Storm Warning

Fight or Flight

                    An hour later, Derek walked into the clearing and his eyes narrowed on me. I was still sitting on the log from where I parked it when I gave up on practicing after two hours of nothing much happening. Instead of focusing on the now like I should have been, I found myself thinking about Sarah, missing her, and missing the life as it was a couple or so days ago. “Hey Ari. What are you doing?”

                     I shrug. “I was practicing but I gave up after two hours because nothing happened. I tried every superhero pose I could think of, including spiderman.” Derek bursts out in laughter. “It’s not funny! I need to learn to control the power, but don’t even know how to get it started.”

                     “I’m sorry! It’s just… it’s funny to imagine you throwing out your hands and saying ‘PEWPEW’.”

                     I c***k a small smile. “I never said PEWPEW. Thank you very much, but I felt pretty silly too. And mostly disappointed when it didn’t work.”

                     Derek shakes his head. “But listen. In all seriousness, those character moves that you see in the movies are all exaggerated to bring in the audience. I don’t know if you can expect flashy hand gestures or exaggerated movements to channel your power. Are we calling it power? I almost said magic.”

                     I grimace. “Magic! I don't know what to call it anymore than you do! But magic sounds cliché. So does power. Abilities are okay. Let’s just call them abilities. Makes me seem like less of a freak. But yeah, I guess you have a point. Trying to force it to flow does not seem like the way to go.”

                     “Have you been out here since we left?”

                     “Yeah”. I sit with my palms to the log on either side of my thighs and straighten my elbows as we talk.

                     “That was three hours ago.”

                     “I know. I was out here for a good while.”

                     “We definitely don’t want to push it. That’s another reason we need to find the man… um, Dave Lars, right?” I nod. “He may know how to use your powers... I mean, abilities... on command. So, what did you do for the third hour that you were out here?”

                     “Honestly. I was thinking about Sarah. I miss her so damn much. She would have been able to tell me what to do or to calm me down when I got frustrated. She would have been able to train me. I love her, but I am so mad that she waited so long to tell me. Would things be different if she told me? Would I be a better fighter? Would I be able to call on my abilities when needed? Would she still be with me?”

                     “Would we still be friends?” I look at Derek in surprise. “Think about it, if Sarah told you about everything, you would have moved from place to place. It is doubtful that we would have become friends. It would have been a lonely life for you. And even if you knew, Sarah could have still died, leaving you utterly alone. Because you wouldn’t have Maddie. And you wouldn’t have me. Things happen for a reason.” I nod. “But still, Sarah was a good person. She NEVER deserved to go like that. So, if you do nothing else, keep moving forward because that is what she would have wanted for you. Use your loss and your pain to fight back for her, for yourself, and for whoever else you find.”

                     Looking over at him, I couldn’t help but agree. “None of us deserved this. We didn’t deserve to be abandoned. We didn’t deserve to be experimented on. We didn’t deserve to be massacred. We don’t deserve to die for someone else’s error.” Sometime during my speech, I rose to my feet and inched forward to Derek until I was jabbing him in the chest with my index finger.

                     “That’s my girl. So, just how far did you take this practice?”

                     “Like I said… I worked on my poses. As you can see, everything else is intact.” Derek turns to the targets off in the distance as if seeing them for the first time. I grunt in frustration as Derek turns his face to the side, giving me a side view of his features with the most noticeable being the small smirk that lifts the corner of his mouth. “2 hours and not a damn thing happened. I don’t know how to make it work.”

                     “What did you do specifically?”

                     I sigh as I stare at the target. “I kind of just threw my hands in a bunch of directions.”

                     “Show me.” I turn to the target and walk forward. I brace myself with feet spread apart and throw both hands out with palms facing out. Nothing. No surprise. I shake my head. I bring my legs back to center and put my palms up in front of my face like I am protecting it from an oncoming attack. Nothing. How annoying. I turn to the side with my right side facing the target. I pull the arm across my chest and swing it quickly to the target. Nothing. This is getting embarrassing. “Okay. Now, you are just trying to be a model.”

                     I feel a small smile take over my face, and I quickly lose it, turn around, and glare in mock anger. “Jerk.”

                     Smiling, he ignored my name-calling. “So, let’s break this down into what we know. Did you feel anything during practice?”

                     “Like what?”

                     “Did you have any emotions running through you? Were you feelings more intensified?”

                     Shaking my head, I reply with a simple but tired ‘no’.

                     “I am not surprised. You are most likely emotionally drained, and if you are new to abilities, you may be more likely to lose the energy to produce those abilities after you’ve already used it. Since you used it earlier today, you may not be able to reproduce it this close to the last use.”

                     “What good does a battery powered ability do if I can’t use it as much and as intense as I need to…?”

                     “Well, this is a common theme for those with new abilities. They use too much energy to produce it that it leaves them weak and disoriented. You used a short burst but don’t seem disoriented. But then again, that was hours ago. If what I think is actually the case, you will probably be able to use it more and more without any adverse effects as you become stronger and practice with it.”

                     “Yeah. That’s great, but I still don’t know what activates it.”

                     “I’m not that surprised. You would have been to wrapped up in your grief and fear to have noticed it.”

                     “What?”

                     “The night Sarah died… we had really bad weather.”

                     “So…?” Derek arches his eyebrow as he stares at me. His ‘Duh. It was you’ is almost strong enough to be heard despite not saying the words.

                     “Maddie was the first to notice. The night of your party… the weatherman predicted clear skies all night. He was right until about two in the morning. The clouds rolled in way too fast to be natural. The already dark sky got darker as those dark gray clouds blocked out the moon. The lightning that occurred was happening too frequently and took out several trees. There were no breaks between the thunderous booms. They came and came nonstop until about an hour or so before Maddie got to you.” I look up at him as I realized that my crying stopped as the rain stopped falling. Or was it the other way around? “The rain was just as sudden. The downpour flooded streets and made driving really dangerous.” I shiver as I remember that the storm stopped when I no longer had energy for my emotions. My emotions had bled me dry. I had lost my ability to think clearly and my ability to alter the weather had gone with it the same way all of those stab wounds allowed the floor to run red with Sarah’s blood until she was also dry. Derek continues on despite my inner dialogue. “Assuming Sarah was right and you can control the weather… which is awesome…”

                     “And also dangerous…”

                     Derek speaks on as if he didn’t hear me. “…by the way. It may be that that whole storm was your doing. That would also explain being unable to use it now. With that storm and that cop, you might have overextended yourself with regards to your what you can do. My bet is that your emotions can control the weather. The more intense the emotion, the more lethal you can get. Moreover, grief and fear seems to be your biggest triggers and results in bigger shows of power.”

                     Out of curiosity, I can’t help but ask. “What makes you think I did it that night?”

                     “When Maddie and I were in town, I took some time to follow a hunch I had. She dropped me off at the clearing where she found you while she went and did some other stuff. Ari. Look at these pictures.” Derek lifted his butt cheek from the log he had settled on and pulled out several photographs that had a photo kiosk label on the back: “PictureArt.” The first photo was of the clearing. It looked the same but there was a circle of fallen trees surrounding the clearing. Some were laying sideways with jagged edges as if the tree just snapped. Some were covered in char marks. Looking from the pictures to Derek and back to the pictures, I switch to the next picture. Yet another tree fallen as if the trunk could no longer support the weight. “I followed the damaged trees and took pictures of each…”. Flipping through the pictures faster and faster, there are more fallen trees with jagged bases and charred remains until I get to the last picture… a cute little red-bricked house with cabin feels… dark gray shutters, police tape, and a gruesome story. HOME. Looking to Derek in horror, he puts into words what the pictures came together to tell me. “All the damage… started from your house and where you entered those woods… and ended at that clearing.” Rubbing his hands and looking at the ground. “As far as I can guess, you had probably felt too much grief and fear in a very short period of time, which cause your powers to extend to distances as great as the depths of your emotions at that time. You wouldn’t have been able to notice if I am right about even a fraction of what you were feeling that night. It’s the only reason I can come up with for why the weather didn’t follow you and Maddie once she found you. You have nothing left to give. You had become numb to the grief, to the pain, to the fear, to the cold, and to anything happening around you.”