Powerless

Chapter 2

Ari yawned, sitting up from his sleeping position. He stood, rubbing his eyes and blinked a few times while stretching. He then shuffled to the bathroom and brushed his teeth, getting ready as usual. When he had rinsed for the third time, he looked in the mirror, with his jaw hanging open and his eyes blankly staring at his, even more than usual, grey-tinted complexion. "Damn." He thought. "I look disgusting." He stripped and entered the shower, partly to continue his good hygiene streak but mostly to wake himself up.

When he got out of the bathroom he was still groggy. In a weird way, the warm run of the water made him even more tired. He stayed in his blue plaid pajamas and slowly made his way towards the bedroom door. He turned the handle then pushed, but the door refused to budge. He jiggled the handle some more but it didn't seem like it was the handle which prevented him from getting breakfast.

"Bri can you please move whatever is there away?" Ari slumped against the door, calling out to the other side. It was too early for this. He rested his forehead on the cool wood of the door. He shut his eyes and blocked out the sunlight from his window by crossing his arms over his head. Ari heard Bri trying to suppress a laugh. "Dude, I just wanna eat breakfast." Bri finally burst out laughing and his voice echoed through the halls before a nearby door opened. Ari heard footsteps and could feel the atmosphere change as Bri stopped laughing.

"Bri, put the refrigerator back in the kitchen." Muse's cold voice commanded. Bri sighed as the door was freed. Ari waited until Muse returned to her room before he opened the door then went into the hall. In the living room, Bri was sitting on the couch, still smiling to himself. He was holding a bowl of cereal close to his face, as he stared at the news that played.

"Ha ha, it was even more hilarious than the last twenty times." Ari said, rolling his eyes. Bri giggled hysterically and spat milk all over the coffee table. Ari grimaced while he left the room to also get himself a bowl of milk and cereal. He noticed that the refrigerator was not fully in place and squinted his eyes. He kept eye contact with the unorderly object as he left the kitchen. He plopped down next to Bri, on the couch. "What's on?" Ari asked, trying to forget the past 10 minutes.

"Just the news." Bri replied, slurping the leftover milk in his bowl. Ari could tell, from his smug look, that Bri was purposefully trying to annoy him. Ari ignored this to the best of his ability. Eventually, Bri put the, now empty, bowl onto the table.

"Cool cool." Ari muttered. The news showed footage of protestors. People of all sizes, shapes, and colors were joined together in a large group outside of some official looking building, which Ari recognized as the New York City Hall. "What are they-?" Ari began to ask, before Bri interrupted with an answer.

"It's so stupid. They want our mayor to pass some law or something that bans us. They think we're gonna eat their kids or something." Bri said, using very expressive hand motions. He turned from his television screen and looked at Ari. "Did any of this stuff happen back in your old place?" He asked. These protests had only come up fairly recently but Ari would probably still not have heard of them. He wasn't interested much in the news and living on Staten Island was like being completely isolated from the rest of the city.

"Not really." Ari finally told Bri. He never told anyone about his powers when he was growing up, leading to him being completely ignored, which was a good thing. His family, however, were definitely not okay with his powers. His mother tormented him everyday and his only escape were fictional books about different worlds.

"It's crazy how people can think that we're neato but then turn around and say that others aren't okay." Bri started to rant. Ari got comfortable as he started to eat his cereal. "If we aren't protecting the public then we are instantly dangers to society. We didn't ask to be this way, you know. It was they who made us this way." Bri shook his head at the screaming people. Ari didn't quite understand exactly what they were protesting about.