He shook his head. “At first, I thought it was no big deal. By the time it started to feel like a problem, I started to notice things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Things moving in my room while I slept I thought maybe I was sleepwalking, so I set up a camera. I thought it would see what I was doing before I talked about it with anyone.”
“And? What did you see?”
Kevin looked past Millie. He focused on something behind her. She turned just as the lamp on the end table lifted up in to the air. She gasped at the sight.
“How?”
“I don’t know exactly,” Kevin said. “It started in the dreams, then I realized I was doing it in my sleep. It didn’t take long to realize I could do it with just a bit of willpower.”
“You can lift anything?”
He shook his head. “Nothing alive. Plants, animals, people—I don’t know why, but it doesn’t work on them.”
“What about plant materials? Cotton or wool?”
“Clothes are fine, as far as I can tell. As long as it’s non-living, I can lift it. Within limits, I guess, but I haven’t really tried on anything huge.”
“Can you make me fly?” Millie shook her head as she realized his words said he couldn’t. “I mean, not me, but use my clothes to lift me up.”
He looked at her, but didn’t say anything. She could barely contain her excitement, but he didn’t answer.
“Well, can you?”
“Yes, but—”
“Do it!”
“But—”
“Let me see it. Lift me up.”
Kevin sighed, but he closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate.
Millie let out a sharp, shocked cry as her blouse and jeans suddenly pulled on her. They yanked straight upwards. The fabric pulled on her, dug into her skin as it moved ever upward. Her feet left the ground even as her jeans gave her a heck of a wedgie.
Her feet waved in the air as she continued to slowly float above the room. She reached out and touched the high ceiling. The living room had about twelve feet from floor to ceiling. She looked down to see she floated well over three feet off the ground, maybe four.
“This is awesome!”
Kevin looked up at her now. He still looked worried.
“I’m flying,” she said. “How do you not do this all the time?”
She heard the distinct sound of cloth tearing. It confused her for just a second. She couldn’t figure out where the noise came from.
Then her blouse ripped away under her arms, both seams giving away as one. She tumbled forward, straight towards Kevin, suddenly wearing only a bra.
She crashed down in to him, landing on top of him in an uncomfortable pile on the couch.
Kevin didn’t move. He stared at her shiny black bra. His hands gripped the couch tightly as they stared at one another.
That’s when the front door opened.
**
Before Kevin could even process everything that was happening, he was being smacked by a folded newspaper.
Mrs. Bryant was at the other end of the paper, swinging it wildly at him. She was just a slip of a woman, barely a hundred pounds, but she swung with all the fury she could muster.
“Keep your hands off my daughter,” she screamed in her Korean-accented English. “You keep way from her, bad boy. Bad boy!”
“Mom!” Millie yelled behind her, but Mrs. Bryant showed no sign of hearing her daughter. “Mom!”
Kevin covered up, trying to protect himself from her fury.
“Mom!” Millie grabbed her mother and pulled her away from Kevin. “Mom, we weren’t doing anything.”
“You’re no whore,” Mrs. Bryant said. “We talked about this. You no do this!” Her English grew worse with her fury.
“We didn’t do anything,” Millie said. “I was—I thought I saw something, a spider maybe. I reached up to grab it, but it was a stretch. I started to fall, but Kevin grabbed me. Only he just got my blouse and it ripped. I swear. You can see it on the floor. It’s completely ruined.” She pointed down at it.
“Why you on boy then?”
“I fell on top of him. I promise. Kevin and I, we’re just friends, mom. I told you that.”
The just friends stung a bit, but less than an angry Korean mother with a newspaper.
“No babies, Millicent! No babies!”
“No babies, Mom. I promise. Not until I’m done with college and meet the right guy.”
Mrs. Douglas stared at her daughter. She seemed to be studying every slight movement her daughter made. Millie stared back, set in her ways.
“You go dress! Go now!” Millie gave Kevin one last glance, her apologies obvious. She ran up the stairs to her room without looking back.
“With her gone, Mrs. Bryant’s ire turned back towards Kevin. “You bad boy. I tell my husband this, but he does not listen. You get out. You go now. And you stay away from my Millicent, you understand?”
“Mrs. Bryant, I—”
She raised the newspaper again and waved it threateningly. “You understand?”
“Yes, ma’am. I understand.” Kevin backed towards the front door. Mrs. Bryant followed him all the way back.
“I really am sorry, Mrs. Bryant. I—” Kevin ran in to the door. He grabbed the handle and quickly pulled it open. He stumbled on to the sidewalk. Mrs. Bryant continued to stare daggers at him as she grabbed the handle and slammed the door shut.
And this is why I wanted to hide all this. Damn all of this.
**
I floated high above the city again. But the objects were gone. I stood naked upon a drifting cloud. I was cold and terribly, terribly alone.
It was dark. Darker than it ever was before. Only the stars lit the sky around me. I could feel it. Something was there with me.
Something not right. No, something very wrong.
“Hello?”
Only a blast of cold wind answered me.
“I know you’re there. Show yourself.”
The chill grew deeper, but nothing answered. Only the ever growing howl of the wind.
I realized it wasn’t the wind at all. No, this was something unnatural. Something…else.
With that realization, I saw it for the first time. Two massive yellow eyes, barely visible. They glowed malevolently in the darkness. They saw me. They watched me. Suddenly they rushed toward me.
I saw a massive dark maw open. Rows of jagged teeth lunged towards me. Consumed me.
**
Kevin shot awake. The digital clock beside his bed read 6:04, but he knew he wasn’t going to get back to sleep.
He glanced out the window and saw Millie’s light on across the narrow alley between them. He picked up his phone and quickly texted her, “You awake?”
Ten seconds later, his phone vibrated with an incoming call. It was Millie.
“I’m awake. Some of us wake up more than ten minutes before school.”
“Yeah, I guess. How are things with your mom?”
“I’m not sure she believes me, but Dad calmed her down. I’m not allowed to have anyone over after school for a week. But I’m allowed to be at your house as long as one of your folks are there. Also, if I go boyfriend hunting, I will be locked in the basement for the next hundred years.”
“They know you’re old enough to think for yourself, right?”
“Yes they do, but they worry. You know the story. They tried to have a kid since they first met in the seventies. I was the happy surprise twenty years after they first married. It’s only child syndrome mixed with a healthy bit of the dreaded Asian mother malady.”
“I guess.” Kevin fell silent, searching for the words he needed to see. “I—”
“You had the dream again, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I did, but it was different. And I—look, can we talk about it later.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, well, I think so. I’ll be fine. I just don’t want to focus on my dreams right now. Som
etimes I would rather think about anything else.”
“You want to talk?”
“No, it’s okay. I should get ready, I guess.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in an hour and a half.”
“Yeah, see you then.”
Kevin walked across his room. For the first time, he realized that his floor was once again in shambles. Clothes, electronics, books, games—all of it littered the floor. It seemed the alarm clock was the only thing that didn’t move during his dream. This nightmare left the room worse than it ever had been before.
He opened the closet. Inside, everything remained in place, untouched by his powers. He shoved his hanging clothes to the right, exposing the plastic containers that covered the bottom of the floor. He pulled the lid off the top box and started to throw sweaters and blankets on the floor of the room. He dug out everything in the case, all the way to the bottom.
He pulled the final item out, a ski suit. It was light gray in color. A stylized sun radiated from just below the left shoulder, its golden strips swooping across and down the sleeves.
He designed it himself, ordered it off a specialty retail site. It was meant to be his outfit for the first ski meet of his sophomore before injury derailed that dream. He knew no one else had even seen the thing.
Now something told him he needed it.
I’m crazy for even thinking this. I’m no hero, but I’m already picking out a costume.
He lowered the ski suit back in to the box. But he didn’t let it go. He stared at it for several long moments. He stared at the long gold stripes. Something about them just seemed right.
Kevin pulled the suit from the closet. He carried it across the room, towards his bed. His backpack lay in a scattered heap at the foot of the bed. He shoved the costume inside.
He stood back up and looked around the room. He had a lot of cleaning to do before school.
**
Andy was his usual over-excited self as they drove towards the school. His high spirits helped break the uncomfortable air between Kevin and Millie. For that Kevin was eternally grateful. He couldn’t get the thought of yesterday out of his head. Every time he looked at her now, all he could remember was her half naked, pressed against him. Despite the nightmares, the powers and another inevitable confrontation with George, all he could think about was her bra and what was beneath it.
It wasn’t like he never saw breasts before. He was a seventeen year old boy with access to the internet. But these weren’t the same. Millie close to him like that, her skin against him…
He shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat. He needed to think about something else before he reached school. He closed his eyes, tried to focus on something, anything else.
A flash of jagged teeth and glowing yellow eyes.
Kevin’s eyes flashed open as he gasped in shock. He could feel it. Something wrong was nearby.
But it is only a dream, isn’t it?
Andy’s chatter suddenly stopped. “You all right, bro?”
Kevin nodded. “Just dozed off I think. Didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Don’t be doing that in class, man. That’s my thing after all.”
“I’ll do my best, Andy.”
Kevin glanced back at Millie. She said nothing but she could see concern for him in her eyes.
Kevin fidgeted in his seat as they closed on the school. He couldn’t help but worry too. The second dream had only been a split second, but it felt dangerously real, like a warning. He thumbed the zipper on his backpack, his mind a stew of Millie, super powers, costumes, nightmares and worry.
This needs to stop. I didn’t ask for any of this. I just want a normal life. I don’t—
The car screeched as Andy suddenly slammed on the breaks. It broke to the left. Kevin braced himself as he saw a flash of something massive and metal before they rode up on to the sidewalk. The car smashed hard in to a fire hydrant, coming to an instant halt.
Kevin tried to comprehend what happened. They were stopped. Water crashed down on the front of the car. The grind of metal still surrounded them though, filled his ears.
“Out!” Millie screamed. “Everyone out!”
She threw herself through her door as Kevin turned around just in time to see the massive saw blade cut through the roof of the car. It streaked down, straight towards him.
A hand grabbed him by the shirt collar. Kevin barely kept a grip on his backpack as he was pulled back and out of the car just as the blade passed through the area where his head had been a moment earlier.
Kevin tumbled out on to the wet sidewalk. Andy stood over him, still holding Kevin’s collar. He pulled Kevin upright.
Kevin got a good look at their attacker for the first time. It was shaped like a human, but that was where all similarities came to an end. It stood ten feet tall at least. It was clearly made out of some kind of metal, but the plates were black and matte. It barely had a head, just a simple orb jutted out over massive shoulders.
One arm ended with the saw blade, but as Kevin watched it, he saw the thing’s massive forearm open above the saw blade. The blade retracted in to the opening even as a two foot blade shifted down past it. The forearm clanked back shut, but even as it did, the metal monster raised its other arm.
This one didn’t feature anything like a hand either. Instead a massive rotating cannon stuck out from its base, not unlike the ones Kevin saw in numerous first person shooters. He knew the weapon could turn them all to paste in a matter of seconds.
Kevin didn’t even glance back at Millie and Andy. He simply yelled, “Run!”
Kevin backpedalled away from the robot. He raised his hands. He knew he needed to act, needed to stop this. He heard Millie and Andy running. He turned just long enough to see they were getting away. He would give them all the chance he could.
He focused his attention on the vulcan gun. He knew that his hand motions didn’t really have any control over his power, but as he pushed them up, he knew they helped him focus on what he needed to do.
And he desperately needed to focus every ounce of his mind.
The robot opened fire, but the spray of bullets never reached their target. They shot up towards the sky as Kevin forced the massive machine’s gun-hand upward. The metal monster’s body shifted slightly, as if it focused all attention on Kevin.
“Recalculating.” The voice was masculine, but emotionless.
Kevin ran.
**
Millie heard the gunfire as she ran. She spun, still backpedalling. She needed to get away, but she needed to see, even though the thought of what she might see terrified her. She needed to know whether or not Kevin was all right.
She saw the bullets fly upwards, occasional tracer rounds marking their line of fire. Kevin’s hands were up and she realized he somehow kept the bullets from striking their targets. As she watched, the robot stopped firing and seemed to look at Kevin.
Kevin turned and ran, but not towards her. He sprinted towards the nearest building, thankfully still very much alive.
His powers. He saved himself. He saved us.
“Millie, come on!” Andy’s words brought Millie rushing back to her current situation. As the robot turned to follow Kevin, she turned and continued to run after Andy. They ran towards the school even as she heard the sounds of police sirens approaching.
She could only hope Kevin could somehow manage to stay alive.
**
Kevin smashed through front office doors and found himself in some random lobby. The road to the school was littered with random lawyers, accountants, doctors and realtors’ offices. But whoever was supposed to be here already manning the front desk was gone. They probably ran as soon as they saw the first sign of the robot. The building was eerily quiet after the high decibels of the gunfire outside.
Kevin dropped the backpack from his shoulders and ripped it open. He yanked the ski suit out.
Someone has to stop that thing. By process of elimination, it will have t
o be me.
Kevin quickly stripped down to his boxers and threw the suit over his body. He pulled the pair of reflective sunglasses in the side pocket over his eyes. He didn’t have any other way to conceal his identity. He doubted too many people would be chasing that thing down anyway.
He took a deep breath as he stood alone in the room. Am I really going to do this?
He heard the sound of machine gun fire outside. That thing would keep killing until it was stopped. He knew that, even if he didn’t know why. He couldn’t be sure if it was there for him or just for random destruction.
I have to know and I have to stop it.
Kevin turned and walked out the door.
**
Cars burned while water flooded the streets from the broken hydrant. The street was splintered and cracked, while pockmarks left by bullets littered the remaining concrete. In the midst of the disaster, the robot walked slowly. It ripped apart everything near it as it moved. It stopped suddenly as Kevin found his way back on to the remains of the street.
The robot’s focus turned towards him.
“What, you big bastard?” Kevin fought to keep the fear out of his voice as he yelled. “Do you want a piece of me?”
“Target located,” the robot said in its cold soulless voice. “Commence termination procedures. Titan battle mode engaged.”
The robot aimed its vulcan gun again.
Kevin threw up his hand and focused on this Titan, as it seemed to be called. He pushed the guns aim off to the side.
The bullets ripped apart the office complex he just left instead of him. Kevin could count that as a small victory at least. He wasn’t dead yet, but he still had no idea how to stop this thing.
Clearly I can move things as easy as I can lift them, Kevin thought. I need to find a way to damage Titan.
“Long range attack ineffectual. Commence Titan close range fighter mode.”
The cannon clicked and fell from the robot’s arm. Kevin could only watch as a huge pincer extended from the wrist where the gun was a moment ago. It looked like a crab’s claw, only much, much longer and made of sharpened steel.
His attack mode ready, Titan wasted no time. He charged toward Kevin.
Kevin threw up his hands and pushed back against the machine. Titan stopped suddenly like it struck a wall. In a way Kevin realized it was, a wall of pure will.
I’m holding it back. But for how long?
As if in answer to the silent question, the robot took a step forward. It moved slow, but Kevin’s blockade wasn’t stronger than the robot’s legs. It pushed forward another step.