Luke
Just a few hours ago, I had shot a lightning bolt at Jason Truet, sending him flying into the wall. My girlfriend, Lora, crawled away from me like I was a monster. Same goes for her friends. But who’s to blame them? From what I saw, I was a monster.
After that, I ran away from the school. I didn’t stop at home or anything. I just kept running. Running and running, I just didn’t stop. I ran faster and longer than I ever had in my whole life. Now, as I sat behind a dumpster, shivering in the cold, dead of night, I cried.
I didn’t know what to do. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was. I was completely lost and didn’t know who or where to go to. All I could do was stare at my hands and wonder how I had shot lightning from them a few hours before.
To pass time, I stared at the stars. From time to time, a plane would fly by and I would watch it as it flickered in the darkness of the night sky. When I wasn’t doing that, I would listen to cars as they passed by. It would drown out the people as they walked by, talking about stupid things that no one cared about.
I did that for a good hour or so. Then, I realized that I wanted to try it again. I wanted to see if I could control it.
So I sat against the cement wall and lift my hands up. They seemed normal, but I knew what they were capable of. At first, I just flung my hands around like an idiot, hoping that would get somewhere. It didn’t.
I sighed and banged my head against the wall. How did it happen before? I couldn’t remember how I did it.
That’s when I lift my hands and closed my eyes. I concentrated. Concentrated harder than I ever had. I thought about the school and Jason. I thought about Lora and how she and her friends crawled away from me. I thought about everything that happened a few hours before.
Faintly, I heard a small buzzing sound. A faint, blue light started to seep through my eyelids. When I opened my eyes, my hands were glowing blue and had small, electrical shocks flowing through my veins. Again.
I jolted up and stared at my hands. My heart started to race. The electrical shocks in my veins seemed to flow faster. I had done it.
I looked over at the dumpster and got an idea. Suddenly, I pushed my hand in front of me, sending a long electrical bolt into the dumpster. The dumpster slid forward a few feet. I heard someone yelp from the other side, probably walking past it at the wrong time.
Instead of joy, I was scared again. One look at my hands and my heart started to beat faster. I was a freak. I wasn’t normal. Just the other night, I was out on the football field, playing with my classmates as my girlfriend cheered me on. Now, I’m behind a dumpster, shooting lightning bolts from my hands. This wasn’t normal. It was the farthest from normal.
The sudden realization that I had to leave came to mind. I couldn’t stay there. But, at the same time, I couldn’t go home either. Odds are, what I had done was probably all over the place. Lora and her friends probably told everybody, freaking out about the whole thing.
Slowly, I peeked my head out from behind the dumpster. No cars were passing and no one was walking. I saw a small motel just down the street, so I walked out and started towards that way. I didn’t have enough money, but I could sneak into an unoccupied room.
The world around me was silent. I didn’t hear any cars out in the distance. I didn’t hear people as they walked closer towards me. I heard nothing but the buzzing sound of the motel sign as I walked under it.
After I checked to see if it was clear, I ran over to one of the motel rooms and quietly opened the window. I slipped in and shut it quickly. Nothing outside even noticed me. Now I had somewhere to stay.
I turned around to look at the room. It was pitch black. Not even opening the blinds helped much. So I just felt around for a bed or a lamp. Mainly a lamp. After a minute or not trying to run into something, I found what I thought was a lamp. I turned it on and the room filled with light.
“Well,” I said, “It’s better than nothing.” The bed was dirty and the floor was stained like nothing else. Plus it smelt horrible.
The bathroom door was closed and the light inside it was off. But a faint, orange glow shined through the bottom of the door, and smoke seeped through. There was a fire in the bathroom.
I ran over to it and quickly opened the door. Instantly, smoke spewed into my face, making me cough, sending some into my lungs. I ran in for the fire to put it out, but something threw me back into the room.
I landed on the bed, dazed and confused. I looked up and saw a boy standing next to the bathroom door. He was wearing a black hoodie and had the hood up. I jolted up and stared at him.
“What the hell? Put the fire out!” I yelled. The boy stood there, not moving. That’s when I ran for the door, but was stopped by the boy again. He grabbed me and threw me into the wall, pressing me against it with his upper arm against my neck.
“What are you doing here?” he growled. “This is my room! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I tried to answer, but I couldn’t even breathe with his arm against my throat. I only looked over at the fire and saw that it now covered the whole bathroom. I frantically pointed at it, trying to get his attention.
“Yes,” he said, “I realize there’s a fire in the bathroom. I’m practicing for something. Something you wouldn’t understand!” The fire seeped through the bathroom entrance and was now started to catch the room on fire. I kept on frantically pointing at it, but he stared at me. For a second, he did nothing. Then he lifted his hand towards the fire and closed it, as if he was catching something. To my surprise, the fire instantly went out.
“Now,” he said, bringing his face closer to mine. “What are you doing in my motel room?
…..
Shadows in the Dark Page 7
