Vicious ☢ Theo Raeken

f o u r

"Power, the ability to control things." Mr. Douglas began, holding a small metal rod. "This metal has no power. It's small, weak, insignificant."

I gulped, automatically making some allusions to my past self, for I was just the same – small, weak, and insignificant.

"Is there anything we can do to change that?"

Corey raised a hand. "Corey, what you got?"

"We can add electricity."

"Exactly." Mr. Douglas walked back to his desk. "We turn this metal rod into a magnet. Now it has power. Now it has influence over others."

He turned on the device on this desk, creating a buzzing sound, and started to weave the rod around the bowl with a metal ball in it, rendering it mobile with the power of magnetism.

All of a sudden, he started having an intense coughing fit, that drew my attention.

"A-Are you okay, Mr. Douglas?" Hayden piped up.

The teacher looked at her with a reassuring smile, although I could clearly see that it's fake. "Just a little cough."

"Where were we? Um..." he looked around, trying to compose himself. "Right, now we have electricity and a little bit of power. Let's add a little more."

He turned up the device and the buzzing sound increased. "After all, the greater the power, the greater the control."

I was having some problems listening to this class, because I was making all the wrong assumptions and links.

He started to cough again and tried to suppress them, eventually taking a sip of water, turning back to the worried class a few moments later.

This looks really suspicious.

"Imagine what this rod could become with boundless electricity." He continued. "Say, from a lightning bolt? What else could we control?"

He turned up the power even further and the metal ball started to roll around in a complete frenzy, just as Mr. Douglas broke out coughing again.

This time he made his way straight to the storage room and closes himself there, followed by intense coughing and groaning.

~

As I was dressing up for the P.E. class, basically all of the cellphones ringed indicating a message, including mine. It was a notice of Nathan Pierce's 'Start of the Season' party.

Yeah, like I'm gonna go there.

"Where is it? Who took all of her stuff?" Some girl yelled, making me furrow my brows.

Any noise, even if slightly hostile, makes me irritated.

"What's wrong, Gwen?" Hayden asked.

"Someone stole all of her stuff." The girl explained with teary eyes.

"Whose stuff?"

"Phoebe, my sister. She's been on your team for two years?" She asked indignantly, giving an impression that we should know this girl.

"I don't remember her." Hayden said.

"You don't remember her?" Gwen asked, really pissed off now. "The school doesn't remember her! No one remembers her."

She made her way out of the locker room, roughly brushing past me.

"Watch it," I growled, hoping she didn't hear me.

Hayden looked at me disapprovingly, but she should know that everything is a hundred times harder for me than it is for her – she doesn't have evil essence residing deeply within her.