WRITING CONTESTS, original works

Essokinesis (Superhero)

Contest: Superhero - Umbrella Academy Contest

Prompt: You are one of the remaining 36 children, the possible Number Eight, who has been training on your own with the hope of joining the Academy. Now it's your turn to tell your story.

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EVER SINCE I WAS little, there's been something inside of me that has frightened both my mother and myself. I would say that it frightens my father too, but I don't have one. You see, I was born without my mother having been pregnant the day before, and the same goes for 42 other individuals. Several of those children were bought from their mothers by Sir Reginald Hargreeves and have been raised as heroes in his 'Umbrella Academy'. 

My mother didn't allow for me to be taken from her by Sir Hargreeves however, and I slightly resented her for that in the first twelve or so years of my life when I heard about what those at the Umbrella Academy were doing to help this reality. I reached out to the Academy on my thirteenth birthday without my mother's consent but received no reply, and all I can see that went wrong was that it came from a thirteen-year-old. 

It was only a few years after my birth that my so-called "ability" started to develop and grow, allowing me to do wondrous things. Creating objects out of thin air and manipulating the elements, as well as restoring life to dead animals I found laying around in the streets. It scared my mother more than anything and she desperately attempted to keep my "ability" under wraps for fear I draw attention to myself and inadvertently cause trouble.

Despite that, I continued to train myself to control my "ability" and do many things. At some point I started to go out after dark and stop robberies and murders on my own, hoping to draw the attention of the Academy. To do so, I left the most strange things at the sites, and even wore my own superhero costume that I somehow threw together on the spot one night. I have to admit that it wasn't much, but it did its job at hiding my identity - even from my mother.

Years passed and I became well known; almost as well known as the Umbrella Academy kids. The general public called me "Number Eight" due to their belief that I already belonged to the Academy and was just working on my own. To tell you the truth, I do wish that fact were true back then so I wouldn't be where I am today.

However, I did reach out to the Academy once again when I turned sixteen, and this time I received a response from someone called Pogo. They said that Sir Hargreeves was interested in meeting me in order to deduce whether or not I am who I say that am, and not some crazed fan who believes they're special. Being the hopeful sixteen-year-old I was, I readily agreed to meet with him, but it didn't really take much convincing on either side to get a result.

We met at a secluded coffee shop not too far from the Academy, and I quickly learned why. The one who had responded to me turned out to be, in fact, a sort of talking monkey. It startled me of course, but it was not even close to the strangest thing I had seen to that date, and it still isn't to this day. Even so, we sat and talked for a good few hours about multiple things, and barely brushed over the idea that I may have an "ability" like the others at the Academy.

"Why do you not believe me?" I had mused, twisting my fingers and creating a cup of coffee out of air, taking a sip and staring over the lip of the cup at the startled monkey man. I finished the cup without a response and destroyed the mug with a featherlight touch. "As you can see, Pogo, I can create and destroy objects out of nothing."

The monkey man had leaned forward and rested his chin atop his folded hands, dark eyes intent on me. "I do believe you, Miss Barker, but master Hargreeves may not. He is not exactly a trusting man."