Abilities Vol.2

Chapter 9: What's hidden underneath

When the school day ended I rode my bicycle to my elementary school. There were a few kids playing basketball and some older high schoolers swinging the chains on the swings around the pole that held the swings up so they were too high for the elementary schoolers to reach it. I was listening to music when my friends showed up. Of course it was none other than Rachel, Caitlin, and Michelle. Caitlin looked up at me with a concerned look on her face. "Sophia, no one is here." She said. There was a few people here but I was hiding from them way out in the baseball field.

"Tell us what's under the bandages." Rachel demanded. "We can't sleep at night knowing there's something wrong with you."

"You guys were fine when I first got my abilities." I replied.

"We didn't know then, but when we found out it scared us. Kept us up all night long for weeks." Michelle said. "We spent every night wondering whether or not you'd be back the next day. Whether or not you were alive. No more secrets. Even if the world leaders want this as a secret, you're going to tell us now." Michelle put a lot of emphasis when she said 'now.' I stretched and took a deep breath.

"Ah, fuck it. Telling you three won't kill me. Definitely gonna worry you guys though." I slowly started undoing the bandages.

"We don't give a fuck." Rachel spoke blatantly. I watched as the bandage fell to the grass beneath me. My friends expressions said it all. The part of me that was fake was out for them to see. I thought I would feel... I don't really know. Showing them the chunk of my forearm that was replaced with metal, I thought I would feel anything but weird. "What...?" Rachel sped over to stand right in front of me and gripped my wrist. She examined my arm, gently twisting and turning it.

"What does it do?" Caitlin popped into the inspection. I laughed a little. Caitlin seemed a little excited if anything. I removed my arm from Rachel's grasp.

"Wait for 5 seconds to pass." I said quickly. A small flame appeared in the palm of my hand. I watched as it flowed back and forth to my command. Once five seconds pass the metal piece made a quiet beep noise and it shocked me. Now you'd expect this shock to be not that bad right? Well you're wrong. The shock was so painful it brought me to my knees. It felt like it was cooking my insides for a split second. And in that split second I felt like I was going to throw up. It's like when we sneeze, but worse. Sometimes when a human sneezes, the heart can slow down, skip a beat, or sometimes even stop. But it instantly starting doing its job of keeping you alive again. The sting in my arm was the same. Only difference is that it took a while for the beat to start again.

"Holy shit!" Rachel yelled as she ran to my side. "What was that?" Quickly the small fame disappeared. Michelle and Caitlin joined the gathering around Rachel and me.

"It shocks me any time I use my abilities for more that 5 seconds. And if I were to use them for 10 seconds, that sting from earlier will be 2 times more painful. They wanted to make the shock so painful so I would eventually give up." I explained while standing back up.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it." Rachel said while speaking with her hands. "Its pretty much implanted into your arm."

"Yea, it hurts like a bitch to touch it so that's why I put bandages over it. I also put it on since the part where the metal meets my skin won't bleed out 24/7. And so the bullies at school won't be dicks about it." I explain. My friends looked at me worriedly. Michelle without hesitation grabbed my arm and gently sets one of her fingers on the edge of the metal piece, where it met my red scarred skin. I flinch slightly in pain.

"Is there any way to get rid of it? Like someone we can see?" Michelle asks.

"No... I mean," I chuckle. "Unless we cut it off."

"Sophia!" Michelle yells as she grips my shoulders.

"I'm kiddin'. Fuck cutting it off. Anyways, the ones that implanted this in me didn't want me to tell anyone. So you can't tell a soul. And act as if you guys don't know, alright?" The three nodded. "Thanks guys." I said. After a few minutes my arm started bleeding again. A lot too. In a mere moment my arm was dripping with blood.

"Sophia!" Michelle said as she got down to my level. She sat next to me and rubbed my shoulder.

"R-Rachel." I said as it started bleeding faster.

"Yes?" Rachel said while kneeling down. Her expression made me feel bad. She was worried like crazy.

"Can you put the bandages back on for me?" I ask. She nods and grabs them. She quickly puts them back on. "Thanks." I said while moving my hand up and down my arm. I stood up. "I'm gonna head home. I'll see you later."

"Bye." The three said in sync.

"Be careful you potato!" Caitlin yelled. I laughed sarcastically and walked away from my friends. Even though I was far away from them, I felt their eyes on my the entire time I was walking until I disappeared into the trees.

Michelle's POV

"I'm worried." I said once I knew Sophia couldn't hear us.

"Me too." Rachel said. "She's the youngest one out of all of our friends, and yet she has to grow up through all of this." Rachel sighed. "Grew up faster than all of us."

"She seems to be taking care of everything though." Caitlin says.

"That's because she was forced to grow up so fast." Rachel says. I thought for a second. Rachel was right. She was forced to grow up into an adult way too early. And yet she wears a smiling face every day. Like this never happened. But under that mask, who knew how she felt. No one knew. It was a secret. And I knew why. Because she didn't want to worry us. She felt as if it was her fault she 'ruined our lives.' That's a lie. In fact, I think she made them interesting.