Part 1

Chapter 7

"…Are we th—"

"Kevin, if you say 'Are we there yet?' one more time I'll… I'll…" Kevin's father paused.

"You'll have Mom turn this car around?" the boy retorted.

Having lost the argument, his father gave an annoyed grunt, followed by, "We'll be there in an hour."

Kevin let a puff of air burst past his lips. He felt exhausted; so many things had happened in such a short time, and he didn't know what to do, or even what to think. He was trapped in a silver SUV that was heading to who-knows-where possibly hundreds of miles away from his friends because a supernatural disaster had just struck his home town, not to mention the fact that he had helped fight it off using supernatural powers of his own that seemed to come out of nowhere. Then he lost a friend, and then he lost all of his friends.

Overwhelmed by so many thoughts at once, he decided just to focus on the now. In doing so he realized he was very bored. It seemed like hours since he and his mother had picked up his father from the jawbreaker factory.

"If you're that bored then look in the back for something to do," Kevin's mother said calmly. Though she could be a very worrisome woman when danger was involved, Kevin noticed that she was the most rational when it came to arguments, and was almost always the one to make peace. He inwardly admired that about her as he considered her suggestion, though he didn't bother to say anything. Following her advice, he unbuckled his seat belt and turned around to the pile of hastily packed objects behind his seat. The first thing that caught his eye was the black journal.

"Let's see why Double-D likes these so much," he mumbled flatly himself as he picked the book up.

The word "Journal" was printed into the book's cover, but upon a closer look Kevin noticed that there were faint words near the bottom that he hadn't seen before. He couldn't make them out where he was sitting, so the boy slid toward the right side of the car where the mid-noon sunlight barely seeped through the window. Holding the book up to the light, Kevin made out the writing:

A comprehensive study of Psionics and Psychokinesis
By George

"Hey Dad, who's this George guy?" Kevin asked, passing the book to his father.

"What're you—Uh…" he paused, squinting behind his glasses to better study the book. "I… hmm… I think it's your great-grandpa George's Journal." He handed the book back, and continued, "You know, there's an interesting story about him."

"What is it?"

"They say that he and his wife were kidnapped once. They went missing for two years until he suddenly turned up out of nowhere. His wife, Maria, was still missing.

"He never told anyone what happened to him or his wife. I never met him myself; he went missing again shortly before I was born. Anyway, my father said he was all but crazy when he came back; he started studying strange things—I think it had to do with 'psions' or psychic powers or some weird thing like it—anyway, he filled a bunch of journals with his studies. "

"So this is one of them?" Kevin asked.

"Actually, no," his father replied, "this book inparticular is blank. Though for some reason, my father passed it down to me and told me to keep it regardless, as did George when he gave it to him shortly before disappearing again. I guess this counts as me giving it to you now, so don't lose it."

With an unenthusiastic "cool," Kevin took the book back. Staring at the cover, he sighed at the thought that he had a crazy great grandpa who passed down empty journals as heirlooms.

…Wait, a minute, he thought. Did he say "psychic powers?"

Feeling the now familiar pocket in his mind almost halfway filled with the unexplainable energy, Kevin grabbed the cover and opened the book up to the first page.

It was blank.

However, something didn't seem right. A small pulse echoed through his mind, causing the energy to ripple. He felt a tiny amount drop down into his hand. His eyes widened as he saw and felt his hand moving toward the page on its own, as if some unseen force was guiding it. It was gentle, and he felt like he could break free of it almost effortlessly if he wanted, but his curiosity and wonder got the better of him and he let it cause his hand to touch the paper.

The boy gasped quietly. Faint lines began to appear on the page as he felt a tiny fleck of energy drip invisibly out of his hand. They grew deeper and darker, spreading and connecting until they formed letters. After a few seconds, the page was filled with writing.

Gulping in a mixture of excitement, anticipation and just a little fear, Kevin began reading.

Introduction

I've never been very good at writing introductions, especially after what happened to me recently, so forgive me if this isn't entirely professional. This book is a compilation of the results of my studies over the past few short years. It is meant more to be a brief introduction to PSI and its ins and outs, as well as my personal thoughts and experiences on the matter. To start, most people wouldn't believe me if I told you personally what I went through to gather this knowledge without experiencing it firsthand. Therefore, if you can read this, then you or someone who has had this book before possesses the ability of psionics, or psychokinesis.

Psionics and Psychokinesis, or PSI and PK for short respectively (forgive me if I switch terms and abbreviations around often; they are interchangeable for the most part), are the ability of one to use their mind to cause paranormal events around them. Such events include but are not limited to telekinesis, telepathy, pyrokineses, electrokinesis, geokinesis, the ability to heal injury, the ability to heal sickness and ailments, and many more.

Kevin's interest piqued at "the ability to heal injury," and he began reading more intently.

This journal is written entirely in a special ink of my own design that only appears when exposed to psionic energy, which will be further explained later on.

Origins

Psionics did not originate on Earth. You may or may not believe me, but it is in fact the ability of a race of extraterrestrial beings. These aliens have abducted humans over history for studying purposes, and some of these humans have gained the ability to perform psychokinesis through them. I am one of them, though I am possibly the first and only one to do a comprehensive study of it.

Humans are capable of gaining this ability when exposed to one who has them for an extended period of time. However, the user(s) must be very proficient in their abilities, and it often takes exposure from many different users for someone with no inherent psychic capability to develop one. Even then, however, there are many people who seem to never develop any PSI capabilities at all. What allows it in the body or mind is not yet known, but it is known to be inheritable. When a person does learn PSI, the capability to use it will be passed down to their offspring.

When a person is gifted with psionics genetically, the ability lies dormant within their brains from birth. It can be "awakened" when the person is under an extremely high level of stress, usually only experienced when they are very near death. Unfortunately, this means that most will awaken their PSI only to die shortly afterward.

There is another way to activate genetic psionic ability, however. When someone is exposed to anywhere from a little to a massive amount of PSI or PK energy, depending on the person, it will resonate with their own energy, and it will awaken inside of them.

Kevin felt strange as he kept reading the book. It was so informative and straightforward; he never thought he'd find such a clear explanation of his powers so soon. He wondered if George had written this just for him, or possibly someone else who could have had these powers.

Abilities

PSI can allow a user to utilize a plethora of abilities and techniques to manipulate the reality around his or herself. Most abilities are "ranked," meaning they have clearly distinguished differences in potency. I and a few other PSI users aboard the aliens' spacecraft have agreed to use Greek symbols to name these ranks:

Alpha, or α, is the lowest rank. When someone learns an ability, generally they will learn its alpha form first, though I have seen people learn it and beta at the same time. It is the weakest version of the ability, but more often than not it uses very little psionic energy.

Beta, or ß, is the next highest rank. It is noticeably more powerful than alpha, but uses a little more psionic energy.

Gamma, or γ, is more powerful than beta.

Sigma, or Σ, is the highest level most PSI users are able to get to of an ability. It is very powerful, but consumes a lot of energy and most techniques at this level will wear out a user after only a few tries.

Pi, or π, is a rare level higher than Sigma. It is sometimes mistaken for the highest level, but a very few people have been able to surpass it.

Omega, or Ω, is as high as any ability can go. Only the most experienced and skilled PSI users can obtain abilities at this level. When an ability is used at its omega level, its effect can be devastating or miraculous—depending on what the ability does—but it requires massive amounts of PSI energy. I myself only know one technique at this rank, and the feeling of using it is indescribable.

All abilities are learned at their alpha level, and as the user becomes more experienced and skilled, their subconscious allows them to understand and utilize higher levels of the skill. PSI is intertwined closely with the subconsciousness and the users' thoughts and personality. Our feelings and emotions can influence it to amazing extents, though, as a side note, I have noticed that this doesn't seem to be the case with the aliens themselves.

There is a wide variety of PSI skills and abilities, and those that I'm listing in this section are just a fraction of what is poss—

"Kevin, we're here!"

"Huh?" He looked up and saw a garage door in front of the car.

"See, it didn't even take an hour," his father said as he opened the car door.

Kevin took a quick glance around him to see they were at a small house on top of a large hill. Mountainous forests surrounded them on all sides, except for a small patch of buildings in the valley below. It was situated in front of a large cliff with a waterfall pouring off of it. He mused at how small the town of Cherry Falls was for a minute, but his interest in the book took over and he immediately began reading again.

There is a wide variety of PSI skills and abilities, and those that I'm listing in this section are just a fraction of what is possible.

PSI abilities can be categorized into four types: Offensive PSI. Defensive PSI, Assistance PSI, and Miscellaneous PSI.

Offensive PSI, as the name suggests, is used for attacking foes. Common Offensive PSI abilities often use elemen—"

He gasped as the book was ripped from his gentle grasp and turned to find his mother walking away from the open car door.

"Come on Kevin," she said as she walked over to her husband, who was opening the front door to the house, "you can read this once we're done unpacking." She put on a slightly confused face, and looked at the journal. "I never knew you were into reading books," she said, and with a more jovial voice she added, "I'm glad you find this interesting, but unpacking comes first."

"Wait, is that the journal?" Kevin's father asked. His wife handed it to him and he looked at the first page. His face lit up with surprise and excitement when he saw the writing.

"I-I don't know how it happened," Kevin said, walking up to his parents, "my hand touched the page and it… w-wrote… itself… or something." After a beat, he added, "I think it said it responds to PSI or something."

Kevin shifted his foot uncomfortably. Though his parents believed him about the aliens attacking the cul-de-sac, he'd forgotten to mention his newfound powers.

"PSI?" his father asked, "you mean…" his attention darted from his son to the first page of the book and back, "thisPSI?"

"Y-yea, I think," Kevin stuttered. He broke away from his father's eyes in nervousness and he saw a bandage on his mother's elbow.

His eyes lighting up, he said, "Let me show you," and walked up to the woman. She gasped in surprise as her son ripped off the bandage to expose the cut caused by a spiteful crow. Kevin paused for a moment as he thought "spiteful crow" would make a good name for the evil birds, but he shook his head quickly and focused on the wounded elbow in front of him. He held out his hand under it and smiled as he felt the energy rise up and close the wound.

"Wh-what… oh my!" the woman said as she inspected the newly-healed flesh on her arm. "Honey, look at this!"

Kevin's father looked at it, then at the journal, and then at Kevin in disbelief.

"I know it's hard to explain… well, that book has a great explanation of it, actually, and I wanted to finish—"

A whiff of smoke caught Kevin's attention just as a Spiteful Crow sped past him and snatched the book right out of his father's hand.