Extraordinary Individuals : Josiah Rising

Chapter 20

"So what's your plan?" Imani asked as we sat on the roof of our house watching the sunset. After my talk with Mr. Knight, I had filled my sister in on everything that had happened after my battle with Braxton and she hadn't exactly been too thrilled to hear that Alexis was here in our new hometown stirring up chaos in order to get to me. Alexis was the main reason why we were here in Charter to begin with but I knew that my sister was upset mostly because of what Alexis had done to me. She rarely showed it, but Imani was extremely overprotective of me and had been extremely hesitant to let Ashley and the rest of the girls get close to me when we first moved here and I can't say that I blamed her.
"I'm not too sure," I said quietly. "There's a lot going on in my head right now, kiddo."
Imani frowned. "Why now is what I'd like to know."
That's what I want to know as well, I thought to myself.
The past had a funny way of reminding you that it'd always be part of you and Alexis was my stark reminder that I still had yet to leave that part of me behind completely. I felt myself smile ruefully at that idea. As much as I wanted to face her and crush her, there had always been a part of me that hoped Alexis and I would never cross paths again. They say that you're supposed to heal from whatever hurts you or causes you trauma but I had done the opposite of that. I had buried my hurt and pain from her betrayal, tried to pretend that it didn't exist and that everything was okay but in the end I had repeated a pattern. Holding my powers back had caused my best friend to develop an inferiority complex that set him on a path of resentment towards me. Which in turn, had led to Alexis preying on that feeling and offering him a way to let the feeling out. My fight with Braxton had shown me that my powers would continue to bring me trouble the more that I ignored them and pretended that I didn't have them. It had taken all of this to make me realize that my powers were part of me and part of my life but that I had a choice to either accept that or continue to run from it.
"Hey, sis?" I asked, staring into the setting sun. "You ever wonder how different things would be if we were ordinary individuals?"
Imani looked at me in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"What if we didn't have our powers? What if the whole world never awakened powers to begin with?" I said.
It was something that I had often thought about in the nights where my thoughts had kept me up. If our world had never unlocked powers, would things have turned out differently for me and the people around me? Would I have ever met Braxton or Ashley or Yasmine? Would I have ever been forced to leave Chicago and come to a different city? And would Alexis have ever betrayed me? A world without powers was something that I had often wondered about on the days where I found myself hating my own powers or saw the destruction some people caused with their abilities. Was something like that even possible? It sounded ludicrous when I said it out loud but I couldn't help but wonder about it from time to time. A world without everyone being ranked by their level, without all the troubles that came with learning how to use your powers properly.
"I think things would be easier for you if no one had powers," Imani said quietly, breaking my thoughts. "I think you'd be happier honestly."
I looked at my sister. "Happier?"
She nodded. "Ever since our twelfth birthday when we got our powers, you've changed. You're constantly looking over your shoulder, second guessing everything you do, or getting stuck in your head. You used to laugh and smile but now you seem wistful or like the world is just bearing down on you. It felt like something in you died and as your twin I could feel it but I didn't know what to do to help you."
Her voice cracked a bit when she said that last part and I could see tears forming in her eyes but she held them back and continued to talk, taking a deep breath before doing so.
"Then you met Alexis and you lit up for a while. She made you laugh, she made you smile. She was slowly bringing back the brother that I knew and everything was okay and you were so happy, Josiah. You were happy. It felt like everything was back to normal and I didn't have to worry about you. But then...," She trailed off.
I sighed heavily. "She betrayed me."
Imani smiled ruefully. "And you fell back into that hole that you had climbed out of. But it was deeper this time, so much deeper. You stopped smiling, you wouldn't come out of your room when we first moved to Charter, you refused to speak about what happened and you shut all of us out. Then one day, you came out your room and said that you were fine but I knew you weren't and I could see it in your eyes and that stupid unconvincing smile you always put on so people won't worry about you or ask questions. That's when the self harm started."
I felt my eyes widen. "You knew?"
"I'm your sister," Imani said softly. "I knew that you were hurting yourself with your powers as a way to let out everything that you were feeling but it hurt to know that you wouldn't have done that if I had just reached out or protected you or something. If I had known what kind of person Alexis was, I could've saved you from all the pain and strife you had to go through that day. It's so ironic that my ability lets me protect people but I couldn't protect the one person who mattered the most to me."
I stared at my sister, my memories coming back to me of the three week long depression I had been in after what happened in Chicago. I had been heartbroken by Alexis turning on me and I had basically shut myself off from the world and my family, crying myself to sleep or staring listlessly at the ceiling of my bedroom. I wouldn't eat or sleep sometimes or if I did sleep then I was having nightmares about her betrayal and the look of disgust on all my friends faces. I remember the amount of phone calls from my friends in Chicago and that I had crushed my phone to silence it and sever my last connection to my hometown. I had thought that I was alone but in reality, Imani had been there. She had tried to reach out, to love me, to comfort me and I had been so lost in my pain that I shunned her and ignored her attempts to help me. As a result, my sister ended up feeling as if she had failed me and let me down but the truth was the exact opposite.
"Kiddo," I said, grabbing her hand.
Imani shook her head. "You don't have to say it. I don't blame you and I'm not angry. I'm worried. She's back and I don't know what's going to happen when you finally see her but you're not alone, okay? I'm here and so are your friends and your girlfriend. We'll fight with you till the bitter end."
I chuckled. "What was it that grandpa used to say? Keep fighting until you see the sun rise tomorrow. Until the day has been won."
Imani smiled, the last remnants of the sunset illuminating her face briefly. "Until the day is won."
I nodded. I wasn't alone. I had people standing behind who were more than willing to join me in my fight against Alexis. I had come a long way from the scared little kid in Chicago. I was stronger, braver and I had a reason to keep moving forward with my life. After our talk, Imani went back inside the house to get dinner ready but I told her that I'd be inside in a bit. As I watched my neighborhood, a thought kept circling back to me.
A world with no powers.
Was it even possible? I couldn't help but wonder that as I stared at the evening sky, the stars twinkling in one by one. I stood at the edge of the roof and stared out. I needed to clear my head so I activated my powers and zipped off into the night sky. The wind rushed past my ears as I leaped from building to building across the city, not knowing where I was going but that I just needed to keep moving until my thoughts stopped chasing themselves in my head. I slid across the roof of a furniture store, bits of gravel flying past my face but I didn't care about that as I continued to leap through the sky. After what felt like forever, I landed atop the roof of a skyscraper in the downtown area of the city, gazing out into the bustling city streets. I was slightly out of breath but I was also a bit calmer now that I had let myself just flow through the city. I crouched down on the ledge of the building, staring listlessly at the street below as I thought about everything that had happened in the last week or so. I had been forced to confront so much about myself and do things that I never thought I'd be able to do but I did. But now things were going to get even more hectic from this point on and I was going to have to face everything head on to keep the past from repeating itself.
"What the hell am I even doing?" I whispered to myself.
This wasn't how I imagined my life to be when I moved to Charter. I thought I'd be able to start over and live life without having to worry about everything going to shit but the harder I tried, the worse things got and I didn't know how much more I could take. The sudden ringing of my phone cut through my thoughts and I hastily pulled it out of my pocket to look at the caller ID. It was Yasmine.
"Hey, babe," I said as I answered. "What's up?"
"Well your location showed you were downtown and it's pretty late so I was wondering if you were okay," Yasmine responded.
I bit my lip contemplatively. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just getting some late night training in with my powers, sorry that I worried you."
There was a beat of silence before she answered saying, "Okay. Just be careful and text me as soon as you get back home."
She hung up and I let out a sigh of relief that I didn't realize I had been holding in. I stood up and took one last look at the city. This was my home now, this was my home and I would do everything I could to protect it from whatever scheme Alexis was coming up with. No matter what it took.