Seventeen year old Jay Sasaki lives in a world where corporations spend millions of dollars to exploit superpowered children and the media defines good and evil. Cursed with the ability to steal souls, Jay leads a double life as both a normal high s...
On the night before the last day of my junior year of high school, I found myself stealing souls, visiting a haunted mansion, battling Captain Fedora, and baking a batch of rather tasty blueberry muffins. It wasn't exactly a typical night for me, but I can't say that it was completely abnormal either. It was just another day in the life of my alter ego, the Dastardly Demon.
Forgive me - I should probably start from the beginning. It all began when I got home from school that day. I was about to start studying for my English final, but a nagging feeling in my stomach distracted me. It was impossible to focus on whatever had happened in The Scarlet Letter with that sort of pain gnawing at me from the inside, and before long, I had not only a stomach ache, but a headache as well, and my left leg was beginning to throb. By the time I finished reviewing my notes, I knew what was going on.
I hadn't used my superpowers in nearly three months.
Nobody really knew what happened to people who didn't use their powers, but the rumors didn't give anyone much hope. During my time at the Academy, I had heard of an experiment where a group of superhumans were forced to go without using their powers. Their health had steadily worsened, going from mild aches and pains to organ failure over the course of a year as their powers ate them from the inside out. Like many things in the superhuman community, it was a story told in hushed whispers, never confirmed by the Academy, but that didn't mean that it wasn't true.
I knew what I had to do as soon as I realized that this wasn't an ordinary illness. I felt an impulse to use my powers as soon as possible, but I took a deep breath and tried to contain the urge. My house was definitely not the best place to use my powers. Dad was the only one who was home, and I would never forgive myself if I took his soul. I had to find a better way to get this over with.
I thought of the graveyard on the outskirts of San Urbano, where there might be a few recently dead people who probably wouldn't mind me stealing their souls. It was the best chance that I had at using my powers without harming anyone else. I opened the door and was about to leave when Dad called from the living room, "Jay! Where are you going?"
"It's kind of complicated," I said. "I'll explain later. Can I please borrow the car?"
"Oh, I see," Dad said. "Is this one of your supervillain exploits?" I nodded, and Dad shrugged and said, "I suppose you can borrow the car. Just be back before eleven o'clock this time." He then returned to his novel. Thankfully, he never asked too many questions. He seemed to think that it was better not to know too much about my superpowers, which was probably true, but it was hard not being able to share a huge portion of my life with my dad.
I left the house, hopped into Dad's black SUV, and drove down one of San Urbano's winding streets until it led me to the graveyard that I was looking for. I parked the car and entered the graveyard. Once I was in the cemetery, I walked past each grave and read the dates engraved on them. Almost every grave was far too old for me to use. I couldn't steal someone's soul if they had been dead for too long, although I couldn't figure out why. Even after four years, there were still so many things that I didn't understand about my own powers.
