“I’m not taking off my sock” I heard a familiar voice say.

“Do you want to help him or not?” A girl replied.

“Than why don’t you take off your sock?”

“Cause mine didn’t cause the maid to stop cleaning my room!”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you about that” The grumbling voice had finally come to clarity and I realized it was Julian.

From what I could feel and hear around me I concluded that I was indeed again in the infirmary. It was almost like I was waking up in here every day with some sort of injury. The memories of what happened before started to roll in like a boulder down a mountain. Happiness swelled in me like a water balloon from a thrift shop, but just as quickly it was punctured and the water that was my happiness leaked out as I thought about what happened to my body. Something felt wrong but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I contemplated pretending to still be unconscious so I could evade the inevitable return back to reality. But I was no coward, I slowly peeled my eyes open, each eyelid felt as if it was being held together by monkey glue, gorilla glue, and every other glue that animals made.

“Shut up, he seems to be awakening”

I glanced around the infirmary noticing a few key details. Ashley, Julian, and Jayden were crowded around my bed. The world around me seemed more crisp, more vibrant, more bright. Also, I felt lighter, I moved my arms and shoulders stretching them around. For the first time since arriving, I didn’t feel that much.

As well as something inside me had lifted. It was indescribable, it was as if a hot rod had been pressed against my brain, or my soul if I believed in that kind of stuff, had been lifted. I glanced at everyone around me and I decided since I didn’t know when the opportunity would come up again I had to seize this glorious opportunity.

“Who… are you people?” I questioned them slowly not betraying the prank just yet but a smile was threatening to push onto my lips.

I waited, sporting a confused look on my face as I gauged their reactions. All of them stood there stunned for a second before I saw Julian take action.

“That’s it I’m taking off my sock, maybe I can jolt in out of his shock” Julian mumbled as he bent over to take off his shoe.

Even though it was a harsh joke even I didn’t deserve whatever fresh hell lay wrapped around Julian’s foot.

“No, no, no… I’m just pulling your leg guys” I chuckled nervously eyeing Julian.

An awkward silence ensued.

“So did you guys hear what happened?” I questioned them.

“Hear? We felt it” Ashley replied.

I cocked my head at this wondering if she was thinking about the same thing as me.

“Last week we were going to class doing this meditating stuff and we felt like a small earthquake or rumbling. No one really knows anything and our teachers are saying squat so we were kinda hoping you would tell us” She flashed that brilliant smile obviously hoping he would spill the beans.

“Well I was put in this chamber, and strapped to a chair with this weird guy who did some mumbo-jumbo to my brain and things escalated from there,” I said thinking about what happened.

Again I got more excited, I finally was something worth a damn! I could make those rock pillar things and I was already beginning to think of the possibilities.

“And?” Julian stretched out the word to emphasize his want for the information.

“Well I’ll show you” I swung my legs over the side to where Jayden was and ripped off all the electrodes and tubes that went into my body since I felt perfectly fine. The monitor beside me flatlined for some reason as I stood up stretching my body.

“Why is it-” Jayden cut me off.

“Becuase the machine that was monitoring your vitals can’t detect a heartbeat since you tore off its reader”

I looked at it for a second before a brilliant solution popped into my head.

“Can we just turn it off?”

Just as we started feeling the machine’s buttons someone popped into the room in a rush.

“Oh thank God, I thought it was happening again,” Ms.Terise said as she subtly clicked off her pager.

“What was happening again?”

She sighed looking obviously uncomfortable.

“Your heart stopped multiple times during the several days after passing out.”

I didn’t know what to think about that. I didn’t feel like I had died, but on the bright side, I could use it to get sympathy from the ladies. Although on the dark side there could be something still wrong with me. Or I could be dead right now, I glanced around at the slightly sweaty Julian. Well if this was heaven I want my refund.

“What do you mean several days?” I asked her as I slowly walked past Jayden towards her.

“Well it’s the following week on Saturday, didn’t your friends tell you?”

I glanced at them, each and every one of them shrugged as if they forgot to bring in the mail.

“Let me take some tests” Ms.Terise commanded even though many would mistake the command for a request if read on paper.

Then for the next twelve minutes according to the ticking clock on the wall, I endured blood pressure tests, eyesight tests, hearing tests, temperature tests, heartbeat tests, and even solved a puzzle to make sure I wasn’t missing any brain cells. Although that could be a real problem, a lot of shit went on up in the old coconut and I don’t know if anything was all put together like the puzzle of a puppy before me. I considered asking her but eh, what isn’t life without a little surprise.

Finally, someone interrupted Ms.Terise before she was going to whip out the multiplication flashcards.

“Ah Mr.Millers good to see you up Ms.Terise may we talk in private?” Mr.Richards asked earnestly.

Ms.Terise ushered my friends out and followed them out the door, oddly enough we could talk in private since I never saw another patient in here with me. He motioned me to sit in a wooden chair to his side that I didn’t notice before and moved a chair opposite of it and sat down.

He clasped his hands in front of him as he gazed deeply into my eyes. It was kinda weird, to be honest. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know where this was going and since I couldn’t tell what he was thinking I didn’t know what to feel too.

“So how do you feel Chase?” He questioned me in that same gruff voice.

“Well considering that I died… multiple times I don’t know what I should be feeling right now”

“Do you remember anything after you died several times?” He asked once again obviously his scientific curiosity peaked.

I thought back but that only came up was the time before going unconscious but after that just nothingness. No dreams, no nightmares, nothing. “No” I replied.

“What about right now and during Phase II?”

I stuffed my hands into the small pockets of the infirmary gown hoping he wouldn’t notice the tremors. I noticed something when I woke up and when I was going through the tests I put my finger on the problem. My hands seemed to be shaking slightly, like old men with arthritis. It wasn’t the tremors itself per say, it was more the principle that came with it. If there is one problem there are bound to be more.

“I feel fine now, better since I got here actually,” I said.

“Mhm,” he seemed unconvinced.

“And during Phase II?”

“I remember it like I was drunk and now the next day I have sobered up.” Catching his look I added “Not that I would know what it felt to be drunk of course”

He waited for me to continue.

“I felt like I was going through hell, and I begged and pleaded it to stop but it never did. Although I have to thank you in the end though.”

He smiled a strange sight.

“You’re a Super now aren’t you?” Feining forgetfulness “How does it feel?”

“I haven’t tested it out yet actually” I admitted.

“Before I spill the beans on what you can do I’d like for you to give it a go,” He said leaning forward.

The excitement began to bubble up inside me. I haven’t felt this way since I was younger, eagerly waiting to go outside and play. I pulled my hands out of my pocket

“What do you want me to do?” I asked him excitedly as I wiggled my fingers around feeling for that tug I felt before.

“Anything”

I closed my eyes feeling around inside me, putting myself in the same shoes as it first happened. I imagined the pain I felt, I took that seed of pain and I let it envelop me. I felt that tug as before I grabbed it and I pulled that shit. A small black pebble tumbled from my outstretched hand and hit the ground.

“Huh, I got to say I expected mor-”

Mr.Richards was cut off sentence as I made another motion with my arm as I was getting a better hand on the metaphorical rope. A collum of rough black stone erupted from the floor towards the ceiling all while making the pebble go flying into the clock with a crash. Poor clock, it will never tick again.

“WOO, let’s go!” I laughed out loud and pumped my fist in the air until I realized I was being watched by Mr.Richards.

Oh well.

“Interesting, can you make anything other than a pillar?” He asked me as he inspected the collum.

With a grin that would make many teachers at my school nervous, I shrugged my shoulders a little bit to get lose and was about to start when he grabbed my arm.

“Maybe not here though, I think Ms.Terise will have an aneurysm when she sees this.” He said with a chuckle.

“Oh… I’m sorry” I said biting my tongue to block any signs of me not being especially sorry.

I’ve already begun to hate this place due to all the times I’ve been waking up in here harmed.

“We will test you more thoroughly later but for now let me explain what categorization of Super you are”

I smiled at that, I was officially a Super and I couldn’t get enough of it.

“From what I could tell you are a low to mid-level Creationist,” He said.

“Low to mid? But-” I motioned at the pillar exasperated.

“What just because you skewered a guy who was concentrated on a feat that changed the chemistry of your brain? In a real fight he would take you out so quickly you wouldn’t even be able to say thunder.”

That is okay, I never really started at the top I guess I just gotta work harder from now on to be stronger. Better. But if I was low to mid I couldn’t begin to fathom what the powerful ones could do.

“Now, a Creationist can usually control natural elements on the periodic table. They are called Creationists because the elements create everything around you. Also because of Genesis in the Bible and such.” He touched the pillar motioning me to look at it.

“You can create Carbon, although unfortunately not in its pressurized state. Nothing to sneeze at though.”

“Huh does that mean-” Before I could finish my question a very high pitched scream pierced the room like a hot knife on crayons.

“What the hell is going on here?” Ms.Terise yelled as she stared open-mouthed at the pillar than the clock.

May it rest in peace.