I still struggled to believe what was happeningâor rather, I simply didnât know how I was supposed to react to my current situation. I was floating in the silent vacuum of space, while below me Earth stretched outâround, bluish, and radiant, like a jewel suspended in the endless darkness. Thousands of thoughts crashed into each other in my mind all at once.
How exactly had I ended up here? Was that anomaly responsible? All I remember is her snapping her fingers and, in the blink of an eye, I was already hereâlost among the stars, my thoughts tangled, a sense of unreality pressing against my chest. I hadnât moved to get here, nor had I used any anomalous ability to transport myself from one place to another.
The feeling was strange, as if Iâd always been at this point from the very beginningâeven though that made no sense at all. The memory was still vivid in my mind: seconds ago Iâd been in the park with Emily, Victor, and Laura when suddenly everything dissolved. Now, without any transition, without even a blink, I found myself here, suspended in space.
For that matter, I wasnât suffocating, even while floating in the vacuum. Honestly, that wasnât even all that surprising, since I donât even have lungsâIâve never needed to breathe, not once in my existence. And Iâd always heard space was absurdly cold, cold enough to freeze someone solid within seconds.
I donât know if thatâs true or just a human exaggeration, but either way, Iâm perfectly comfortable here. The cold doesnât reach me, the heat doesnât affect me... itâs as if the void itself were tailor-made for me.
(Well, putting that aside) I thought, letting out a brief sigh as I shrugged and let my gaze wander across the immensity below me. The Earth stretched out in the distance, almost unreal to my eyes, as if it were just a painting beneath my feet suspended in the void: (How exactly am I supposed to get back there now?)
Should I just try floating back? The idea seemed ridiculous, but for a moment I considered it. I also thought about reaching into the world of shadows, like I usually do on Earth... but this is space.
Would it even work the same way? If not, Iâd probably end up trapped in some reference-less void, with no sense of up or downâif those directions even mean anything here: (The risk is too high. Better not push my luck)
I turned the thought over for a while longer, but no truly useful idea came to meâat least, nothing involving my anomalous powers. I even thought of calling on my Alter Ego, but it was no use: I couldnât summon him, couldnât even feel his presence. Itâs not as though our connection had been severed; I could clearly tell he was still inside me.
But it was almost as if there were an invisible barrierâthick and impenetrableâseparating us. The feeling was strange, suffocating. I had the impression that, on the other side, he didnât even know the situation we were in right nowâas if we were on different planes while sharing the same body.
In the end, I realized Iâd have to handle the situation on my own. I held my breath for a moment, forcing my mind to focus, then fixed my eyes on the bluish sphere below me. It seemed to pulse with life, majestic and distant, yet at the same time so close I could almost feel its gravity pulling me back.
Confused ideas sprang up in my mind one after another, until one stood out with unsettling clarity: (If I get close enough to the atmosphere, Iâll be pulled back to Earth... right?)
The thought struck me almost abruptly, like an unexpected spark in the middle of the void. If I wasnât mistaken, it could really work. But one obstacle stood in my way: how, exactly, was I supposed to move in space?
Dozens of possibilities crossed my mind within secondsâsome even seemed plausibleâbut when I tried to picture them in action, none of them worked the way I wanted. In the end, after some reflection, one idea began to take shape in my mind.
It wasnât necessary to waste energy trying to reach Earth directly; I only had to get close enough. Didnât I have the perfect anomalous ability for a situation like this? More precisely, the last ability Iâd acquired just a few days ago, still fresh in my memory and nearly untouched in its potential.
With that thought pounding in my head, I slowly turned. In front of me lay only an ocean of darkness dotted with rare glimmersâtiny points of light shimmering like scattered jewels across infinity. Behind me, the familiar and comforting sight of Earthâa blue-and-white disk suspended in the void.
For a moment, as my eyes roamed the distant lights, I wondered how exactly I was going to pull this off. Honestly, since Iâd obtained that ability, Iâd only used it once before deciding to shelve itâat least until I learned to control it.
The reason? Simple. Itâs probably the most destructive power I possess... and ironically the one I control the least right now. The last time I tried to use it, back in my room, my sisters nearly became unlucky victims of my accident.
Well, maybe âvictimsâ is too strong a word, since according to them, all they felt was a mild tingling across their bodiesâlike warm water sliding over their skin, brushing them softly. Ironic, when you think about it, because at that same moment everything in my room had been reduced to dust within seconds.
That time, I hadnât been able to focus the energy in one single point. It was as if it had erupted from me in all directions at once, uncontrolled, like an inevitable explosion.
But is it really impossible to direct it? After all, itâs my own power... it makes no sense that I wouldnât be able to shape it the way I want. With that thought in mind, I once again felt that unusual energy flowing through my body, just as vivid as the last time I called upon that anomalous ability.
A subtle heat began to spread inside me, as if my veinsâveins that donât even truly existâwere being pushed to their limit by some invisible current. In truth, it wasnât really âthrough my veins,â but through every part of me, as if my entire essence was being saturated by that force.
I remembered what had happened before: when the energy reached this stage, it simply couldnât be contained anymore and burst out all at once, exploding in every direction like an uncontrollable wave. Back then, I didnât think about how much energy there was or where it would exit.
I just wanted to release whatever was pulsing inside me, without worrying about direction or control. This time, though, it was different: as I stretched both hands forward, I pictured them as conduitsâchannels able to guide the flow that once erupted so chaotically.
It felt like the energy had finally found a defined path, shaped by my will. But even with this âchannelâ open for it to flow through, the hardest part was still forcing it there. It was like trying to funnel a raging river into a thin stream.
Next, I shut off all my external sensesâsight, hearing, even the sense of the space around meâplunging into absolute silence. I focused solely on the energy within me, that force that kept expanding, vast and relentless, as if it had no limit, as if it could overflow at any moment.
Slowly, I began steering it toward my hands. The energy pulsed wildly, almost untamable, each spark trembling like it wanted to escape my control. Even so, despite its fierce resistance, I bent it to my will. It was my power, born within me, and no one else could claim it.
After what felt like ages of concentration, I opened my eyes. In that instant, an intense, phosphorescent blue glow erupted from my body, wrapping me like a living cloak of light, flickering and spreading through the air around me.
The glow grew stronger by the second, pulsing as if my own body were about to shatter. At the critical momentâright before the energy could explode out of control in every directionâI forced it to converge entirely in my hands.
I felt the searing heat race down my arms, burning from the inside, and then, with a desperate push, I released everything at once. The discharge was overwhelming, like a thunderclap born from within me. I poured every last fragment of strength I had leftâand it was enough to send me plunging fast toward the earth.
Though my face stayed expressionless, every feature masking any emotion, inside I was blazing with euphoria: (It... worked!)
I wasnât sure at what point I should stop propelling myself and let Earthâs atmosphere finish the job. So I kept firing bursts of nuclear energy from my hands, feeling the vibrant heat surge through me like compressed shards of sunlight.
My plan was simple: stop the moment my body sensed any shiftâa sign, a tug of gravity, any distinct feeling that told me I could quit.
Of course, I didnât expect that âsomething differentâ to hit so brutallyâliterally setting my skin on fire, like I was becoming part of the very blaze driving me forward.
Suddenly, a hot sensation wrapped around me, dense and suffocating, like an incandescent cocoon forming around my body. The heat wasnât just tolerableâit burned, vibrated, like every particle of air was in flames.
To my shock, I realized my body was literally igniting, sparks and flames breaking from my skin as if I were a meteor tearing through the sky. It didnât take a genius to understand: not only had I entered Earthâs atmosphere, but Iâd overshotâbadlyâthe point where I shouldâve stopped.
In the next moment, I pulled the energy emanating from me back inside, like someone taking one last breath before impact. My plan? Slow my inevitable fall. The result? Total failure.
My body, indifferent to any effort or desperate attempt, kept accelerating, as if gravity had finally decided to claim me once and for all. Within seconds, a blazing sphere of fire formed around me, engulfing me completely.
The only âgoodâ thingâif you could call it thatâwas that I felt no pain at all. But that didnât make the scene any less grotesque: watching my own body melt away only to regenerate seconds later was deeply unsettling.
Still, Iâd been through worse. Much worse. Like that time I turned, against my will, into a puddle of water on scorching asphalt... yeah, that memory still haunts me.
I have no idea how long Iâve been a human meteor, plummeting out of control toward the earth. Honestly, I donât even know exactly where Iâm going to landâwhich, letâs be real, is kind of an important detail.
At least I can take some comfort in one thing: Iâm not about to cause another mass extinction like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs... right? Iâm not nearly as big as that meteor, though the speed Iâm falling at might disagree.
Even so, I really hope I donât crash straight into someone. That scene would be far from pleasantâfor me or for whatever poor soul had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Meanwhile, my skin kept melting and regenerating over and over in an endless loop that seemed to defy any natural logic.
As I said before, the sight was grotesqueâmy skin liquefying, bits of me exposed for an instant before being covered again. Honestly, anyone would puke on the spot. Iâd puke too... if I had a stomach. But even without that ability, the scene wasnât any less repulsive.