Bing! Bing! My phone went off in my pocket. Jake and I had gotten up to prepare for the day. When we woke up, the box was glowing just like last time. When we pressed the sides, a light enveloped the room, and when it dimmed down, there was a new set of clothes, documents, and keys, among other things. One thing we found were two driver’s licences, one for both of us. Looking at my picture, I was wondering when it was taken.
“Do you know how to drive?” I asked Jake, “Because I don’t.”
“No, no. I don’t even know when these pictures where taken, although it must have been recently as I have freckles in there.” We decided not to bother with it. We put on the clothes that had appeared, a black hoodie, navy blue jeans, and a green tee-shirt for me. The same outfit for Jake but with and orange shirt instead of a green.
“Okay what the hell.” Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation in my chest and fell to one knee. Jake must have felt the same thing as he too had fallen over. Then, I could feel my body changing. Growing in places, shrinking in others. When the pain finally went away and I got up, I saw in the mirror that the clothes now fit me perfectly. Or rather, I fit the clothes perfectly. My legs had gotten slightly longer and my chest and arms had shrunk slightly.
“Not bad, not bad.” I heard. Jake was looking me up and down approvingly.
“Have you looked at yourself yet?” Jake rotated to see in the mirror that he had gone through a bigger change than I had. He had shrunken slightly, but he was bigger than ever. His arms looked like they would make a killer whale run in terror and his chest looked like it could rip the shirt any second. Suddenly, he dropped down to his knees again and I watched in awe and horror as his chest began to shrink again, until the shirt looked just right. He got up and commented again. I dismissed him and looked at my phone, which had gone off again.
You could be in danger. Meet me at the corner of Welch and 5th street at noon. Lunch is on me. Wear dark clothes and hide your face. You don’t know who could me watching.
Alpha
“Well… that is menacing.” Jake stated unhelpfully.
“We should get going.” I proclaimed. As we left my room, I couldn’t help but look at the pictures on the wall of my house. Me, me with some girl I didn’t recognize. I stopped.
“Dude. What’s wrong? We need to go.” I had tears trailing down my face at this point.
“Did we ever think about what we’ve missed now?” I pouted, “Look.” I held out the picture that had captivated me. It was me in a graduation cap, smiling, as if I had actually been there. Jake turned away and kept walking. I put the picture back and continued to walk down the stairs. Luckily, the box had also given us each a pair of shoes so we actually had some. Time seemed to have altered its self as the shoes by the door were my size, which had gone from an eight to an eleven. We slapped our shoes on and ran outside. I took the set of keys with my name on it and pressed the electronic car unlocker. Surprisingly, a sporty looking Chevrolet Camaro beeped on the street.
“No…” I said, my jaw dropping.
“Way.” Jake finished. We hopped into the car when the excitement vanished and we realized something.
“Neither of us know how to drive.” I said. As if my words activated him he began to get out of the car and come around to the driver’s side.
“Get out.” He said. I shuffled over to the passenger seat when Jake jumped in and started the car lightning fast. Before I knew it, we were shooting down the street with Jake driving like he had done it his entire life.
“Where did you learn to drive?!” I yelled
“I don’t know, man!” he shouted gleefully, “But hell is it fun!” He slowed down and proceeded to the mall, where we applied and received two credit cards. Then we arrived at the corner of Welch and 5th, and entered the small café on the corner. Rainbow Café. We entered and saw a tall man, entirely in black, sitting at a booth. When he looked up, he motioned to us in a friendly manner and told us to sit. Unfortunately, we were too buff to fit in the booth, so we went to a table instead.
“How are you today, gents? Feeling good?” the man said. He had dark straight hair, done up with gel to make it spiky at the top. He had a dark, curly beard that encased his warm smile. He had soft features with deep brown eyes. “Well, I’m famished. Pancakes?”
“Yea, sure.” Jake and I said in unison. On cue, the waitress walked over with a pen and note pad. Two pancakes and three cups of coffee please. The waitress walked away and disappeared behind a counter. Then the man leaned in.
“Do you have the ‘box’” He asked quietly. I followed suit
“Yes. What do you know?” Okay, okay, I was being impatient, but I really wanted to know more about this mysterious artifact.
“Well, I’ve heard that people who find these boxes are given special powers. Unique powers. Powers that only they have. "Shh! Look alive!” I wondered what he meant when I noticed the waitress coming back with a huge tray. She put the two pancake stacks in front of me and Jake, then gave us each a paper cup of coffee. The man motioned to the waitress and brought her over.
“Jenna, could you please leave us alone for now. We have some important business to address.”
“Of course, sir.” She said in a perky tone
“Thank you.” The waitress turned the window sign to ‘Closed’ and walked behind the counter. “Okay, let’s see it.”
“What the heck was that!?” Jake questioned.
“Please, stay calm. When you have friends in certain places, private meetings become easier.” The look in his eyes turned from warm to hard very quickly.
“Okay, so you are obviously Alpha but what is this stupid box?” I was glad Jake was doing the talking because I was too lost in thought to talk. Suddenly, my arm slipped and I knocked my cup of coffee off of the table. Jake and I both reached for it but we both stopped suddenly. The cup and its contents were floating in mid-air, just above the floor. Jake jumped back from the floating cup and it fell to the floor, tearing the foam and spilling coffee everywhere.
“Jake? What did you DO?” I asked. Alpha and I were both staring at Jake, who was staring at his hands.” Alpha was the first to calm down.
“Hmm. Seems your friend’s power is telekinesis.”
“Telekin-whaaaaaaa?” Jake said, confused.
“Telekinesis. The ability to move and affect objects with your mind.”
“No way. Here let me try. I’ll try something simple, if you can call telekinesis simple…” Jake looked at his coffee cup with an immense amount of focus. Then, just like with mine, the cup began to float in mid-air. Jake proceeded to send the cup to a table across the café and then turned his attention back to us.
“Okay, okay. I can move objects with my mind. That’s cool and all, but what about Green?” They both looked at me.
“I don’t know.” I said “Let’s focus on something else for now. If you’re Alpha, you know things about the box. Do you know anything about the Human Individual Power Experiment?”
“A little, I hear that they send an agent if they suspect someone has found a box. Then, they must prove their power in order to be recruited.”
“You sound like you know from experience.” Jake said. This surprised me as he had been playing with his new powers for the last five minutes.
“Like I said, I’ve heard things. Things that you only hear by hiding in washrooms and sitting in the back corners of café’s like this.” I began to think what it must be like to be Alpha, finding all this information. Crouching in a stall, on top of a seat. Or hiding behind a newspaper listening to people talking carelessly loud. Suddenly, I felt the same feeling that I did when I was changing size and shape earlier. At first I thought it was just me changing again, then I looked over at Jake and Alpha. They didn’t speak but looked at me up and down. I went over to the desk and looked in the mirror. I thought it was a prank because when I looked, I saw Alpha. I looked over at the table and he was still there.
“Are you kidding me?” I said to no one in particular.
“No. They said it couldn’t happen. They told me that the power didn’t exist.” Alpha was sweating.
“Alpha? What’s wrong?” Jake was quizzing him
“I- I haven’t been totally honest with you.” He said between sweats “I am the agent, and you, Green” he looked at me harshly, “should not exist.”
ns 15.158.61.11da2
