Chapter 1: Pain=superpowers?

All I saw was red. It was a surreal experience looking out of a window and seeing that everything was tinted red. Red buildings, red cars, red trees, red grass. Even the air was red, stopping the sun itself from fully showing its usually bright rays of sweet, sweet light.

“It’s pretty cool, huh?” The girl at the counter said. “I never thought I’d see a sandstorm in the harbour in all my life!”

“I know right? It’s pretty weird." I said back as I grabbed my well overpriced latte.

I had simply stopped at a coffee shop on my way to the university when a gust of wind brought a wall of sand over the mountain ranges and into our relatively small coastal town. Pretty weird, considering that the closest desert doesn’t start until at least 1000km away, right? I mean, this kind of thing has happened before in Sydney but I feel like we should have had at least a bit more of a warning though.

I took a glance out the window and saw that other people had sought shelter in various stores and restaurants because it turns out that millions of tiny little rocks plus high speed winds equals pain. 

Back to the girl behind the counter, she had short wavy red hair, a few freckles and a cute face. Exactly the kind of girl I like. I was even debating whether I should ask her out but decided against it because I just don’t have the confidence. I almost never do that sort of stuff so my mind immediately thinks of all of the bad things that could happen, of all the bad stuff that has happened and I just couldn’t

As I went on, thinking about all my past fuck-ups related to romance, the wind started to pick up outside. It was already a heavy wind but it started whistling and whining as it went through various objects in its way. The wind continued this onslaught and more as it started to move any furniture that wasn’t bolted down to the ground. 

I just stood there, watching as the various tables and chairs started falling over and rolled away. 

Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the wind went even faster yet again and I noticed a piece of wood or something flying through the window of a restaurant across the road. It would probably be a good idea to get away from this window. I turned towards the red haired girl, immediately made eye contact with her and said “Maybe we should go to the back.” 

She took a quick glance at the mayhem outside and gave me a small nod. She opened the door behind the counter and quickly made her way inside, holding the door open for me. I, of course, followed her inside and made sure to lock the door behind me. 

Once I was somewhat done processing what had and is still happening, I immediately slumped against the door we just came through and brought out my phone. To put it lightly, I was worried. I texted my best friend just to see if he was alright. If anything happened, He would usually be the first person I texted, even before my parents and it was the same with him. That was just how close we were. I got an answer almost immediately and he said he was ok with a question mark after it. I furrowed my eyebrows at his response and wondered if he hadn’t seen what was happening outside. I asked him as much and he said he saw nothing. Weird. He lives a bit out of town but he should still be able to see the giant cloud of sand engulfing Diennard Harbour and all of its surroundings. 

Maybe I should open the door and take a picture? No, definitely not. That would just be stupid. I’d much rather be safe than prove something to my somehow oblivious friend. I was just about to hit send when a wave of intense pain went through my brain. It hurt so much that I fell over, onto my side, cradling my head and on the verge of screaming and yelling at the top of my lungs. This closest thing I could compare it to was the migraines I get when I get carsick and yet that wasn’t nearly as bad as this. All that filled my head was pain and the occasional thought, desperately trying to distract me from the knives being sent through my brain. I started screaming. 

It took all of my being to not pass out at that moment. I just had a gut feeling that it would be best if I didn’t and that I should fight this pain, and I did. I screamed through my gritted teeth and hit the floor as hard as I could a few times, in desperate hope that it would help me in any way possible. 

You are reading story Diennard Island at novel35.com

After my throat had gone ragged and I couldn’t scream anymore, I continued clutching my head and tried to find something, anything to take my mind off of it. 

As a result of me looking around, I saw the girl, passed out in the middle of the hallway with a pained expression. Was she going through the same thing I was? Did she feel the same pain? What would it mean if she was? I didn’t know any of the answers but I felt like I was going to find out once this was all over.

After what felt like hours, the pain slowly started to fade and I felt different. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but my brain felt… more efficient. Emotionally, I was confused. Very, very confused, but mentally, I felt like I could do anything. Like I could solve any problem or issue thrown at me. Like I could figure anything and everything out. It was amazing. 

Somehow I sorted through my most recent memories since they were the clearest and came to an odd conclusion. 

I have a photographic memory as well as some sort of a boost to my brain. I don’t think I’ll be able to recover already lost memories but I can definitely remember every little detail down to the very thoughts I had since the pain filled migraine faded away. And there’s no way my previously dumb ass would be able to figure any of this out.

It was then that I recalled the sandstorm. I didn’t hear the whistling sound anymore so I gingerly opened the door that led back into the coffee shop. No one was in sight and more importantly, no sand hit me in the face. I slipped through the slightly ajar door and walked over to the now shattered windows. I poked my head outside in order to look around the trashed street and still, there was still no one else in sight. I was about to step outside when I felt an overwhelming urge to go back into the back of the coffee shop and check on the red haired girl. I don’t know why or even how, but I knew she was going to wake up soon.

I went back through the door and there she was, laying on the ground, passed out as I remembered her. My gut feeling told me to stand around where her waist was so I did exactly that and poked her with my foot. She seemed to open her eyes a bit, still clearly very groggy and the next thing I registered was a skin coloured flash followed by a loud and sharp slapping sound and, finally, a very loud cry of pain. 

“OOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!”

How fast was that hand? I swear, one second, it was lying there next to her, and the next it was on her face. She tried to bring her other hand to her face but the same thing happened. Before I could even think of something to say, she tried to get up by putting her arm under her but her plans were foiled yet again as she was launched towards and hit the ceiling. That gut feeling from earlier had me in the perfect position to take a single step forward and catch her.

“What the fuck is going on?” was all I could say.