Chapter 3: Green Lights

Austin scooped up the last of the noodles and sat down in his place at the table. He took a few bites -- it was already cold. Placing the bowl in the microwave, he reheated it for a minute. As he waited for it to be done he looked at his younger siblings who were already done eating. He ran a hand through his red hair and sighed.

“This is hard,” he muttered. Demmy looked at him with concern and started to gather up the empty bowls.

“I made cookies yesterday and saved some for you guys,” she said as she placed the bowls in the sink. “Roxanne, can you get them for me? They’re in my bag.”

“Yeah,” Roxy answered, slipping out of her seat. At the mention of cookies, the others stayed put in their seats. She sat the container down on the table and pried the lid off and handed two cookies to each person. “Here ya go!”

“Thanks, Dem,” They all said.

“Save some for Austin, okay?” Demmy laughed. She turned to Austin as she washed the bowls. “You look tired.”

“DJ got sent to the office today,” he removed his bowl from the microwave and started to eat. Between bites he filled her in. “Punched a kid in the eye for heaven’s knows why and the principal was going on about how she knew our home life was helping the matter. Just makes me so mad.”

“They deal with a lot of kids who act out because of their home life but you’re not like that,” she said. She sat the clean bowls on the counter and turned the water off. “You might fall asleep every now and again in a class or get in an argument here and there but you’re not doing it out of spite.”

He laughed. “Nah, I don’t think so.”

After a few minutes of talking while they cleaned up, they were done. The pot was cleaned, the dishes were dried and put away, and everything was neat and tidy.

“You want a cookie?” Demmy held up the container. “There’s only four left.”

“They ate a lot of them,” he said. He reached inside and grabbed two. “You can have the rest.”

“Do you need help with your homework still?” she asked, pulling her notebooks and pens out of her notebook.

“Yeah, um, let me go check on the kids, they’re upstairs and it’s unusually quiet,” he walked to the stairs and was about to step up onto the first stare when he noticed something. Next to him was a window that looked down on the alleyway below them. Normally, the alleyway was dark and quiet with an occasional stray cat here and there but tonight it was illuminated with a dull green.

If it had been any other night, any other person, any other thoughts running through his head, he would have left it alone but something about the eerie glow called him. His hand dropped off the banister and he turned and walked for the door. He opened it and stepped out into the chilly air. He descended the stairs and his walk turned into a jog. He ran for the alleyway. His brain was telling him to stop but his legs kept moving forward.

His body finally stopped moving but it wasn’t until he found the source of the light -- a glowing bricked off door in the side of a building. For a moment he was relieved that he had control over his body again but it didn’t last long. His feet carried him forward once more, closer to the wall, and his arm reached out, fingers brushing up against it.

The green light instantly jumped at his fingers, dashing up his arm and to the spot on his chest right over his heart. He screamed, the noise piercing the night. He could hear someone’s footsteps pounding down the alley behind him -- Demmy.

“What happened?” she looked at him, the wall, and then back at him, eyes wide. He couldn’t withdraw his arm, it wouldn’t obey.

“I don’t know,” he managed.

“What is happening!” she screamed.

Little strands of green erupted from the wall, twisting up his arm. They followed the same path as the light. The moment they found home, they turned a blinding neon green.

She couldn’t speak. For the first time in her life, she was frozen in place, eyes wide, and heart racing. She wanted to pull him away, to stop whatever was happening, but it was if the light had paused time, nothing moving but itself.

And then she could move. She could breathe again. Austin could move now and he instantly turned around and stared straight in her eyes. His eyes glowed a golden green, power surged throughout his whole body. The green know laced around every inch of visible body and began to glow. She could see rings of gold flowing through them making him seem like a monster.

“Run,” it was Austin’s voice. His eyes were pleading with her. “Please.”

She didn’t argue but rather turned and ran as fast as she could back into the house. She slammed the door behind her and locked it. She slid down the door, chest heaving with panic. She looked at the window, the green light glowing brighter and brighter.

Slowly, she stood up and took a tentative step towards the window. Her fingers gripped the windowsill, her whole body shaking. Down below she sat Austin. He barely looked human any more. The veins on his body turned grey and smokey like, twisting around him more and more until she couldn’t see him. He -- rather it-- grew bigger and bigger, growing taller and taller in size. Demmy’s heart stopped for a split second as its long boney fingers scrapped the window pane. She screamed, she couldn’t help it.

The creature froze when it heard her. It pulled itself up to its full height and looked through the window at her. Demmy couldn’t breath, her lungs were constricted. She felt like she was going to pass out. A smile crept over its face and it raised a finger and made a shushing gesture. And then it jumped. It jumped up high, grabbed a hold of the tops of the surrounding apartment building and pulled itself up. With one last leap it was airborne and disappeared from sight.

She held a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming or crying, maybe both. She looked down below her again and Austin was gone.

“It swallowed him up,” she gasped. Her mind was reeling. She couldn’t take it anymore. She sat down up against the wall and pulled both knees up to her chest. “What just happened?”

She tried to steady her breathing but she couldn’t. None of it seemed real.

Two minutes later she heard a soft knock on the door. At first, she didn’t know what to do but managed to stand up and look through the peephole. It was Austin and he was shivering in the cold night air.

Her hands moved without her brain telling them to do anything. She unlocked the door and opened it, taking a step back as she did so. She grabbed her notebooks and pens and stuffed them into her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and looked at Austin as he stepped inside.

“What happened?” she choked out, a tear sliding down her face.

“I think I have superpowers,” he said, a little dazed. She could see faint traces of green on his arm, bringing back the terrible image of the monster.

“You turned into… into… a monster,” she sobbed. “I wouldn’t call that a superpower.”

She slid by him, out the door, and into the night, headed for home. Austin sighed and shut the door behind him and relocked it. He took the stairs two at a time.

“Time for bed,” he said as he walked into DJ’s room. He switched the light off and shut the door. He changed Kazzy into pajamas and laid her down in her crib. He turned the lights

off in Rome and Venice room who were already asleep. Everything felt wrong, like he was a stranger in his own house.

He stepped into the bathroom and shut the door before turning the lights on. He walked to the mirror and pulled his shirt off. He could feel slimy green veins on his skin and sure enough, they were there. He gasped. They were arranged in a pattern he was all too familiar with -- a pattern he had drawn himself.

Green veins spread out from the center like the spokes of a wheel. He ran a tentative finger over it.

“That’s impossible!” he muttered in awe.

He pulled his shirt back on and flipped the lights off, heading for his bedroom. He didn’t bother to change, just crawled into bed and pulled the blankets up, hoping that he’d wake up from what he hoped was a nightmare.

His eyes drifted shut as sleep claimed him but as he rested, the mark on his chest dug its way deeper into his skin. It was a part of him now.