Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 01:39:19 -0400 From: Joe Barker Subject: Fantasy Fiction / College College was different, I had been here for over a year and it seemed that I was still adjusting. Coming back from after the summer break and beginning my sophomore year. I loved it here but the noise was too much for me sometimes. I don't want to start this off as cheesy fiction novels so I think that the best way to tell you is to do just that...tell you like it is. My name is Corey, and I have abilities. I don't understand them and I don't began to try. I know how to use them and I try to keep them to myself. When I was in high school I had a teacher that shared my abilities and he taught me to handle them and control them. But as I said college was different so many different people, some users and some not, but I can hear them all. I don't know whether the abilities are specific for each person but I do know that anyone can access their own power if the have the self control and discipline. And as always there are still good users and bad users. But it isn't the constant fight for power like movies, books, and T.V. shows it. It's more like an acknowledgment and more or less we fight if we cross each other, no worse then high school rivalries, except with powers. To top everything off, I'm Gay. Being six foot two and 150 lbs dripping wet, I wasn't much of a catch. But from using so much I had muscles, I learned quickly it took strength do "magic" and I had done a fair share so I had a body that I never showed off. My hair was long and dark; I usually kept it in a pony tail. My brown eyes have been called hypnotic and amazing...I don't see it. I spent a lot of my time between classes in the meditation room, because strangely it was a magical sanctuary where thoughts wouldn't cross into my mind. That was one of my strongest abilities, to control the mind, listening, and influencing. I had other powers but that was my specialty. My small-town college was amazingly like high school, by this I mean we had all the normal cliques and no one made any move to break the barrier. I think if any, I fit into the hippie revival. This particular day I was sitting in the meditation room, searching through the walls for another user, when a lot of things happened at once. I did this a lot; I would take up one of the frosted glass private rooms and sit cross legged in the center. The Room Watcher, a hippie-ish older lady, was a friend of mine seeing as I would come in here almost every day. She was different I could never get a read on her as if there was no mental activity at all. Like I said the room would not let thoughts in but it would allow me to search out of the room. I was reaching out with my abilities picking up random thoughts and feelings; I tried to avoid the personal ones. One time I stumbled upon an interesting scene between two girls and a banana. So since then I've avoided diving too deep. I was looking for another user, and every now and then I pick up some random thoughts about powers or something, but my luck they would be about Harry Potter or some other fiction. As I was focusing something abrupt came into the room and hit me like an ice cream brain freeze. So I opened my eyes and went to the door, and listened. "Its ok my child, nothing will harm you here, go to the back and wait in one of the private rooms." It was the Room Watcher and she seemed to be comforting someone. I reached out and searched the room with my mind but couldn't feel anything, but I wasn't surprised fear could sometimes kick in subconscious powers and block out mental abilities. Soon after I reeled back my powers the door slid open and I backed up to a wild eyed young man, probably a freshman. His hair was short and spiked brown with blond tips on the bangs. Something very striking and one of the first things I noticed were his eyes, they were striking green. "Oh I'm sorry" He turned to walk out. "Wait, no come back in here, you can stay. What's happening up there?" "Oh well..." he pause as his face flushed "I was being, erm, harassed by some upperclassmen and I ran in here and the lady said I could find safety in this room." "Oh, well I'm Corey, nice to meet you." "Hi I'm Cal." "So Cal what did you do to the Upperclassmen to piss them off?" "I have no idea, they just started being jerks when I walked by earlier." He looked at his feet. I took this time to look him over; he was skinny, more so then I. He had a tiny frame and was about 5'9" or so, maybe he was a runner or a swimmer? Before either of us could speak again there was a loud crash from the front of the Meditation Room. "Stay here" I stepped out of the door and slowly slid it shut behind me. I walked through the glass hallways slowly incase trouble came my way. I walked around the last pane of glass and stood in the center room where there was a wooden circle and mats on the floor. The watcher sat with her legs crossed sitting where she always did and a boy lay on the floor against the far wall. Three others came through the door as I came around the corner. "Where is he?" The one at the center yelled. I knew this one he was the head of the football team and a mean ass jerk. I also happen to know that he was secretly bi-curious, having fooled around with some of my friends. "None of your business Damon" I spoke up and stepped forward. "Corey" A soft voice came from beside me and a hand touched my arm. "Corey, go back to the room. I can handle these gentlemen." The watcher stood silently looking at them as she spoke to me. "Blaire I can't let you do that. They don't look like they intend on following rules, I can help you. I can...um, reason with them." She smiled up at me as if she knew what I was talking about. "Corey I can handle them, don't worry." "Piper!" The guy shouted out my last name, and advanced. Instinctively I raised my hands and felt the energy surge to them in my defense; I caught the power and felt it tingle as it formed almost invisible spheres of power, rippling with electricity. "What do you want with the boy Damon?" I looked at him with a glare in my eye. "I don't think that you have any business being in mine, now get out of my way." He began to advance toward me and I moved blocking the entire doorway. "I don't think you have any business in here, Damon." It was a reflex as his punch flew toward my head, my hand did its usual clench and release as the energy I was holding flew from my hand and sent my assailant flying across the room with a similar crash that I had heard earlier. With much experience in cases of mishap magic I reached for the two other's minds, you didn't see that. I left that impression over the memory; it was something I had learned to do going all the way back to my parents. As I stared at the newly vacant faces of the goons standing by the door, I turned and looked at the Room Watcher wandering if I should do the same to her. "I wouldn't if I were you." She smiled up to me. As the boys, all four of them, stood and left the room silently with only a glance and glare from Damon as he left the room. I stared at her with sudden interest, and the idea formed in my head to return the room to check on the boy. I turned with foggy realization of what I was doing and walked back toward my meditation room. I was still a little dazed when I opened the door and it wasn't until I looked into Cal's green eyes that consciousness washed over me like a warm bath. "It's ok they are gone." I watched as his body compulsively relaxed and his head dropped. I placed a hand on his shoulder and guided him over to the many cushions in the room. "Do you want to talk about it?" I didn't have to press into his mind to see that he was troubled badly by what happened. "Um...I'm ok..." he began to trail off in the sentence. I turned my eyes on him and smiled the most genial smile I could give him. He looked up at me with his green eyes and I felt a wave of emotion like an opened flood gate. "It's been happening since I came here at the beginning of the year. My friend dragged me to a party on the first weekend and these guys were there. Well the big one that seems to be the leader or what ever, he...um...well he propositioned me." "He hit on you?" I looked at him in understanding finding simple words to make a complicated situation less so. "Yea...and he asked me to give him head, and well I said no. But then he tried to get me to do it anyway, and well I embarrassed him I guess." "What did you do to him to make him hate you so much?" I almost smiled but I tried to fight it back. "Well when he got me...on my knees..." he paused and I heard a sob, so I reached up and put my arm around his waist. "...out of impulse I pulled his pants down real fast and pushed him back ward so he fell. When I tried to get out his friend grabbed me, and I heard him get up and walk up behind me, so I just kicked backward. And I kicked the only thing I could hurt. His nuts..." This time I smiled and all I could say was 'oh'. I was laughing so much on the inside, but I kept that at bay with a smile. He seemed to lighten up to know that I agreed with his actions and I wasn't going to beat him up. "...and he's been chasing me or hounding me ever since." He looked up to me with a sigh, I could feel the pain leaving him and a vaguely familiar happiness swell up in him. I tightened my grip on his shoulder. "What's worse is he lives in my dorm, a couple of floors above me. That's where he get's the worse. He came in drunk one night and knocked on my door for like half an hour." "That's horrible, and why can't you request to switch out? To another dorm?" I asked almost defensively. "Our time is up and he didn't start bothering me at home until after the room change had ended." "Well, I can help you on part of this. Meet me here tonight at 6:30 and I'll show you a way to defend your self from him." "How was class?" I walked into my usual room and sat down against the wall facing the door as Cal followed me in to the room and plopped down on the bench. "My classes were ok my chemistry teacher is such..." I decided that the best way to show him or tell him what I needed to was to do it. So I opened my self up and searched his thoughts and finished his thoughts for him. "An airhead." I looked at him as I said it and he looked up in mild shock. "Have you..." "No, I've never had your professor." I looked up at him and looked into his eyes willing him to ask the question I knew he wanted to ask. "How..." "...am I finishing your statements?" I smiled at him and finished my own point. "That's what I want to teach you." I felt the confusion as I pulled out of his mind and looked into his green eyes; I saw a glint of power flicker. "Teach me what, How to freak people out?" He looked at me with a slight anger but interest none the less. He wanted to know but was afraid to find out; I knew that I wouldn't scare him as much as I would help him. "If that is what you choose to do with what I know but what I can show you is how to use your mind..." I reached for the power slowly so that he could observe. I knew from my teachings that the magic would flash across my eyes usually in the color of my choice (purple) and he would see that. He had been focusing on my eyes as much as I had his. I let the magic slowly flow from my hands and I wrapped it around the door, pulling it with my hand. The door slid shut and closed with a click. "...to do what ever you want." He had jumped up from his bench when he saw what I was doing, and was standing aghast. "H....How...how did you do that?" I reached up from the ground and touched his arm, wrapping my hand around his wrist. "I can teach you, if you would like..." His body relaxed and he sat down next to me and took a deep breathe. "Close your eyes, you will stroll with me first before I let you wander on your own. All it is is like opening a door and walking around." I reached out palm up and waited for his hand. He tenderly placed his hand in mine, and I gripped it lightly only enough to connect us. I felt his palm and almost shuddered at the warm he was giving off, not just physically but emotionally. I sent a small amount of energy to connect us and I felt him jump. "Its okay, it's just the power." I shut my eyes and opened my power to the world. Starting off in the room I mentally faced him in the power. "If you can hear me, think your answer." With his eyes closed his answer reverberated around in our heads as if he had spoken out loud. His thought seemed to bounce around inside his head as he got excited the noise steadily grew to a roar until I silenced him calmly. "That was your first and most simple lesson. Now we move on to listening in." I slowly gripped his hand tighter and floated out of my body as I had done so many times here. I felt almost wind like, as I drifted around in space. I began to focus my thoughts on a place and walked toward the wall and left. I could still feel his hand as well as his essence next to me. I knew that he was experiencing what I was, although he didn't understand what he was experiencing. His acceptance of my help so easily was strange, but I didn't care at the moment. We moved fast at my command and I could feel the different thoughts rushing by me as we moved, I slowed and settled in the general area of the food court. "...it's disgusting." The tail end of a thought came through us like a shock and I felt his body shudder as he heard it. "I don't care about the food; I want to know if you know him." The voice was anxious and excited. "No, I don't think so, although I think he may be in my chem. class." The other voice said slowly. "I almost had him today, that damn user got in my way, in the meditation room. I will get him; he will die by my hands." The voice went through me smoothly but the thought ran through my memories like knives. I pulled back fast and opened my eyes letting them come back into focus, my thoughts were still rolling around and confused. I was only pulled back into the world when Cal pulled his hand gently from mine. "What did that person mean by 'user'?" He looked up at me curiously. "Well...that is what we who 'use' the power are called." I said cautiously and I watched as realization flooded his face. "So that guy earlier was trying to...k...kill me? And he's mad that you got in the way?" "That's what it sounded like but don't worry, I can teach you to protect yourself against norms, and he can never hurt you. Plus you will have me to help you." "This is too much, it cannot be. You're crazy. I didn't hear anything you did it somehow. I'm leaving." I watched amazed as he practically tripped out from the room and down the hall. It was a second before I followed him out at a quick pace. "My child, sit with me." I turned and Blaire was sitting where she normally sat, as calm as ever. I was foggy as I sat with her and she placed a hand on mine closing her eyes, power flared between us. It had been almost a day since my last meeting with Cal and my conversation with Blaire. We talked for a long time and I didn't get in until early this morning. I couldn't recall what was actually said but all I know is that I have never felt more powerful and stronger in my abilities. I was sitting in my dorm room waiting, for some reason; it was like I was following an order, a powerful dictating order that I couldn't disobey. I had never felt like this before but anytime I moved to do something I found myself back on my bed waiting. I had two beds in my room on opposite sides with an aisle way between them, and I was a Resident Advisor, so I had no roommate. There was a knock at my door. I moved swiftly to the door and almost knew who it was before I had opened the door. I opened the door and there stood a sulking panting Cal. My head cleared instantly and I smiled at him inviting him in. "What happened? And how did you know where I lived." "Blaire told me and Damon is what happened." He sighed. "Come tell me, everything." I said and waived my hand to a bed. He sat down and began to speak. "Well I left you last night and went to my dorm, where I slept decently, although I had a strange dream that both you and Blaire were in. Well anyway when I woke up I was heading to one of my classes and Cal was standing in the hall way staring at me. Just standing there fuming. He had just come out of the shower and was wearing a towel and seemed to be waiting for me. He walked up to me and I started to cringe as he cornered me against the wall. I kept hoping a door would open but he didn't seem to have any fear of that. He dropped his towel and I could feel his body against of mine. His nakedness and attractiveness was overwhelming and I closed my eyes. I searched the inside of my eyelids until a spark flared across my vision. I felt as if..." He glanced at me and then took a deep breath. "...as if I was holding your hand again. Then I saw the spark explode and when I opened my eyes, Damon was lying at the end of the hall on his stomach with the towel fluttering to cover him up. Well I took off at a run and I didn't go to class, and ended up at the meditation room. Blaire invited me to sit with her and she talked to me for awhile and next thing I knew I was walking here, with a strange, but not unwelcome desire to see you." I sat back and took all of that in. It was a long story told in a very quick pace. Two things stuck out in my mind the first was that he had used the power on his own, this early, and that he had found Damon attractive, if not repulsive. "You know I talked to Blaire to, and I think that she maybe a user, because I also have been having unknown impulses to do things. I think she wants us to be together at this time. But I don't know why." I smiled, not exactly sure of what I meant. "Stand up for a minute." We walked to the foot of the bed and he closed his eyes, raised his hands and I watched as the beds hovered off the ground for a second. I raised my own hand and intertwined it with his. The beds lifted off the ground effortlessly and slid together at his command through our shared connection. Our hands stayed together as we moved back to the bed and curled up together, sleeping. I woke up in a mist, a dreamscape; I stood there with something in my hand. I followed my arm down to my hand and realized I was holding another person's hand. Cal's hand was wrapped tightly in my hand as we looked around wildly. Blaire walked slowly out of the mist. "I must speak quickly because I don't have a lot of power left to do this. I have sensed a growing threat and it consumes powers. I was the strongest 'user' on campus, and the meditation room protected that. But I couldn't hide, it found me in my sleep, so I imparted my powers to you Corey, you know the extent of the abilities and you have a growing user with strong powers to help you. Please take care of him and prepare for the coming battle, and help me if you get a chance." She winked and vanished and we drifted back into a deep sleep, waking to stare at each other. This is the first installment of a new story I hope that you will enjoy. Please email me what you think. Remember that comments are my only form of payment and I love them. Jbark217@gmail.com Also visit my website if you wish to read more of my riding. www.niftyscrypt.webs.com