Redesign Me, State of the Art (Jalex)

They Say This Should Feel Something Like Fire

Alex's POV

I kept shaking him but he wouldn't wake up. It was one of those moments where you can physically feel your heart slamming itself against your rib cage; like right before you go bungee jumping, or finally ask your crush out. Sometimes I liked it. It reminded me that I was alive, that my heart was still pumping blood and I was experiencing another day of life instead of the alternative: being in a wooden box six feet under the ground. But this time it was just bothersome.  

Finally I felt a hand on my shoulder. I flinched at the touch, but released my anxiety when I saw that it was just Rian. I had almost forgotten that he was here. I kind of wanted to yell at him for giving Jack the information about what he thought he saw between Zack and I, but couldn't punish him for simply thinking. That would kind of be a dick thing to do. He gestured for me to move out of the way and took my place on the ground, propping Jack's head up onto his leg, and holding his hands to both sides of it. I wanted to ask what he was doing, but noticed the concentrated look on his face and decided to leave it alone.

All of a sudden Jack's head began to glow. Small streams of light broke free from beneath his hair and bounced off the walls of the small room, golden reflections relentlessly chasing each other along corners without actually catching one another. I stared in awe of the spectacle happening before my eyes. Jack groaned and squirmed a tiny bit before returning to lying deathly still.

"He's gonna be fine. He might wake up with a headache, but other than that he's good," Rian smiled sadly. I actually think he felt bad about what happened even though it was unintentional. 

"What was all that? The flashing lights and everything?" I asked, disregarding his reassurance and continuing to be mesmerized by the light show.

"Oh, that. That's uh, my power. I can pretty much heal all non fatal things. Wounds, diseases, stuff like that. Or at least detect what's wrong and try to lessen the symptoms as much as possible."

"Why nothing fatal?" I questioned.

"Well, I've only tried it once," he began to explain, removing his leg from Jack and gesturing for me to grab a pillow to replace it. "My body won't physically let me I think. Whenever I heal something, I usually get some sort of symptom from whatever was wrong with the person. Scrapes always leave little scars that burn for a while, and something like a cold just keeps me sneezing constantly for a day or two. But I guess, my body wouldn't be able to handle fixing something death-worthy because it would probably kill me. There was this one time, back in the end of sophomore year. I was driving to my grandparents house late at night and as I drove along the road, I saw a car flipped over on the side of the turnout. I pulled up a few feet away from it and ran to go look inside. There was this guy trapped in the front seat, unconscious. I checked his pulse and found that he was still alive. So I grabbed his arms and dragged him out onto the ground. When I put my hands to his bleeding head though: nothing. That had never happened before with anyone else. About a minute later, I checked his pulse again and he was gone. So, that's what I figured," he shrugged. While telling his story, he had propped Jack's head up on the pillow and moved to stand next to me.

"Wow, that's kind of cool. Um, I guess, you can go now," I awkwardly told him. Even though this wasn't my room, I had a feeling that ushering him out would help the both of us.

I sat on the floor next to Jack for the rest of the morning to afternoon. I didn't really question why no one had come into the room, assuming Rian had explained the situation and they were deciding to give us space. I wondered if this meant we were going to be kicked out of the organization. I mean, I could always fight it and expose Tay and Rian, but I wouldn't want them to lose the authority they'd built with these people. And what about Zack? Would he get thrown out as well? Tay already knew that he and I kind of had a thing, but kept quiet about it. Would she this time?