I took a couple steps back as I saw the camera reacting to the presence of so much energy in the air. “Hold on, I gotta back up a bit.” I adjusted the lens zoom, refocusing on her hand. “Okay, go.”
I looked up from the camera. Holly was starting to lose her grip over her energy. Her breathing pattern changed, getting faster. I opened my mouth to remind her to breathe slowly, but she cut me off.
“Hey Jesse, watch this.”
I shielded my eyes with my hands, pretty sure that not only was I about to be blinded, but that the camera was no longer pointed in the right direction.
I said—calmly, I thought, given the situation—“No, don’t—” The rest would’ve been along the lines of No, don’t let your power get out of control, but that was all I got out before the sudden pain in my chest, like Holly’s energy had slammed into me. I wasn’t sure if it because it was all around me and I was being saturated in it, or if it had shot out and hit me. Regardless, there was nothing I could do; the camera slipped from my hand, and I fell, shaking violently.
My eyes rolled back in my head as the blindingly bright light subsided. The last thing I heard was Holly swearing at me. Fighting for breath, my head hit the floor, and I sank into the black that had obscured my vision.
#
I woke up to an incredible pain in my chest, which, judging by the cold, was bare. I looked down at myself, squinting as my vision swam in and out of focus, and then at my sister, who was kneeling over me, tears running down her cheeks. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her cry, definitely not since Mom and Dad, so that worried me even more than whatever had just happened. What was still happening.
“It’s fine, Holly.” I sat up and groaned. As much as I was glad to be alive, living still hurt. “I’m all right. You don’t need to worry.”
“I can’t believe I did that.”
I blinked. Her voice was surprisingly calm and collected, considering the tears streaming down her face and spilling onto my crossed legs. I pushed her shoulders back so I could see her face.
“Didn’t mean to do what? What happened, Holly? I know your energy zapped me, but I’m not sure if it was because you shot me or if it was like on the bus.”
“I…I think I hit you. It went where my fingers were pointing.”
She was still kind of staring at nothing, and it was starting to unnerve me. I waved a hand in front of her face. “Hol, chill out. I’m not dead.”
“You were.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I’m…I’m pretty sure you died.”
“Then how am I speaking to you now?” I was trying—very, very hard—to stay calm. Apparently, “anger management” techniques also work when being told you’ve been brought back from the dead.
“I…” She brought up her hand, clenched in a fist, and then suddenly unfurled it. An arc of electricity stretched outwards from her fingers, and then disappeared. “I did that.”
“Oh. That’s kind of…kind of cool.” Even I could hear the forced calm in my voice. This was not what I needed to hear, but I tried to breathe deeply and shove it to the back of my mind. I could figure this out later. “You know what? I’m going to go with ‘I’m still alive,’ and…” I touched my chest tentatively, then looked down. There wasn’t even a mark. “Are you sure something happened? I don’t even have any burns.”
“Yeah, I noticed that. You had some earlier, but I…” She stopped and inhaled, but not the way I’d taught her.
My eye twitched. “No, from the diaphragm,” I said. It was a useful distraction from my recent death.
She burst out laughing, and I blinked, completely thrown off by the sudden change of mood. It took me a moment to notice that I’d shifted. “So clearly my mind’s been affected by the whole death thing.”
She stopped laughing, and I winced. “No, seriously. I’m going to pretend I was never dead. It doesn’t seem to have affected me at all, and I’m…not even one hundred percent sure that I was dead.”
She made some sort of sound of protest, and I held up a hand to cut her off. “I don’t want to hear it. Seriously. Holly—I’ve always been alive!” My heartbeat was beginning to spike out of control. I held my breath and closed my eyes.
I can deal with this.
I kind of have to deal with this.
“Is that okay?” I asked.
“Yeah…yeah, sure.”
I opened my eyes and forced myself to smile at her. “So even though you may have hurt me a bit, you didn’t do it on purpose, and it’s okay.” I nodded, firmly, and turned away so I wouldn’t have to look at her. “I’m just going to go over to my room, okay?”
She nodded.
I turned on my heel and took a step towards the door.
“Hey, dude,” Holly said, and I turned around. “Do you actually dance in your room when no one is looking?”
I sputtered, which turned into coughing as Holly started laughing.
“Yes. I thought everyone kind of did. Who told you that I do?”
“You’ve been spotted a number of times. I’m not usually the kind of person to notice, but…well, you don’t turn around like a normal person anymore. You kind of do a dance move thing.”
“Oh.” Heat crept up my neck.
“It’s okay, kind of…amusing. Good to see, though.” She smiled, and I smiled back, though my heart was pounding.
I walked out of Holly’s room, calling back a goodnight over my shoulder as I headed down the hall to my own room.
Once inside, I closed the door behind me and leaned against the doorjamb. “I really died tonight, I guess?” I poked at my chest. While I couldn’t feel any burns, it was very tender where she said she’d hit me, and I had a feeling that my shirt—wherever it was—would probably back up her version of the story.
I’d deny it as much as possible around her, but now I was alone in my room, tears were streaming down my face. I need to come to terms with this.