Love Conquers All _The Sequel_

Chapter Twenty Three - Trial and Error

Michael's POV:

My eyes peel open and suddenly a massive throbbing sensation begins to pound inside the walls of my skull. There's a weird scent of charcoal tingling my nostrils... My ribcage aches as I sit up.

"Good god," I hear a voice proclaim. I squint a bit, my fuzzy memory trying to recall my whereabouts.

"Let's toast up some marshmallows in this joint," a different, male voice says.

My vision becomes clearer and I can see a girl and a boy standing over me, the girl looking slightly angry and also worried, and the boy in awe.

And then I remember everything, my temporary amnesia gone, and my head pulses more intensely.

I groan, shutting my eyes. "What did I do?" I utter, short of breath.

"You just friggin' spit fire," Tex says, and holds out a hand to lift me up.

I stand, using his guidance, and grunt.

"Feeling better?" Mary asks.

"Yeah, better than I was when I first fell. Do you really think I'm immortal?"

"Yeah, you're healing yourself. You should've died!" Tex tells me, and it frightens me a bit.

"I have powers, too?" I ask, looking at the palms of my hands. Mary nods.

And I find this a perfect time to experiment. I outstretch my arms and flick my wrist out towards the open field besides us. I think of fire, I want to see fire.

And fire is what appears. Blasting from my fingertips, cool flames lick the grass and catch ablaze.

Ice now, is what I want, to extinguish the fire. And with another flick of my wrist, a flurry flies from my hand.

The snowy flakes settle down atop the fire and it sizzles to dim ash. With the flames gone, Mary and Tex watch in wonder as I try to explore my full potential.

I look down at my feet and smile. Now I want to fly.

Think happy thoughts, I tell myself. Mary thought of me when she first took flight, so I decide to think of her. I think all the way back to the night we were walking back to the house from the library. We were just talking, before she tripped, and the whole situation was just relaxed and kind of funny. I remember how I took her hand and that's when she fell.

I laugh, and then, snapped back into reality, my feet begin to float above the gravel beneath me. So entranced by this magical moment, my mood begins to soar as I laugh even more, and I rise higher. Mary begins to applaud and Tex cheers.

Feeling accomplished, I lower myself and when I land, I take a deep breath.

"Thanks for the powers Mary," I comment, and then laugh. Her and Tex laugh as well, and then there is silence.

"Do you think I can make clones, too?" I ask.

"Uh... Maybe," Mary says, "but I don't think I would venture so far as to see whether or not you can. The cloning was a bit of a dangerous thing, to me."

I nod, understanding, and I agree. The cloning isn't useful to me... So I might as well forget about it.

I glance to my side and try to grow a flower. As I twirl my fingers, sure enough, a dazzling red rose sprouts from the soil. I pluck it, avoiding the thorns, and hand it over to Mary. She smiles and takes it from me, putting it behind her ear.

Then she reaches up and waves her hand across my face. Puzzled, I furrow my brow a bit. I begin to feel my hair moving somehow, and I feel around my head to see what's happening.

There are tiny little white and pink flowers growing around my skull in a crown, and I laugh as I realize it.

I glance over at Tex. He needs flowers too, and I decide to try to grow a crown on him just as Mary did me.

And so, I wave my fingers across his face, and he stands, waiting, in awe, as I work my magic.

Nothing happens though, so I stop and look down at my hands, frustrated.

Tex still waits, silent.

I graze my hand across his face once more, attempting to make the flowers appear. I can see it in my mind; I can see the tiny little petals blooming across his scalp, but nothing happens.

Upset, I pull my hand away and grunt, and then I thrust it back towards him.

"Grow!" I shout with a gesture of my fingers, but what I want isn't happening.

Instead, as my hand swishes at Tex in frustration, something goes wrong and he suddenly disappears.

And that's it.

He's gone, and I have no idea where he went or what I did.