Laying down Edwin questioned himself once more as he argued back and forth in his head. He ran through the facts once more. His knees and palm were skinned and the other fist was busted up good. Over the last hour he had cleaned, disinfected and bandaged them as best as he had been able to. He had had a collection of medical supplies squared away in a medical kit. The gutted remains of the box were piled in his trash can or heaped on the counter by the door.

But this self treatment was only him making due, it was likely sufficient for the other wounds, but his right fist was seriously injured, to the point where it might be permanently crippled. He had changed his mind and decided to retreat to his room and self treat rather than venture off to the hospital. The double dose of painkillers was doing nothing to soothe the ache. But he was worried, there had been a battle raging in the sky last night, he had somehow gained supernatural powers, who knows what else was out there. Maybe monsters were appearing. Or other people with powers. He would be putting himself at risk to walk around in the dark. And so here he was, failing to fall asleep.

Eventually he must have drifted off, as hours later a rapid knocking roused him. He pushed himself up and immediately stifled a scream. He had tried to push himself with his broken hand. The throbbing felt unbearable for a minute and Edwin ignored the voices beyond his door.

Eventually Edwin got up and shambled to the bathroom. As he passed his door he grunted out, “just a minute.”

He gingerly went about emptying his bladder and made his way back to his door. He cracked it open and kept his injuries hidden behind the door. Through the crack he was greeted by Ava’s cute face bearing an obnoxious pout. To either side of her were several male RA’s. They were all new this year, sophomores, and Ava had them wrapped around her thumb. This would be Edwin’s third time encountering her with her posse in tow. Thankfully they were not too annoying unless they got rolling.

“Oh, Edwin. Finally dude,” Kurt said. Of course, it was Kurt-he was always the first one to speak. He was always blurting out whatever came to mind, and most of it was dumb. Edwin figured him as the most annoying one. “Ava’s got a message for ya, ma’ broski.”

Like that, Ma’ broski? Edwin really did not care to know.

Instead, he turned and met Ava’s eyes. Her pout had melted away and she appeared to be all smiles and sunshine. Ava almost glowed. Edwin glanced down to her shoes to avoid looking at her any longer. “Ed!” She exclaimed. “Tony says it's time for all o’ us to gather up the others and get to being busy. Roy here was saying we're gonna go over to Prexy’s. Whaddya say?”

Edwin turned back to face her and cocked an eyebrow in question. However, she was turned to look at Roy as he said something to her. He settled his face into a blank look. “Sure,” he said. “I’ll meet you in five minutes outside.”

Edwin closed the door in their faces and turned around to try and prepare himself for what was about to come. A fresh pair of jeans covered the bandages on his knees. A large brown hoodie with the university’s cowboy logo in gold on the chest was then pulled over his shirt. He stuffed his right hand into the center pocket. The bandage on the left could be explained away, and he still needed one hand to do stuff.

A glance out his window revealed a layer of haze floating around the rooftops of the city. The wreckage of several of those wooden aircraft was visible as well as fires still burning in buildings around the city. Edwin could make out a crowd gathering by one of the wrecks. He ran his tongue over the film of plaque on his teeth. A quick trip to his sink fixed the issue. Even without running water he could still brush his teeth.

One minute later found Edwin down the stairs and in the lobby. A growing crowd of people was filling the room and spilling outside the building.

Working through the crowd Edwin found Tony talking with a large group of RAs. The conversations between them stopped when he arrived. They must have been waiting on him. Oh well.

“Edwin, alright you’re here, you late schmuck. That’s everyone,” Tony said. “So all you lot have to do is shepherd this bunch over to Prexy’s. When you guys are there, just don’t wander too far. The cops said they checked the place for anything that might be dangerous.” He made air quotes when he said dangerous. Edwin wondered if Tony didn’t realize the gravity of what had happened last night.

“I’ll send someone over when I’m ready for you guys to come back. Otherwise, if you run into any problems there should be police out and about everywhere,” Tony said to finish his spiel.

The RAs split and Edwin followed Ava to find their floor group. They were grouped together near the center of the rectangular lawn between the dorm and the dining hall. Most of them were in a large circle, chatting. However, five stood apart. They looked a lot less enthusiastic to be there.

Three of the five were chatting with quiet voices. The other two stood side by side with arms crossed in silence. To Edwin, it looked like a pretty standard spread of residents. Before they noticed him or Ava he caught the tail end of the large group’s conversation. Something-something, my phone doesn’t work. Something-something, I was really scared last night. Bleh.

Ava’s teeth showed as she smiled wide and bright. “Hey, guys!” She greeted them.

They responded in that way young adults do, a low chorus of hellos. She had everyone’s attention, even the five at the back.

“So, we’ve got the plan for today,” she continued. “All the zaniness that happened last night canceled classes today. But the Resident’s Association has decided to host an event to show you guys around campus and relax outside for a while. The situation is still being explored so we just need to go and relax until we know what the next step is. Okay?” Another chorus—this time of yeses and okays—was how they answered.

Their group joined the mass movement of all the dorm’s residents. The larger group from their floor walked and chatted together with Ava animatedly. Edwin found himself a bit further back with the five who had separated themselves. Playing his role Edwin asked them all to reintroduce themselves since he didn’t remember any of their names from yesterday.

He had a Jenny and Taylor, on his hands. Taylor was dressed as a stereotypical goth. Black makeup, fishnet stockings, a torn up skirt, and some band t-shirt Edwin was unfamiliar with. Jenny wore a pair of fuzzy blue animal ears and a matching tailed dangled on the back of her belt. Edwin decided not to comment.

The third girl turned out to be the teenager Zoey. She wore a pair of blue jeans and a flannel with the sleeves rolled up. Rather than the strong loner vibe the other’s gave off with their appearances, Zoey just seemed out of place. Probably traumatized too. He should try and get Ava to speak with her.

Then there were the two guys named Marco and Jeremy. These four residents had pretty strong loner vibes about them. Marco and Jeremy were dressed in heavy looking black clothing, the sort unsuited to the day’s weather. They were both rather tubby and suffered from acne as well. Edwin could sort of relate. In high school, he had fought a losing battle with acne. Thankfully his skin had cleared up when he started college.

They each told him their majors and a bit about themselves. As they talked he nodded along in encouragement. But Edwin was certain he would have forgotten most of this within the hour.

There were around 600 residents moving in a large mob towards Prexy’s. Situated near the edge, Edwin’s floor had to wait for the crowd to filter forwards a bit. The doors to the third building that ringed the grass lawn, another dorm, opened at that moment. A second crowd filed out and merged with theirs. No one in his group felt like mashing themselves into the crowd to move forward so they waited for the crowd to thin once more.

Edwin’s thoughts were in turmoil as he led his small group forwards. Around them other groups formed as the large procession walked slowly towards their destination. The smoke hung at roof top level, obscuring the sun somewhat but not impeding their breathing too much. He was still undecided about going to the hospital or not. Maybe once they got to Prexy’s he could ditch the group and go see about having his hand looked at. Students from all the nearby dorms were joining in, so his absence would be hard to notice in such a crowd.

Their destination was Prexy’s Pasture. Ringed by trees and crisscrossed with pathways the oval-shaped lawn dominated the center of the campus. Lots of grass and a collection of benches made it a popular place to hang out during fair weather.

When they reached the intersection of 15th and Ivinson-which was the corner their dorm was built on-Edwin noticed the rush of traffic crowding Grand Avenue. It was the main roadway through the city. Apparently, people were trying to get out of town. Many of the cars were packed to the brim with items. The roofs were filled with boxes. It was a haphazard scene. A nervous buzz filled the crowd around them.

Edwin was really surprised to see so many cars working. Everything modern in the dorms was not working, yet here these cars still worked. As he watched them trickle down the highway he noted that all the cars were older models. Perhaps that had something to do with why they still drove. Or maybe cars were unaffected, he had not seen any car not start so far, it had just been his assumption.

His thoughts were derailed as Marco began animatedly talking about how the news had been broadcasting about strange things in the sky last night. Before the large earthquake and the power dying out anyway. Marco was of a mind that aliens were responsible for everything that had happened. The guy was going off baseless speculation. Between the human looking man he had tried to save last night and the resulting game like power up he had received, Edwin thought whatever was happening was a little more grand than ET visiting.

Edwin noticed the nearby fires had fizzled out. Down the street towards the crash he had been at he saw a dozen police officers wandering around the scene. A large truck was there and they looked to be loading something into the back. Edwin wanted to get closer but the area was roped off with yellow police tape. If they found something in the crash, the news would probably circulate without his personal investigation, so Edwin only continued to observe. Not that he had anything to add to their work anyway.

Once they were through the intersection Edwin began to give the group a small tour. He pointed out buildings and explained their function. His words attracted the attention of those around. Prexy’s came into view and Edwin admired it’s aesthetic. His sour mood from that morning lifted slightly.

As his group joined with the many milling students, Edwin caught several rumors passing through the crowd. Most of the residents did not seem to know what had occurred last night. The siren had woken them and Tony sent them straight to the basement. Now at the park, most of the student’s ignored the warning of danger and split off to explore in small groups.

The park cleared out quickly. Several groups stayed. Either milling about on the benches or the grass and chatting. One group had started a pickup-game of football. While another was playing ultimate frisbee. He saw Ava chatting in the shade of a large blue spruce tree and did his best to not catch her attention.

Edwin started looking for an opportunity to ditch his group. The walk to the hospital would take awhile at the cautious pace Edwin wanted to take. He started to wander deeper around the park, maybe he could duck behind one of the looming trees then walk away. He passed a group of guys passing several bottles around. Their faces were flush and Edwin was certain they were drinking alcohol. But he was not bothered. He had done similar things when he was a freshman and he had no intention of ruining their fun. One of them said something and the group laughed raucously.

Approaching an intersection in the pathway Edwin started to plan his escape. Trees flanked either side and a row of buildings stood on his left. The path split around a particular tall tree that rose up right in the middle of the walkway. Glancing around, Edwin noticed something eerie. A gathering of owls, a parliament if he recalled his offhand trivia. The owls filled the branches of the looming trees. They looked like normal brown owls, the kind you might find flying solo around here. But their behavior was anything but normal. Several hundred owls don’t just group up like this, in the middle of the day even.

Edwin stopped in his tracks, unnerved. The owls were all motionless, not a single feather was ruffled, except for their eyes. Each set of beady black eyes were focused on him. He took a step to the side and they seamlessly tracked him. Cold sweat ran down his back as the wide unblinking eyes observed him. He heard a pounding noise start to grow in intensity, his eyes darted around looking for the source before he realized it was the blood rushing in his ears. Fear gripped Edwin and he unconsciously took a step backwards. Edwin spun on his heels and sprinted away, all pain forgotten as he used both arms to speed his flight faster.

With the nightmare fuel behind him driving him forward, Edwin found himself running faster than he had ever before. He high-tailed it down the road along the south side of the pasture. Running pell-mell across the solid concrete he didn’t even consider looking back. He hated birds, all birds, no exceptions, and that back there was the creepiest shit he had ever seen. He dodged several girls in his way by a narrow margin. They were walking in the direction of the owl trees.

He stumbled from his dodge and ended up glancing back, his nerves needing to see if he was being followed.

And there they were. Gliding on silent wings the entire parliament swarmed through the sky. Terror clenched his soul and Edwin took off as fast as he could towards the nearest building, Ross Hall. He needed that solid wall between him and those birds as quickly as possible. He would not be further pursued in the open by his hunters.

The door to Ross Hall was unlocked and Edwin stumbled inside after wrenching it open. He was panting harshly, his body twitched as he looked to flee further or fight any new threats. Edwin slammed the door closed behind him. With a barrier between him and the outside he slumped against the wall, trying to catch his breath. Only to jolt back up when he heard screaming come from outside. Looking out a nearby window he saw the girls outside shouting and running for the door he had just dashed through. For a split second Edwin debated holding the door shut, maybe the owls would take the girls as an offering and leave him alone. But he quashed the hysterical thought and made sure to slam the door behind them as they rushed inside.

The three girls joined him at the window a moment later. The owls circled briefly overhead before settling onto the roof and nearby trees. They were out of sight from the window.

“Holy shit! Why were all those owls following you?” One of them said.

Edwin realized he recognized them as the girls from the group he had briefly been leading. Perhaps they had been following after him, hoping to ask him for something. Edwin tried to reply but only squeaked out a breath. He was panicking, so he turned from the wild eyes of the girls and closed his own for a moment, and tried to regulate his breathing, Edwin turned back to address them a moment later.

“I don’t fucking know!” He nearly shouted at them. He took another deep breath, he had not calmed himself as much as he wanted to. “Those owls were just sitting in the trees over there.” He pointed in the direction he had come running from. ”Owls are creepy, ya know?” He started to rant. “That many together is fucking nightmarish. I didn’t even know they were following me till I ran into you three. But holy shit. There are so many. So many fucking owls-why are there so many?”

“Edwin,” Zoey, the non-resident girl, called out to him.

“They didn’t even make noise as they flew,” he continued, ignoring her. “And they were just staring at me! Why didn’t they blink? Owl’s blink i’m prett-”

“Edwin!” Zoey forcefully jerked his shoulder and stopped his rambling. “We got it. Creepy owls from some trees.”

The building they were hiding in seemed vacant except for them. It was silent inside, the place seemed empty. Likely, no one came to work today. Edwin moved away from the door and made his way to the restaurant further in. With no one around and the cameras out of commission, he was going to snag himself a meal. He had missed the group breakfast after all. And he needed something else to focus on to calm his nerves.

He checked his injuries, the bandages on his knees and palm were leaking blood, the mass of bandages and wraps on his fist had contained any leaking blood but he did not want to see how aggravated the wounds were below. So he did his best to ignore them for now.

The restaurant, Rendezvous, was in the west wing of the building and luckily the windows along the walls allowed enough light to seep through into the kitchen in the back. Edwin entered the large walk-in refrigerator. Even without power, it was still insulated and nothing inside had spoiled. From there Edwin whipped himself up a cold chicken salad sprinkled with copious bacon bits. All in all a good find. Zoey had followed him and made her own lunch as well.

The other two girls were sitting down back at the entrance. Zoey mentioned they planned to watch for the owls to make a move from the window. When he and Zoey returned they didn’t comment on the salads, apparently not hungry.

After several minutes of chewing filled silence, the one with the cat ears stood up. “Uhhhh, I can’t take this anymore. Those owls might be weird but I think they’re gone. I’m out of here. You coming, Taylor?”

The goth girl nodded meekly and rose to follow her friend out the door. Edwin could have tried to talk them out of leaving, but he was curious if the owls were still out there and he certainly wasn’t going to check on his own. Likewise, Zoey did not say anything.

They were moving towards the grass. Taylor stopped to scan the trees, but no owls were to be found. They took several more steps before a lone owl fluttered down from the building’s roof. It circled and landed facing the building.

Edwin stopped eating, fork frozen halfway to his mouth and stared intently at the creature. He had a feeling there was something really wrong with these owls, but Jenny thought otherwise. She crouched down and began beckoning the creature towards them. Jenny was out there hooting enthusiastically to attract the owl, she even flapped her arms like wings. It was ridiculous, and Edwin chuckled. He felt his nerves calming further. Owls freaked him out. But it seemed harmless enough. He might have overreacted earlier.

The owl hopped forward, moving on the ground until it was about four to five meters away from the two. Edwin was beginning to think the owls might be harmless when Zoey gasped. “What is it?” Edwin asked.

“That owl there,” she said. “It’s got three eyes!”

Three eyes? The hell? I can’t see it clearly from here, Edwin thought.

Zoey must have taken his silence for disbelief because she spoke again, “Seriously, it has three eyes. The third one, it’s on its forehead and shut closed.”

“If you say so,” Edwin mumbled. They both stayed focused on the owl as it tilted its head nearly horizontal and curiously looked at the two girls. Not a moment later it unbent its neck and something unbelievable happened. It’s third eye opened. Edwin made several connections when he saw the eye.

The eye was glowing with a menacing purple color. This was probably some sort of ability, like his terrakinesis. Which made this owl a monster or mutant or something. That was bad news for the girls out there.

He rose to his feet and rapped his knuckles hard on the glass window. It reverberated and he was certain the sound carried because Taylor glanced back at him with a panicked expression. She clearly felt uneasy about these owls and only followed Jenny out there because she was trying to make friends.

In the next breath, Taylor was in motion. She was running back towards the door to the building when a second owl descended. It flapped its wings and hung in the air before her, she froze and they both watched as a vacant expression smoothed over her panicked features. Back with Jenny, she was likewise frozen in place. Zoey spoke, “Oh whoa, what a pretty shade of amethyst.”

Edwin ignored the comment as best he could but found himself filing away this useless fact. Her comment was so ridiculous and ill-timed Edwin could not grasp why she would say that. He just stopped himself from lashing out rudely towards her. He ignored Zoey and focused on the unfolding situation.

Both girls were standing motionless and blank-faced before the owls. This moment of uncertain calm was shattered as the parliament came back into session. They descended from the sky and Edwin watched astonished as a single owl’s talons tore through Taylor’s arm and gripped it by the bone. The owl’s momentum did not falter, and it tore her arm clean off from the shoulder. It flapped its wings and ascended back into the sky with the appendage in tow. Blood fountained from her stump, spewing in bright red pulses as her heart beat furiously to perfuse the missing limb.

A similar scene happened with Jenny and yet neither one reacted. They remained motionless as the owls started picking them apart piece by piece. Once the owl’s hit their leg’s enough both girls collapsed. More owls swarmed in and obstructed Edwin’s view of the girls.

Edwin did not dare try and open the door to help them. Instead, he watched on, trying to discern any sort of information about these owls. He noticed several things, the original two owls were still hovering in the same spot-glowing purple eye still fixated on the girls. The owls’ doing all the attacking either didn’t have three eyes, or they kept the third one closed because he did not see any other purple glows.

“Zoey, do all these owls have those closed third eyes?” Edwin asked.

“What! That’s what you ask, dude you’re insane! This is insane. What the fuck is going on?” She asked. She was panicking.

“Zoey,” Edwin turned towards her and gripped her shoulders so they made eye contact. “Do they all have a third eye? It’s important.”

She nodded after a moment. Edwin nodded back and released his grip. Okay, that’s not good. If all those owls can make us freeze up with just a look we are in trouble. Do they need eye contact? They had eye contact with both of the girls out there. But that could be a coincidence.

Edwin was trying to understand how these pack hunting, human eating, owls functioned when of course more people stumbled into the hellish scene. Half of the owls broke off from the two girls to face the new targets.

Now able to see them again Edwin noticed whatever power the owls held over the girls had faded. All that was left were two hunks of bloody meat. Their remains twitched as the last throes of death took them. Blood pooled around the corpses and the owls silently swirled like a tornado around them. Pieces of the girls were tossed back and forth across the center of their formation as they chewed through meat and bone.

It was the ultimate Frisbee crowd and somehow they had not noticed this gathering of owls until their game had practically barged right through it. Unfortunately for them, lots of owl’s split from the whirlwind and dived to meet them face to face. Third eyes opened and a purple glow was reflected in their eyes as more and more people fell under the owl’s spell.

A tour group must have been turning a corner nearby because Edwin heard a lot of people start yelling and screaming. Several people came running forward in what must have been an attempt to help the now frozen individuals. But before they could reach them the owl tornado descended. It blasted through the ultimate Frisbee crew and left them dead on the grass. Several dozen people were dead as the owls spread out and continued to search for targets. Half of them moved towards the lawn in the middle of the park. The people there were only now catching on that something was happening

Zoey was horrified—her hand covered her mouth and she was shaking. Edwin stood in silent shock. He had absolutely no idea what to do. He considered trying to use his terrakinesis to help. He cast the idea away however when he recalled his experiment last night. Sustaining a single ball sized hunk had been draining. He would never be able to drive away this many owls.

Staring out the window, his thoughts started down a rabbithole. How to increase his killing power versus hundreds of small flying creatures. He needed more lethality in a smaller package. And he needed it to move quickly to catch the feathered menaces.

“We gotta go, Zoey,” Edwin said. “We gotta get out of here before they come back.”

He turned and moved towards the door on the opposite side of the building. Thankfully the residents were leading the owls further onto the campus, away from the dorms. They should have a clear path.

Zoey was hyperventilating behind him but she was moving so that was a good sign. A minute later he poked his head out on the other side of the building. Edwin cautioned Zoey, “I don’t know if it matters, but try not to make eye contact with one of those things if they find us. Alright?” She nodded meekly.

They were three steps out when Zoey screamed. Edwin turned to see one of the owls staring right into Zoey’s tear streaked face. Her eyes were wide in panic. Edwin watched with horrified fascination as her facial features smoothed out and she stared blankly at the owl. “Fuck!” He cursed. “Mother fucking owls!”

The glossy brown feathers of the bird repulsed Edwin. He wanted to turn and sprint away before more appeared. But looking at Zoey’s blank face he felt an uncomfortable twinge. Swearing more, he resolved himself to try and help. It was only one owl after all, and if this worked the world would be one owl shorter.

Edwin stomped one foot forward and threw an uppercut into the air. Concentrating, he commanded the concrete of the walkway to tear free and impale the owl. The piece was jagged and finger sized. It speared upward and struck the owl’s back. It shrieked an unearthly, haunted noise. But it did not break its gaze. The shriek would surely alert more owls. The creature was calling for backup.

Edwin felt momentarily elated to see that his idea had worked, a jagged piece of concrete chipped like a stone age flint arrowhead, and shaped like a pencil, moving that fast had punched into the owls weak body without issue. His aim had been better than he had expected. Perhaps it was the nature of his ability or simple luck fueled by his terror and need for it to connect on the first strike.

He attacked again. This time he punched straight forward. His good hand was clenched tightly into a fist. The bandaged scrape on his palm wept blood sluggishly as his fingers dug into it.

A second similar projectile was ripped from the sidewalk. It rocketed through the air. This missile slammed into one of the screeching owl’s wings. The owl corkscrewed to the ground.

The creature thrashed and squawked, further damaging itself in blind panic. Yet it was not dead. Edwin needed to silence it. He made a grasping motion in the air. The two concrete darts yanked themselves from the bird’s body. His hand clenched and the bird was riddled further. It stopped twitching, blood pooling quickly around it from numerous wounds.

Panting, he stared down at his extended hand in awe.

“What the hell?” Zoey stammered. She was now free of the owl's influence. She looked on in uncertainty at the scene in front of her. To her, Edwin was staring dumbly at his hand, and the owl lay skewered by finger sized chunks of concrete. Very strange. In fact, it was unbelievable.

“We don’t have time. It cawed or screeched or whatever and there are probably more on the way,” Edwin rushed through an explanation. He crouched down somewhat and began to jog away. Glancing back he saw Zoey’s confused gaze. He gestured sharply with his hand. “C’mon we have to get out of here before more come.”

Edwin’s words penetrated her daze. Understanding flashed across her face and Zoey imitated his movements to catch up.

“Zoey,” he said quietly when she caught up. “Remember, whatever you do, don’t look at their eyes or you’ll get caught again.”

Zoey was panting, leaning down, arms against her knees. Edwin’s tone worried her, so she asked, “Why are you telling me that again?” And then she looked up.