Chapter 10: Hidden Lights

Eli sat in the quiet play area, turning the ring over in his hand, the smooth plastic cool against his fingers. He had poured his energy into the ring for hours, careful not to let it overwhelm him. Yet something was bothering him. The ring wasn't losing energy like before. Instead, it felt like it was absorbing more—but not from him. His stomach twisted with confusion.

He thought back to when he first upgraded the toy in the hospital. The stats he had seen had changed subtly over time. The toy had started with a defense rating of 1/10, but later it had somehow risen to 2/10 without any effort on his part. Was the ring in some kind of limbo? Could it be drawing energy from somewhere else?

The memory of his father's lesson on circuits suddenly flashed in his mind. The last circuit they'd tested had two LEDs, but only one had turned on. There wasn't enough energy in the circuit to power both. But if the second light had been connected to another power source, it would have lit up.

That's it! The ring had connected itself to another energy source, and it was drawing from it. But what was that source?

"This is... nice," Eli whispered to himself, but then something unsettled him. Was this the same abyss-like feeling he had before? The one that had been impossible to stop when he poured too much energy into the toy?

The thought made him shiver. What if the ring wasn't only taking from the environment? What if it was taking from something else?

He needed to test this theory, but before he could dive deeper, something caught his attention.

Eli walked toward the play area again, the sense of strange energy still lingering in his mind. He tried to push the thoughts of the ring aside for now, but as he scanned the room with his Pure Eyes, something unusual appeared. His heart quickened.

Across the play area, a boy he hadn't seen before was playing with a group of other kids. Another child stood nearby, watching quietly. Both boys were surrounded by a strange light, almost like a cloak that wrapped around them. The lights shimmered in ways that were unlike anything Eli had seen before.

The colors seemed... alive. And they moved differently from the colors he usually saw. They were dense, like fog, but there was something else—something wild about them.

Without realizing it, Eli began walking toward the boys. What was this? It wasn't like the essence he had seen from objects or even people in the hospital. This felt... more powerful, more ancient.

As Eli approached, the boy playing with the other kids noticed him. His head turned slightly, though he didn't look directly at Eli. Somehow, Eli knew the boy had sensed him. The boy's face tightened for a moment, and he whispered something to the boy standing next to him.

The boy who had been watching, Derek, glanced at Eli, his dark eyes narrowing, sizing him up.

Eli didn't care. He wasn't scared—he was curious. He had to know what the strange light was.

"You're weird," Eli blurted out, his voice a mix of wonder and confusion.

The boy—Derek—looked stunned for a moment, as if Eli had said something offensive. Eli didn't mean to be rude, but the colors around Derek were unlike anything he had ever seen before. He wanted to ask more, but the next words that came out of his mouth made the boy freeze.

"Why does it look like a dog?" Eli asked, staring directly into Derek's eyes. The light around Derek had taken on the shape of a large, hulking creature. Not a dog, but a wolf.

Derek's eyes widened, and his expression shifted, a flicker of fear crossing his face. The light around him pulsed, and Eli could almost taste the forest—earthy and wild, like wet leaves and damp soil. The light of the wolf rippled through the air.

But it wasn't just Derek. The boy standing near him—his uncle Peter—had the same energy. The wolf-shape surrounded him too, though Peter's was stronger, more controlled. Peter's gaze flicked toward Eli, a look of curiosity and mild surprise flashing in his eyes.

Eli didn't even register Derek's surprise. He stepped closer, squinting at the light, trying to understand what he was seeing. His Pure Eyes focused on the boys' essence, searching for more. What were they? Their feet felt muddy, like they'd just stepped out of the woods, though the floor was perfectly clean.

"Let's go," Peter said suddenly, his voice sharp and commanding.

Derek hesitated, glancing back at Eli with an unreadable expression. He seemed unsure of what to make of Eli's strange behavior. The wolf energy around him rippled again, and Eli felt it brush against him, a mix of fear and caution.

Eli stood still, watching as the two boys walked away, their backs stiff. As they left, Peter didn't look back directly, but Eli could feel it—he was still being watched. The air around him tasted like suspicion, thick and lingering.

Derek kept looking back, though, curiosity etched on his face.

Who are they? Eli wondered. His heart raced with the realization that he had just seen something completely new—something powerful. Something like him, but different.

Eli stood there for a moment longer, staring at the empty space where Derek and Peter had been. The lights around them—the shapes of wolves—still lingered in his mind. What was that? Why could he see their essence so clearly?

He turned the ring over in his hand, his thoughts buzzing. The ring was still absorbing energy, still growing. And now this—these strange boys with even stranger auras. Was this the real source of power his ring was connecting to?

He wasn't sure, but he felt an overwhelming pull to learn more. His powers were evolving, becoming more complex, and the world around him seemed to be revealing secrets he hadn't noticed before.

Miss Macall had noticed Eli staring, her brow furrowed as she approached him. "Eli, is everything okay?" she asked, her voice tinged with concern.

Eli snapped out of his daze, nodding quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just... thinking."

She studied him for a moment, clearly not convinced, but didn't press further. She had seen enough of his strange behavior to know there was more going on than he let on. But for now, she let it slide.

Eli glanced down at the ring again. His hands trembled slightly as he slipped it back onto his finger, feeling the faint pulse of energy flow through him. Something was coming. He didn't know what it was yet, but the threads of power he'd sensed, the colors, the wolves—everything was connected