sincere expression I had in me. I was lying, but it was a gamble I had to take.

“I… I would have to consult with the higher-ups. I don’t know what Classification you have, but if your father was a Class 9, I doubt they’ll treat you like the small-fries,” he decided, now smiling a bit as well. “I’m not trying to be strict; you know. It’s just that the Province is everything I have left and losing that would… it would break me.”

I nodded at that. Then, I reached closer and grabbed his hands. He didn’t seem surprised as I did it. He only held mine in his, and neither of us said anything.

The silence was not that awkward, this time. I only felt his other hand slowly grab the bottom of my face, raising it to meet his eyes. “Are we ever going to do anything else other than holding hands?” he whispered as he came closer.

A phone alert brought us both out of the moment. The timing was so bad that I made a mental note to myself to throw it out of the window at the first opportunity I had. “I’m so sorry,” I mouthed as I turned it on and saw who had texted me.

Julia.

“Shit. Um, Sam, I have to go now. Julia is coming back, and I need to talk to her right this instant. We… maybe we can pick up from where we left after we are done with this mess?” I grinned, and Sam only nodded, his face remaining neutral.

“Go, Percy. Your friend needs you,” he said as he slowly made his way to his bedroom.

I prayed that I didn’t screw this up. With that, I made my way outside his apartment, and started running towards Julia’s place.

^ ^ ^

Julia was the first to exit the police car, opening the door and slamming it behind her. The policeman gave her a dirty look, before driving away. She was mumbling something to herself, incomprehensible as always.

I stood beside the door of her house, waiting for her to notice me. When she finally did, her entire face turned pale, and a frown appeared on her tired face. She didn’t look healthy. Dark bags under her eyes, the same bloodshot look that I knew to well from my episodes of insomnia. Her hair was a mess, and her skin looked almost translucent.

She approached me, and I closed my eyes, ready to receive a slap on my cheeks, or a mouthful of spit on my face. I deserved it, I knew I did, and I had prepared myself for the worst if it came to it.

I waited a few seconds, but neither pain nor humiliation came. When I opened my eyes, Julia was in front of me, her eyes full of barely contained tears. She was keeping it together, putting a brave face. Surely, she would start screaming at me, yelling why I had murdered her aunt, what kind of horrible monster I was, and how she was about to call the Province to wheel me off to the Mountain. Instead, she opened her mouth, and only two words escaped from it.

“I know.”

I stared at her, not understanding. “W-what?” I trembled, tears welling in my eyes now as well. I swiftly realized that I too was barely keeping it together. I had betrayed my best friend in a sense, killed her aunt. It was self-defense, but that didn’t excuse the fact of what I had done to her and her family.

“I saw. My aunt was long gone before you killed her, Percy. You relieved her of her pain, in a sense. I can accept that,” she whimpered, wiping the tears away from her eyes. They were sparkling orange now. “But I saw. I saw so much, too much. The thing that had possessed her is not from this world. It’s not here to make friends, not here to conquer us. It’s here to eat, to feast on humans and Unhumans alike. My aunt was merely the connection it had between itself and the biggest meal in this continent perhaps. You.”

I was either too stupid to understand what she was saying, or too tired. “Julia, I- let’s just stop for a second. Please, we need to talk.”

She grabbed my hands and held them tight. I still had the five scars from when her fingers bit into my flesh. “No. There is no time for that. That THING killed my aunt, do you understand me? It wasn’t you.”

“But I was the target! It used your aunt like a robot, orchestrated the entire trip so it could get closer to me. I’m indirectly responsible for her death, and that’s putting a carpet over it,” I said, trying not to sob an answer out. I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn’t start crying, and it hurt.

“Percy. Listen to me. There is no time to mourn for my aunt, do you understand? I appreciate your feelings towards me and my family, but if we focus on that, then we lose time and-“ she started blurting, but when she saw me, she came closer and hugged me tightly. I was crying now, the pain not near enough to keep the tears in.

When I finally stopped, she stared at me, her eyes nearly orange now. They were so charming, ethereal. “You helped me, you know. The shock made this,” she pointed at her eyes, “stronger. I can see the entire picture now, not just the puzzle pieces. I only have a single piece of advice to offer.”

“Anything, anything for you Jules,” I knelt down, exhausted. The pain of hurting my friend had wrecked my psyche, obliterated any sense of importance in me. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the Corruption wanted me for that exact reason. I was weak, easily manipulated.

A sheep with the power of a wolf, but still a sheep.

“I want you to get closer with Sam.”

Another sentence, another question that couldn’t be answered. “Sam? Why is Sam into this conversation?” I asked again, shaking my head. Everything was becoming complicated, too complicated for me.

“He is the key, as much as you are. I would say more, but I can’t. The future is hazy, fragmented. Two versions of it exist, and it hurts my brain. I can only say this; you have to get closer with him. Intimate. Enter the Province. Learn what they know, accept their orders, be their servant. Only then do we all survive.”

“Survive what?” I asked, holding her hand. She held mine back, her grip somehow stronger than mine.

Julia raised her head and stared at the sky. It was a beautiful day, without a single cloud in the sky. The sun shined all around Seattle, and the birds chirped happily on the few trees that existed near Julia’s house.

“The end of the world, of course.”

  • Like 19
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines, Terms of Use, & Privacy Policy.
We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..