The smell of fresh bacon and pancakes made its way into my nose, fluttering my eyes open. As I looked around, I could tell I was in my room. Posters of famous football players hung around, along with my collection of accolades from my football career in high school. For a moment I thought it was a normal day.

That’s when it all flooded back. The fight, my powers, my life. All of the reality hit me like a freight train pushing me back into my bed. I lay there, looking up at the ceiling wondering if it was even worth it going outside. I knew that the moment I did, I was a target for some creep after my Gear.

“Ethan! Breakfast is ready, come downstairs now!”

And there’s my reason to get out of bed. I unwillingly remove the covers and put on my slippers as I walk downstairs and go to the kitchen following my nose to the source of the fragrance.

“Your plate’s on the dining table and next time make sure you call when your school is getting destroyed.”

Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Back in middle school, my school had a huge fire due to the laptops somehow catching on fire. The whole school was evacuated, but instead of running out of the building, I charged further into the fire, helping a kid who was stuck between a shelf that fell. Realizing it was Mark, I ran to help him. Instead of thanking me, he slapped my hand away and told me I should’ve just let him die, and that this was the whole point of the fire. It dawned on me that he was the one who set fire to the laptops, and in his twisted way, was trying to commit suicide.

The fire enraged further, soon collapsing the ceiling. I tried to push him out the way, but before I could get him away, someone pushed me away. I looked up just in time to see another Mark standing there, waving at me just as the ceiling crashed down on both of them. The school didn’t know about his suicide, Mark’s body was burned past recognition anyways.

Thinking back to what happened that day, Mark must’ve had a Gear just like me. I wonder how he was able to learn to use it so fast.

I chow down on my pancakes, thinking back to the fight. How did he know where I was, maybe not down to the person, but the general vicinity of where I was he knew? Was it Cain, did he tell them where I went to school? Most likely. As I continue to ponder these thoughts with my breakfast my mom kisses me on my cheek from behind.

“There’s food in the fridge, don’t be late for school again and no partying, I’ll be home late tonight, love you” and with that, she was out the house leaving me with the dishes.

I finish up my food and dishes, get ready and go back to my room. Classes were online following yesterday's destruction. Police are still trying to figure out what exactly happened, but with the explosions and dead kids piling up, I’m sure they're thinking of domestic terrorists. The teachers tried to act as normal as they could, but with tensions so high after the passing of Jalen and Darnell and now this, kids were either not online or not paying attention. As I drowned out the sound of my teachers, it was finally 2:30 and classes were over. I immediately grabbed my bag, stuffed some clothes, bottles of water, and energy bars, and headed out. I called Julia praying she would pick up. Against my luck, she didn’t and so I left her a voicemail explaining that I want to talk with her and thank her in person. I went to the garage to grab my bike, unlocked it, and headed for the viewpoint. It took a while, after biking up roads and going through a shortcut in the woods, I finally made it to the top. As I park my bike and breathe in the fresh air I hear my phone ring.

“Hello? Yeah hey, Julia. I’m doing fine. Can you meet me at the viewpoint? I’ll be waiting. Thanks, see you then.”

Before I hang up, I hear a familiar voice, one that I wish I didn’t.

“For someone who just blew up half his school you look pretty fine to me.”

I turn around and am face to face with Cain. He looks more rugged than the last time I saw him as if he’s been doing some intense training.

“I thought I made it clear I didn’t want anything to do with you. I want help from the same guy who planned to kill me.”

“You know that wasn’t the plan so stop being a baby, you survived. You’re welcome. Anyways I didn’t come to help you. I came to warn you. Have you seen this girl before?”

He takes out his phone and shows me a photo of a girl who looks familiar. As I inspect the photo closer, my phone rings again.

“Yeah hello? Oh hey, yeah I’m here atop the viewpoint. You’re close by, okay that’s fine. Hey by the way-”

As I continue the sentence the image finally becomes clear who it is. This is a small town and so everyone in our high school knew each other as kids somehow. One kid, in particular, I grew up knowing. She lived 4 houses down and her parents often came to mine in need of fixing things. Her parents were one of the few who worked outside of town and so they weren’t accustomed to learning how to fix things. I would sneak over and convince her to come outside and play whenever I had the chance and she would always complain that I wasn’t being a gentleman because I’d never let her win at a game or sport I was good at. At the time she had fair skin and dirty blonde hair. Now though, she grew up to be a basketball player, has light skin and caramel hair instead of blonde.

“Ethan, are you still there?”

The unsettling realization kicked in and I knew who it was in that picture. I couldn’t believe it though.

“Yeah, look I’ll be here, come fast” and with that, I hung up.

“Why do you have a picture of Julia?” I look at Cain with an irked expression.

“So you do know her. This makes things easy. You need to stay as FAR as away as possible from her. I’ll handle her, just make sure you don’t let her near you.”

For the past few days, I’ve dealt with a tragic loss, death, and even a crisis. Yet out of all those times, I’ve never felt more anger than now.

“Why?! What could she have POSSIBLY done?! Is she another one of your ‘targets’ and you want to make sure you get her on your side before she joins the ‘good side’?”

“Look kid, I understand you’re hurt that I didn’t tell you the truth, but you need to listen to me now more than ever. You cannot, and I repeat cannot let this girl near you alone. Do you understand this is a matter of life and death?”

Looking at him unconvinced I get close enough to his face to where I can smell the still sweaty shirt from his workout,

“Well, that’s just too bad because she’s on her way right now. I invited her here because I want to talk with her.”

At first, he looks at me confused, and when my expression doesn’t change that’s when it changes to horror.

“You’re joking right. She’s not coming here now right?”

He grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards his motorcycle and for the first time since I’ve known him, his grip was tight as it can be and he had an expression of pure dread on his face. As if I had said the devil himself was coming.

“Cain, you okay? Stop messing around, she can’t be a problem I’ve known her my entire life-”

As I almost finished my sentence I heard from behind me

“That’s right, tell him we’ve known each other since day one. I think he likes staying there right.” I spin around and Julia is standing against a tree approximately two meters away. I look back up at Cain and I can tell he’s scared, at least nervous. I manage to loosen his hands enough to escape his grip.

“Julia, there you are. Are you okay? Look this guy was just trying to get me to believe some nonsense, it’s okay. “

I notice a slight smile come from her face.

“It’s okay. Ethan, can you come here? I found this at the school and knew it was yours.” She was holding onto my football jersey. It wasn’t like I wasn’t going to walk over, but as I did, I felt that as if my body was moving on its own before I could even think of answering her request. She moves closer towards me, building with uneasy pressure. We meet and she hands me my jersey. As I start to walk back, she grabs my hand looks at me, and says

“Isn’t there anything else you want?” and at that moment all rational thoughts left my body and the only thing I could think of was having her to myself.

“You. I want you.”

“Close your eyes”

I closed my eyes and leaned in for a kiss.

“Awake”

Hearing that strange voice in my head, it’s as if I’d been woken up from sleeping. My eyes flutter open, readjusting to experience true horror for the first time.

Her mouth had expanded exponentially, her teeth much larger than normal with teeth in rows down the entirety of her throat. What was worse is that her mouth seemed to be moving as if it was separate from her body, rising from her face and down as it expanded greatly as if to swallow me whole. At that moment, I knew that whenever Cain showed fear, he was serious.

Before I could even react in time, I was pulled back, just far enough so only my shirt was ripped through the middle by one of her teeth. I look back and see Cain panting as if he’s exhausted just by using his Gear.

“We need to run.”

Looking at a person like that, I wouldn’t complain, besides her massive mouth that was out to kill me, there was something off about her. But this is Julia we’re talking about, I’ve known her my entire life. I walk slowly to her, my arm out, ready to activate my Gear this time if need be.

“Julia, what happened to you? What ARE you?”

I can see her swaying waiting for me to come closer.

“Please, Ethan. Help me. I can’t control it. It’s taken over me.” I can see her mouth has gone back to normal and tears flowing down her eyes. There was a genuine expression of sadness and her voice seemed to tremble as she pleaded with me.

“Ethan, don’t listen to her. You’re not thinking straight literally, she’s able to manipulate her emotions to suit her needs. I’ll explain everything later, but for now, we need to make haste and go.”

Cain’s voice was loud and clear, but something in my brain told me to ignore him and keep walking. So I did, just close enough so I could grab Julia and embrace her tightly.

“It’s okay, I’m here. Just tell me what you need so we can fix you.”

Whenever a person is in danger, we all have that sixth sense that allows us to sense it before it happens, as if we know when something is coming. My sixth sense started buzzing like never before. I couldn’t see her face, but I could tell her entire expression changed from sorrow to insanity. Along with her voice changing completely, she said

“Thank you for the meal” as she lifted me, her mouth expanding again to consume me.

“Julia, stop it. I don’t want to do this to you, let's figure this out normally, without you eating me!” She didn’t stop, but this time, she didn’t chomp down on me, but I felt as if my life itself was draining from me. Every part of me got weaker as her mouth stayed open.

I tried pleading with her, focusing on my breath so I wouldn’t faint, but she never budged.

“I’m sorry Julia.”

And with that, I no longer was trying to protect or negotiate with her.

“Gear Shift: Zero!” The veins in my arms lit up and newly found energy surged through me.

I grab the arm around me and deliver a high voltage shock resulting in a high shriek from Julia. I manage to roll away as I fall, evading the crushing bite of her mouth as I do.

I charge a ball of electricity and blast it at her, sending her flying back with a crack against a tree.

“Cain. Cain. Cain!” he finally snaps out of his hazy state, surveys what’s happened, and immediately grabs my hand, hops on his motorcycle, and starts it up to ride away.

“What IS she?! And what’s going on?!” Cain, too focused on the road to answer, just points back as if to signal something. I look back and don’t see anything, so I just assume he’s crazy. Then again, I was too focused on clinging to dear life as he sped through traffic weaving in and out like a maniac while cars honked at us.

As we came around a bend, I heard crashing noises and noticed birds flying away from inside the forest. As the picture came closer into view, I saw the source of the destruction. Julia no longer looked human, each part of her body had grown grotesquely, having large arms, and legs, but with only a slightly larger torso supporting everything she was charging straight towards us, hurling trees and rocks along the way.

In an urgent matter, I poke Cain on the side so he can hear me

“Cain! Don’t wanna rush you or anything, but you might want to speed it up so we don’t become food. Got it? Thanks!”

He accelerated, swerving through traffic as we sped away from Julia.

“I said faster, not kill us!” The wind blowing by, making it very hard to yell constantly, let alone hear anything. Cain started making hand gestures, probably trying to tell me something, but I didn’t understand what he meant.

“English, please!”

“Are you dumb, ATTACK IT! Don’t just sit here and watch!”

Have you ever tried to shoot a monster the size of a truck hurling rocks at you, while being a passenger on a motorcycle, going 80+mph in traffic? No? Great don’t. As I get ready to attack, Cain whips around a bend, almost sending me flying onto the other side of the cliff.

“Steady with it now!”

I concentrate on the charge in my arms and soon they’re glowing with miniature electrical fields generating off them. I take my aim at her and fire off a few shots, but she isn’t affected by the attack. I charge my output higher and fire off a ray this time, knocking her off a tree. I sigh in relief, only to be cut off by a bone-chilling howl as she jumps from the trees, hurling a boulder directly at us.

“CAIN! CAIN! Look out!”

“Hang on!”

I grab onto him as tight as my arms would let me and he speeds up, going so fast, I feel my face peeling off. I hear crashes and explosions behind us, but I never look back in fear I might let go accidentally. We manage to avoid her attacks, and I raise my arms to attack again. Unlike before, she’s ready for it and as I shoot her, she blocks with a concrete slab she ripped from the ground and hurls it at us. He tries to drift on the edge of the highway, and a nearby car bumps into us from trying to avoid the hurling slabs. This time, Cain isn’t able to swerve like before and our bike crashes through the railing sending us over.

When you go flying off a bike in midair, thousands of feet above the ground, few things go through your mind. The most important being, how am I going to survive this. As we fall through the air, Cain is still hanging onto this cycle. Below us, I see the trees and town even further down coming closer into view. I frantically think of what to do. I remember seeing movies and shows on how to survive a fall and I realize we’re gonna have to fall through the forest to cushion ourselves. Cain has another idea in mind, however, as he squats mid-air on the cycle pushing himself off at high speeds towards the ground as he disappears in front of my eyes. Focusing on my dilemma, I first attempt to slow my fall by expanding my body into a skydiving position. Once I come close enough to the trees, I brace myself, knees tucked in arms covering my head as I plummet into the trees.

I don’t remember much about what happens after. I remember feeling instant pain, tree branches scraping against me and my body hitting against trees as I knew I would have bruises and broken bones if I managed to survive. I managed to only get a glimpse of where I was mid-fall in the forest, enough to see that I was about halfway down before my eyes rolled back in my head after I felt something hit my head.