Party Tricks
Derek Fen struggled to keep up with Tracy Wayfield. He wheezed and clutched the stitch in his side as he hurried after her.
I could almost kick myself for letting her in on my secret. When someone develops superpowers, secrecy is paramount.
Tracy led them on a snaking course through the lush, green forest of his backyard, following some wayward internal compass.
She stopped and pointed at a small, gray rock on the ground. “Prove I’m right. Try to move that stone without touching it.”
Her chosen target was one among many. Derek looked around to ensure they were out of sight of his neighbors’ homes. They were alone.
“Why can’t you believe me?”
“Because you’re being ridiculous. You’re not psychic. How do I know you didn’t set up another trick like that floating pen illusion in your den? I’m controlling your tests to prove you’re messing with me, and this is all a joke.”
Derek took a deep breath to scrub his mind of distractions. He stood several feet away and imagined an invisible third hand reaching for the stone, lifting it free.
It didn’t budge.
He stared at the stone a while longer, feeling the hot September air bake his skin and make his shirt stick to his chest. The brutal Maryland summer held Autumn in a stranglehold and showed no signs of relinquishing until every flower had wilted.
But suffering on this lazy Sunday afternoon was worth it if he convinced Tracy his skills weren’t figments of an overactive imagination.
Tracy brushed away her chestnut bangs, which clung to her forehead. “Okay, Derek the Magnificent. Can we go back inside? Your neighbors must have thousands of turkeys. You want to show me an impossible power, how about making me not gag on their sulfuric shits from a mile out? I bet they can smell this all the way in Washington, D.C., and that’s a thirty-minute drive. Forty, if you’re at the wheel.”
Power sparked within Derek’s trembling fingertips like a buildup of static electricity. “Give me a minute. I almost had it.”
“Fine. One minute.” Tracy dug in her small purse for her phone.
A rock ballad’s intro blasted from the device, destroying his train of thought. “Knock it off!”
“What?” Tracy drummed her fingers against her phone’s plastic case. “This soundtrack inspires me when I need to concentrate.”
“Lifting stones with my mind isn’t easy and your musical choice from three decades ago isn’t helping.”
Tracy stopped her music, returning the woods to relative silence, which gave Derek a chance to think.
He focused on the gray stone partially buried under soil and moss, and concentrated his thoughts on lifting it. As if a gate unlocked inside of him, power flooded along the canals of his veins. Lingering energy charged his unruly head of hair, making less obedient strands stand upright.
Tall pine trees swished under an overdue breeze. Every inhale brought scents of sap and pine needles. Each exhale felt as though he might unleash a breath of fire from the power building inside him.
His telekinetic hand pried Tracy’s chosen rock loose. It spun, flinging a thin layer of moss onto his shoe. The rock wavered in the air. Derek poured out more power to keep it airborne. Squeezing too hard with his mental muscle, the rock flew at his arm, breaking skin before plunging into the ground. He flexed to make the accidental slip seem intentional.
One side of Derek’s lips curled. Much like other rules, he found the laws of last year’s physics class to be little more than suggestions. He toed the line between the believable and the unexplained for a few weeks since he began moving objects with his thoughts. At some point, the line faded into the distance until it was no more than a dot.
Tracy’s oval face softened. “Hmm. I know there’s a trick. Move that stick so I can see how you hid the string.”
“Seriously? You still don’t believe me?”
She shook her head, her finger still extended, pointing at the stick.
Using his power was much easier this time. A slight tremor rattled the stick, lifting it a few feet above the ground. He pushed it away with enough force to snap in half against the trunk of a thick oak.
“In-ter-es-ting.” Tracy’s voice dragged over each syllable.
Derek put his hands behind his back and bumped the side of her hand with his mental fist. Tracy jumped, giving a small yelp.
Her cinnamon eyes settled on Derek, looking him up and down. She moved in close and jabbed his chest with a finger. “You—aren’t—lying?”
“Nope.”
Tracy settled against a log, speechless, regarding Derek with awe.
Derek’s smug grin stretched across his face. “See, this was the reaction I was expecting back in my house.”
“This is too much,” Tracy said into her hands. “We need the rest of our friends here.”
The excitement building in Derek came crashing down around him. “They were all busy. At least they let me know this time.”
“Then it’s up to me.”
She leaped to her feet and grabbed Derek’s arm. “This is incredible! Let’s see how far you can take this.”
“You’re not scared? I am. You skipped the three or four emotions I went through when I first discovered these powers.”
“I’m well past panicking and want to know what you can do. I’ll be here to spot so you don’t hurt yourself.” Tracy’s eyes reflected the light filtering through the trees. “Move that branch.”
The forest was littered with potential targets. Derek doubted Tracy cared which object he used his mind to throw. He launched a branch out of sight. Tracy responded with enthusiastic applause.
Though he only intended to raise the branch to waist height, Derek still brushed his shoulder as a sign of triumph. “Anything else you’d like me to move?”
Tracy retrieved a plump, green pawpaw fruit from her purse. “Juggle this.”
“Thanks for stealing my family’s crops.”
She had the decency to flash a sheepish grin while inspecting the prize. “I figured it was payment for braving this sauna of a day.”
Derek’s mind carried the fruit into his outstretched hand. Not much for juggling, he used the telekinetic third hand to toss the fruit back to Tracy.
His delighted friend kept finding more rocks to throw or leaves to make dance. Luckily, accuracy wasn’t a concern. They dodged his misfired projectiles when he got overzealous, ever pushing himself to do more. A couple of rocks bounced off his head and left tiny welts.
Eventually, he collapsed when his telekinetic fingers failed to raise a pebble off the ground.
Tracy loomed over him, offering her hand to help him up. “Feel like calling it a day and heading back inside?”
Derek’s head swam and his eyes drooped. “I got one more in me.”
“In that case, enough of these warm-ups. Push that tree.”
Her finger settled on a fifty-foot oak, which must have sprouted when his parents were kids. The tree was wider than his outstretched arms, and thousands of times heavier than the sticks and stones he’d been tossing.
Rot had eaten its insides, causing it to fall and wedge against another upright elm, giving him a chance. Derek placed his heavyset arms against it and pushed for all he was worth.
The leaning tree didn’t budge.
Derek clenched his teeth; his pride was on the line. “I got this.”
Cobwebs flushed from his thoughts. He threw his mental prowess against the might of the forest. Pushing against the immobile tree with telekinesis pushed him back, his power proving to be too weak. Losing inches, Derek dug his shoes into the dirt. Anything to hold him in place.
Tracy stepped away from his tree-focused fury as he let loose an impressive string of curses.
“I have it. Give me one more shot.” Derek went deeper and deeper inside until he felt as though he was dropping into a bottomless pit.
The edges of his vision dimmed. A prickling sensation spread from the base of his neck along his spine like glacial melt dripping down his back. The fringes of his mind recognized the sound of a low growl. He pressed on.
I’m passing Tracy’s test.
Seven points of light shone from the darkness inside his mind. Blazing lines formed in the space between the lights. These connected the dots to create the ends of a star, which seared into Derek’s thoughts and obliterated all others.
On the other side of the star in his mind’s eye, a large bear-like creature with pale eyes stared back at him. Undaunted by the odd creature inside his head, Derek reached out and touched the barrier separating them. Pockets of power blistered on the shimmering surface around his fingertips.
He pushed his hand through the cold liquid substance, reaching for the immense lake of power beyond. Nausea riled his stomach, as though he had plunged his hand into his chest to rip out his still-beating heart.
Pressing through the pain, he felt like he inhaled lightning as his lungs sent supercharged energy to lift lethargic limbs.
Derek shaped a giant fist of air above his right hand and aimed at the tree.
When the raw power could no longer be contained without ripping him apart, he hurled the giant fist at the ancient oak. It struck with enough force to make him wince at the booming sound.
In a slow-motion domino effect, the elm tree bracing the fallen oak bent under the shifted weight until it gave out entirely. Thundering cracks echoed over the forest. An uneven splintering break skewed the larger elm in a new, unexpected direction—toward Tracy.
She was sluggish to react, likely thinking herself safe and out of the way. She leaped to the side to escape the falling bulk but fell short of clearing the tons of wood falling on top of her.
Derek ignored his agonizing muscles and pulled in more power, scalding his insides with its journey from his stomach to his arms. He punched the air, desperate to save Tracy.
A blue ball of light emerged from his fist, searing his skin from the inside out. In desperation, he trusted in his powers, throwing the ball at the falling tree, splitting the tree into smaller pieces.
Splinters showered the forest floor, followed by faint trails of smoke. An afterimage of the light scorched his sight, leaving a streak across his vision. The ball continued to decimate everything in its path. It plowed through several trees before fizzling to nothing.
The ground shook as two solid tree limbs landed safely on either side of Tracy.
She stared up at him from her crouched position, unharmed and stunned at his display of power.
Derek’s chest heaved. Pink, flaky bits of flesh peeled from his knuckles. His fist looked as though he had spent a week at the beach without suntan lotion. Tingling pain ran across his exposed inner layers of flesh. He stared at his hand, spinning it about, expecting to find it belonged to someone else.
Wrong. This is all wrong.
Derek shuddered, uncomfortable in his own skin. He dug his fingernails into his arms to get rid of the sensation of heavy sludge caked over them.
The sounds of knives carving wood yanked him back to reality.
The bear-like figure Derek had seen in his head paced between trees. Its white fur stood out against the brown and green of the forest, and its long claws scraped over a fallen log. Tiny horns protruded from behind its ears and sharp teeth extended from its open mouth.
Derek strained to move, to run, to do anything. His feet were anchored in place, ignoring his brain’s pleas to budge.
The creature’s pale, milky eyes tracked him hungrily.
