Aaron Cyrus January 4th,20XX

Wow, human beings are incredibly adaptive.

That was my waking thought as I woke up with my nose against the ceiling. I stayed in the air for a little longer to gather my bearing and took my time waking up.

My phone rang in the distance and I remembered I’d left it to charge on the other side of the room. It was a habit I’d picked up in my first year of university to prevent myself from staying up late at night.

It kept ringing and for the umpteenth time that week. I wished I could figure out how to move in the air.

As I waited to float back down to the ground I spotted a large wasp buzzing around my room. the bug weaved around in the air and its wings slapped together at an impossible speed and created its signature, ominous sound.

No matter how much I wished against it noticing my existence, a giant creature in the air was too much of a threat for the aggressive creature. It sped up and dived toward me, stinger first. a large wasp suddenly appeared and dive-bombed toward me.

My body moved before my mind did and I found myself zig-zagging through the air of my medium-sized apartment. I didn't even have the time to be happy about it as the wasp followed me around. It was a much more experienced flyer than I was and followed me accurately through the air.

The chase went on until the wasp seemed to lose interest and flew out of the window, I wasn’t aware I’d left open.

I dived toward the window once I'd confirmed the wasp had left and slammed it shut. The next few minutes were dedicated to thanking the heavens that I hadn't been stung and feeling somewhat thankful to the wasp for the epiphany it had brought me.

Like a child that overstayed its crawling stage, I realized that it had been my hesitation that had crippled me. I tentatively pushed myself a few inches to the left and felt the top of my head brush against the ceiling as I moved.

Flying came to me more naturally than it should have, and once I overcame the mental barrier that kept me from accepting it was possible; it began to feel just like walking. It was a natural process that took less than a thought to start and stop.

Or well, stopping was still difficult, but it was possible.

I slowly lowered myself to the ground and prepared to land but ended up landing face-first on the floor as gravity regained its hold on me. Something had broken underneath me, but I couldn't tell what it was.

I slowly got up and picked up my, or what used to be my footstool.

The small metal contraption was now flattened into a smooth square of beige-painted metal and somehow looked resentful at its new appearance. Beyond feeling the loss of furniture, I was more preoccupied with another feeling, or rather the lack of it. While I'd known when I had made contact with the stool, it didn't hurt at all.

I lifted my shirt in the mirror to double-check for any bruises or dents in my skin, but it was as clear as the day before. If this had happened a few days ago I would have panicked but this discovery somehow paled in comparison to the others.

I grabbed my phone and started to text into the virtual journal Joyce made me keep.

It wasn’t like I particularly disliked the idea. Rather, like or dislike I'd have to say that I liked it since it helped me process the strange things that were happening. But it was a bit tiresome at times.

My phone started to ring again but a look at the caller ID made me somewhat hesitant to pick up. The hesitation faded quickly as the phone was already in my hand. It would have felt wrong not to pick up.

“Aaron are you okay!”

My girlfriend’s worried voice rang out of the cheap speakers of the outdated phone and made me feel bad for taking so long to get to the phone.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Remember one of the cool powers I got is… what did you call it? Indestructibility? It's still working as great as it ever has.”

I deliberately used that word that I had come to dislike over the past few days in an attempt to soothe my girlfriend. I didn’t know what I wanted to call what had happened to me but calling them powers made my skin crawl from the cringe.

“I called three times! Why didn’t you pick up?”

She had only called twice but I didn’t think correcting her was the right move.

“I couldn’t get to the phone. Is anything wrong?”

She usually wouldn’t call more than once and would just leave a text if it wasn’t urgent. For her to call multiple times and sound so frazzled, something must have happened.

“No, nothing is wrong I just wanted to ask if you were free on Friday. I have an occasion and wanted you to accompany me.”

If I’d picked up the phone ten minutes ago I would have opted out immediately, but the events of the last four minutes had given me hope.

“Friday? That’s two days away right? I'll see how today goes and give you an answer tomorrow is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s great. Also, I’ll be going AWOL for a bit after Friday. I’ll have my phone on me but it’ll be a bit difficult to get a hold of me.”

This wouldn’t be the first time she went off the grid, but it was a bit suspicious that she was leaving right after I’d developed these abilities.

She had been acting pretty strange recently. Joyce had seemed so invested when I'd first shown her these abnormalities but aside from reading through my journal and checking up on me, she acted like things were normal.

While it was a bit out of character for her, I appreciated it. Things were crazy as they were, adding a hero obsessed girlfriend would only make things worse.

Thinking back, it was probably a bit- very, impulsive to have gone to Joyce the second after things had happened. But even if I could go back in time, I didn’t think I would do anything differently.

My feet clung to the ground as I wrapped up the phone call and my phone buzzed with three notifications from the same hospital.

One with a neurologist, the other with a therapist and the last with a general practitioner for my physical health.

They were Joyce’s family doctors since mine stayed with my parents in another city. What was most important though, was that they were all under strict confidentiality contracts. Much better ones than I could get my doctors to sign.

She didn’t talk much about her parents since they weren’t close, but she never hesitated to use their name to get what she wanted if her own wasn’t sufficient.

While I didn’t feel like anything was wrong with me, besides the obvious, it was better to be safe than sorry. I also wanted to see if anything would show up on medical technology and whether I would have to avoid general hospitals in the future.

After confirming the appointments in a week, I put my phone back down and walked over to the bathroom to take a shower. I had a pretty long day ahead of me.