Opposite Heroes

Prolouge

           The nurses had no idea that having triplets was a perfectly normal occurrence where she was from. But, considering that no one knew where it was other than the people living there, she decided not to mention it to them for fear their brains would just outright explode from everything she told them. At least, that was what she, with her limited knowledge of outsiders’ thought processes, thought would happen. What she didn’t realize is that no one would actually believe anything that she said. In the place where she lived, it was rare for anyone not to believe something someone told them, no matter how farfetched it was. Everyone was also always unconsciously honest, loved the number 3, and adored apples.

            So she just sat there, letting the frantic doctors and nurses rush around, checking vitals and subjecting the fragile babies to all other sorts of tests she didn’t recognize. The mother looked down on her twin boys and little girl and smiled. Strangely enough, while the nurses were checking the little children, one of them, the one she decided to call Josh, had a higher body temperature than the others. The paler boy, whom she called Ben, had what looked like a glowing aura of faint light. And the little girl, who she called Rachel, was very light and could be lifted with barely any effort. The doctors were bewildered at this, talking together and expressing concern that something was wrong with the children and that they were sick or mutated in some way. But the mother just waved them away, informing the doctors that her children were perfectly healthy.

            And in fact, they were quite healthy indeed. Aside from their own individual quirks, they were positive in every test the doctors gave them. So the doctors went on with business as usual. The mother, whose name was Aria, was grinning at her friend, Julia, who was in the room. She said nothing; for the doctors had no idea Julia was there, as Julia had talent of being unseen. Julia pointed to something on the ground. Aria leaned forward to see what Julia was pointing to. It was a dark shape on the ground, squirming and writhing with no particular form. The shape suddenly stopped squirming, and took the rough shape of a newborn baby. Light-grey circles, like eyes, blinked in existence, and a light-grey mouth smiled back at her. Aria put her finger over her lips and shooed it away. It nodded, and darted toward baby Josh.

Along the way, it passed over a thermometer and a glass of water, while a warm breeze wafted in from an open window. After it passed over the thermometer, the LCD display numbers started decreasing, until it had dropped down to freezing. A nurse noticed this, and lifted up the device, punching buttons rapidly and muttering to herself.

            The glass of water had a much more extreme effect. The glass cup was covered in frost, and the ice cubes in the water started to spread through the water until the cup was completely filled with ice. No one noticed at first, but a biting cold breeze made the main doctor glance up. And then, she saw the glass of now-ice sitting on the bedside.

“Why,” she asked to no one in particular,” is that cup filled with solid ice?”

Everyone looked up from their jobs and stared, open-mouthed, at the glass.

“It’s amazing.”

 “Why would it be frozen on a nice summer’s day?”

“I’ve never even heard of something like this happening.”

Aria’s heart beat faster in her chest, and she groaned inwardly. She knew it was impossible the medical personnel would know it was the shadow, but what if they blamed it on her children? She had seen television shows about government men taking away children involved in strange, even extraterrestrial events, and this could certainly be classified as such. She waited with bated breath, hoping that the worst wouldn’t come.

            Thankfully for women of science, they didn’t seem that interested. They walked back to their stations, the chief doctor muttering she would report the incidence to the nearest laboratory and ask if a flash freeze like the one she had witnessed had ever been recorded. Aria breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t concerned about if the scientists asked of the room’s occupant at the time, because she doubted they would. Even if they did, she had read that the people at the hospital had to be anonymous about her because of her rights. Relaxed, she looked down at the three small babies in her lap. They were all sleeping peacefully, and she began to feel tired. So much had happened in the few minutes after her children’s births, and she felt exhausted. So she closed her eyes and slept, dreaming of days filled with happiness and laughter, and devoid of the tension and horror of recent events. Memories that now felt as far away from her as the place she once called home.