Shattered Glass

Shattered glass

The wind blew lightly, and I sat there at the edge of the cliff.

“It’s been a while; I haven’t taken the time to just breathe for a moment.”

My eye catches the sunrise. The blends of red and orange blanketing the sky are like a paintbrush with a long stroke.  At that point, I felt nothing; even the wind blowing was but a slight touch.

My hand guided itself to meet the sunrise, and as I looked, my anger grew. A burning inside my chest with thunderstorms clouding my mind,

“What am I to do?”

The question persisted as he looked onward to the ocean, watching as the waves gently pushed up against the grain.  He makes a fist, and a dark aura glows purplish around his hand; he tosses it out over the ocean.

“What am I? This power damned upon me, I must be corrupt in some fashion. A power so strong that a fragile body cannot handle.”

The tips of his fingers peel.

“Why do others get powers of flight, or survive in the vacuum of space, or……see space time?”

Closing his hand, the blackhole above the ocean disappears, in an instant, allowing his fingers to regenerate.

The wind blows behind him as a shadow slowly covers him, causing him to look up.

“What are you doing, you goof?”

She says to him her thick braids matched her chestnut skin and brown eyes, her wide nose had a piercing in it, and she had a bar code as a tattoo on her wrist in protest of something. As she floated down in a black, old, and worn leather jacket from her brother, who was stationed in Japan, he was always sending her back some kind of souvenir. Her denim jeans matched her style of all black Jordans. As she came closer, I could feel the weight of my shoulders lift.

“You still self-loathing again? Is it about whether or not you’ll be accepted into A.o.H?”, Nips says.

“No” I reply

“Then what is it you’ve been out here for hours? I think I’ve given you enough space, Seth.”

And there it was, the sentence I hate to hear, an anger began to build within me, a voided inferno of never extinguishing flame. We locked eyes, my brown eyes met with hers.

“You think I need permission, Nips?”

The look on her face as her mouth dropped temporarily, taking a step back before leaning down to me with a hand out.

“No, grumpy, I’m just saying. I don’t want to leave you sulking too long, as your sis, I know how you get.”

I rolled my eyes at her comment, which caused Nips to laugh. I turned my attention back to the ocean, looking over the waves as they went back to the normal push and pull fashion.

“Ease for you to be so chipper, look at the powers you were born with?”

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“Flight, Durability, and they are still trying to decide whether or not you classify as a high class for 4 mutants; you realize you can get a government job with a power like that”.

As the words left my lips, I couldn’t help but look down at my hands.

“You talk as if your powers don’t have benefits…”

“If there are any, then what?”

“As if I know,”

She breaks to let out a laugh,

“That’s why we are heading to A.o.H, no way you don’t classify as a category 4 or 5 mutant, you make freaking Black holes for Christ’s sake…. don’t you think that’s a little…. I don’t know, above average?”

I stood, getting tired of sitting. The wind started to slightly blow, with the few trees around us blowing, ever so often, one of the pink and red leaves would break off and fall to the ground, and I couldn’t help but watch it. Consequently, I missed some of the blabbering my sister was talking about.

“Hey…. Douche! Stop zoning out.”

“Yeah, yeah, talk to me about above average when my finger tips don’t turn to bone every time I use my powers.  The pain of feeling my flesh stripped off from the muscle every time I use my power? And Lord forbid I try to what? Be a hero…. Please, I exert too much power, and who knows it starts stripping flesh up to my elbow.”

I could tell from the look on her face that she was disgusted; she hates it when I talk like that. We’ve had this fight probably a million times, and we’ve never pushed my powers past my fingers as the pain becomes too great once the flesh begins to rip from my palms. I’ve tried so many times, and it burns me up inside every time I see others who have mastered their craft or at the least their powers don’t have such a ridiculous downside to them.

Nips sighs, “You know there will come a point when you’ll have to learn to control your abilities and not just bitch and cry about it.”

“What did you say?” My tone shifted subconsciously, I paused briefly….” I mean, you’re saying something that sounds easy, but name me a single hero that I could learn from at A.o.H. I don’t know anyone with similar powers”.

Nips looks with a bright smile, “Well, you know when we get accepted, Dr.Astro could probably be your mentor, yeah?” She holds her fist out, waiting for mine in return

“Dr. Astro?”

I said with surprise, I honestly hadn’t thought about that. I mean, I was strong, yes, but it was never really discussed at any of the Teen Heroes clubs.

“You ready to go? Mom has been calling for you for a while now. Dad comes back today.” Nip says

“Dad,” I reply

I completely forgot, the emptiness and void that has been driving my rage subsides, or at the moment I hope. For a moment, I’m happy, even if I don’t express it, I finally respond and bump my sister’s fist back.