Inhibition

Chapter 1

It was dark

Darker than dark

Not night, with the moon shining

But dark as if there was no moon

There never was a moon,       

Nor a sun.

There was nothing bright.

Light’s harsh touch had never touched this planet.

The beings slumbered there.

Life at peace.

It wasn’t life like what others thought.

There was no form to this life.

There was no conscious thought.

There was no evolution.

Things were at peace,

Not moving,

Not changing,

Not feeling,

And yet it was good.

There was no life,

No comfort,

No compassion,

But there was no hate,

No fear,

No rage.

They lived in a perfect state of not being.

And then the light came.

It washed over the land,

Searing,

Uncaring.

It didn’t know anything.

It was prideful, unresting.

It was Good.

It burned the land,

Shattered the calm,

And awoke beasts better left sleeping.

Cat stood, watching it all.

Watching a peaceful world at peace.

Watching the invaders, the light bearers.

Watching the light, so bright it hurt

Feeling the scalding heat after it being so cold.

So cold and so comfortable

She stood, her hair whipping in the wind that now existed, created by the contrasts never before known.

Hot and cold.

Light and dark.

Life and death.

She felt the silent cries from the unscreaming.

She felt the pain from the unfeeling.

And she felt eyes open.

Eyes that should never open.

Eyes open and gazing onward, hungry in this new world.

Cat shot up in bed, her hands clutching the blanket to her chest. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and sweat slowly slithers down the back of her neck. Her blonde curls were stuck to her damp face.

            She sighed heavily, dropping the blanket and moving to rub her face. She didn’t finish the action. Her hands were . . . glowing? A faint purple light radiated from beneath the blanket where her hands were. She drew them out to look. Purple lightning danced between her fingers, winding around her palms and racing across the back of her hands. It was glowing, the light faintly pulsating as if it were alive.

Cat moved her hands, twisting her hands at the wrist, and the lightning followed. It didn’t hurt. Quite the opposite. It glided over her hands like smooth water, calming and light. Everywhere it touched tingled slightly, in a good way. She was being energized from the outside in.

She started to breathe deeply, and her heart beat slowed down. Became stronger. It was still there in her ears, still present and still so loud it was nearly deafening.

Thu-thud. Thu-thud.

Her whole body was thrumming with energy. Every cell was sending out the same signal.

Thu-thud. Thu-thud.

The lightning in her hands started to pulse with it as well.

Cat had used lightning before, like in that day so far away. Her first day of the Academy she had discovered the lightning inside her. The lightning that had always been inside her. It had come out in spurts after that. In school, when something happened. During combat class, when they were learning to fight. And that fateful day over break, when she had killed with it.

At that thought, the pulsing lightning started to sizzle out. The strikes became erratic, less concentrated. They no longer stuck to her hands and the area between. They radiated out, hitting the sheet, dancing around her arms. As they spread, the light and energy as a whole stayed the same. Spread out, the strikes moved slower and were less bright. Soon, they disappeared altogether.

Cat just sighed, and flopped back onto her bed.

It had been a week since they got back to the Academy.