My pocket vibrated unexpectedly. It was the dead of night, and I was taking the watching shift outside the ramshackle home of Leah and me. A few hours ago, the invisible kid had surprised us, but he had left, and not returned. Leah was inside, sleeping fitfully, and I was worried that she might hurt herself. However, I knew that it was unlikely; inside the single room were simply the two beds which Leah and I had made, blocks of wood on the floor. Nevertheless, I worried for her.
The vibration surprised me, sending me to my feet and, reflexly, I put shards of electricity into my hands. Realising that it was my phone, I felt slightly foolish even though no-one had been around to see my outburst, and sat heavily down again.
It was the night of the fourth day, and already society had pretty much fallen apart. As Leah had told me earlier, practically every area was owned by someone now, mostly younger people, teenagers and the like, for some reason. I wondered vaguely what my next move would be. The Plaza was simply that, a Plaza. I needed to expand my territory, start producing income of some sort. I didn't know how many people had been left alive by the unnatural explosion, but I made a guess that there were only a couple thousand left, as opposed to the massive sixty thousand which had inhabited Lutterworth before.
My phone vibrated irritably in my pocket again, like a new-born baby waiting to be sated in some way to stop it crying. I heeded after a moment and fished it out of my pocket, pressed the accept button, and put the device to my ear. It was a number which I didn't know, certainly not in my phone-book.
"Hello," I said uncertainly into the speaker.
"Dude? Oh fuck, man, you're still alive!"
"Tyler?"
Tyler was my best mate, had been for the last ten years. I felt sort of guilty because of the fact that I'd totally forgotten about him, and all my other friends, to be honest. Still, this didn't mean that I didn't care, and I was hugely relieved to hear that Tyler was still alive.
"Dude, where you at? I got a problem. A really, really major one, mate. Think you could come over to my house? I really need your help dude."
I thought about it for a moment. Normally, I would have no trouble with going over to help Tyler with whatever problem he had. However, this was far from normal times. It was the dead of night, there were potentially hundreds of people running around with, quite blatantly, super-powers, and to top it all off, my own power was running a little low at just over half of what I could absorb.
Nevertheless, he was my best mate, and he needed help.
"All right dude," I said into the phone, "I'll be over there as soon as I can. You hang tight until then."
"Oh, man, thank you so much. You wouldn't realise how much this means to me. Be careful dude."
I hung up the phone and stood up. I contemplated waking Leah up, perhaps taking her with me, but quickly thought otherwise. My power may be running a little down, but with my static shield, and my weaker healing, I could survive the trip to Tyler's. And besides, it looked as if Leah needed her sleep as much as possible. It was past twelve, and we hadn't been attacked yet, so I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be too dangerous leaving her alone for a short while. It was only a few minutes to Tyler's place, and I didn't plan on staying too long.
Entering our small home, I put a shard of power into my index finger and burned the letters 'BRB' in the wood of my bed. The girl was a human flame-thrower; I'm sure she would be able to read the lettering on my bed.
I left the shack and started on my way, out of the west side of the Plaza and down Duggery Street. It was a long road, and Tyler lived near the end of it. It was sort of convenient that I had taken the Plaza. From my old house, it would have taken three times as long to get there.
Duggery Street was, as I said, quite long. It was a general street, with terrace houses walling both sides and a few side roads leading off to other main roads or dead ends. On the pavement there were lamp-posts at set intervals (about two metres apart) but only a few of them worked. I didn't wasted time topping up at one, because I wanted to get to Tyler's and back as fast as possible.
There were strange, inhuman sounds in the darkness, darkness which seemed darker because of the street lamps, and I shuddered every few moments at the cries which echoed out throughout the night. I hastened my pace.
I reached Tyler's door with my nerves a little tattered. If I could sweat I would be, no doubt. I still haven't worked out why I don't any more, but it wasn't exactly a priority thought. I knocked on the front door quietly, fearful to attract unwanted company. I looked a mess, no doubt. My hair was scuffled, mucky and unwashed, my black shirt and trousers were in pretty bad condition; both from the pummelling I had taken and also because of the electricity which constantly flowed through me, burning the tiny fibres. My long coat was about to the point of becoming ribbons, with several holes where I had been burned by the radioactive man and the various other falls I had taken the last few days. I considered this, thinking I probably looked like a character from a horror movie.
I heard someone, or something bound down a flight of stairs and tentatively open the door. Of course, it was Tyler. Tyler was about my age, fifteen, with long, straight chestnut hair as opposed to my shadow-black hair, and built quite thinly, also like me. He had less angular features than me, with a softer sort of face which looked caring and compassionate. He was wearing a blue shirt and grey jeans.
He was about to speak, when he saw my condition.
"What the hell happened to you, dude?" he asked in a subdued voice which was still thick with curiosity and shock.
It was then that I thought about the dry blood which still must be streaked down my face and over my chest. More of a mess than even I thought I had been.
"Well, if you haven't noticed, mate, things are getting a little rough around here. I got into a couple of... fights."
"Oh, I know. Looks like they messed you up pretty bad."
"Yeah well, looks are everything," I said, smiling faintly.
"You're not an awful lot at the moment then," he told me, returning the smile.
I needed to get back to Leah soon; this small-talk wouldn't do. "So, what did you want me for dude? You said there was a problem."
He paused, forgetting himself for a moment. Then it dawned on his face and it darkened. "Yeah. But lets go inside. Not safe out here."
"Tell me about it," I said, following him into his home. It was a three-bedroomed house, sparsely furnished, with only a table in the hallway, a small television an sofa in the living room, with a broken picture of Tyler's family on the wall, and there wasn't much at all besides a fridge-freezer and cooker in the kitchen. There was a dull, seventies style wallpaper in the house, something from one of those old films where everyone had horrible, bright skin and were always smiling.
I walked after Tyler as he scuttled up the stairs and into his room.
He turned, facing me, an anxious expression on his face.
"I'm gonna show you something dude. It's really weird, but don't freak, I'm still safe."
I knew instantly that he had an ability of some sort, and was curious as to what it was. The witty part of my brain, no matter how neglected the last few days, picked up the ironic use of the word, 'freak'. I didn't mention any of this, and simply nodded.
He walked over to wall on my right and placed his hand on it. He appeared to concentrate, and his hand began to sink into the wall. I stared in wonder as he managed to get up to his elbow into the wall before abruptly pulling it out and away. I had been expecting something spectacular, but this was simply amazing.
He came back over to me and gave me an uncertain look. I smiled reassuringly and raised my hand, palm outwards and fingers splayed. Aiming at the wall, I sent a short burst of lightning from my hand. It caught fire briefly before extinguishing itself. It left a little crater.
Tyler stared at me open-mouthed. I flashed another smile, which I hoped reassured him.
"That," he said, "Is cool. What else can you do?"
I replied with what I'd learnt as of yet about my ability, how it made a static barrier, could heal me slowly, how I could change it into kinetic energy within me and strengthen my muscles, and how I could paralyse people temporarily with a shock. I then asked him what he could do.
"Well," he said, a lack of enthusiasm in his voice. "That's pretty much it, really. I'm sort of afraid of trying to put my whole body through something, in case I get stuck. But you can you a lot more with your power."
Something flashed in my mind. "What do you need to absorb?" I asked, thinking of all the absorbers I had seen in the last few days, including me.
"Absorb?" confused a little now. "You need to absorb electricity? Mine just... works."
This made me think. Perhaps these 'Specials' could be put into categories. There were already Absorbers. What would Tyler's ability be under? Non-absorbers? Constants? I decided on the latter.
"Cool," I said, realising that too much time had already passed. I needed to get back to Leah. "Dude, I've got to go now," I tell him, "You should stay here, practice. That's how my power grew."
Tyler looked stricken. "No, man! I can't stay here! It's not safe!" He thought for a moment. "Hey, I can come with you! We need to stick together, yeah? Less of a target if we're together."
I had thought about giving this option to Tyler, but decided it not fair on him, since he would probably feel peer-pressured. However, he had offered his companionship himself, so I happily accepted. Phasing could make a powerful ability.
We left his house and as we walked back to the Plaza, I told him what I had been through the last few days. He rarely commented, except from when I mentioned the times I had been beaten half to death. I also told him about Leah, and how she absorbed heat to fuel her pyrokinesis. I explained to him how I (and I assumed Leah, too, since she absorbed heat) could absorb the static energy in people. Unlike me, I guessed Leah absorbed the heat of a person, and turned it to fire. He looked aghast, but I had assured him I had only done it to a man straight after the blast who had already been dead, and the crazy super-human.
We arrived at the Plaza, looking around us to see if there was anyone there. There was no-one, but there was an unnatural stillness in the air.
Something was wrong.
I told Tyler that he could make himself comfortable on my bed, or as comfortable as he could be, and that Leah would be on the other one. I was going to take a short patrol around the boundaries of the Plaza to search for trespassers.
As I walked away from Tyler, I saw, and heard him scurry into the shack. I had almost reached the boundary when I heard him yell. I turned, instantly thinking of the worst, and pelted back to the shack. Tyler had stumbled out, worry on his face.
He held up a piece of paper which I guessed had writing on.
On the other hand was blood.
Shock on his face, he handed me the note.
Before I even read the paper, I knew who it was.
Inscribed in blood, was the single word 'Ghost'.
Or, as a synonym, invisible.