Beep - Beep
Beep - Beep
I slowly opened eyes, at first everything was blurry, a mix of colours swirled around me.
Beep - Beep
I focused on my surroundings and a very familiar figure came into shape.
"Mom," I sighed. My voice was dry and dusty. I started to cough.
She squeezed my hand trying to calm me down.
"We haven't even been here a year and you've been in the hospital twice. Two too many times," Tears started to prick her eyes and I squeezed her hand back.
"Mom I'll be fine," I comforted even though I didn't know how bad I was injured. She rested her head on my arm.
We sat like that for a while, I took in my room. I was laying on a hospital bed (As usual it was very stiff) the room was white like the last time I was here and when I looked to my arm it had the same IV in it. The same TV sat in front of my bed, I news report of a Samurai terrorizing the city played on the screen, agh, there was always a threat in this city.
Painful memories of my last visit came flowing back to me and I tried to stop thinking about how bad this new injury could be. Then I remembered something quite funny, me sitting in the bed trying to use the force to grab the TV remote. I laughed a little at the thought, might-as-well try again!
"What the heck," I mumbled to myself l because mother was sleeping on my arm. I reached out with my other arm grunting because of the pain. I closed my eyes concentrating on the TV remote. Might as well try and bring a little joy to myself in these rough times.
Then my breath hitched. The remote floated into my hand. I screamed in shock and dropped the remote onto the ground it shattering.
"What's wrong?" My mother jumped awake checking if I was okay. "Nurse!" She called into the hallway.
I was stuttering in shock. Deep breaths, deep breaths, I told myself. That didn't just happen. Its the medication.
A nurse came running into the room. "What's the problem?"
Mom motioned towards me and the nurse walked over expecting my answer.
I looked at the broken TV remote on the floor, but it wasn't there anymore.
"Waa-" Then I saw it in the corner of my eye, on the table where it was before. "But- but the remote-" I pointed at it confused. Was I seeing things?
"You want the remote darling?" the nurse asked and I didn't respond.
She brought it over and I sighed.
"Thanks.." I mumbled staring at the controller. I saw my mom looking at me weirdly and I stopped.
"I was just wondering how it worked," I lied turning the remote over in my hand.
"Most likely the same as most controllers," My mom responded staring at me, "Did you forget? God only knows how hard you hit your head," She added.
"How hard did I hit my head? What happened on that bus?" I wondered, "has the doctor confirmed anything?"
"Not yet sweetie," She informed sadly. It was silent for a while as I took in the information. I tried to remember the events that occurred... Ralph, I remember that Ralph was there. What happened after that though? There was an extremely bright light and a wave of energy, an explosion maybe? But deep down I knew it wasn't some explosion, something felt weird, something wasn't right.
"Mum, you should go."
She looked at me shocked, "What?"
"I'll be fine. You should go home or to work."
"But what if the doctor-"
"I'm an adult, I can handle it." I said, "if anything happens I'll call you" I added for good measure.
"Are you sure?" She begged.
"Yes, mum I'll be alright." She lingered before leaving the room.
"I love you!"
"I love you too sweetheart, please don't fright to call!" and with that, she left the room.
I looked around enjoying the isolation.
"Did you take any tests while I was asleep?" I asked the nurse.
"We took a few blood tests," She admitted.
"Why?"
"We were told that some people on that bus could've been exposed to a dangerous substance."
"How dangerous?" I knew something wasn't right.
"We don't know yet, therefore the tests."
"Make sure you tell me the results when you find out," I added.
"Definitely."
"Ok, Thank you!" I finished. She left the room and I asked if she could close the door. I wanted to try this again.
"Here we go, Willow." I encouraged myself staring for an object to test on, hopefully, this time it wouldn't move.
I saw a glass of water in the corner of the room and did the same thing as before. I focused on the glass, picturing the water lifting out of the cup. I felt my figures tingle and I opened my eyes. "Jesus Mary And Joseph" I awed.
The water was floating in the exact shape I had pictured it. I lowered my hand and the blob stayed in place. Please don't tell me that I was going insane.
My eyes kept glued to the water as I slowly got out of the bed, I winced when I applied pressure to my leg and looked down, breaking my concentration on the liquid. When my eyes shot back up the water was sitting in its cup.
"What?" I wondered approaching the glass and rubbing my eyes. When I reached the table I quickly picked up the glass and analyzed it. There was nothing wrong with the glass, so the real question is, what is wrong with me?
I glanced around the dull room, then to my tingling fingertips, then to a mirror. I reviewed my reflection, my dark blonde her was knotted, and my normally chocolate brown eyes no longer held any glow and there was a dark bruise on my forehead. I tried to remember what I looked like this morning, before the nasty events of today.
With my eagle eyes on my mirror image, I watched as my face and hair returned to how I pictured it. "Why me?" I cried staring at my morphed face. I slowly brought my hand to my cheek and felt it... it wasn't real. As my fingers brushed my cheek my reflection glitched between my bruised state and this morning.
I swallowed and continued the motion. Each time I did it my heart stopped, it was like an illusion was placed over me, covering up the reality. This had to be a sick trick my mind was playing on me.
"Is everything okay?" A petite voice snapped me out of my trance. I abruptly spun around to face the nurse and instinctively covered my face.
"Oh dear, is something wrong with your face?" She said full of concern and I brought my hands down. "I know you hit your head hard, I didn't see any cuts though."
"It's fine," I lied. If I told her I was seeing things would they send me to the Koo-Koo's nest?
"You should sit down," she started and the reality of things started to dawn on me.
"What happened on that bus!" I demanded loudly and caused her to step back.
"We- We don't know," She admitted and my patience snapped.
"What do you mean you don't know! There's something wrong with me and you don't know!" I sneered. I wasn't crazy! whatever happened in that bus was the case of all of this!
"Calm down," She tried to reason.
"How I am supposed to be calm right now?!" I retorted. "There's something foreign inside of me that's dangerous!"
She pulled out a walkie-talkie and called for assistance. I took a threatening step towards her and clenched my fist.
What happened next left me agape. Energy surged out of my hand and knocked me and the nurse down. When I opened my eyes I was sitting on the floor of a bus, it had blue seats and yellow rims. When I noticed the poster on one of the walls I knew exactly what bus I was in, Bus 405...
The nurse stammered to her feet and looked around us in shock. When her eyes landed on me she backed as far away as possible.
"No, wait!" I called wanting to apologize for my sudden outburst and reached my hand forward. She stopped in her tracks, her face frozen in horror. When I approached her she didn't move... or blink.
"Did I do that?" I thought and eyed my hands, turning them over. That tingling sensation wasn't there before the accident, right? I fearfully watched my surroundings and was on the break of tears.
I loud noise shook the room and the bus walks glitched as a doctor walked through them.
"She's meta!" The nurse croaked from behind me, I span around and observed as she was slowly brought back into movement. When I looked back to the doctor he was sprinting out of the room and calling for help.
"No, I'm not a meta!" I called after him. I wasn't a meta=human, this was all just in my head! And if on cue the bus disappeared from around me and the lady was brought back to life. The nurse sped out of the hospital room screaming.
Security guards lined the room and covered the entrance. Then I realized... they had guns.
"I'm not a meta-human!" I defended. The men rushed forward and held me down. "Let me go! I'm just a normal person!" I tried to break free from their hold but it was too strong.
I felt a sting in my arm presumably from a needle. "Och! what was that!" I yelled but no one listened."I said what was that!" My body went limp and the men got off me, I couldn't move my legs, my arms or my head. All I could do was stare.
A doctor came into the room with a tray of nasty looking devices. I opened my mouth to speak but no words escaped, only a grown.
"Has she had a blood test?" The doctor asked. They couldn't do this to me! I was a citizen of the Central City and I had rights! They can't just experiment and paralyze me!
"Yes, the nurse took one while she was asleep."
"That's a shame, I was looking forward to handling more Meta DNA today, " The doctor informed the men. "I will be back with the results shortly." What was I going to do? I didn't even know I was a superhuman, my whole life I've been an average woman, nothing more. But what if somehow... somehow I was a metahuman? Would they knock me out and suddenly I would wake up in a testing facility? Could I spend the rest of my life as a lab rat?
Surely mother or Iris would look for me! I couldn't just disappear! Unless they do something to them too...
The doctor came back into the room holding a screen.
"This is the patient? Correct?" He asked looking at me.
"Yes, sir."
"This would be the third meta-human I've dealt with so far today," He commented pointing at me.
"Three?" A guard asked. "That's more than normal."
"I think that the substance on that bus created them," he informed. Well, that's just great, every day I ride the bus and nothing happens. I just happen to be on the one that has a meta-making substance.
"Let's see your results," He looked into my eyes with a smug smile. This guy was sick. Did he find joy in locking people up and testing them? He tapped on the screen no doubt accessing the results. I stared at the screen using all my strength to pray the results were negative. I felt a tingle pass through me and I shivered.
Ding!
I focused all my energy on the screen, feeling myself starting to lose consciousness.
"... I am deeply sorry Ms." He sighed putting the screen down. "I hope you can forgive us for our mistake-"
I sighed and let myself fall into the darkness.
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