Chapter 1- Manifestation
"Fisk" and Evan Thomas- Thomas Farm
"Look, I don't know what it is you think I have but I can tell you this, you're making a mistake, so why don't you just leave?"
"I'm afraid that's quite impossible, even if you don't know it yet you have something I want and I'm not going until I have acquired it. You were there, therefore you are, no questions."
"You're wrong!"
"And you're dead!" His finger makes a quick slashing movement as Evan's body falls down upon the blood spattered hay.
"Thank you" Fisk whispers as he takes his leave.
Lauren "Duffy" Duffy- Bridgend Rec, Bridgend
"We wanna thank you guys for turning up and making us feel welcome, I used to be like everyone of you, I'd come here to watch the gigs, but now I'm playing 'em and nothing else can beat that feeling" Duffy yelled down her mic to the roaring audience, her thanking them seemed to entice an uproar of gratitude to her and her band for even coming.
"This'll be our last song for the night, I wrote this when I was in my first band, it's called just for the moment, thanks Dean" She said as she progressed to play an introductory tune on her guitar, she moves up to her mic and parts her lips ready to sing, but is distracted by the shocked audience pointing up at her she looks and sees her hand glowing a red glow and instantly her guitar disintegrates into a pile of ash and string.
Duffy stands startled and frozen as the audience start to cheer, seemingly believing it was all part of the show, as the applause dies down Duffy leaves and makes a phone call.
"Mum? Hi it's me, no don't say anything. I'm ready to come home. Yes I'm happy too, Yes I'll get straight back into education. I just have a few questions that need answering that's all, yeah I miss you as well, see you tomorrow mum tell Dad I love him, Rachael too. Bye."
Steven Byway and "Fisk" - The Ton, Kenfig Hill
"Okay I came, though I don't see why you wanted me to, we haven't talked for over a year now" Steven said to a figure sat upon the edge of the ton quarry.
The figure rose to his feet and moved towards Steven. "Glad you could come, there's something I need from you…"
"We haven't seen each other for a whole year and you expect me to do you a favour? Same old…" Steven's cut off by the figure
"Come on we're friends, you can help a friend out can't you?"
"We were friends" Steven corrects him. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back home"
The figure lunges forward and grabs him, " I can't let you go anywhere until I have what I want" the figure walks towards Steven, Steven can feel something is wrong and takes cautionary steps backwards until he hit's the edge of the ground, he turns and looks down seeing the jagged quarry beneath him, he turns back to stare at the figure.
The figure sniggers and lifts a finger…
"Who are you, I don't know you anymore!"
"Call me Fisk"
"What!?" Steven yells, confused. Fisk takes another step towards him, while slowly lifting his hand, Steven stumbles backwards momentarily forgetting the cliff edge, He stumbles and falls down, Fisk runs to the edge and peers down at where the body should be…but nothing.
"Guess now I know you have something I desire…" Fisk says to himself with a twisted smile sitting upon his face.
"What the…?" Steven yelled in disbelief, "I'm flying…and have wings!!" He had wondered why he wasn't dead, or at least severely hurt, not that he was complaining, if it came to choosing between imminent death and wings…well put it this way, it's not a very hard decision. He spots his home and soars down towards it, landing fairly gently upon the land below him, as soon as his feet touch the floor the newly grown wings vanish and he's left stood there in amazement.
Steven Byway, Abbie Stone, Jenna Hodge and Grace Barham- Biology class, CCS, Kenfig Hill
"Okay so if you take your scalpels and cut directly down the oesophagus and you should notice a creamy mucus substance lining the inside" Mrs White instructed her sixth form class.
"Ewwww, why'd I take this class" Jenna questioned her biology group.
" 'Cos I told you to" Grace replied under her breath with a grin spread across her face.
"Umm guys? Has anyone heard from Steven this morning, he hasn't answered any of my texts…" Abbie queried.
"Maybe he's "ill" again" Jenna retorted.
"Nope, there he is…and looking a bit of a mess too" Grace pointed to the small-cut window in the classroom door.
Steven rapped the door and walked in to the class, "sorry I'm late, something happened this morning and…" He was interrupted by Mrs White
"I do not have time for excuses just go sit with your group and help with the dissection."
"Miss" Steven replied with a nod of his head, as he made way towards his seat and the rest of his group.
"Were the hell you been Steve?" asked Abbie.
"I can't really say, besides you wouldn't believe me if I did tell you" Steve answered.
"Try us" the three girls said in unison.
"okay, fine, I flew" Steven said, feeling he was right and they wouldn't believe him.
"You're right we don't believe you" Abbie laughed, while Jenna and Grace caught each others glances with concern.
"Told you, you wouldn't believe me."
Abbie was just sat in her seat rocking back and for with laughter when she let rip a piercing scream. "Oh my God!! Don't just stand there help me for fuck sake!!"
Steven, Jenna and Grace sat and watched in disbelief at the scalpel protruding from Abbie's arm. Jenna reached over and pulled it out without hesitation.
"Ouch, god Jen!" Abbie screamed at her.
"I couldn't resist, sorry" Jen replied with an awkward smile. "You're just gonna have to go to the…" Jenna stopped mid-sentence.
"What? Why'd you stop?" Abbie followed Jenna's stare to where the scalpel and wound had been, but it was completely fine, as if nothing had ever happened. "What the fuck? Okay…I'm starting to believe you flew…"
Jodie Morgan- Spar, Kenfig Hill
"It'll be like every other time, just harder" Jodie told herself, as she stood outside the spar. "New CCTV cameras and barcode sensors, so I'll have to disable them before I can do anything else" she said, doubting her own talents in the "art" of thieving.
She took her first steps towards the entrance of the newly refurbished shop, fairly empty, one elderly and one teenager, she made a mental note. She removed a small package from her uppermost pocket and unwrapped it to reveal a small kit, the likes of which would be used for lock picking.
Jodie made her way unnoticed through the rear of the shop until she was stood by the drinks cabinet right by the entrance to the shops back stores. She slipped through the small passage and made haste up the stairs and into the small room in the lower left corner just as her plan had said it would be, empty, seems luck was on her side today.
She locked the door behind her and lowered herself into the new-smelling, leather chair and turned her attention towards the computer monitors labelled "CCTV" and a second entitled "B-Sensors".
"Here goes, she pulled out the small package again, from a pocket on the back she detached a small floppy disk, which she inserted into the floppy drive on the hard rive of the "B-Sensor's" monitor, an option popped up upon the monitor, "Start Programme?" Jodie moved the mouse and clicked on the first option; "YES".
Within a few moments the screen had become a jumbled mess of static indicating to Jodie that the first part had been a success and the sensors were now disabled.
She removed the floppy disk from the drive so as to not leave any evidence behind and turned her attention to the "CCTV" monitor and simply removed the tapes from the recorder and turned the cameras off just incase they had a digital back-up record.
She left the room, her job complete and tip-toed down the stairs straight into a group of people, apparently awaiting her appearance.
"We have secondary monitors, we saw you head in to the back store and we've been waiting for you since, the police are on the way so I suggest you just wait." One of the workers suggested.
Jodie felt utterly defeated, knowing she had failed she went with the head worker and sat and awaited the arrival of the police. In the background she heard another worker talking to a couple who had just entered;
"Yes, she's right there…Where'd she go?"
Jodie legs it out the shop and round the corner. She stops after running a few blocks and as she does her body starts to rematerialise, "I guess gas does come in handy."
Steven Byway and Bethan Williams-Neath College, Margam
"You flew? Well i guess that's no less believable than someone who can control attraction..." Bethan whispered to Steven as he informed the amazing turn of events that had taken place that night.
"Do you think you could do it again?" She asked.
"I've been trying, seriously, but no luck those wings i had are long gone" Steven replied disappointedly.
"Williams, Byway! Anything you want to get off your chest, I'm sure the class would love a piece of gossip to feast upon." Professor Silvermane, the English professor interrupted.
"We'll pay attention" Bethan answered clearly intimidated, he had that affect on people; the sagging eyes, and wonky moustache didn't do much for him either.
The entire class continued staring at Bethan and Steven. They tried to ignore them whilst order returned to the room.
"So, what about you? Your thing?" Steven asked, not sure of what to call it and ignoring Silvermane's orders.
"You mean my awesomely amazingly brilliant power?" Bethan said rhetorically. "Well I've got it pretty much down, I can pick who I "infect" and make sure no one else gets hit, but I don't know, it just kinda' takes the fun out of it when the guy has no choice but to like you I guess" She said half heartedly.
"Bummer, but still it must be fun" Steven replied reassuringly. I wander if I should tell her about "Fisk" He thought to himself.
"What'd you say? Who's Fisk?" Bethan asked with a tone to her voice which seemed to accuse Steven of something.
"huh, I didn't say anything. And how did you know about Fisk? Steven asked back
"I…I heard you mention him, like in my head, you don't think these, these powers, there's more than one?" She said
"I don't know, I'm starting to think there might be, unless it's just a development from your pheromone manipulation…"
"I've told you!! It's NOT pheromone manipulation, it's the power to attract pretty men!!" Bethan shouted.
"you call it what you won't, I'll just call it by it's name."
"Williams!! Shut your mouth!!"
"Yes sir, Mr Silvermane, sir!" she answered without hesitation. "look Steve this lessons finishes in about five minutes, if you meet me in the library you can explain to me about this Fisk guy, promise?"
"Okay, yeah I guess so, but you won't like what I have to say" Steven told Bee.
The buzzer rang through the theatre, releasing the class from there painful lectures. Bethan and Steven went their separate ways, with Steven reassuring Bee that he'd meet her in the library in five minutes.
Bethan head towards the library to await what Steven had promised to tell her, she felt anxious but oddly excited. She knew whatever it was couldn't be good news, she just knew but she still had the desire to know.
She entered the library, gave a swift greeting to the librarian and sat in the booth furthest from the front entrance, passing a guy, shrouded in a flowing coat and a book covering his face. Bethan didn't give it two thoughts and just sat in the booth neighbouring his.
The people slowly filtered out of the library and Steven hadn't turned up yet, she could always trust Steven to keep him waiting. Before she'd even realised everyone had parted from the library other than her and the guy in the neighbouring booth.
Bethan got up to leave, she was fed up of waiting and suspected Steven had probably forgotten, she grabbed her bag and looked up, the man form the neighbouring booth had gotten up also and was blocking her path, he was unnerving but there was something distinctly familiar to her.
"Urr, excuse me, can I get through?" she asked politely, not wanting to be stood there with him for to long.
"I can't let you do that, your special and I need you" He replied
That voice is so familiar she thought to herself but she didn't want to stick around to find out whether or not it was someone she knew, he had creeped her out enough and now she wanted to leave.
"Oh my God!! Your that Fisk guy Steven was gonna' tell me about!!" Bethan cried. Why couldn't he have kept his promise for just one time? She queried herself.
"I'm sorry this is gonna hurt me more than it will hurt you…" Fisk told her cutting off her trail of thought.
"What! Hurt me? I don't think so" Bethan wasn't just gonna stand there, she dropped her bag and ran. Behind her Fisk was just swinging his arm, as if he was aiming something at her, all around her things were coming to pieces in time with his swinging arms. She screamed and footsteps could be heard, she reached for the door but it opened from the other side, Bethan screamed again.
"Whoa! Bee, what's going on?" Steven asked her from the other side of the doorway.
"Oh thank God it's you!" Bethan grabbed him and hugged him
"What's that for?" Steven asked
"Coming to help me, Fisk he's behind me!"
"WHAT! Where? Beth, he isn't there, are you sure it was him?"
"Yes I'm bloody well sure I heard him think his name over and over and something about power being strength" Beth told him
"Well he's gone now" Steven gestured to the open window. "But form what you've just told me, I'm guessing he don't give up…"
Shaun Child- Child Residence, Pyle
"Shaun your dinner's ready, and please say after this you'll go look for a job. You've been promising for months. I can't keep providing for you, you're a grown lad now" Shaun's mother called through into the front room.
"Thanks mum" Shaun said as he walked into the kitchen and picked up the tray with his food and can of coke on, he gave his mum a quick kiss on the cheek and retreated back into the front room to eat his food and watch television.
He placed his can of coke on the side table to his sofa-seat and sat down, tray upon his lap and food upon his tray. Tacos, not exactly his favourite but he could forgive his mum as he knew of the effort she had made.
He took a bite of a pre-prepared taco and dropped it, his mouth felt enflamed and his eyes watered, she had put chillies in this, the least she could have done is tell him!!
He reached out for his can of coke, no where near being able to grab it, he stretched his arm but to no avail, it was a shock to him when the can wiggled, seemingly of its own accord and then shot straight towards his hand and into his grasp.
Shaun was shocked, happy and astonished but a little shocked. He called through to hi mother in the kitchen, "Mam! I think I'm ready to find a job now!"
Evan Thomas- Thomas Farm
"What!? I thought I was dead" Evan said in fear and amazement, he looked about the hay filled barn and saw his mutilated body…
TO BE CONTINUED