Inhuman
A superhuman short by @ZakaryShupe.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Is that how I’m supposed to start a story? I’m not Charles Darwin... Dickens... Whatever. Surrounded by whimpering police officers, all their guns drawn on me, I realize that I am in control here. They think that they can scare me. They even think that they can harm me. But it wasn’t my fault, none of it. I’m only seventeen years old. I didn’t know how to control it and the angrier I got, the worse I became. But for you to truly understand my predicament, we’ll have to go back.
“Back off my girl, piece of shit!” Ace screamed as he swung his fist at my head, knocking me to the ground. He stood over me, triumphant. Ace was one of the popular kids of the school and a huge bully. His clothes hung loose and wore a Red Sox cap twisted slightly to the right; his aviator sunglasses hung from his Abercrombie shirt.
“Back off me,” I told him, refusing to stand back up, knowing all too well that he would just slam me back down. By now all the other kids of the school had surrounded us like hungry sharks, craving a fight and cheering for the victor, for Ace to break me.
“What did you just say to me?” Ace replied and pulled his fist back. I closed my eyes and braced for impact.
“Back off, man!” I heard a cry. Jake busted through the crowd and stood before me.
“What are you going to do?” Ace laughed. “You want some of this too?”
“Bring it on, asshole!” Jake growled.
Ace lowered his fist and smirked. “Whatever, man. You can’t protect his lame ass forever. Fight’s over!”
The crowd moaned and split up as quickly as it had formed.
“Sorry, no blood today!” Jake yelled.
“Your friend better watch himself,” Ace said as he started off, scowling.
Jake turned around and helped me to my feet. “You all right, man?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“You gotta learn to stick up for yourself. You see what I did there? I stood my ground and he backed off. He does this to you because he knows he can.”
“I know, man. I guess I just don’t have balls of steel like yourself.”
“Let’s get to class. We’re gonna be late.”
Jake was my best friend. We had known each other since before we even started preschool. Both our dads had worked together for years and as they did, we became friends. Jake was always very protective of me and would make sure no one messed with me...sometimes. It’s not like he could always be there.
The driver opened the door to the bus to let me off after the school day. I didn’t know why I still went to school. I always tried to convince my parents to homeschool me, but they never took to that idea.
“Hey, punk,” came the voice of Ace. I stopped in my tracks, stunned as I heard the bus drive off. I slowly turned around to see him and two of his lackeys.
“This isn’t your stop,” I spoke with terror in my voice.
Ace smiled and shrugged. “Well,” he said as they walked closed to me, “I still have some unfinished business.” Both of his lackeys immediately grabbed me and shoved me to my knees. “This is gonna hurt you way more than it’s going to hurt me.”
“Go ahead, asshole,” I told him. Suddenly he tossed a left strike at my face and I could feel my nose crack under the pressure.
“Damn, that did hurt my hand a little!” Ace laughed and hit me again. He kept hitting my face until I had been knocked unconscious, leaving me to drown in the now storming streets.
I woke up sometime later but time escaped me. It could have been just minutes or it could have even been hours. I tried catching my breath as I rolled over in the slimy muck. I got to my knees and slowly rose to my feet, hacking up what I could of the water that had been entering my lungs. My perception was off as I tried to escape down the road, still not sure where I was going. I suddenly tripped once again, scraping my hands along the pavement.
I growled and pulled my phone out of my pocket, desperately wanting to get ahold of someone, but to my dismay the touchscreen would not suffice, too soaked to work. I tossed it out of my hand, screaming at the top of my lungs, and bowed my head in shame, tears streaming down my face. I wanted so badly to know why this was happening to me, why he hated me so much. I could have died. I should have died. And that’s when my life and everyone else’s was about to change.
To this day, I still don’t know what happened, how it happened. I don’t know if it chose me or if it was just fate. But the last thing I remember was the sharpest pain no one in this world would wish to feel, something bursting through my chest and out the other side. I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know what it was. But I was thrown unconscious once again. I woke up at night. The rain had stopped and all that was left were puddles starting to melt away.
My chest was still in a burning pain and I cried out in agony as I ripped down the collar of my shirt to find a black circular mark but no wound. I shot to my feet and started home, running as fast as I could. I felt better. My face was no longer sore.
Once I arrived home, I burst through the front door without closing it. My mom and dad just stared at me. I didn’t say a word to them. They had been worried, wondering where I had been, but I couldn’t stop to think. I charged into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind me. I slid my back down the door and sat. Then a knock sounded.
“Son, are you all right?” my dad asked me. “We’ve been worried sick about you!”
“I’m...fine,” I told him.
“Can you please open this door?”
I slowly stood to my feet and opened the door a crack. “I just need to take a shower,” I said. “I was just hanging out at Jake’s. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“We called Jake and he said you weren’t there. Do you really think he’s not going to be the first person we call when we’re looking for you?”
“I just need to take a shower,” I said and shut the door, locking it once again. I walked over to the mirror, staring at my reflection. I rubbed my face -- to my surprise I had absolutely no cuts or scrapes on me, just the dry blood of what was. I reached into the shower and turned the knob and started taking off my clothes. I continued to stare down at the mark on my chest as I stepped into the steaming shower. I couldn’t fathom what had happened to me.
It was strange but it started to become even more so as the water started to bounce off my skin; it didn’t drip down my body as it should have. I wasn’t becoming wet at all. The water was turning into ash and falling to the bottom of the tub. I immediately turned the knob to the tub -- as I turned it, the knob crumbled between my fingers. I jumped out of the shower and charged toward the door, stopping before it and slowly grabbing the doorknob. Nothing happened as I opened it.
I booked it to my room as my mom called after me. But I slammed the door shut, freaking as I fell back to my bed but instead hit the floor. My own bed had crumbled to ash and I rolled to my feet in sheer terror.
“What’s happening to me?” I asked myself aloud as a knock came from the door.
“James, can we please talk?” my mother called to me.
I looked down at the ash that had once been my bed and then shifted my gaze back to the door. “Mom, I’m really tired. I just need to get some sleep. Can we talk tomorrow?”
“Well, okay... I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine, Mom, thanks,” I replied.
The night had gone and the morning sun came like a ghost of yesterday. I did not sleep that night with all the thoughts that were entering my mind. My own bed had vanished and water wouldn’t even touch me. I still decided to go to school. I had to tell someone, I had to tell Jake. If he would even believe me...
“Come again?” Jake said as he stood with his back up against the locker.
“Ace completely kicked my ass last night and I have no wounds to show for it! I think he even broke my nose, but there isn’t anything. When I got home, I couldn’t even shower because the water wasn’t water when it hit my skin. My bed completely vanished and turned to ash!”
Some of the students who passed us started to eye me. Jake tried to put his hand on my shoulder, but I backed up. “You’re being serious?” Jake asked.
“Give me a pen or something!” I whispered.
Jake stared at me strangely and pulled a pencil from his pocket. I snatched it quickly from his hand and held it up. Nothing was happening. I wobbled it between my fingers and still nothing happened.
“I think you had a very exciting dream,” Jake told me.
“It wasn’t a dream!” I growled and suddenly, the pencil turned to ash before our eyes. Jake stepped a couple steps back. “I knew it.”
“What the hell did you just do?” Jake asked.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, man!”
“How did this happen?”
“I told you. I don’t know! Ace kicked my ass--”
“So you got your ass kicked and now you can do this?”
“I’m sure there is more to it than that,” I replied.
“This is fucking nuts. Can you control it?”
“No. Not yet anyway. It just happens. That’s why I don’t want you or anyone else to touch me. What if I could turn a living person into ash?”
“That’s really fucking freaky, man. This is something straight out of a science fiction film.”
“James!” I heard a voice call toward us and up walked the beautiful Alice Topps. The girl that Ace had beat me up over.
“What do you want?” Jake said angrily. I held up my hand to stop him and sighed.
“What he said.”
“I heard what Ace did to you--”
“Does it look like Ace did anything to me?”
Alice examined my face. “No...”
“Okay, so go away.”
“I just wanted to apologize for his actions,” she told me.
I laughed. “If you really wanted to apologize, then you would not be with that prick. Just go.”
Alice frowned and did what she was told, slowly becoming an ant in the distance. Alice and I had more history than I would care to admit. Once a best friend of mine, turned popular. I guess all that gets to your head when the whole school knows your name. The popular girl has to be with the popular guy or get shunned.
“I’m ditching school today,” I told Jake.
“Why?”
“I just can’t handle it.”
“Let me come with you,” Jake said.
“If you really want,” I replied.
“We can figure out what’s going on with you.”
We headed out of the school, escaping past the school security and out into the parking lot. My head started to pound and my vision became fuzzy. I kneeled to the ground in pain and Jake grabbed my bare arm, obviously concerned.
“Don’t touch me!” I screamed and just like that I saw the best friend I had ever known turn into ash, crumble before my eyes. I looked down at the mess in sheer panic, tears streaming from my eyes. “Jake...no...no... Jake!” It felt like a horrible nightmare. I hoped I would wake up at any second with my mother telling me I missed the bus for school.
“Well, well,” I heard Ace call toward me. His two thugs accompanied him. “I saw you talking to my girl again. Trying to ditch school? And how convenient would it be that you are sitting right next to my car?” Ace clicked the remote and the car beeped, unlocking.
I looked at him with tears in my eyes. “Stay away from me.”
“Aww... Are you crying?” Ace looked around to make sure the lot was empty. It was deserted. “Get his ass into my car. We gonna take this little bitch for a ride. I’m surprised he even showed up to school today.”
Ace’s two thugs grabbed me by the arms. “Get away from me!” I screamed and both of his men were obliterated, carried off into the wind like nothing. Ace dropped the beeper for his car and looked back at me in shock. By then, I was too far-gone. Killing my only best friend had made the darkness overtake my mind. Ace made a run for it and I screamed, holding out my hand, wanting so badly for him to perish. And he did. I didn’t have to touch him. He just turned to ash -- dead and gone. The school would cry for his absence, but they would never cry for mine.
I’ll leave you to interpret what happened that day, but it’s not a fairytale ending, so one can only assume. I wish I could tell you that everything went back to normal, I got the girl of my dreams, and lived happily ever after. But that would be far too simple. Because I am a monster -- inhuman.