The Hummingbird and the Expelled

Chapter 8

When I wake up I take a shower, brush my teeth and get dressed in a shirt and jeans before going downstairs. I notice Emma, already at the table with a bowl of cereal.

"Hey, after eating we should go to the junkyard, see if we can work out what's up with you." She says. I nod and get some cereal as she finishes.

"What do you think it is?" I ask as we sit at the table.

"Maybe you really are possessed." She jokes.

"Shut up." I chuckle.

"For real. Maybe you're like a superhero or something. You just have the ability to fly in emotional situations." She shrugs.

"You think it's just there?" I question.

"Maybe. Maybe not. If it didn't happen last night I would say we imagined the whole tree thing but considering I had to hold you to the floor. I think this is all way too real."

"What's too real?" Shawn asks as he comes into the room.

"A video game. The graphics look way too real to be animated." I lie.

"Oh, that's cool." He nods.

"I thought you went to work." Emma says.

"I thought I'd take the day off. Spend time with you guys after last night." He answers.

"What do you want to do?" She asks hesitantly.

"I don't know. We could all go for a walk or something. What do you guys want to do?" He suggests.

"We were gonna go to the junkyard." Emma tells him.

"Okay how about. You come home around six and we can all eat dinner?"

"That works." Emma quickly grabs my arm and drags me to the front door in the middle of eating my cereal. I grab my shoes as she pulls me.

"I was trying to eat that." I tell her as we get in the car and I put my shoes on.

"We have more important matters to deal with." She says as she pulls out of the driveway.

"More important than eating?" I ask.

"We can get food in a bit. We need to find out how your power works."

"Fine. But if I starve to death I'll haunt you forever." I joke.

"Deal." Emma smiles. When we get to the junkyard we go back to the hill and sit down.

"So, how do you plan on figuring out what this is?" I ask.

"Well, it only happened twice. While you were falling and when you were really mad. Maybe you have to be really emotional about something. Like when you were falling. You were scared and last night you looked furious." She explains.

"So, you want to scare me or something?" I give her a questioning look.

"No. Focus on one emotion. Maybe that works." She shrugs.

"Okay. I'll try that." I nod and try to focus on one emotion.

But what emotion do I focus on? Fear works and so does anger. But I'm not scared or angry.

"Are you focusing?" Emma asks.

"The only emotions I know work are anger and fear and I'm not either of them." I tell her.

"Okay... think of something that makes you over the top happy, mad, sad or scared. Something that makes you feel one emotion that overcomes all other emotions." She orders.

I nod with a sigh and try to think of something.

Before I can think anything, images start flashing in and out of my vision.

A hand holding a pistol then a bright light, a missing persons poster, a puddle of blood .

When the images stop my head hurts like hell and I find myself lying on my back in the grass with Emma by my side looking worried.

"Will, are you okay? What happened?" She asks.

"I- I don't know. I saw something. A-a gun then everything went to a bright light. A missing persons poster and a puddle of blood." I put my face in my hands.

"Will. Will, you're flying." I hear Emma say.

"What?" I move my hands away from my face to see that I'm at least a foot off the ground. "Holy shit."

As I look around I feel myself lean in the direction I'm looking.

I end up floating around in different directions as I look around with wide eyes. As I try to go in one direction I start going faster than I expected and I go flying towards what seems like a tree but I can't see clearly with how much I'm wobbling.

"There's a tree!" Emma tells me.

I was right.

As I'm about to hit the tree I brace myself but I feel myself go up instead of hitting anything. Before I can stop myself I feel the grass grazing my arms before falling and rolling down the grassy hill.

"Are you okay?" Emma asks as I get up.

"Yes. But that was fucking insane." I answer as we go back up the hill.

"What about the stuff you saw? Were you hallucinating?" She asks.

"I don't think so. I don't know what that feels like but I know whatever just happened hurt like someone hit me with a brick. And those images. It looked like in a movie or something when a character has a memory of something. But, really painful." I do my best to explain what it was like out loud.

"So, have you seen stuff like that before? Maybe you were remembering it?" She suggests.

"I don't remember seeing anything like that." I shake my head.

"Maybe that has something to do with you flying? Or it's completely different?" She shrugs.

"I'm gonna try again." I start focusing on being calm so I don't go flying off in random directions again.

Be calm. Be calm. Be calm.

I feel my feet leave the ground and I look around. I'm slowly lifting from the ground.

"Holy shit. You're flying." Emma smiles.

"I am." I chuckle and fall back onto my feet. "All I have to do is stay calm."

"Is this a good thing?" She asks.

"I think. It's cool and scary at the same time."

She nods and we spend the rest of the day making sure I can control the new ability I have.

"Okay. We have ten minutes before six." I inform Emma.

"We still have to make sure you don't get mad or something and start flying. People would flip shit." She says as we walk back to her car.

"True." I agree as we get in. "Hey, are you gonna paint this thing or something?"

"I might. We'll have to wait and see." She smiles.

When we get to the house Shawn is in the kitchen cooking dinner.

"Hey guys. Steak's almost done." He tells us as we go into the kitchen.

"I love steak." I smile and sit down with Emma.

When the steak is cooked we all start eating and making conversation. It starts a bit awkward but by the time everyone's done eating we're laughing and have a good time.

After dinner Shawn volunteers to take care of the dishes while Emma and I go to bed.