Amid the black, Selena sat, seemingly on nothing in mid-air. She pointed up to a glowing red ticker. It read, ‘364 days : 7 hours : 14 minutes : 52 seconds’ and it was counting down.

I sat up in my bed – my old bed in Al’s condo. Looking around the room, it was just how I left it a decade ago. Dirty laundry still sat in a pile, overflowing from a basket in the corner. It reminded me that I was still wearing a hospital gown; time to change. Some of my old clothes were still in the walk-in closet at one end of the room. The bandages covering my chest had been replaced. There was still pain and tightness underneath and coupled with my missing hand, it was really inconvenient to put clothes on. I realized there weren’t any clean pants in the closet, so I scrounged through the dirty pile to grab some jeans. Jeans never really get dirty, but I smelled them just in case. Totally fine. Everything still fit; I hadn’t grown since I was 15. I’m not sure why, but it was a little depressing.

Once I was dressed, I walked out to the main area of Al’s condo. Half the room was taken up by workout equipment. There was a large sparring mat, but it looked new, I didn’t see any of the bloodstains from when I trained on it. The other half of the main area was split between the kitchen and the living room. On the one side was a large leather sectional in front of a sleek black coffee table. Against the wall, there was a full entertainment system. That section of the room didn’t look to be used that often anymore. I remember, some nights, Al and I would lounge there; she’d be eating ice cream while I held mine against my head. The kitchen had stainless steel appliances, including a double oven. In the middle sat a marble island with gas burners and a sink. Copper pots and pans dangled from metal hooks above. Cylindrical lights hung on strings from the ceiling over white stools that were nestled under where the marble extended out.

Al stood in the kitchen, leaning over a newspaper. She looked over at me as I ambled in, yawning and rubbing my eyes. She walked over to an espresso machine and started making a drink. I sat on one of the stools and rested my head on the counter. I must have still been tired, because she set the mug in front of me a couple seconds later. It was a latte. The nectar of the gods was smooth and frothy; it even had the fancy wave of cream on the surface.

“About time you woke up. You’ve slept most of the day away,” Al said. I sipped my drink and a stupid grin spread across my face.

“Well, I deserved it. Thanks for the coffee.”

“Sure.”

“Do you have any food, I’m starving.”

“I ordered pizza. It should be here soon.”

“Perfect.”

“Apparently… something happened after the rich kid’s house. Care to explain?”

“Selena!” I remembered. “Where is she?”

“Relax,” Al said. “Nothing happened.” I let out a breath that I must have been holding.

“Well… From the news report, I figured out she wanted to meet at our old house, which isn’t there anymore. It’s just an empty lot. I tried to find out what was going on with her, but those two prison guys that got away showed up. One of them, Atom had the power to change matter by touching it. I tricked him and absorbed him – ” Al gave me a don’t-you-remember-what-happened-last-time-you-did-that? look. “ – on accident. I brought him into my soul to see if he could get Poison, the other guy from prison out of there, but when he got close, my energy just reached out and ate him.” Her eyes narrowed, watching me suspiciously.

“Don’t look at me like that. It was an accident. But check it out.” I pressed my hand on the marble countertop. I searched through my pool of energy and grabbed hold of Atom’s power. I heard something, a gasp or a subtle scream, I couldn’t be sure, but I sent the energy through my arm into the kitchen island. A marble spike rose out of it. She didn’t look impressed.

She crossed her arms and stared at me. I couldn’t gauge her expression but from her body language, I half expected her to start tapping her foot impatiently. Instead, she took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, and returned her attention to the newspaper. I thought that would be the end of it, but she pointed at my marble art.

“Fix it.”

I looked at it for a moment, then back at her, then back at it, and frowned. It took me like 8 seconds to make and I thought it really tied the room together; I didn’t want to destroy my masterpiece. But… I also didn’t want to draw Al’s ire. Sighing, I touched the countertop, and the spike sank into it, however, it didn’t exactly go back to the way it had looked before; the surface wasn’t completely flat. I tried a couple times to smooth it out, but it just made it worse. It was kind of a roundish spot with waves and dimples. I patted it as if I were done.

“All fixed.” Thankfully, she didn’t look up. Honestly, it wasn’t that noticeable, but it made me wonder what sort of condition I left the side of the hospital. I banished those thoughts and continued telling Al my story.

“Anyway, Atom’s cohort, Bullseye, threw a knife at me, which hit me right in the chest, but Dale managed to take him out. Dale took me to the hospital, and for some stupid reason, he brought the other guy too.” I stared down at my mug. “ – and I may have said some things I shouldn’t have.” I shook my head, banishing those thoughts as well.

“Detective he-who-shall-not-be-named – why would anyone name their kid that? Anyway, he picked me up, and we had a long talk. Out of nowhere, Selena showed up and I think she used her power to convince him to let me go, and that explains how she got Cara and Jascia alone to wreak havoc. We talked for a while and – “ I paused. I wasn’t sure what to think about Selena’s ‘prophecy’, so I decided it was best to omit that for now. “She also tried to use her ability on me, but I was able to resist it. We fought, but she managed to get the better of me.” I rotated my jaw. “She hits like a train; might even be stronger than you,” I said contemplatively while nodding. Al looked up with a quirked eyebrow as if she were going to say something snarky but rolled her eyes instead and went back to skimming the paper. I decided to take a moment to think.

The whole situation with Selena wasn’t adding up. How had she managed to get away from me when I was getting arrested? Also, how did she know about Jascia? And now that I think about it, she showed up when I was with the detective. None of it made sense. There were a couple things rattling around that might explain it.

One, maybe she was tracking me somehow. She could have planted something on me, maybe when we met up to talk, but that doesn’t explain how she knew about Jascia, unless she was trying to set a trap for Al. I don’t know, that seems off and that doesn’t actually explain how she knew that Cara had a demon inside her soul.

The other option I could think of is that she could be working with the detective, but again, that doesn’t explain Jascia. Maybe another demon? One that could find or track my movements? That was certainly possible and quite concerning. It could mean she was in deep, working with a group. If that was the case, it’s possible that her warning was actually a prophecy, but I’m not entirely sure that could be a power. Either way, it’d mean there were even more people I’d have to fight. I had to figure out my new abilities; I had to get stronger.

I started to ruminate on what Dale said. Was I the hero I thought I was, or had I become the villain? Before all this, I was the guy who showed up to take away people’s pain; to give them a second chance. Now, I destroyed houses, got arrested, and – killed people. Again.

“Al?” I asked.

“Yeah, Jay?”

“Am I a hero? Or am I a villain?” She sighed, but didn’t look up from the newspaper.

“Neither. You’re the comic relief,” she said. I stared at the top of her head dumbly. “I’m the hero; fighting evil and saving the day. All you do is make dumb jokes.” I continued to stare. She looked up. “What? It’s true.”

“You’re no help,” I said. She sighed again.

“Fine… what’s wrong?” She asked as if caring about my problems was the hardest thing in the world for her; well, it’s Al, maybe it was. I returned my attention to the mug. The dark coffee portion beginning to consume the light cream on top.

“It’s just. I don’t know what I’m becoming. All I wanted to do was heal people. I think that’s the real reason I wanted to get away from you. All you do is fight and you wanted me to become a weapon just like you; I wanted to save people without fighting. One day of violence – that’s all it took. Now, my home, my powers, and my business are all gone.”

“Jesse,” she said, dropping her expression of inconvenience. “You’re still you. So what if things changed. You can figure out a new way to make money, and – I guess you can stay here until you get it all figured out.” I hesitated before responding.

“Look, I appreciate that, but…” I wanted to get as far away from here as possible. I just make everything worse. “…after all this is done – I’m leaving. Leaving the city.” She watched me for a long moment.

“If that’s what you want,” she said. “But who said you don’t still have your powers?”

“Obviously, I can’t heal anymore.”

“I thought you said that wasn’t your real power,” she said. “You’ve been eating demons, and…” She walked around the island and held her arm out to me. I searched her face to figure out what she was trying to get at. “I bet you can still use fire.” My lips parted with the realization, a moment of hope, before catching myself.

I reached out reluctantly. When my hand touched her arm, I took a deep breath. Her roaring energy flowed into me. Within me, floating apart from the black pool, was a blazing inferno. I watched in awe as arcs of energy danced across its surface like a miniature sun. It continued to grow, consuming more and more of the endless void of my soul. I was suddenly torn away from my reverie.

I blinked a few times, trying to identify what had just happened. Al had a stern expression on her face. She was holding the arm she offered me against her chest, but slowly dropped it to her side and relaxed.

“I – sorry about that,” I said. I looked down and twisted my wrist, so my palm was facing up. I coaxed out a little of the energy I’d taken then a small flame popped into existence, floating in the air over my hand. There was no sense that it acted any different than before I absorbed the demons’ darkness. Wait – actually, I did feel something odd. The pool was trying to reach out and grab the raging ball of energy, but when it touched, nothing happened. The new energy wasn’t being converted; almost like it wasn’t compatible. A grin spread across my face. The thing I’d struggled with before was suddenly possible. I could hold the elemental energy I took in, and I could use it just as efficiently as before.

“I guess you’re right,” I said with a wide grin.

“See?” She nodded as if it were obvious and she’d known all along then she went back to the newspaper. Before she made it there, the doorbell rang. To my delight, it was the pizza she ordered.

“Ernesto!” I exclaimed. My favorite pizza man carried a tall stack of pizza boxes. “Hey, thanks for lending me a hand – ” I cleverly raised my stump with a smile to make sure he got the joke. “ – by delivering that message for me.”

He ignored me. His sole focus was Al. He was so enraptured by her beauty that I couldn’t be sure that he was even breathing. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Another one bites the grave dust. She grabbed the pizza boxes while he stood dumbstruck. He blinked several times and swallowed.

“You are – ”

“No,” Al said and slammed the door in his face.

“That was rude,” I said.

“Staring is rude.”

“Touché.”

“Here. These are for you.” She dropped all the boxes in front of me. Fortunately, she set them on the spot I messed – I mean, unfortunately, she set them on the spot I fixed so she wouldn’t be able to appreciate my handiwork. I opened the box on top. Cheese, just how I like it.

“Oh yeah. While you were sleeping, I went to the prison,” she said. I tried to respond, but my mouth was stuffed with the most delicious food ever created, so it came out as a muffled sound, a choke, a round of coughing, a pounding on my chest, a wince, and a nod to continue. She impatiently waited for my ordeal to end, then grabbed something from the counter behind her and slid it to me. “I retrieved your effects. Here’s your cellphone and your clothes are in the dryer.” I was happy to hear she grabbed my clothes. I had a feeling I’d be needing my battle – dress shirt. I swallowed the mass of cheese in my mouth.

“Thanks.” I wiped my greasy pizza fingers on my pants and picked up my phone to check the messages. There were several texts from Dale. I wasn’t ready to face him to discuss our conversation, so I ignored them. There were also a few messages from Shawn, which I also ignored out of principle.

“Also, while you were out, I called your nurse friend to patch up my arm and redo your stitches. You tore them at some point after your ‘dashing’ escape from the hospital.” I winced at the thought of Leah coming to the condo because even though he texted, Dale had most likely come with her.

“Why couldn’t you have just done it yourself?”

“I don’t get hurt – well, not normally – so I don’t have any medical supplies,” she said. “Actually, I told them to come back later. It looks like it’s a good thing I did, you’re bleeding again.” I looked down at my shirt. Oh death...

“Uhh… that’s not blood, that’s just – pizza sauce.” She rolled her eyes again. Why do women do that so often? I mean, it couldn’t just be around me, right? Regardless, when I made it to the fifth pizza, the doorbell rang again, and Al gestured for Leah, carrying a gym bag, and Dale to come in. He and I avoided eye contact.

Leah redressed my wound and warned me not to tear the stitches open again. She scolded me for moving around too much. Also, she asked me why I wasn’t feeling much pain. I shrugged. Maybe it was because I’m just used to it from getting hurt so much recently, or maybe it’s the dulled senses I’ve felt after coming back to life, but now that I thought about it, the world didn’t seem so dim, and the pizza’s flavor was like an explosion in my mouth. Speaking of pizza, Dale tried to grab a piece, but I slapped his hand away and looked at him with fury in my eyes. For a moment it seemed like our issues were gone, but then we both averted our eyes.

While this was going on, Al walked over to the window and looked down at the city. She seemed concerned, but I couldn’t be sure because my face was busy scarfing down my food before Dale got any more ideas about swiping pieces of pizza. Whatever she seemed, her deep thoughts were interrupted. The window in front of her shattered.

Turning mid-bite, I saw Al, standing amid shards of glass, holding a rock in front of her face. She inspected it, then looked over at me. Curious, I stacked three slices of pizza, picked them up, and hopped off the stool. I ran over to see what she was concerned about but caught myself before I stepped on any glass. That’s when I noticed most of the glass were just globules on the floor. That explained why Al didn’t have a scratch on her.

I approached and peered into her hand. There was something written across the rock in permanent marker. It read, ‘Come to the Jesse’s apartment at midnight tonight. Come alone.’ The second ‘s’ in my name was messy as if it were written over a ‘u’.

The rock was clearly a message from Selena. I looked back and forth several times between the rock and the broken window. How could Selena have thrown a rock up here from the street? Maybe she really did have super strength, but how had she thrown it so precisely that it would have hit Al in the face?

“…Ken,” I said.

“Who’s Ken?” Al asked.

“Oh yeah – that’s Bullseye’s real name. He can hit any target that he can see. I should have killed him at the hospital when I had the chance.” Dale didn’t speak up, but Leah did.

“It can’t be him. We dropped him off at Shawn’s house.” I turned to her.

“How well did that work out last time we told Shawn to watch someone?”

“I get it – but Cara was there too.” I quirked my head at this. Had Shawn actually made progress with Cara? Gross.

“Well, how else would you explain how this rock got all the way up here from the street?”

“How the heck should I know? I only just found out magic really exists yesterday.”

“Actually, Jesse, I have a theory,” Al interjected. “When I went to the prison, I looked up the inmates you fought. Each of them had been visited, somewhat recently, by one person. Selena Gil.”

“That’s – What are you trying to say?” I asked.

“I think there’s more to her power than you realize.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“This is only circumstantial, but the evidence points toward her having multiple abilities. How else do you explain her finding you, not once, but twice; getting away from you while you ran at superhuman speed; and being able to use that trust thing you were talking about.”

“Don’t forget the super strength,” I chimed in, but she ignored me as if I hadn’t said anything.

“And now she seems to be able to have this targeting ability.”

“So…what? You think she can eat souls like me?”

“No, that whatever target kid seems to be still himself. Maybe she’s able to borrow or copy powers somehow.” We all contemplated this.

“Well, that’s not good,” Leah says.

“Right,” Al said. “She can probably use the warlock girl’s ability.” We considered this and Dale spoke up.

“I’ll call Shawn,” he said.

“Why would you call Shawn? He’ll just make things worse,” I said.

“Yeah, but Ken and possibly Cara are with him,” Dale said. “I think we’re going to need their help to fight Selena.”

“There’s no ‘we’, Dale. Me and Al are going to capture her, and I’ll talk some sense into her.”

“Yeah?” Dale got in my face; I kind of just got into his – neck and chest. C’mon, the guy’s huge – height-wise! I meant his height, nothing else. He continued. “And how well has that been working out for you, Jesse?” Leah tried to force herself between us, but we wouldn’t budge. Dale was an immovable object, and I’m crazy strong too. I didn’t even have to use any of the fiery strength I got from Al – well, I did a little, but not very much.

Our conflict was cut short when Al came over. She practically flung us across the room, away from each other, as if we were powerful magnets repelling one another. I think I hit a set of dumbbells or something because I don’t really know what happened next, but I remember waking up on the couch.

“Get up,” Al said.

I touched my head as I sat up and winced, there were sutures there.

“C’mon, it’s almost time.”

“Time for what?” I groaned. I looked over and Al stood with one hand on her hip by the door. She was wearing her combat gear.

“Time to go to your apartment. Get up.”

“But I thought…”

“Your work clothes are next to you.” I looked down; someone rewrapped my chest again. “Get dressed. Hurry up.”

I petulantly grabbed my shirt. Unfortunately, I only had one hand put the shirt on and the buttons... I still wasn’t used to it, but I figured I should be by now. I mean – it had already been a whole day. I must have been off my game because of the chest wound and the concussion I probably had. I was able to get one arm in but got tangled up trying to grab the other side and wrap it around, then Al surprised me again.

“Ugh, here.” She came over and put my arm through the sleeve. “You’re like a child.” I watched her face curiously, she buttoned up the shirt and even tucked it into my pants for me. I didn’t know what to say, but still responded.

“Thanks Mommy,” I mocked – and instantly regretted it. The look of pain that crossed Al’s face… I can’t even explain the level of guilt I felt. She turned away and walked back to the door. I reached out as if to pull her back toward me. “Al… I didn’t mean… I’m sorry.”

Ever since Al showed up, it felt like I’d fallen into old habits. Clowning around to hide and avoid my feelings like I was the same kid from before I’d run away, but then I’d end up saying something stupid. Maybe I subconsciously took the things I felt out on others. Looking back to that time, I deserved everything she put me through. Dale was right; he didn’t actually say it, but I could tell he thought it. I’m just an idiot that hurts the people around me.

“It’s fine. Let’s just go,” Al said. I’d learned my lesson and followed her without saying another word.