To Know

Chapter 28

Warning: Child abuse implication. Last scene.

"I guess I should," John replied, scratching the back of his neck whilst refusing to meet Seraphina's eyes. "But I don't know if I've forgotten or misremembered anything. I mean, sometimes I question my memory. I have trouble recalling some of it. It's painful."

He took a deep breath in before starting.

"I was only home-schooled for a year or less before I came to Wellston. I didn't want anyone to look up my old school or recognise me. There are news articles that include my name at the very least if they're not just about me, and they would have revealed that I lied about my ability on the first day and also some... other stuff. Stuff I didn't want people to know. I wasn't a nice person back them. Not at all.

He glanced up to the ceiling. "I attended the public schools in New Bostin. At elementary school, I had only one friend, Adrion, who was technically a family friend. His mum was a friend of my dad's as they both grew up in the same neighbourhood in New Bostin. My mum went missing when I was young – she's probably dead – but basically, she's never known her in my memory and she's not a part of any of this. Maybe this would have been different if she had been there.

"Me and Adrion were close friends and we would face the bullies together. It was barely there at elementary (it's a low-tier neighbourhood in a low-tier city) as many hadn't developed their ability yet and if they had, it was weak. So, it got worse in middle school. A lot worse. It served a wider area (it's literally called New Bostin Middle School) so it included mid-tier neighbourhoods as well.

"I met my second friend there. Claire. Or at least I thought she was my friend."

Tears pooled up in his eyes.

Her heart thumped.

"She was a low-tier like Adrion, but where Adrion had an offensive ability, she had a mental one. It was clairvoyance, a future prediction ability, and it gave her visions at random. She had no control over it.

"So it was the three of us against the rest of the school. We were some of the weakest students there if not the weakest. Adrion would attempt to protect us, but it only led to him getting hurt more.

"One day, Claire had a vision of me where I had an ability. I didn't believe her – I was too old to normally develop an ability at that point – but I also wanted to believe her. I wanted an ability, so I practiced.

"Then one day, when a group of mid-tiers picked on us (and these guys picked on us regularly), it happened. I managed to reflect the guy's ability back at him, but it was incredibly weak and did nothing. However, it was an ability and we were excited. We focused on that."

He took a pause to stare off at the wall before he looked back at her.

"Initially, we thought it was a projectile based ability, which had been the guy's ability, but with more visions and practice, it turns out to be aura manipulation. It took a lot of studying to understand abilities and use them, especially as others could practice with one ability instead of many.

"I quickly grew stronger and was able to protect them. But they would sometimes say I went too far. I didn't believe them. They would justify what other did to us as the way of the world, but it was suddenly wrong when I did it. I didn't understand that at the time. I hurt them."

He clenched his fist at his side with bone white knuckles.

"I did go too far though. I would regularly get detentions and suspensions for beating up other students. I didn't put much worth in it. I thought they were being over sensitive. They didn't care when I was getting hurt before, so why did they care when I did it.