True Colours

1.2 Awakening

When his grandfather died he experienced these newfound special abilities tenfold. He remembered the coffin lid being fastened for the final time in the funeral home. The room erupted into cries of despair as the coroner twisted the cross shaped screws into the pine casket. At the same time, everyone's aura grew around them and turned to the darkest blues and turquoise greens. These airborne shapes began to merge and swirled together into a unified, oceanic torrent that encapsulated the room. When the coroner finished the deed, this circulating mass of colour gradually diminished, with that of the sobs and wails that faded into a few short sniffles and prolonged exhales.

Though Jason was quite young at this time, around seven, he was very bright and beyond his years intellectually. He decided to keep these "super powers" to himself in order to save himself from any likelihood of years of childhood counseling sessions or worse. In his high school years other special abilities then began to show its face.

On a thundery Thursday afternoon, Jason was in the middle of history class when an unmerciful migraine began to buzz inside his head. It caused him to wince and cry in pain, so much so that the teacher sent him to the nurse's office. The school's nurse was dealing with another student at the time, so Jason had to wait his turn on a chair outside the infirmary in a long empty hallway.

His pain was increasing in strength and began creeping down his neck, to his chest and eventually all the way to his legs and feet. Suddenly a cool hand rested on his head, and just as quickly as the pain had started it diminished until it was no more. His fists, that had tightened with pain, now eased open. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow and raised his head to find a familiar figure.

His grandfather, who had passed years previous, stood before him in a bright apparition. His feet were not on the firm ground however, but stood about two feet above it on what seemed another plane. His grandfather smiled and raised his hand from Jason's head and began to communicate with Jason. His mouth didn't move, instead Jason heard his grandfather's voice echo softly in his head. He sounded muffled as if he was talking underwater, but Jason got the jist of the message.

He told him something that he already knew, that his abilities were special and furthermore that he should use them only for good. His grandfather also said something in a hurry at the end of this apparition that Jason couldn't understand. The words "silver widow" echoed in his mind as the sound of his grandfather's voice faded. What Jason's grandfather tried to tell him has remained a mystery that itched the back of his mind ever since.