Starbound

Chapter 1

Twelve o’ clock midnight; time to get out of my house. I usually wait until midnight to get outside and enjoy some time to myself while everybody else sleeps. Very quietly, I push the lever on my window that opens it up. I hear a creak from the old wood of the window frame. I knew it was going to do that. Now I have to push it very carefully until it’s all the way open.

I look outside and see the neighborhood. Every household is sleeping. The only sign that people live here, other than the houses are the lamplights outside. The neighborhood isn’t always this quiet; there’s usually something going on with somebody somewhere. I’ve heard drunken teens goofing off and shouting swear swords at times, but I never actually see them when they do.

After scanning the neighborhood, I quietly step through the windowpane until both my feet are standing halfway on the window and halfway outside. I look behind to make sure my parents aren’t nearby, and then jump right out of the window and land all the way from the second floor onto the hard ground. I fall so fast onto the ground that I can’t even remember what really happened before. All I feel is a very painful blow as I land on the ground. It feels like a quick and powerful jolt streaming through. Even though the pain is unbearable and I feel like I’ve broken something, or a lot of something. But I don’t worry myself and touch my head with my trembling fingers. They ache from the fall and shake from the pain, but immediately stop once they touch my head. The rest of my body slowly follows this example.

This healing process of mine is an ability that I’ve had for a very long time and it goes beyond just healing. According to my mother, I pointed at a milk bottle and caused it to move at only six months old. What she didn’t know was how I became more aware of my power over the years and practiced every night and even experimented with new techniques. This healing process happened to be the very first one I taught myself.

It works like this: I touch my forehead with a finger or more, and then close my eyes. When I do this, I see colors consisting of different shades of red. The brighter this color gets in my mind, the more it heals. I still have a long way to go before I can heal from the worst injuries however because doing this requires a lot of focus plus too much of it can give me terrible migraines.

I feel my body almost straighten itself out as it heals, giving me the strength to push myself up and stand on both legs once again. The first is done, but now there are others to do. I raise my hand, look at my window and lower it. The window closes with the drop of my hand, as if I were up there closing it from the inside. I look at all the window of the house for a moment and make sure no lights have been turned on. Now I can leave knowing everyone inside is safe.

What I love most about my street at night is knowing that I’m the only one out and about, seeing the street in a way nobody else does. It’s like time is frozen and I’m the only one around with the world to myself. I have good vision, so the darkness of the night doesn’t give me much trouble. That, and a couple of lampposts help me find my direction. The place I’m headed to is something I like to call, my “Secret Spot.” It’s a little boardwalk in the middle of a forest that only I seem to know about, I hardly ever see anyone else go there other than the occasional jogger, which is why I enjoy it. In this spot I can play with my powers and not have to worry about somebody knowing I’m doing it.

I’ve made it out of my neighborhood and am now crossing the street without looking both ways. I don’t need to check for cars because there’s not a single one within eyesight or even hearing distance. As I walk across the street, I see the elementary school that I attended. I’ve always wanted to go inside and explore it for myself ever since I went there, but they lock all the doors with super strong locks.

After crossing another street and walking through a hiking path, I make a short turn at a part of the forest separate from the hiking trail. There’s still a path, but it leads to what looks like an unsafe part of the forest. To get there, you have to walk through some dead trees and then into a path that looks like it goes on forever. This is the point where most would give up, but I keep on walking until I reach the boardwalk that marks the stopping point.

It looks so mysterious and pretty at night the way the fireflies shine on and off, the trees standing perfectly still with no breeze. Animals rustle through the forest. Call me insane, but it’s so peaceful I could probably sleep right here and now, but that’s not what I plan to do.

On the boardwalk, there are two square platforms. I sit on the one closest to me and take a short rest since I’ve just walked over two miles. A deer runs through the bushes and a cricket chirps somewhere in the dark. I close my eyes so that I can experience everything going on the way that I do. With my eyelids shut, the world becomes a very different place.

It’s like I have a second pair of eyes. They show me a world where everything has color and movement. Rustling grass shows up as rapid blots of green. I can tell they came from somewhere northeast of me because of where the color appeared. In this vision, everything is a color with its own pattern and flow. I can see things that I couldn’t before and pinpoint exact locations of the tiniest sounds. I could do this forever and I probably would, but I tell myself I need to work on that new technique I’ve been trying to teach myself.

I open my eyes and the vision suddenly goes away, returning me to the ordinary world where everything has become much less interesting. I jump off the boardwalk and position myself next to the stump of a tree that died long ago. I touch the trunk and widen my eyes. I stare at my hand and try very hard to remember how I saw things when my eyes were closed. My eyes start to feel sore and my entire head strains while I push my mind to make my technique happen.

I see it, a spot of blue, but it didn’t last too long. I take my hand off of the stump and the brief vision goes away, now I see a tree stump partially frozen solid. My mouth curves into a big smile and I let out a little, “Yes,” to myself. I’ve been trying to work on some kind of elemental technique but have always ended up being disappointed or having a migraine, but not this time. I sit on the unfrozen part of the stump and let out a sigh, now all I have to do is improve it even more, with every achievement comes room for more improvement, that’s what I always tell myself.