Invisible Boy

Chapter 2

When I have a believable lie to give Mom, I run off after school to the abandoned buildings outside of town. Most come across as old warehouses that look like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. The bus ride is short, often people stare at me oddly when I get off, likely thinking I'm some drugged up teen with far too much time on my hands and an already ruined future. I much rather they think that than know what I'm really doing.

It's sort of an experiment that I'm conducting, one about myself. I test myself, what I can do, for hours and hours until I feel I may just pass out (or actually pass out, but we need not discuss that.) Mom never cared about what she could do like I do, or anyone else for that matter. When I asked her if she ever tried passing through a person or a moving object, she always gave me this look, like she wondered why I asked. I don't get how she isn't curious because I want to know everything.

What can she do? What can I do? What is the extent of our powers? Is there more to them than meets the eye? Why does no one seem to care? Come on, we're like something out of a comic, all we're missing is a bad spandex suit! How can they not be curious? I've never understood.

The streets are pretty dead on this side of town. Cop cars aren't as frequent as one would think considering this place is perfect for shady business. I can't count the amount of times I've walked in on a drug deal or seen an impatient customer to a lady of the night crammed into an alley or a parked car. Even with the possibility of little to no people, I still do my best to hide before disappearing.

There's an old rusted fence around a two story warehouse. Do I know what it was used for? Definitely not, probably not a good thing either, but it's a great spot. The fence has some rips in it that I slide on through with ease, and always unseen. Then it's easy to hop in through one of the windows that was busted long ago and start scoping the place out to make sure no one else is there. It's easy and simple when no one can see you.

The first time I disappeared was when I was a baby, or so Mom said. She claimed she freaked for about thirty seconds before I reappeared in my crib and, after that, I sort of went on and off like a flickering light for days. Good thing dad was no longer around. Mom would have had a fun time explaining that to him.

It's funny to think about because, as I got older, as I learned to control it, I started to wonder, what can I do? How long can I stay invisible? How long can I keep other things unseen? What can I hide? Can I move these objects or do they have to be stationary? Can I make water disappear? What about a lit match? All these are questions that I've been trying to learn and, even if they don't work, can I practice it until it does?

The biggest object I have made vanish is a car. It took me days to finally learn and, even then, I blacked out after about 10 seconds. The strain was so much that my head was pounding for days and I couldn't even vanish myself let alone other objects. I haven't tried it again, but I have discovered another new trick.

The coast is clear and I get to work on the second floor. Natural light pours in from the dirtied windows. There's trash all over, from floating shopping bags to broken bottles. Wow, way to protect the environment, folks. I grab one of the water bottles and sit it a few feet in front of me then take a seat cross legged. My eyes focus on the bottle, looks like I'm Cyclops trying to force my laser eyes to work. All my concentration is on the empty bottle, which disappears a second later without my need to touch it. However, the moment I chuckle with delight it reappears and I'm left groaning at how easy it is for my concentration to break. Whatever, it's a start.

Normally I have to be touching the object to turn it invisible so the fact that I can do something like this for a second is already awesome. If Mom found out what I've been doing she would probably strangle me, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her. So says the currently un-strangled child.