Paroxysm ⇢ [Delirium, Book One]

V

I cough and start to gasp for air, sliding down the wall and onto the floor. I bend forward and press my hands to the cool floor tiles, hoping they'll take the warmth away. I let my head drop and close my eyes for a moment, feeling drained. The door bursts open and a girl with warm honeyed auburn hair comes crashing into the bathroom.

"Holy crap what happened in here, are you okay?" The girl says, dropping to her knees in front of me and throwing her rucksack down at her side. She places a hand beneath my chin and lifts my head to look at her.

She's bird-like and delicate, her eyebrows are knit together in concern and I can feel that it's genuine. I can't form words yet, my body starts to shake with the after effects of that blast.

"Can you hear me? Are you alright?" She asks again when I don't have the air in my lungs to answer her. I nod slowly and take deep breaths. She turns to look behind her at the wreckage.

"That's some damage," she says, stifling a laugh. I frown, why on Earth is she laughing? "Telekinetic, huh?"

Normally my radar for not quite human creatures is pretty good, but given the fact that a truck's worth of kinetic energy just forced its way out of me I make an allowance for not picking up on this girl's status as not one hundred percent human. She notices me frowning, probably looking a little unnerved by the fact that she just casually mentioned I have supernatural abilities.

"Oh," she laughs, "I moved here from somewhere where everyone like us is out in the open, no hiding from the norm-o's. Still getting used to it, having to be subtle and all..." she explains with a smile.

"Where exactly is it you moved here from?" I ask, my ability to speak and breathe normally finally returning. My head starts to pound, and I feel like I just ran a marathon.

She frowns for the briefest moment, "I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"Sounds like somewhere I'd be better off, anyway," I mutter, preparing myself for someone less understanding to inevitably walk in on this disaster zone. The girl stands and offers me her hand to help me up, which I take gladly and offer her a quiet thank you.

"I'm Wren," she says, giving my hand a light squeeze before she drops it.

"Hazel?! Are you in there?" Spencer's voice comes from the other side of the bathroom door.

"Yeah, just a minute Spence!" I roll my eyes at Wren and nod my head toward the door, "can't get a moment's peace around here." She laughs.

"Clearly pretty fond of you to follow you all the way to the restroom," she widens her eyes, insinuating that maybe Spencer's a little creepy or something following girls to the bathroom. "Nice to meet you, Hazel. I'll see you around, try not to blow more bathrooms up yeah?"

"I can't promise another one won't offend me like this one did..." I say as she heads to the door and pushes it open. Spencer is standing across the hall from the doorway, my rucksack slung over his shoulder with his own. The sound of her tuneful laugh lingers, even as she disappears from view.

A place where supernatural people live out in the open, no need to hide themselves away from their neighbours, teachers and classmates. Sounds idyllic. Still, Alderdale could be worse - at least most of us with abilities here know the others like us. We're not completely alone. It would be nice not to have to come up with an excuse every time I accidentally set something on fire or blow it up in public.

I take a look at myself in the shattered mirror and sigh, reaching my hand out and imagining it whole again. When I blink it fixes, and the mangled door straightens itself and reattaches onto its hinges like I'd never been here at all. There's one thing for sure, I'm getting real good at fixing my destruction. I turn on the faucet and splash cold water on my face before I push open the door and head out into the hallway where Spencer waits, leant up against the lockers.