My birth certificate says Melangel Moody. I suppose the 'rents thought it was a lovely name, but I wasn't one for lovely. To serve the purpose of my name, I chose something that reflected me a little closer. So, let me start this story with an introduction:

My name is Mangle.

When my life changed for the first time, I was a very normal college student. My whole life was described irritatingly as 'normal'. I, however, had other words for it; trivial, mundane, boring, NOT special. The only thing I've ever wanted, all my life, was to be just the opposite. I wanted to be special, really special. I wanted the world to know me, I wanted everyone to see me and think, 'That's Mangle'.

Of course, I was hardly what you could call average. You see, I've always had a certain talent with the way things worked. I simply understood things. Be it a puzzle, an equation, even a clock, I could easily figure it out. What the pieces were, what they were for, where they belonged, it just made sense in my mind.

My family were all amazed, they called me Miracle Mel. But those small people were entranced by my shiny talent, I wasn't impressed. It wasn't enough for me, to be good, I need to be great I needed to be important.

Or so I had always thought, until the day. THAT day, when I found the book. The first time my life changed for good, and it was in such an unlikely place. Just a dinky little bookstore.

It was during one of my usual trips to said bookstore that I found it, completely by coincidence, hidden in the back between a book on alien abductions and another about hypnosis. I saw it and knew; I simply had to have it. It was called 'Activating Evolution', and written by an absolutely brilliant man named Chandra Suresh. Mr. Suresh was pretty much my new hero.

Of course, when I eagerly brought it, the book, my lifeline, up to the front desk, the bored looking woman at the checkout acted like I was insane.

"You don't really believe in this stuff, right? I mean, it's all comic books, y'know." She droned, expressing all the insight of a slice of cheese.

I didn't answer. After all, how could this... woman possibly understand what promises this book held? What did her dreams include? Maybe someday she could get out of her job behind this small desk in this small store in this small town, and get to sit behind a slightly bigger desk in a slightly bigger store in a slightly bigger town. Then, having reached her full potential, she would die, and no-one would remember her name.

But that wasn't me. I had aspirations beyond the normal, the everyday, or even the mortal. If these theories were true, if people were actually evolving, then I might be more special than I'd ever imagined; important to the entire future of humankind. I would be more than everyone I met. I would be beyond human potential.

I tried in futility to act rational, to consider the possibility that I was not special. It could be I had no 'magic power', that was a very likely possibility. But, vain as I was, I couldn't shake the feeling. I knew, in my soul, I was a part of this.

I had my nose in that book before I even left the store.

It only took me two days to read the thick book cover to cover, during which time I neither ate nor slept. Having read the book, and having absorbed every word therein, I was now sure that I possessed some ability. People had always told me that my 'talent' for understanding how things worked was uncanny. Maybe it was even superhuman.

I went to the Activating Evolution website and searched through it extensively. I must have looked through every page on the site, and it was not a small site. My eyes were getting tired, and I wondered if I should call it quits, when I found it: A tiny paragraph, insignificant to anyone but me, titled Intuitive Aptitude. Intuitive aptitude was 'the ability to psychically see and/or understand the anatomy of any system and how it works' basically, it was exactly what I could do.

I was overjoyed! It was really true, I had an ability. I was important. I was finally as special as I had always hoped. What I didn't know was that my ability came with a price, a heavy price. I would not know of this until it was far too late.

The real victim here was poor Georgia Kaspar, a quirky girl with a talent for picking locks. We weren't friends, in fact I didn't like her particularly, so I was very surprised the day she confronted me about the book.

"I saw you reading that evolution thingie, Mangle." She began bluntly.

"Yeah, so?" I fully expected her to make fun of me for it. After all, it was comic book stuff, and that wasn't real.

"So," Georgia answered, lowering her voice to a whisper even though we were outside, and no-one could hear us anyway, "I want to talk to you about it, in private."

"We're outside." I stated matter-of-factly, "and no-one can hear us."

"Oh, okay." she replied nervously, "Well, I was hoping that book might have some answers about... this." It was then that Georgia did the most amazing thing I had ever seen; she passed her hand straight through a wall.

I didn't know what to say, other than, "Wow." I know what I was thinking at that moment; Her ability made mine look like crap. What good was it to HAVE an ability when it had no practical use. I wanted, I needed, to know how Georgia's power worked. What had the book told me? It's all controlled by the brain. The only way to sate my curiosity about Georgia's power was to find the answer. And the only way to find that was to examine that brain.

No-one was around, so I picked up a sizable rock from off of the grassy soil.

"What's the rock for?"

"Oh, nothing. An experiment." I mumbled. I wasn't thinking straight. Oh, god, was I actually going to... "Hey, what's that over there?"

Georgia turned, "I don't see anythi-," As the rock hit her head and she crumpled to the ground, I absently heard a faint ticking in the back of my brain, like the tick-tock of a clock. Like a clock, I knew I could put the pieces together in my head, I just need the blueprints from the brain now in my possession.

I had to work quickly before someone showed up. Using my rock, I hacked and hacked at Georgia's head, blood spattering everywhere, covering my hands, hitting my face. Soon, her brain was exposed. I poked through it, tearing it apart until I found what I was looking for. The blueprints, the instructions, the shiny new power.

I understood now, the answer was so simple now that I could do it too. It felt good, natural, like something you just need, like air or water. It felt like I'd done what I was designed to do, I fulfilled my evolutionary imperative.

The blood on my face started to harden, and I tried to brush it off. With a start, I realized that my hands were covered in blood as well. I looked at them and it dawned on me what I'd done. There was nothing good or natural about it. I'd killed someone. An innocent human being with feelings, aspirations, parents who had now lost their child. All because of me. The realization made me sick, and I clutched at my chest, hyperventilating. Too horrified and disgusted even to cry, all I could do was run.

And I did, I ran and ran and ran and never looked back. I barely even noticed that, up in the sky, the sun was being obscured, the world was growing darker. It was an eclipse.