Darian wakes up drenched in sweat to the sound of bells coming from the center of town. His eyes dart around his room, but no matter where he looks, what he can see remains the same. He can see his house and all the rooms in it. He sees his mother and father getting dressed in their room. He sees the chickens sleeping in their coop outside. He can even see his entire body from an outside perspective. "This doesn't make sense. Am I still dreaming? It's not very clear, but I can see so much!"

He takes a moment to get a better look at everything within his unfamiliar sight. He can see that living creatures are surrounded by an aura of sorts, and the colors of the auras differ from creature to creature. Nonliving things seem to have a dull, grainy color, while the chickens outside have a weak gray aura. His parents have strong light gray auras, though his father’s is slightly more gray than his mother’s. He looks at his own aura and is surprised to see it’s completely different from his parents’. “Yellow? Why does my aura have to be piss colored?” As he observes it, he sees it changing hue to become more red. “Nope. I don’t understand what’s happening.”

Darian notices his father heading to his room, so he begins getting dressed. A few seconds later, Edwin opens the door abruptly. "Boy, let’s go, we're going to help put out the fire." He looks at Darian and his eyes go wide. "Son, your wounds are gone."

Darian feels around his body and notices the pain he went to sleep with has disappeared. He looks to his father and says, "That's not all! I can see so much without using my eyes. I don't understand how, but it's amazing!"

His father looks him up and down before moving to Darian's window. He opens it up and looks at the fire in the distance. "We'll worry about it later, boy. We need to help with the fire. Get dressed and let's go."

Darian finishes getting dressed, and they both head to the front door. They find Darian's mother waiting for them. She opens the front door and the three of them promptly head towards the fire. They begin jogging to get there as soon as they can. It surprises Darian to see how fast they are moving. It’s not an incredible speed, but he’s never seen them move like that.

They continue to jog down the streets towards the fire. They pass many people along the way who are leaving their homes to see what’s going on. The first person they see catches Darian by surprise. “Why is his aura so dim?”

He uses his new vision to observe the man as he and his parents continue jogging towards the fire. "His aura is only slightly brighter than a chicken's, though the color is slightly yellow."

Darian continues observing the man as they pass, he begins to read the man's aura. He feels the man's fear, his anxiousness. "Is this what he's feeling? Can I feel people's emotions now? Then why can't I read my parents' or my own emotions?"

As they move forward, Darian notices that everyone else's auras are dim when compared to his or his parents'. Though, only his parents have gray auras. "They all have similar colors to mine. Am I also feeling fear and anxiousness?"

They're passing a rundown warehouse when Darian stops, abruptly. His parents notice, but continue jogging, leaving him behind. Darian stares at the warehouse door, his eyes unfocused and glazed over. He senses four people inside, and he doesn't know how, but he recognizes one of them. The emotions of all of them bash against him. They all feel anxious and scared, but one of them seems like a whirlwind of distress. He can feel his sorrow, anger, disgust, and fear. The feelings wash over Darian and push him around like a strong current. It threatens to drown him, no matter how hard he fights. Instead, Darian lets it take him. He tries to understand the feelings better, perhaps learn more about it. He steps through the door.

Immediately upon opening the door, he senses their auras take on a surprised tone as their attentions turn to the intruder. Inside the room, he sees two young men or older teenagers standing in the center of the room. He can see the desperation in their eyes and in their auras as they stare at him with confusion and shock. In the back of the room, he notices a young woman with brown hair. Her aura is small and seems to retreat in on herself. He’s unsure what that means. Finally, he sees her hand on the shoulder of a teenage male with distress and desperation whirling around him. Darian didn’t need to see him to know who it was, somehow, he knew from outside the warehouse. Darian steps forward. “Aeric, what’s wrong?”

Aeric whips his head around to face the door and sees Darian standing there. “Darian?” He stands up and wipes his face, before putting on a pained smile. “Wha- what are you doing here? How did you know I was here?”

Darian starts to speak up, but one of the young men steps in front of him. He looks down on Darian for a moment before turning back and looking at Aeric. “Who is this kid, Aeric? You said his name is Darian, so you obviously know him, but I don’t remember you ever mentioning him before. Is there something you’re hiding from us?”

Aeric’s smile fades as he looks at his accuser. “Jackson, now is not the time. Darian is a promising future prospect. I scouted him out in case he wanted to join us, but like I said, now is not the time. Stand down.”

Jackson and Aeric lock eyes for a moment before Jackson moves out of Darian’s way. Aeric’s smile reappears, and he looks at Darian again. “So, Darian, how did you know I was here?”

Darian excitedly exclaims, “Something about my connection changed, and now I can see my surroundings through some sort of third eye, even through walls. It also allows me to see auras and emotions. I’ll show you. Put your hand behind your back and pick a number. I’ll tell you what number you chose.”

Aeric hides his hand behind his back and sticks out one finger to which Darian immediately responds, “One.”

Aeric does it again but with two hands, deciding to go with the number seven. However, Darian once again immediately responds correctly. Aeric looks behind him for some sort of reflective surface, but sees none. He turns back to Darian and asks, “What happened? Why do you suddenly have these abilities?”

Darian walks closer to his friend and responds, “I had a dream last night. There were many things I didn’t understand and a lot of stuff I don’t remember, but there’s one thing I know. Something about me has changed. It’s as if something entered my very being and merged with me. I feel like I’m not quite myself anymore.” As he speaks, he feels everyone becoming more cautious of him. Everyone except Aeric.

Aeric looks at Darian with concern. “Darian, I think you should use a bit more caution with who you tell these things. I’m glad you told me, but telling this to the wrong person could lead to you getting forcibly enlisted into Lord Rainald’s retinue. I doubt you’d want that.”

After a bit of thought, Darian responds, “You’re right, Aeric. I’ll be more careful from now on.” A sudden realization dons on Darian as he remembers what he was doing. “I completely forgot about the fire! There is a fire in the middle of town. I was headed that way with my parents to help put it out. Do you want...” At the mention of the fire, Darian feels the guilt leaking out of their auras. Aeric’s aura, in particular, feels as if he is holding back tears.

Aeric turns away from Darian. “I’m sure it will be fine without us, Darian. Why don’t you head that way and catch up to your parents? You’ll be much more help than any of us could be.”

Darian looks at his friend’s back and feels through the auras of the people in the room. He connects with their guilt and anxiety as an idea forms in his head. “Do you all have something to do with the fire?” This question causes their auras to flare.

Aeric looks back at Darian before noticing Jackson approaching Darian’s back, knife in hand. He moves to interpose himself between Jackson and Darian, but he will be too late. He watches as Jackson’s knife descends upon Darian’s back, however, to his amazement, Darian quickly dodges to the right, causing the blade to miss.

Darian looks at Jackson from his new position, ten feet away. “I’m not sure what I did to you, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t deserve a knife in the back.” Everyone in the room stands still, unsure what to do. Darian observes Jackson’s aura and can feel a distinct hostility. It has taken on a reddish color. Though hostility isn’t the only emotion pouring out. Darian can still feel the anxiety and fear from before. “I’m pretty sure they started the fire now. Was he trying to make sure I didn’t tell anyone? I think I could probably talk him down, but I’m pretty pissed he tried to stab me. If this had happened yesterday, I would be bleeding out on the floor.”

Aeric places himself between the two of them, staring directly at Jackson. “Don’t do this, Jackson. He’s just a dumb kid. Are you really going to stab him over a question?”

“I wouldn’t have to if you didn't start all of this! He knows what we did, and he obviously can’t keep his mouth shut. Get out of the way before you get us all killed, Aeric.” With fear and rage in his eyes, Jackson spits out Aeric’s name as if the taste offended him.

Aeric stands in place, resolutely. “I know Darian, and he won’t tell anyone. You’d be killing him for no reason. Calm down and put the knife away. Unless you plan to kill me along with him.”

Jackson looks at the knife in his hand before looking back at Aeric. “I’m sorry, Aeric, but I can’t trust what you say right now. Get out of the way.”

Darian notices Jackson’s hostility building and becoming more pure. The other emotions are beginning to drown in rage. “Too much more of this and Jackson will simply start swinging.” Darian decides he needs to act before Aeric becomes a target. He dashes forward. Aeric turns to look at Darian as he hears him running up from behind him, but Jackson shoves him out of the way and readies his knife to stab Darian. He watches as Darian approaches much faster than he expected. Darian jumps at the last second, and Jackson feels the force of two feet hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him to the ground with a thud.

Darian lands, gracelessly, on his ass, but keeps his eyes focused on Jackson. Both of them stand back up and Darian bursts forward again as Jackson looks at him in shock. He clearly wasn’t expecting the boy to fight back to this extent. Before anyone could intervene, Darian was once again in front of Jackson. As Darian was getting ready to strike, he noticed Jackson’s aura flare. He was wondering what that meant when he saw the knife thrust at his face. He narrowly dodged the knife and planted his fist in Jackson’s stomach. The young man bent over, holding his stomach. A metal echoes through the room as the knife hits the floor.

Jackson falls to his knees, holding his stomach. He hoarsely whimpers out, “You little piece of shit.”

Darian responds by firmly connecting his fist with Jackson’s chin. He falls to the floor and stops moving. “Just so you know, I wasn’t going to snitch on you.” Darian watches as Jackson’s aura becomes a dull gray as he lies on the floor. Darian turns to Aeric and says, “I’m going to leave before he gets back up. I won’t tell anyone about the fire. I can tell you didn’t mean to do it.” Aeric watches as Darian leaves, unable to say anything.

Darian leaves the warehouse and begins jogging to the fire. After a few moments of jogging, Darian feels something wet on his leg. He looks down and sees a cut on his calf. He bends down to examine it and sees something drip from his face to the floor. He reaches up to his cheek and feels blood. “I guess it was closer than it felt. I hope they leave scars.” He puts the thoughts aside and focuses on getting to the fire.

He eventually catches up to his parents, who are watching the fire. “It’s about time you got here, boy. It looks like everything is under control now, but Old Man Gervas’ shop is ruined. We can only hope he wasn’t home.” Darian’s father turns to him and looks him up and down. “Boy, it hasn’t even been a day, and you’ve already broken your no fighting promise.”

“I couldn’t help it, he attacked me.” Darian offers in rebuttal.

Edwin looks at him hopelessly and says, “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that someone as fast as you couldn’t outrun whoever attacked you.” He sighs, “Who was it and where is he now?”

Darian looks at his father sheepishly, “He was a friend of a friend, and he’s likely woken up by now.”

Helen turns around and looks at Darian, “He doesn’t sound like a great friend, son. You should stop associating with him. Let’s head home. It’s late and you both have a lot to do tomorrow.”