by C. Louis S.
The next day at the sleepover, Leon and Randall couldn’t wait for the sun to set so they could start practicing. They were both head down, playing games on their phones. Whenever either would win and bright blue light would shine from their phone, they would take a deep breath as if to breath in the light.
There was a knock at the door. A stiff wind rushed by Leon as Mrs. Crespo ran to the door. Her color was violet and that meant she was a speeder. Their house was always full of things strewn on the floor from her wake.
“Hi, Micaela. Come in,” she said.
From where Leon sat at the dining room table he could see his short, pudgy friend from school, Micaela, walk in the front door.
Leon looked up long enough to ask, “Hey, Micaela. What are you doing here?” She wore a purple flower print dress, which was typical for her, and carried a large purse and a small book. He looked back down at the game he was playing.
Mrs. Crespo rushed passed them and returned in an instant with her pocketbook.
“I’m giving Randall’s mom a book that I think she’ll like,” said Micaela, somewhat sheepishly.
Mrs. Crespo asked how much the book cost and began looking through her pocketbook for money, but Micaela told her that it was a gift. Mrs. Crespo thanked her graciously and hurried away, nearly knocking Micaela’s purse off her wrist.
“You know, Micaela, there’s something different about you?”
“Different?” she asked Leon. “You mean since school ended?”
“No, just always. You’re different than most people. It’s hard to put my finger on it.”
Leon won another round and stared into the blue light emanating from his phone. He looked up at Micaela to study her. Maybe she smiled more than most people. Maybe she was happier than most people. Leon couldn’t figure out what seemed different about her.
Randall chimed in, “She never uses her phone.”
“Oh yeah,” said Leon. He looked back down at his phone to play another round. “That’s right. I don’t ever see you on your phone. I’ve never seen you use your power either.”
“Or even talk about it,” said Randall. “I don’t even know what color she is.”
“Yeah, Micaela. What color are you?”
Micaela sighed. “I’ve told you this before, Leon. My family and I are different. We don’t have powers, really.”
“I’ve heard of people who can’t have powers,” said Randall, still playing on his phone. “Genetic defects or something.”
“Hey! It’s not that.”
“Randall, that wasn’t very nice,” said Mrs. Crespo from the living room. She was sitting on the couch not far from them, typing on her phone. Another button press and indigo flickered from the screen.
“What? It’s true. How else could you not get powers? I mean everyone has powers, even if it’s just green.”
“Hey,” said Leon without looking up.
“I’m sorry for Randall, Micaela,” said Mrs. Crespo.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize, Mrs. Crespo. It’s getting late, I think I’m going to go.”
“Wait, Micaela, before you go,” whispered Leon. “Have you ever heard of dark energy?”
Micaela didn’t say anything. Leon looked up to meet her scared eyes.
“Yes,” she swallowed hard. “Why?”
“Once it gets a little darker, Randall and I are going to learn to use dark energy so I learn how to mindbend or apparate,” Leon whispered. “Do you want to watch? Maybe you could—”
“Why would I want to watch you do that? I don’t have powers, remember?” Micaela was suddenly very disturbed and it showed heavily in her voice.
“Uhhh ... I don’t know ... I just thought maybe you could try to get a power, too. You know?” said Leon.
“What, I’m not cool unless I have a power, so you wanted me to play around with the Dark Void to get one? I can’t believe you,” Micaela said indignantly.
“What? What did I say? I just wanted to—” started Leon. His face flushed bright red and he looked to Randall for support. Randall was still staring at his phone.
“I thought you were better than that, Leon. Good-bye.”
Micaela spun around and stormed towards the door. When she got to the door, she turned around to thank Mrs. Crespo and to say goodbye, then glanced at Leon before rushing out the door.
Leon didn’t go back to the game on his phone. Did I miss something? What did I say? He stared at the door with eyebrows furled and a sick feeling in his heart.
“Aren’t you going to go after her, Leon?” asked Mrs. Crespo.
“Not when she’s mad like that. What did I do?”
Mrs. Crespo chuckled and looked back down at her phone with an amused look on her face.
“Yeah, what got into her?” asked Randall, staring at his phone.
Later that night when Mrs. Crespo had gone to bed, Randall and Leon headed upstairs to Randall’s room and began practicing. Up and around the narrow staircase and the first door on the right was Randall’s room. There were clothes on the floor and empty soda cans pushing out of the small closet. The bed in the middle took up most of the room, but he had a TV on the dresser on the left wall and a desk on the opposite wall.
Randall turned off the lights. Leon sat on the bed and began like always, relaxed, back straight, legs folded. He felt like he was trying to meditate. Instead, he was picturing his body as a magnet, reaching out to the dark energy and pulling into his him. He soaked it in through his skin and deep into his soul.
Something within him started to feel cold and empty. It was a hopeless, scary feeling, but Leon knew that if he could just push past it, then afterwards would come power. It almost felt like his body was being taken over by some unseen force, some dark being that was more than willing to have him.
He continued letting the dark seep in. He wanted more and more. Finally that feeling of power sparked in his mind. Next it flowed to his muscles and then finally into his hands and fingers. Though all the exposure to blue light from his phone hadn’t made him feel any different before now, he could suddenly feel a reserve of blue light energy within him along side his small reserve of green light. It was huge.
In his mind, Leon reached out to the desk chair near him with the blue light and pictured it floating off the ground. He felt resistance from the chair just like lifting it with his arm would cause resistance. He lifted harder.
Leon opened his eyes to see if the chair was off the floor. His eyes were now adjusted to the darkness in the room, but he still could only see the shape of things. To his surprise, everything around him seemed to be floating. The desk, the chair, soda cans, and small things that he couldn’t identify were all hanging in the air.
I did it! I’m mindbending! I’m going to play shadowball with the cool kids!
Suddenly everything dropped out of the air. Leon flinched and scorching green light burst out of his hands until the reserve of green energy within him was depleted.
“What was that?” Randall asked. His mother must have had the same question because she yelled from her room. Randall yelled back that everything was fine.
“I know! I did it.” Leon bounded to his feet and was almost hopping with excitement.
“You’ve done that before?”
“No, that’s the first time. Did you see it? Everything was off the ground. Were you floating too?”
“So you don’t know how you made the green bicycle?”
“The what? Green bicycle? I made everything float, dude. Can you believe that?”
“There was a bike. You made a green bike. When everything fell, there was this green bike that came out of you and it broke the lamp.”
“I think that broke when it fell.”
“Come on, it was only like an inch off the ground. I don’t think that broke it. I won’t tell my mom. Come on, how did you make the bike?”
Leon sighed and sat down. “It’s always something different.”
“So you’ve made green things before?”<
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“Yeah, every time I try this, there is some green thing. Sometimes it’s a chair or a monkey or something.”
“I’ve never heard of a lantern doing that before. And it broke the lamp.”
“I’m sorry, geez. Lay off.”
“No, I mean it wasn’t just light. It was a thing. It touched something and broke it.”
“Yeah, but man I did it. Things were floating. I’m going to be a mindbender. And that’s just the start. Then I’ll fly. Anywhere I want to go. Oh, and I’ll teleport and never have to walk again. I’ll teleport upstairs, and then to school, and then to the shadowball field.”
“Okay, okay, my turn.”
Randall stood up. He walked over to the side of the bed near the desk and closed his eyes to concentrate. His face twisted as if in pain or fear for just a moment and then he stood up straighter and opened his eyes, determined.
“Now watch.”
He faced the TV from across the bed and strained with both hands until it floated a few feet into the air. He slowly spun it in place until it was back how it started. Randall was struggling and groaning now. He began to set it down slowly, but when it was several inches from the top of the dresser, his strength gave out and it fell, banging loudly on the wood. Leon cringed, thinking that the TV had broken. Randall slumped down wearily onto the bed, breathing heavily.
“Whoa! That was cool. It only took you like ten seconds to suck in the dark energy.”
“Yeah,” Randall said between breaths.
“Did it hurt?”
“No,” said Randall, confused.
“Oh, just your face. You looked like it hurt. Doesn’t it feel weird at first though.”
“Yeah, it’s not a good feeling, but I bet we’ll get used to it.”
“You’re right.” Trying to forget the image of Randall’s twisted face, Leon changed the subject. “Dude, didn’t it feel like dark energy multiplied your blue light?”
“Yeah, let’s charge up again.”
“Yeah,” said Leon with a smile.
“Choose green this time. I want you to try something.”
chapter 6
Lantern Like a Boss
