Male Reader x Remi

Part 8

"I was born in Miami, the jewel of New Florida. My dad was a teacher, and my mom worked for the authorities. I had a big brother, he was three years older than me. We were pretty well off, all things considered. Both my mom and my dad had good jobs, and even though they were just mid-tiers we lived in a nice house, on the nice side of town. So I went to a 'nice' school, for high-tier kids. Only one problem."

"I didn't have an ability. I should've, a hundred times people told me I should've, but I didn't. My brother did, he could control rainclouds, would use them for pranks, to pick up chicks. I mean, girls, women, 'chicks' were his words. My mom and dad, well they both had water abilities of their own. 'y/n should have an ability...' as it always went, but no amount of shoulds could ever make it true."

"Being a cripple is tough at any school I'm told, but at one like mine? A school full of upper mid and high tiers? It was hell. My brother protected me when he could, so did my dad, but they couldn't always. Dad was always going to change schools in a few years, and my brother would've graduated. Even with them there, it didn't matter, it happened anyway. The beatings, the torture, people playing kick the cat all day every day. I asked a hundred times to transfer, but my parents said no. Really, for a cripple, I had 'gotten lucky' getting into a school like this. I didn't feel lucky. It's only with hindsight that I realize transferring wouldn't have done me any good, all the schools in the area were the same. Our only option was moving into a low-tier district, and I could never make my family do that for me."

"So I put up with it. I put on a tough face at school, the dinner table, but the truth is that I cried. Each night, I cried, begging that the doctors were wrong. That I'd get my ability any day now. Any second. It was just taking a little longer than usual, is all."

"One then one day my dream came true. I don't know when it was, or how it happened. But I was getting beat up like usual, trying to cover my face from the blows when all of a sudden it shot out like a current. Torrential rain, the kind that hits like hail, pouring from the sky that had just been blue. We all got cut up pretty bad, but I was used to it. They weren't. The looks on their faces as they stared into that dark cloud... how they stared at me when we all waiting at the nurse's office. It's when I realized I finally had it. I had power."

"That group left me alone after, but others needed to see for themselves before they believed. Biting frost, a tornado's wind, every day I seemed to get more, and more. My brother, who was at first ecstatic, I could feel him getting jealous. Or scared. Who wouldn't be? In just a few weeks I had gone from a cripple to someone with an ability, and an ability made up of other extremely powerful abilities at that. So after a while, everyone believed it, and that meant no more bullies anymore. But that doesn't mean they weren't shocked."

"Sitting alone in my dad's class wasn't new, but it was different now. People weren't avoiding me out of disgust or pride, they were avoiding me out of fear. But I swear I never meant to hurt anyone. I never fought anybody who didn't try and fight me first, I promise. First the Jack, then the King, the Queen, I know it looked bad, how I left them. But they challenged me because of the stupid "hierarchy", and I.... I didn't know how to hold back, yet."

"I put myself on turf wars, I thought that if I was going to have people coming after me, I might as well be making my dad proud in the process, right? With me, our school was quickly becoming the strongest in Miami. I don't know how many Kings and Jacks I defeated, but it was a lot. Maybe I liked it in a way. The people from the other school's, they didn't know that I was a cripple before. They didn't treat me like everyone else did. I could stand their blows better than I could stand the stares"

"They never talked about me at my school, I was too embarrassing, they still didn't like me even as I won battle after battle for them, because of where I came from. But around town, they talked about me. A lot. Being that powerful meant getting a lot of attention, people know you. Including the wrong people."

"I'm coming home late from school one day. No turf wars, no battles or anything. I was just getting lunch. I finally got some time away from it all, and I spent it getting lunch. The house is on fire. My dad is outside, kneeling, he's crying but I don't know how I can tell. I bring in the storm clouds, I shower the wreck until it's cool. I probably destroyed some of our memories in the process. Dad says 'It's too late.' I ask what he means. He says 'They have them. Spectre. They have your mom and your brother.' I don't ask what he means."

"I can't really remember what happened after that. I don't know how I got to that building downtown, how I knew where it was, what it was beneath the facade of a strip mall. I don't know what the people there were saying or doing before I tore it to the ground. I don't know that the people who died really weren't my fault. I just know that I was on TV. And then I was on a bus going somewhere I don't know. And that I was too late. They killed my mom and my brother."

"I know it was because my ability drew attention to us. I know that they weren't after them, they were after me. I know that I was just a dirty late bloomer, who got into a mess only late bloomers ever did. And I know that the authorities only let me go through readjustment because my mom was part of them, and Spectre was a thorn in their side. But I know that I was, too."

"And I know my dad says it wasn't my fault. And I know that, my brother would tell me to 'Quit being a dumbass' and my mom 'You tried your best'. And I definitely know that I shouldn't be telling all of this to a person I just met but. I don't know. I guess it, feels good to tell my story. And to have someone listen. Someone who maybe gets it."

"Yeah, it does. And I think I do."