The Pain Thief

Chapter 2

SUPERPOWERS? SERIOUSLY?

Alright, so it's probably something she should've mentioned earlier, but it honestly just slipped her mind. How? Well she really tried not to think about it if she could help it. 

See, after her parents died, Zoe noticed some strange things. For one, she overheard nurses in her hospital room talk about how she didn't even have a scratch on her. Looking at her hands, which had been cut when she'd fallen, she saw they were right. Even the cut under her hairline had disappeared, leaving just a thin trace of blood in her hair. 

Zoe thought maybe she had been hallucinating or something, so she kind of just forgot about it for a time. 

Not long after that, she was at school again with Jack. Some older kids were making fun of her because of her hair when Jack stepped in. For an eight year old kid, he knew how to fight very well. That didn't mean that he didn't come away with a few good bruises and a split lip. 

Jack was sitting on the sidewalk later that day, holding an icepack to his face. Zoe sat down next to him, feeling so bad that he'd gotten hurt because of her. At that point their friendship was relatively new, so she didn't understand why he would protect her. 

"You know Zoe," he started, his voice startling her, "I did this because I wanted to. It's not your fault."

Zoe looked down between her knees, searching desperately for something to say. She looked up to notice Jack staring at her curiously. 

As if on impulse, Zoe reached out and touched his face, cupping his cheek with her hand. He seemed completely surprised as his eyes widened. 

Zoe let her hand hover over his face and felt a rush of energy move through her body. When she removed her hand, Jack no longer had any bruises on his face. Then she reached up to let her hand rest over her mouth, pulling it away when his lip was fixed. 

Realizing what she had just done, Zoe felt her heart speed up and got up to run away when she felt Jack's hand enclose around her wrist. 

He was standing now too, holding onto her tightly, but not so tight that it hurt. His eyes were wide in disbelief. 

"You too?" he said quietly. 

"What are you talking about?" Zoe said, her voice shaking. 

Jack released her wrist and swallowed, looking down so Zoe could no longer see his eyes. "You're, you're special. Right?"

Suddenly Jack seemed incredibly vulnerable and Zoe wasn't sure what to do. She got close to him and said quietly, "So you mean... you mean you know what I did?"

He looked up in confusion. "You don't know?"

She shook her head and he went on, "Um yeah. You're special. Like me."

From there they went on to figure out her powers. Apparently Jack was able to make swords appear out of thin air and also had the ability to adjust his fighting style to them. He showed Zoe and she was surprised at how well he was able to fight. 

Eventually they figured out that she was a great healer, and because of that, sometimes her injuries healed themselves. 

When they figured this out, Jack began to spar with her, teaching her how to fight so she could defend herself. Turns out, she didn't need it. Zoe had the power to create shields out of light. Eventually Jack tried his swords on her and her shields held. 

Zoe trained with her shields and healing abilities while Jack trained with his swords. They found that they made a good team with Jack on offense and Zoe on defense. 

Knowing this worked out well in situations such as this, when they found themselves facing an unknown enemy. 

Since they discovered their powers, they also found that creatures were attracted to the energy they emitted. Somehow they always managed to find the two of them. 

Now these creatures usually had a rough animal shape, but were almost always gray and hazy, like they really didn't exist. They were easy enough to defeat, but had been appearing more often as of late, making things difficult for Zoe and Jack. 

Jack stepped out in front of Zoe and held his hand out. In his hand appeared a long katana that he grasped firmly. 

Zoe kneeled down behind him and felt her power move through her. Her eyes began to glow silver as she placed her hands on the pavement in front of her. 

"I'm ready. Go Jack, I'll take your pain," she said. Zoe could feel the energy moving in her body and the energy moving in Jack's. Now she could heal him even if she wasn't right next to him. 

Jack never fought recklessly though, despite the fact that he always had Zoe standing by to fix him if he got hurt. When he got hurt, he always reacted guiltily, as if it was his fault. He was always protective of Zoe, and hated it when he was the cause of her pain. She always told him it was her power though, pretending to be fine despite any lingering pain. 

Jack took a fighting stance and rushed forward, moving quickly and with purpose. Zoe remained where she was, but kept her eyes trained on Jack. She could defend him with her shields if need be. 

He slashed out and the creature, let's call it a haze, jumped back. It rushed to him, but he slashed with a uppercut. The haze dissolved on the spot, leaving no evidence of its existence. 

Jack stood contemplatively, letting his sword dip to the ground before dissolving. 

Zoe got up and her eyes returned to their normal gray coloring. She swept her hair to the side and went over to stand beside Jack. 

Looking at him, she was reminded of when they were kids. She'd been an inch or so taller than him before he hit his growth spurt and now he was a good four or five inches taller than her. They were both thin, but he was a bit more lanky than her. 

Zoe placed her hand on his shoulder and he looked up, as if coming back from a trance. His eyes softened as he smiled. 

Zoe smiled back warmly and gave him his backpack that he'd left. 

"Are you alright Jack?" she asked quietly. 

He nodded. "Fine. You're not hurt right?"

"I'm fine," she said, laughing lightly. "We should get going. We'll be late."

Jack sighed in exaggeration and whined, "Aw come on Snow White do we have to?"

Zoe smiled and chuckled. Jack always whined and made things difficult, but he was always just joking around. 

She started walking and he had to run to catch up to her, laughing the entire time.