Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 4: Won't Rest

Annora Stark thought she was having a nightmare, but actually she was just reliving a moment in her past. The frightening images haunted her—rouge agents shooting at her, fighting aliens, running through the wreckage growing thicker and thicker to help her team against something she couldn't for the life of her remember for some reason—but her response to them from the outside had been indifferent, methodical and somber. When the danger persevered, she would simply tell her self it was all in the past now and a dream. That she would wake up. And that's what she did. She sat up from her bed with slight perspiration coating her body. She felt dizzy, the essence pounding on top of her head and something burning down her left arm. It hurt too much to be a dream.

Throwing her legs over the side of the bed, she jumped from her bed and fell about maybe twelve feet from the platform to the ground. With a small inaudible thud she landed on the floor and stood up. As soon as she was fully upright, she felt light-headed and wobbled. She was lucky to land right when she jumped a while ago. She kept a hand on the wall close to her and started toward the bathroom. Just walking left her short of breath. That couldn't have happen from reencountering one of her most horrible memories. That's when she saw something glint out of the corner of her eye.

She continued to the bathroom and flicked the lights on. She squeezed her eyes shut at the blinding light and waited for her eyes to adjust. When she opened them she could now clearly see what her problem was. Without warning, her knees gave out, and she realized that she was not suffering from a bad reminisce but from lack of essence. She stared in confusion at the jagged line on her arm. Thick white dust-like matter came out of the cut. That must have been what she saw from the corner of her eyes. When the simmering particles built up it would lift into the air and fade away. Annora hesitantly touched the substance and hissed, flinging her hand away from the throbbing cut.

Annora cursed, she must have scratched herself really bad somehow when she was asleep. She raised her hand into the air and held her pointing finger up. One small bead of that twinkling stuff—her essence— was on her finger. She held it upside down watching as it defied gravity, slid up to her nail and floated up to the ceiling. She must have bled out for some time to feel so tired. The first aid kit—made especially for her—was only a few feet away, and she staggered to it. Grabbing a hold of the knob to the cabinet, she opened it and stood up shakily. She took hold of the small metallic box and allowed her body to collapse to the floor. She hurriedly opened it and took out the already prepared needle and injected the clear liquid into her arm. She instantly felt the effect of the injection on her body. Her essence slowed until it no longer seeped out of her cut and she allowed herself to laugh in relief. She was losing too much of her essence and if she would have woken up any later she wouldn't have made it and would have devitalized.

Her essence was the very life of her. It was what kept her alive much like blood. She didn't have a single drop of blood in her body and instead had that glitzy matter she called her essence. Weird thing was it wasn't liquid it was more of a dense gassy matter that floated which was unlikely, for anything as dense as that to do but it does. Annora, still weak, wrapped her wound in a gauze. It was around an hour later when she felt better and decided to stay up and get ready an hour earlier than attended.

The young Stark when about her daily get-up routine. After she finished she sat on the couch at the first floor with her backpack next to her. She was reading one of her many favorite books called The Hobbit. One thing she unconditionally loved was Tolkien. She liked the idea of anything fantasy related. She remembered when Thor came onboard the Hellicarrier. She asked him so many questions about his home and if there were dragons and such since he spoke like he was from the Middle Ages and was in another wholly different world. She was disappointed when he laughed at the idea of dragons and told her there were no such beast she described of.

Annora sighed. She pondered on how she cut herself so badly this morning or was it last night? She really couldn't tell which it was. She decided it probably was last night because of her dizzy spell she was in. She assumed it was because of her dream which then in result triggered her to lash out on whatever was near and that was incongruously herself. She was dreaming about Manhattan again. Apparently some of the Avengers had problems with it too. She had talked to Barton about it to see if he was having any problems but like every other prideful man he disagreed. But she could see it in his eyes—a flash of weakness. It happened to her father too, but he succeeded in overcoming it. If any others were troubled, she wouldn't have known because they were away or hid it well.

Annora check the time on her clock. She had thirty minutes to walk to school before the first bell rang. She put on the disguiser device and huffed at doing so. She hated hiding really not seeing why she had to but remembered what that her father told her she was not invincible. Annora locked all the doors with her phone and settled on an easy walking pace to school.

As Annora was waiting at the edge of the road to cross, someone—who stupidly wasn't paying attention—was about to skateboard across and get ran over by an oncoming car. On closer inspection she detected a familiar head of tousled brown hair. Annora make a sound of frustration. Reckless skater, Annora thought irately. She didn't know why she cared if he got run over so seriously and though it was because like anyone else she wouldn't want to see anyone hurt.

Annora hastily yanked him by his hoodie right when the car almost hit him. The skateboard he was on flew down the other side of the street oddly unscathed. The driver honked and yelled at them before continuing on. Peter didn't even have time to think about what almost happened as Annora tugged on the earphones that undoubtedly obscured him from noticing the car with the loud she could hear coming from it. "What the hell Peter? You could have gotten ran over if I hadn't pulled you away!"

Peter was struck at how concerned she was about him. After she said that she started checking over his body for injuries. Peter then lightly pushed her away chuckling. "Sorry, I didn't know you'd care that much, but thanks really for dragging me away from that car."

Annora blinked at him. He didn't seem as much frightened by almost getting ran over. She shook her head, pulling him by his arm she walked across the crosswalk. "You're so confusing sometimes. I can't ever figure you out."

Peter furrowed his eyebrows together. He grabbed his skateboard from the ground when they neared and held it in his hand. "What do you mean?"

Annora waved her hands around and seemed to be stuck about how to explain. She just settled on shrugging her shoulders saying, "I honestly don't know."

Peter laughed for the first time in front of her. He grinned. "That the first time for someone to say to me."

"And is there others?"

"What do you mean by that?" Peter asked perplexed.

"Friends, you know, do you have any. I haven't seen you with any other students so far yesterday."

Peter stops smiling then and says slowly like he's not really wanting to say it. "Uh, no…none that I would consider."

They walked in silence. Annora blamed it on herself for asking because now Peter's mood had deflated. The cold breeze brushed the black hair away from Annora's face and she looked up at the clouds. It was going to rain soon and she prayed that it wouldn't rain after school. Little light spilled out through the crack in the ashen clouds. Annora's soul ached to just jump up and reach for them.

She strained her hands from its persistent twitching. She cleared her throat. Peter's eyes met hers. "So, today is A day right or is it B?"

"It's B." Peter confirmed.

"So then I go to my fifth through eighth periods? How long are the classes anyway?" She asked Peter.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, they're each about…ninety minutes long. You don't have A day-B Day's from your old school?"

Annora shook her head with a weak smile. "…I was home schooled."

"Ah, that explains why you looked so confused by lockers." Peter said with a playful twinkle in his eyes.

Annora scowled at him and crossed her arms. "Yeah well…the stupid thing wouldn't open up."

Peter laughed again and Annora rather liked his the sound of his laugh. It was welcoming. He didn't stop as he told her between laughs, "You banged your head against it when you finally opened it after I helped you."

Annora huffed at him and walked briskly to the nearing High school. Peter effortlessly cached up to her softly chuckling. He smiled at her leaving Annora to forget him laughing at her expense as she smiled back. "Thank you though, Peter, for helping me yesterday. I probably would have been lost the wandering the halls forever." She rolled her eyes at the last part jokingly.

"You're welcome then for saving you from such misery." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"I hope you know you're stuck with me now. I'll need a guide for surviving the hell of High school."

Peter pressed his lips together in thought. He unexpectedly shrugged and gave Annora a grin. "I guess I can live with that."

Annora laughed as they walked through the school doors before she caught what he actually said. She narrowed her eyes teasingly. "Wait, what's so wrong with being my guide?"

Peter repositioned his backpack against his back and hid a smirk. "Just don't want to be seen with a girl who gets in a scuffle with her own locker." Annora punched his shoulder in retaliation. Peter winced and rubbed the spot. "Jeez, you hit like a man."

Annora tittered and shoved Peter through their fifth period class they had together. "At least I can. I've been wondering if you were a girl for a while now Peter."

"I resent that." Peter mumbled.