Hidden In My Closet
A man walks into his room and stops immediately at the doorframe. He scans the room quickly, gently sniffing the air. 'Somethings different than when I left it' he thinks to himself. He crouches low into a defensive stance and creeps through his room, craning his head from side to side, listening if the intruder were still present.
As he reaches the closed, he hears muffled quick breaths.
"Come on out," the man calls. "I wont hurt you. I just want to know what you're doing in my room." The knob slowly turns and the door cracks open. As soon as light streams into the closet, it is shut again quickly, almost franticly. The man, looking somewhat confused, reaches for the knob when a soft voice is heard from inside of the closet.
"Can you turn the light out? It burns my eyes," whispers the voice. The man shakes his head and reaches for the light switch, moving towards the door to block in intruder if they happen to try and slip out.
He flips the switch and says, "All out, now your turn."
Slowly the closet door begins to open. Had the man not had keener senses than most, he almost wouldn't have been able to see the figure step out. A boy who looked to be in his late teens, 6' even, average weight for someone his size, broad shoulders, dark brown hair, and what looked to be a thick 3 day growth of facial hair. While the younger man was still quite pale, he seemed to meld into the shadows of the surrounding room.
Suddenly the man realized who the intruder was. "Hey, you're the new kid at the school, aren't you?"
"Yeah, what's it to you," replies the teen snidely
'Great, a wise ass' the man thinks. "Well, what are you doing in my ro-" suddenly the man notices that the teens eyes are different than most. 'That would explain the light sensitivity,' he thinks to himself again.
"Well, I crept in this room when nobody was looking to try and find a place to hide," the teen said, being obvious what the older man was wanting in information. "You see, it was starting to get dark, and when it does, my eyes turn how they are now. I hadn't been assigned a room yet, and everywhere else was extremely lit. I was looking for someone to find me a room when my eyes started changing. I quickly dove into the closest room and got as far into the dark as possible, and here we are now."
He had to give it to the kid; he was pretty slick. Most new kids couldn't even look at him because they were so afraid. The man was curious, and decided to learn more of the mysterious intruder. "So, you have perfectly normal vision at night?" the man asks.
"Well, more than perfect, actually. When you look at something during the day, you probably can't see much farther than a football field away with perfect vision. Me seeing a mile would be like you reading a book or computer screen right in front of you. But, because my entire eye basically becomes a pupil, any fraction of light is excruciatingly painful," the boy explains.
The man nodded, smiling slightly before saying, "that must come in handy when you're a runaway."
The boy looked at him, shocked that the older man knew something about his past. "How did you-"
"I'm no telepath if that's what you're beginning to think. No, my mutation is of a much simpler level," the man interrupts. The man made a fist, clenched, and razor sharp claws sprang from his knuckles. He had good enough vision to see the kid jump back in surprise. "Don't worry," says the man, "I won't hurt you. Just giving a demonstration of what I can do." The man could still sense the kids fear. He raises his clawed hand to his other arm and drags the blades across his arm. However, before blood could even spill from the cut, the wounds healed back up, not leaving a single trace.
"Whoa!" the boy gasps, forgetting his fear and stepping closer. He reaches our for the claws as the older man retracts them. "That has to hurt," says the boy in adoration.
"Every time kid, every time" the older man replies. "Now, how are we going to get you out of my room so I can get some damn sleep?" says the man, beginning to get uncomfortable under the youths gaze.
