EEEETHAN! My eyes snap open. It seems like every time I shut my eyes the dreams return. I get up after what seems like hours later. I’m still alone but now in the dark. Did I really pass out for that long? I could have sworn it was morning. I hear people chattering as the night life too awakens from its slumber. I lift myself from a puddle of thick, dark blood. Fuck, the shard! Awake now, I scramble up and try to look at my reflection through the window. It’s too late. The moon is hidden and the metal beams that lie perfectly still shroud the city lights. Then, as if the world were against me, the sky begins to cry. I run for shelter, forgetting again the open wound on my back. As if to remind me the thunder booms and I search again for a reflective surface. My head feels heavy but I’ve rested too long. I find a mirror and a window inside the half built building. The electricity is out – obviously – but the club lights across the street shine through. This will do. I squint looking for the opening. Impossible. I look harder but I see nothing. I pull my wet t-shirt over my head and scan again. Nothing. What the hell is going on? I run back to where I lay just moments ago and the blood is gone. The rain beats hard against my bare back and the ground begins to flood, erasing any trace that an injury ever occurred. Am I going crazy? Too many questions. My head starts throbbing. I look up at the sky and scream at the lightning as it fills the night sky answering back with a boom, boom, boom. I slam my fist on the closest metal beam in frustration, only to find my fist buried within it. Surprised, I immediately rip it out. I look down at my hand in shock, scanning the front and back looking for something. I land my fist against the beam again only slightly lighter and look at my handiwork. A print of my fist forever engraved in the metal. I look down at both hands now. The rain drips down my hair and I shiver, not from the cold, but from the entirety of the situation.
I do what any other sane person does when he discovers he might have super strength. I leap up into the sky in hopes to fly. Swoosh. In a matter of seconds I find myself at the very top of the half built building soaring through the sky. The rain splits and the thunder shrieks as I get closer and closer to the clouds. As I make my way further upwards I reach for the nearest cloud only to find myself suddenly distancing myself from it. I’m falling faster than a speeding bullet. Holy fuck! Terrified, I flap my arms and legs, pleading, trying to swim upwards to no avail. Like a crater, I crash into a mess of metal coils and beams, dug deep into the cement. I’m still alive. I look around examining my body. Like the metal shard before, I see nothing. No shards, no scratches no bruises. So super strength and invulnerability, check. Flight, a definite no. I shrug. Who the hell cares? I’m invincible! But how is this even possible and why now? I laugh like a mad man in the heap of metal, cement and dirt that consumes me. I jump out from the rubble and head for the streets. iPod still playing I go out on a mission. Rise Against – Help is on the way.
As I leap from building to building – because, why not - my head is clear again. The rain covers my trail and no one dares challenge the storm. The streets seem quiet now. I listen closely as if I were a hunter, hunting for his prey. Like the old superheroes I read about as a child, with super strength comes super hearing and at this point I’m thinking super senses. The rain beats like a continuous drum fueling my desires and fantasies. I make a quick right and jump over a parking lot. A quick left and I land in front of a tall building. The sky is falling the sky is falling. I stand up tall and look around. No one to be seen for miles. It’s late now and office hours are closed. I wrap my t-shirt around my face and break down the glass door. Pieces from the window above shatter down behind me and I take a few steps forward. The alarm start blaring and the sign of the building joins the pieces of glass. I turn to look back at the crashing sound it makes as it slams into the ground and I make out, “Bank”.
