Like Us

The day was bitter and cold, it's been exactly five days and four nights since the sun hasn't shown up. It didn't help that by the passing day, the blooming town of Welstborne seemed to be deteriorating into chaos with everything that is happening to it and everyone. The town is running out of livestock, our fishing industry is losing hope due to their sudden and worsening low amount of caught fish and sea organisms. The medical field of Welstborne is also quite busy due to the sudden rise of an unknown illness with an unknown cause or origin. Thankfully, they should have their answers on what is going on once their research medical team completes their diagnostics and study on one of a patient's diseased body. Meanwhile, in Welstborne's police department, they too are in a tough spot for the last five to six days, with all the missing persons' reports and a dozen calls of scared citizens seeing strange men dressed in black coming in every single day. With everything bad that is happening in the town, plus every single day of cold, bitter, and gloomy days, the people in Welstborne seriously need a break.

In the case of my personal life, I have been taking a bunch of physical exercises and mental classes lately on my mornings like yoga and meditational classes to develop my grip on calmness whenever I encounter something or someone that is very annoyingly stressful...like my friend Theo, and physical exercises like boxing, martial arts, and fencing to release all of my built-up stress from the everyday life. I actually feel like The Incredible Hulk every time I sense my rage and stress coming out of my body. It's been quite hard to suppress my extraordinary abilities since that time when I transformed into a demon monster who rampaged and massacred a group of people, who I think was just doing their jobs.

On my nights, things are a little different and much more painful than what I experience every single morning. Nightmares are a constant phenomenon in my sleep, I dreamt of that moment of darkness in my life, that day of me turning into a monster and killing all of those people and actually enjoying it. I could now somehow feel that feeling of ripping their heads and disemboweling their bodies while they scream for their lives, I could feel their warm blood dripping down my hands and their torn and bloodied flesh on my nails. I dreamt of that monster, that demon every single night on repeat. I even tried my abilities on myself out of desperation, hoping that I could mess with reality and get rid of that nightmare, but I'm not stable enough, I am not strong enough or capable enough to do it right.

With everything that's going on with me and around me, no coffee or a book can make things better.

****

"Day 32, I think, of your bitter and sad life, Zion." I agonized in front of the mirror right after I took a nice warm shower. Even though I promised yesterday that I would take a cold shower after knowing that cold showers are better and healthier to take than hot showers, I could not muster myself to do it once I turned the showers on and the cold water touched my left arm.

I looked at my slightly curly, hazel brown hair and noticed that it's quite long and needed some serious trim.

"You look like a sad clown, Zion. A sad, miserable, single clown." I continued my grieve at myself.

After a couple of minutes of talking to myself and giving myself negative and harsh comments so early in the morning, I grabbed my blue cotton towel, which I just recently bought, two days ago. I wrapped the towel on the hips and tied it gently.

"I'm feeling of having a warm creamy coffee," I said to myself as I looked at the weather casting on my phone. I could change the gloomy weather into sunny and happy weather, but that might cause more trouble, since messing with reality will have its consequences.

Feeling relaxed and happy about my decision on having coffee to start my day, I got out of the bathroom.

"Finally!" A loud voice erupted out of nowhere. His sudden loud declaration made me jump so high I thought I was about to discover that I can fly. My eyes searched everywhere for the source of that voice until finally, I saw it. That loud sudden voice came from my "brother", Ryker who was casually sitting on my couch.

"How long are you gonna take to shower in there?!" He exclaimed. He seems to be quite of a character since the last time I saw him.

"What on earth are you doing in MY place?!" I screamed at him. His eyes wandered but I was quite angry and confused at him to care where his eyes went.

"And what are YOU doing out in the open with your dangling snake for MY poor eyes to see brother?" He grinned. I quickly looked down and saw that my towel that was supposed to be wrapped on my hips, is now on the floor.

"Oh shut up. Answer my question or I'll reality bend you out of here." I replied as I controlled my towel quickly and wrap itself around my waist, tightly this time.

Ryker rolled his eyes at me and quickly got on his feet and stood tall right in front of me. He sighed and said, "I came here, to ask you something."

"If you're asking for money, the front door is open. You can let yourself out." I whisper a response. He once again rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'm financially stable at the moment." He replied proudly. "I came here to ask you about The Prophecy of Solomon's Crown, and have you hear His calling?"

Something about what he said and how he said it gives sudden shivers on my body, I know that being a little more powerful or gifted than any other Extraordinaires have its fair share of craziness to it, but never in my wildest dreams and assumption that I was, in somehow, a prophecy by someone named Solomon.

"Wha-What is this all about again? A prophecy?! I swear if you're making this up, Ryker-" I was cut off when Ryker spoke up.

"Believe me, Zion. I wish and hope I made this all up but I didn't. I know you're experiencing His calling since you're older and I just experienced mine." He interjected.

"The nightmares, the uncontrollable rage, the growing power and strength, the stress of keeping it together. I have experienced that, I have been experiencing that a week ago when I finally turned into a demon." Ryker continued.

I saw him gradually feeling upset, and even though I still don't feel comfortable around him, I walked towards him and gave him a warm hug to ease him down. It's safe to say that my hug was successful by doing its job since Ryker calmed down.

"Tell me everything, Ryker. As your brother, I'm here for you." I reassured him and patted his head slowly. I was quite a fan of family sitcoms on tv, whenever a grown-up sees an upset young child, they always reassure them by telling him that it's okay and that they are always with them. I never thought that I would use that knowledge but here I am.

Ryker and I both sat on the couch, I noticed that I was still unclothed, I could leave for a moment and quickly put on some clothes, but I can't just leave Ryker on the couch upset. So as a solution, I bent reality, a bit and magically clothed myself without standing up.

"It happened a week ago, Zion. I was with a couple of teens who I thought were my friends at that time, but they actually have a plan for me." Ryker started. I have been in this situation before, but this time, all I could do is to stay quiet and let him talk.

"They invited me to a party on a cornfield, I thought that was a weird place for a party but then I remembered what a rave party was, so I happily agreed and came to the party." He explained.

"I wished I didn't though because when I got to that party, they immediately pinned me and started to pour blood on me, keep calling me a freak and a creep. They keep on laughing at me, Zion. I couldn't control the growing rage and hatred I felt for those idiots." Ryker said, in tears. His eyes were full of pain as he reminisces what he went through a week ago.

"You unleashed it, didn't you? You let out that rage and hatred and you felt good about it." I guessed.

Ryker slowly nodded in confirmation. He looked at his hand and said, "I saw a white flash, and the next thing I knew, it was morning and I'm surrounded by eight burnt corpses, and the cornfield around me was almost in ashes."

"And then you had the nightmares right after, didn't you?" I questioned the grim Ryker.

"Their screams and all." He replied.

"I-I tried my best to find you, but I ran into someone," Ryker added but his eyes widened as he realizes what he just blabbered out of his mouth, seemingly by mistake.

"What do you mean? Who did you run into Ryker?" I persisted. I feared that it might be one of the hooligans at Hellviana and that they might've pinpointed his location due to that incident he caused.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that. He told me that you weren't ready to know." He panicked and started to stand up and run away but before he could even lift his body upwards, I used my quirk to make my couch like the over-dramatized quicksand on films and swallowed a good portion of his body with the use of my couch.

"Tell me, Ryker, I know he told you that I'm not ready yet, but I know a lot of people who want to hunt gifted people like us. I just want to know who this person is." I said to Ryker who, surprisingly, wasn't trying to escape the couch swallowing a good portion of his body.

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you now, Zion, because he wants to tell you himself," Ryker replied sternly.

He looked at me straight in the eye and said, "All I can say is, we're not the only ones who died and were resurrected by a powerful demon, Zion."

"There are others like us, five more others like us."