Superhuman Nature

by Brandon Overall

  There were family pictures sitting on top of a wooden desk in the living room. He approached it and picked up one of the photos. Steele and Emma both looked a few years younger, but the age difference was mostly noticeable in Emma’s face. Her green eyes were more innocent. They hadn’t been wearied by watching a man die in front of them. Neil had only seen Steele smile a few times, but he never looked quite as happy as he did in that photo.

  He set the picture frame down and searched around the rest of the house. Memories were made there, and he could practically feel them in the air. A family lived there. They experienced laughter, anger, sorrow, and every other range of emotions in that house. Neil wondered if he would ever feel those things again. With each use of his ability, the human emotion left inside of him was pulled away and replaced it with something else.

  Even his basic biological functions were controlled by his ability now. His heart beat, his breathing, and his basic muscle movements all consumed no energy. They were automatically regulated by his mind. He felt like some kind of cyborg in a sci-fi movie whose organs were replaced with machines. His body had stopped asking to be fed. One small meal per day was enough to keep the parts of his body running that were still biological.

  Neil didn’t know why he remained in the house. He had no idea when Emma would return. He just had a feeling it was where he was supposed to be.

  He sat down on the sofa and turned on the TV. Every time Neil had seen the news, they were always talking about him. The entire country was watching his story unfold as he lived it. People would talk about him for years to come, even if they never figured out exactly who he was.

  In a matter of weeks, Neil had turned himself into an icon. The things he had done brought a sense of wonder to the world that it had never experienced before. He had also given them a new kind of fear.

  The news station displayed a video feed from a helicopter flying over the rubble of the NSA building. The clip showed Neil burst through the rubble into the sky. They had simultaneously confirmed his connection to the government, and the destruction of their relationship from the demolished the NSA building.

  This time, they weren’t describing him as a superhero or a savior. They called him a terrorist. He had gone from being seen by the world as a force of good to one of evil. Neil wasn’t concerned with labels of moral categorization. He wasn’t acting out of self interest or selflessness. He was following the path that was set before him, while some unexplainable force drove him forward. Who was he to question the motives of fate?

  As he had seen in Afghanistan, fate would find him, no matter which path he took. He chose to spare the men driving in the trucks, but their deaths were in the cards. Knowing the path that was set before him was not enough to be able to stray from it.

  “Hello?”

  Neil heard Emma’s voice from the doorway. He had left the door open, and she would have expected it to be locked. He stood up and faced her.

  “FUCK!” She yelled, startled by Neil’s presence.

  She stumbled backwards, and then calmed down when she saw who the intruder was.

  “Neil? What are you doing here?!”

  “I don’t know.”

  It was the most honest answer he could give.

  “You need to leave. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but Bryan and Alex told me everything. They told me you’re the one on the news. I didn’t believe them at first, but after seeing what you did in my house, it has to be you.”

  The fear he had seen in her eyes from before was gone, but she still looked at him like a stranger. He saw no trace of the connection they had shared before left in her expression.

  “They were right. It’s me. I guess I’m not a very popular person right now.”

  He pointed to the TV behind him. Emma’s eyes were fixed to the destruction on the screen.

  “You did that? All those people? What happened to you, Neil? What have you become?”

  She pitied him. Neil was the most powerful force in the universe, and Emma pitied him. He didn’t know how to answer her question. What had he become? Was there a word for it?

  “I am the agent of fate. I am here to correct the path of the humanity.”

  He spoke, but he did not choose the words. Even as he spoke them, though, he knew them to be true. For the first time, he understood his purpose.

  Emma stared back at him silently. What could she even say to that? Neil hardly understood it himself. How could he expect anyone else to understand?

  A man walked in through the doorway behind Emma. Neil recognized him immediately, and his heart skipped a beat.

  It was all wrong. Why was Carl there?

  Before Neil had time to consider it, he was violently flung against the back wall of the living room, dangling off the floor. The building shook from the force of the impact, and the photograph that Neil had picked up earlier was knocked to the ground, face down.

  Neil was unable to comprehend what was happening to him. He was experiencing physical pain for the first time since he had gone through his evolution. His body was suspended in mid-air against his own will. The most startling fact was that he was blind. His vision was fine – but his mind had been closed off to the world.

  He struggled to feel the world around him, but he couldn’t. He was trapped inside his own body once more, and he felt helpless.

  Carl walked towards him.

  “You look surprised, Neil.”

  “Carl, how are you doing this?” Neil’s voice quivered with fear for the first time.

  “You did this to me. Something you did turned me back on. I began to notice it after you controlled my body before going to Korea. I spent some time practicing in the testing room, and I gained as much control over it as you have. More, even.”

  Carl smirked like someone who was finally living a sick fantasy.

  “I don’t understand. How did you find me here?”

  Neil struggled to make sense of the situation. He asked questions to stall Carl, hoping that he would find a way to free himself.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. I just had a feeling you’d be here. Looks like my instincts were right.” He stopped smiling, and his face went stone cold. “I know what you did to Tanya.”

  “What are you going to do to him?” Emma shrieked.

  She was still standing in the corner of the room, too terrified to move.

  “I’m going to end him. We don’t need you anymore, Neil. You’re a rabid dog, and I’m going to be the one to put you down.”

  Neil could feel the pressure on his body tighten. He was being crushed like an anaconda coiled around its prey. He tried to push back, but all it did was further prolong the pain.

  “It didn’t have to be like this, Neil. You could have done great things for the world. You let the power get to your head, and now you have to suffer the consequences.”

  Neil felt the fire inside of him light up once more. His rationality was clouded by rage. He didn’t care about anything but his own survival.

  The snake around his body constricted further. He felt like his bones were going to snap at any moment. The more he tried to push back, the tighter he was squeezed. He screamed in agony.

  “You are not a god, Neil. You are not a superhero. You are a monster. I am the one that’s going to slay the beast, and after what you did to Tanya, I’m going to...Make...Sure...It...Hurts.”

  With each word, Neil felt his body tighten further. He yelled out again. His rib cage was shattered.

  Neil was dying. He could feel his body being broken down. His heart beat loudly in his chest, and the blood from internal bleeding pooled in his body. He felt light headed, and thought he might pass out at any moment. If he did, he knew he wouldn’t wake up again.

  The fire in his chest roared, and Neil pushed outward with as much force as he could, but it was no use. Carl had complete control over him now. He was down to the final seconds of his life.

  Carl stepped forward and put his face right up to Neil’s
.

  “Goodbye, Neil.” He whispered softly.

  “It’s for the best, Neil.” Emma said.

  Something about that sentence triggered Neil’s attention. Even as she stood there, accepting his inevitable death, he still cared for her. No matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, he was still human. He still felt for her, and her apathy towards his death caused more agony to him than the force that was crushing his bones.

  He looked at Emma, and recalled a dream he had. In the dream, he was engulfed in flames in his own bed, and Emma looked down on him.

  ‘It’s for the best, Neil’ she had said in the dream.

  He looked back at her now, and her green eyes stared emotionlessly at him as she watched him die. His anger created a warmth in the center of his chest. The pain stopped, and the flame in Neil’s chest spread to the rest of his body. He pushed back with fire in his veins. The constriction around him loosened, and for the first time, Carl looked surprised.

  Neil continued to push back, and he could once again feel the influence over the rest of his body return.

  “How? How are you doing this?” Carl asked.

  “I”

  Neil lowered himself to the ground as Carl’s influence over his body was gone.

  “AM”

  The world came rushing back to Neil. He was blind no longer. Everything in the universe was a part of him.

  “GOD!”

  Time stood still. He was no longer in control of his actions. His desire for survival had manifested itself into raw, unstoppable power.

  Neil looked into Emma’s green, glossy eyes. He remembered back to the very first dream he had, where it all started. He was sitting in the classroom, manipulating a pencil in front of his face. He recalled the sensation of making the environment bend to his will for the first time. Emma was in his dream then, too. He saw her face, and wanted to see what it would feel like to end her. He had begun to close her skull in around her head, but he was interrupted by his alarm.

  He couldn’t stop himself as he pushed outward with an explosive force. The world around him was consumed by immense energy. Neil watched as Emma’s green eyes disappeared. Splinters of wood and fragments of cinderblock swirled around like a tornado. Neil stood in the epicenter of the event.

  When the dust settled, Neil found himself standing in a crater. The house he was in stood no longer. Its fragments had been dispersed miles into the surrounding area. Most of the nearby homes were peppered with debris, and others were completely destroyed. There was no sign of Carl or Emma, and Neil knew they were gone.

  He had destroyed the last connection he had to his humanity. The realization of what he had just done dawned on him. He felt a sickening throb in his stomach. Emma was dead, and he had killed her. His rage had taken over his actions, and he couldn’t stop himself. She was dead because he lost control.

  He stood in the center of the crater and searched himself. He wanted to know what there was still left to find. Sirens blared in the distance, but he ignored them. They were of no importance, now. He had already lost everything that was important. He closed his eyes and raised his head towards the sky. He felt the warmth of the sun on his face.

  That’s what was missing. Ever since Neil had first experienced the beauty of the sun, it had felt like a father to him. It spoke to him in ways he could understand. It watched over him like a guardian during the day, and was always there to greet him after the night. The sun granted Neil power, and it gave him meaning. It was the only thing that could erase the pain he felt. It was the only thing that could make him forget.

  He knew what he had to do. He had to become one with the sun.

  When he opened his eyes, the bright yellow light of the sun met his gaze. He felt no discomfort by looking directly into it. He was mesmerized, as he had been before, by its awesome power. The light flickered through the air, as if it called – beckoning him.

  “Are you okay?”

  Neil heard a voice call out to him. Fire trucks and ambulances lined the street in front of him. The voice belonged to a female police officer. He paid it no attention.

  Neil lifted himself off the ground and drifted towards the orb suspended in the sky. He took off with a force that sent a shockwave in all directions. He had transcended earthly velocities and carried himself towards speeds of the cosmos.

  He envisioned Emma’s face as every molecule that made up her body was ripped apart. He saw the events unfold over and over again, like a sick dream. He couldn’t stop it, and he couldn’t fix it. The pain it caused him only made him fly faster. He knew the sun was the only thing that could take away his guilt.

  In seconds, Neil was high enough into the sky that the blue had darkened into a shade of black. He left the world behind him. He looked back at the place he had called home for the past 21 years and saw it for what it was – insignificant.

  His planet was a small piece of a picture so large that Neil couldn’t begin to comprehend its enormity. His perspective shifted further as he sped into the black void of space. His direction was guided only by the sun in front of him.

  It wasn’t long before the Earth was just a small blue dot in the distance. He could hold it between his two fingers and squash it. Everything he had ever known could be disintegrated, and he wouldn’t even need to try. He didn’t do it, though. It wasn’t part of the plan.

  He continued to speed towards the sun until he couldn’t even see Earth anymore. Its beauty magnified as it grew in size. He was completely consumed by the desire to be a part of it. He knew now that his home was never on Earth. It was suspended there in space, all along.

  Finally, he had gotten close enough to the Sun that it took up the majority of his field of view. The size was greater than he ever imagined. He was still far enough away that it would take a space shuttle a month to reach it from where he was, but it was still close enough to appear massive.

  Neil was protected from the cosmic rays and heat by a large pocket of air around him, but there was still some sort of radiating energy that he couldn’t quite put into words. He let just enough warmth through his barrier to feel it on his skin. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was lying on a beach, sunbathing.

  The closer Neil got to the star that gave life to the solar system, the more submersed in its illumination he became. The light was so bright that it encompassed his all of his vision. Its golden warmth welcomed him further.

  Neil slowed to a stop when he reached the molten lake of plasma that was the threshold between the sun’s embrace and the void of space. In front of him was a moving wall of pure energy, powerful enough to give order to the entire solar system. He stood in awe of its beauty. Its energy sent vibrations through his body that soothed him.

  Every problem Neil had ever had seemed meaningless when face to face with wall of the sun. The light engulfed him. He wanted nothing more than to let it take hold of him. He moved forward and entered the sun. Emma’s face disappeared from his mind’s eye.

  CHAPTER 22

  Crossing the threshold of the sun was like entering a new dimension. Molten plasma danced around him. There was a certain ordered chaos to the movement of the flowing liquids. Everything moved about like a crowd of people in a shopping mall, but they all seemed to know exactly where they wanted to go.

  Neil’s body trembled from the radiating energy. It shook him to the core of his bones. The sensation was like nothing he had ever experienced before, and it brought a peace about him that shifted his perception of time and space into meaningless concepts.

  He traveled towards the core of the sun. The closer he got, the slower the plasma moved, and the thicker the substance was. The lights dimmed and the energy flowing around him calmed. The vibration in his body, however, only increased in frequency and intensity.

  After traveling for much longer than Neil could have thought possible, he reached the very center of the sun. The vibration he felt in his body was no longer distinguishable. Instead of an oscil
lating vibration, he felt one solid hum moving through his body constantly. He positioned himself in the exact center.

  All of his senses failed to describe what he was feeling at that moment. His body was completely weightless. He was being pulled by gravity in all directions evenly, but at the same time, not at all. The matter around him was denser than any substance on earth, but also flowed freely around him like the wind. There was complete silence, but his ears felt the presence of a deep sound so loud that it would immediately deafen anyone else who heard it. He was engulfed in a temperature so extreme that it would vaporize an entire planet if they happened to cross paths.

  Every perception Neil had available to him failed to help him comprehend his surroundings. He was floating in the womb of time, and nothing made sense anymore. In his lack of understanding, Neil understood more than he ever had. He was insignificant, powerless, and miniscule. Everything he had ever cared about was a small blip on a radar that nobody was watching.

  He let go of the feeling he had over his body and let his influence capture the entirety of the sun. He felt the molecules smash themselves together in a fusion reaction, and could feel the immense energy released by each individual event.

  The barrier that Neil had created around himself protected him from the heat and the radiation, but it still separated him from the true experience. He had a strange urge to let his guard down. He knew that doing so should vaporize him instantly, yet he trusted his instincts. They had not let him down so far.

  Neil took in a lungful of oxygen and slowed his body’s metabolism to a crawl. He entered a state of hibernation. He closed his eyes, took a leap of faith, and dropped his barrier.

  He was still alive.

  He opened his eyes, but there was nothing to see. Hot plasma ran over every surface of his body, including his exposed eyes. His clothes were incinerated, but he remained perfectly intact. The flames danced around and tickled the areas where the tips licked his skin. He felt the heat flow from one end of him to the other like a conduit. The sun was feeding him energy.