From Within

Reads Danger

The old man heads upstairs to prepare. I open the south facing window to see that the storm is fast approaching. At the rate that it's traveling it might even make landfall tonight. Though barely visible the distant streaks of lightning still catch and hold my attention, coming ever closer. I somehow feel drawn to them. It took me a few seconds to shake myself from this trance to take a seat at our kitchen table to wait for the old man. After a few short minutes, he joins me in the kitchen and says...

"Ready, boy? I'm sure Ben will be excited to see you. He looks up to you that kid, I find myself wondering why.", he smiles.

Ben the shape shifter, the old man said that he's the last "gifted one" who was sent to the island. He now lives with his caretakers, the Erises, in their beautiful house just above the foot of the mountain. He's only 11, has full control of his abilities and holds his own well enough, he keeps to himself and always speaks politely, things I wish I had embodied when I was his age. His sternness is deceiving, cause he still has his own fun acting out mischievously. He's known as a prankster among the gifted ones and so too among the caretakers. He took that trait after me and the old man is well aware of it. He sometimes points it out, jokingly. But Ben has taken more creative liberties than I ever did. The old man keeps me in check nowadays, he makes sure I keep the peace between the caretakers and myself and the old man. Ben made a few rivals among the gifted ones by pranking others, they picked on him for what they call his "useless" ability. It sometimes feels like I'm the only one who sees potential in him, Ben is able turn into any living thing he touches, or when he gets touched by them.

"Yeah. Let's go.", I replied.

I take a last sip of my drink, then we head out together. The old man's dressed quite nicely. He tucked in his white button up shirt inside his brown pants. We head North straight towards Mount Icarus. The streets are still, but the town glows beautifully at this hour as the sun retreats past the horizon. We pass by the diner on our way to the Eris' house. I see groups of gifted ones enjoy each other's company. The twins Stan and Steven sit by the window, both sipping on a tall glass of chocolate milkshake. They're sitting and laughing with Ava's housemates. She's not with them. I have no clue where she might be if she's not with them.

Stan and Steven, the twins, can switch places with each other. Their ability comes in handy when one twin has something with him where it's needed at another place where the other twin is located. It helps that they're not identical. Otherwise it would've created for confusion among others. Switching places doesn't require the others' permission, so they've had some of the weirdest experiences with none but each other, requiring thorough explanation everytime that happened. They're both four years older than me and both have done their parts of helping around on the island.

It's quite a long walk, but the view of our town from up there will be worth it. The street is getting steep, we need only go straight up this hill to arrive at the Eris' gate. They live quite luxuriously. I always wondered how they came to be so privileged. It's probably because they manage the payouts of tokens on the island. The old man complains he barely gets any tokens for the work he does, often saying that the workers at the docks should get more than what they get because they make it so that goods from the outside world still get transported to the island despite "the situation" out there.

The beautiful glass house is in sight, we're almost there. We both approach the gate, but the old man is a good few steps ahead of me, reaching it before me. He looks back at me while he waits, his gaze shifts to the dark clouds that are fast approaching. They hold his gaze while I make my way to the gate to join him. When finally beside him, I too look back at the clouds. The afterglow of the sunset paints the dark clouds with its golden light. It's getting visibly darker by the second. I sigh and the old man notices.