Chapter 2: Karma Hates Me
"Why...powers.....weak"
"Even.....drugs?"
Those are the whispers that I heard as I drifted from dreamland to reality and back again. I saw a hospital bed crowded by people. I saw a needle and an evil doctor. I saw Tara. I saw all of my class. I saw me, being trapped by a tsunami, with no place to hide. I have no clue if any of it was real.
When I finally did wake up, it was agonizingly painful. My muscles felt like I hadn't use them since forever, my eyesight was foggy, and my mind was slow. It didn't help that as soon as Tara saw I had woken up, she crushed me in the biggest bear hug man had ever known.
"Can't...breathe" I wheezed out.
"Oh, right, sorry"
I waited. Tara had something she wanted to ask, I always knew when she did.
As I waited, I took in my surroundings. I was in one of the school infirmaries. The design was all grey and white. The room was small, and held only one bed. The bed I was on. I had never been in this particular infirmary before. But, looking at the plastic glass walls, and the many syringes, needles and the one grey metal door, I knew where I was. This was place where they held dangerous cases, things that could attack or infect other students. I wasn't sure what to think about that.
Tara decided to speak then. She burst out; "What happened? Why did you attack us?"
Up to her to ask the one question I didn't have the answer to.
"I don't know. I just mixed the shadows with the fire, and that happened" MY voice was croaky and it hurt to speak. It hurt to do anything, really.
"Haven't you done that before, though?" she asked me
"No"
Yes. I had. Once. Six years ago, when the academy found me. When I exploded my house. And killed my little brother. The first person who knew about my powers. The first person who had loved me.
The first person I had loved.
Tara stared at me like she was trying to gouge out all my secrets. It made me feel uncomfortable. But, in the end, she didn't say anything. Instead she flicked her hand, and I rose from bed, held by her invisible force. But the invisible force didn't fell like the last, evil one, where I was suffocating, and losing control. This one helped me, because without it, there was no way I would have been able to walk. My muscles felt like they were being drowned in acid and ripped out of their sockets. I was being held upright by her power. My feet were barely even touching the floor.
"The administrators said that when you woke up, you could go." Tara told me, as she levitated me along suspiciously empty hallways. Usually there is at least oen person wandering around.
"Okay"
"We're going straight back up to our room and you are going to rest, and the explain, in full detail"
"Don't we have class, though?" I asked her. It's not like I particularly wanted to go, but it would have been better than explaining what happened. Also, I didn't want to get in trouble.
Tara looked at me weirdly and laughed. "You were out 'til Saturday" She told me.
Wait, what? If school started on Tuesday, and today is Saturday...I lost FOUR DAYS. I was out for FOUR DAYS!
I groaned. My head spun. I would have collapsed, had Tara not have caught me with her telekinesis.
"Woah, there, cowboy! Let's get you back to the room. I went shooting up a staircase, and I had a minute of bliss where I could pretend that flying was one of my superpowers.
I glared at the iris scanner, and our door popped open. Okay, confession time. Me and Tara haven't exactly kept the room clean. At all. Wrappers littered the floor in such a fashion that you could barely see the carpet, and only in certain places. The two oak desks that we had been given had masses of papers piled onto them. I had managed to lose my computer twice this summer, which was an astonishing feat if you considered the small size of the room. There was a small bin under Tara's desk, which was overflowing. Our room is the messiest in our level, despite the fact that Tara has telekinesis, and could clean it all up with a flick of her wrist. That's what she does now, sweeping her wrist and make all the junk on my bed fly off, and depositing me on it. I have the top bunk, so I'm sent slamming into the ceiling, and plopped into my bed. Tara gives me a sheepish glance.
"Whoops" she sounds innocent, but with Tara, one can never be sure.
I sink into the cool mattress-it would be, I haven't used it in four days-and, with some effort and a whole lot of pain, pull the sheets up to my neck. Tara is left awkwardly standing in the middle of the trash filled room.
"So, uh, do you need me for anything?" she asks. It seems like she's asking a lot of questions today.
I shook my head, and immediately regretted it. Talking would have been preferable.
"Ok then, she levitated herself up to my bed, spill"
So I spilled. I told her what happened. I told her about losing control. I told her about being a puppet. I told her about the forces fighting for control. I told her about how the water had washed it all away. I told her the experience of fainting, since she was interested.
When I was done, she let out the longest gasp ever. I didn't know gasps could go on that long. I raised an eyebrow at her. She stopped and stared at me. Which I guess I could understand. Even in a school full of people with superpowers, being controlled by your own power didn't happen often. And by often, I mean never. Yay. Now I was the only weak two-power AND the only person who had ever gotten controlled by their own power. I really was rocking the weird title.
"I'm going to go get us ice cream. Want to come, or are you..." She trailed off. She seemed very determined not to mention the incident.
"I'll stay" I told her, since I doubted I could get back up again, telekinesis or no.
She left the room, the door slamming shut with a mighty bang.
You may wonder why Tara is my friend. It's not looks, her skin is smooth and tanned, her dark hair always silky, her caramel eyes always shining, whilst I am always as pale as a corpse, have short, dull, brown hair that I can't ever do anything with, and my green eyes are about as shiny as dirt.
She's always positive and supporting, whereas I am not. She's top of the class, has an excellent memory, can make everyone laugh, and comes for a brilliant background of powerful and rich Supers. I'm three sports from bottom of the class, have no memory for anything school-related, no one likes me that much-aside from Tara-and my background could not be worse.
Yet we've always fitted together like salt and pepper, two halves of a sandwich, like peanut butter and jam. Actually, no, I hate PB&J. So, not like that.
She's been my best friend since I arrived here. Six years ago, when it wasn't so obvious that I was weak. When I actually had power.
I lie back, and wait for Tara to arrive back with the ice cream. When she does, she gives me my favourite flavour, cookie dough with sour gummy bears on top. We have a good time joking around and all, but when it's time to go to bed, I can't fall asleep. Tara whispers:
"Are you awake?"
I don't say anything. I don't want to talk. I can't. Because in the night, the shadows beckon me, call me. I have no control. My heart quickens, my pulse races. I have to fight to close my eyes, but even then, the shadows plague me, hunt me.
One day, I am going to fall victim to my own power.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone