I shook my head and let the words fade away for the moment. It had worked — they believed me. To be honest, what choice did they have? There was no other rational explanation. I would have believed it. I turned to Mikey and smiled. “Thanks for backing me up there.” Shrugging, he scooped his bag up off the carpet. “That’s what brothers are for right?” He squeezed my shoulder and followed the others out of the room, leaving me standing on my own.
Later, after the buzz of me not being face down in a ditch had subsided, I snuck away into my room. Flopping onto my bed, I tried to get a handle on my thoughts. I knew I had super strength and speed, but what else? Were these effects permanent? Could I have been involved in some kind of radioactive accident, like in the comic books? Is that why I couldn’t remember where I’d been? I also couldn’t get what Mum had said out of my mind. Did she know something I didn’t? Or was I reading too much into it? There were so many questions swimming about in my head, they made me feel dizzy. So I shut my eyes and let my thoughts drift. Instead, more questions squeezed into my crowded brain: Is this real? Have I gone mad? Why me? Is there a reason? I couldn’t cope; it felt like my head was going to explode.
“Stop it!” I hissed, pounding my fists against my temples. “Just stop!”
Silence.
I sighed and sat up on the edge of my bed, my head in my hands. Get a grip Alex.
Suddenly I remembered my phone. Leaning over, I scooped it off the desk. It had run out of battery, so I had to rummage through my top drawer for the charger before I could switch it on.
When the logo had faded away and the information had loaded, I saw that I had five missed calls and Voicemail. A personal record.
The first missed call was from my parents. I figured they must have called me and heard it ringing upstairs. The next was from Tim and the last three were all blocked.
I tapped the voicemail button and waited as it connected. The woman’s disjointed voice informed me I had four new messages.
The first was from Tim, left Friday evening. He explained that my Mum had called him in a panic. He asked if it had anything to do with Terry. He offered to go to the school Principal for me if I didn’t want to. Asked me to call him and rang off.
The next was from a telemarketer. Apparently I could consolidate my existing debts into one easy monthly repayment. I sighed and deleted the message.
The third made my stomach jolt. It was Gabriella. Her angelic voice floated through the speaker into my ear. “Hi Alex its Ella. I hope you don't mind, I got your number from your friend Tim. I was a little worried about you. Has something happened? Anyway, please call me back as soon as you get this.” She read out her number then clicked off. I repeated it over and over in my head as I scrambled about for a pen and paper. After jotting it down, I made a mental note to call her the first chance I got.
I saved the message and waited for the final one. It had come through this afternoon. As soon as it started, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
At first, there was nothing apart from what sounded like fierce wind. It crackled loudly in the receiver forcing me to hold the phone away from my ear. Then a robotic voice cut through the noise, like the types they used in hostage films. It was slow and deep and the mobile reacted to it, buzzing electronically like it was getting interference.
“ Alexander, we are the ones who took you. Please understand it was to help you. To keep you safe. Your escape was…unexpected. There is no point trying to remember where you have been, or what happened, because it will be impossible. You will know only when the time is right. We are aware that you have discovered that you possess abilities which defy logical explanation. Our advice is experimentation. But be careful. Your body is still adjusting and therefore will be quite unpredictable. You may end up hurting yourself or others.”
The voice stopped for a long beat and there was nothing but the crackle of wind again. My ear was glued to the phone and I had stopped breathing, not daring to miss a thing.
“ Alexander, you always wanted to be special and now you are. Go and be the person you always wanted to be. Remember though, we are keeping an eye on you. We will be in touch.”
The message ended, followed instantly by the female recorded voice informing me that the message had been successfully deleted. I pulled the phone away and stared at it. I hadn’t pressed anything. The message had deleted itself.
Freaked out, I threw the phone away from me like it was a giant insect. My heartbeat was a hummingbird fluttering its frantic wings inside my chest.
Someone took me? To keep me safe — but from what? I escaped- how? And from where? Where have I been? Millions of questions began to pour into my brain again. I felt so confused that I wanted to scream and rip my hair out. The rational part of my mind was yelling that none of this happened in real life. I felt torn. On the one hand, these people had kidnapped me and done god knows what. On the other hand, although it was crazy, I owed these people a lot. I looked and felt incredible.
The caller’s words echoed in my mind.
Our advice is experimentation.
Without thinking, I leaned over the edge of my bed. I fumbled in the abyss between frame and floor. Eventually my hand closed around what I was looking for and I dragged it out. It was one of a twin set of dumbbells John had given me for my 17th birthday. Looking at it now, I rolled my eyes. He might as well have written ‘man up’ on the gift tag.
I stripped the weights off and pushed them back under the bed with the heel of my foot. I was left with the metal bar. I weighed it in my hands. It certainly felt solid enough. I curled my hands into fists and took a deep breath. Then I twisted them against the bar, pushing upwards and towards the middle. The bar didn’t want to bend. My biceps threatened to split through my skin. I could feel the tendons in my neck straining from the effort. A growl of effort came from deep within.
Eventually, something gave way. When I looked back down, the bar resembled a U shape.
“No way!” I breathed. I pushed the metal further with the palm of my hands. It crossed over itself. I grabbed one end and with much less effort pulled it through the loop, tugging both ends like a shoelace. Now the bar was a giant knot.
I stared at the lump of metal in utter disbelief.
This is insane.
The phone ringing almost made me scream. I crawled over the bed and looked at the screen. The number was unknown. A cold chill ran through my body. Is it them? My throat was sandpaper as I picked up the handset and pressed the answer button. “Hello?” I croaked. “Alex, that you?” I sighed with a mixture of relief and disappointment. “Yeah it is, hi Tim. Your number came up unknown.” “House phone mate. Ex-direct. Anyway, just checking you’re ok.” I looked at the pretzel shaped dumbbell as confirmation. “Yeah I’m fine…great actually.”
Tim made an approving noise then stopped to shout at someone. “Sorry, my sister’s doing my head in. Anyway, glad to hear you’re ok. Oh before I forget, I wasn’t the only one worried about you.” His voice had changed and I could imagine him wearing his trademark dopey grin. “What do you mean?” “That ten…Gabriella? She was asking about for your number. I gave it to her, did she get in touch?” “Yeah she left a message,” I said.
Tim whistled. “Mate, I am so jealous, that girl has a soft spot for you. And she is so hot, I mean like…wow. Things are looking up hey Alex?” I gave a little chuckle. “You know what? I think you may be right.” “So where were you anyway?” I paused. I hadn’t thought about whether I was going to tell him or not yet. I needed time to think. “Sorry mate, I’ve got to go. My Mum’s calling me for dinner.” “Err…okay, cool. So does this mean you’ll be back tomorrow?” I glanced over at the wrap of metal on the bed and then to my upgraded reflection.
Go be the person you always wanted to be.