It all started with the unnoticeable things. They had been happening around Silas since he was a kid. There would always be some kind of trouble with the electronics around him. He would get a nasty headache in public spaces with lots of people. He fell from tripping into thin air on flat ground. Objects always fell off shelves he walked by. He always blamed that on him being clumsy.

From the day he turned 17, he could no longer blame these occurrences on his own physical clumsiness. That day was the day his life changed.

Silas, on the night to his 17th birthday, was playing computer games like always. Gaming had always helped him distract himself from the gnarly headache of being around other people.

His room was dark, lit up only by the electronic light of his computer screen. The faces on the band and anime posters on the walls got twisted in the dark, seemingly inching out of the frames and towards Silas. His heart beat faster as he noticed this, his green eyes wanting to meet the lurking shadows. He quickly shot down an opponent in the game he was playing before he reached for the light on his nightstand. The dark-haired boy stopped in his movement as he noticed the red digits glowing on the nightstand showed it was midnight, the day of his birthday.

“Happy birthday to me, eh?” Silas mumbled to himself. He started to move towards the switch again. Before he knew anything else, the lamp went flying across his room, slamming into the far wall. He yelped, flying back into his chair in surprise. With his eyes locked to the lamp, another object got thrown by an unseen force, this time denting the roof. The digital clock broke into a hundred pieces. Silas covered his head with his arms, as all hell broke loose.

Silas’s voice broke from yelling, and after what seemed like forever, his parents finally got the door open and barged into his room. The sight was nothing like what you could imagine. Books and posters torn into pieces, the furniture leaning vertically against the walls, and Silas by the door on the floor, shaking like a dry leaf in a storm, clinging onto his knees. His mother was speechless, clasping her hands over her mouth with teary eyes, scanning the disaster. Silas’s father was stunned. He looked down at Silas, not sure what to do. He decided to help the frightened kid up and out of there, placing him on the sofa. He put his arm around him, gesturing for Silas’s mother to do the same, all the while keeping a stoic expression.

***

Silas was staring out of the window from his rooftop apartment, a year and a half after the event on his 17th birthday. His parents had kept their distance from their son as well, whispering among themselves about Silas. He knew they would all be better off apart and he decided to move out, to keep himself away from them so he could not harm them.

The view was nice, rooftops of houses wandering along the view, broken off by bigger buildings. He loved watching the city glow in the night. It always reminded him of the incredible starry sky he had seen as a kid when he had gone camping with his uncle.

Silas took a deep breath and sighed. Since it was dark, he could finally head over to his training site, and practice his powers. He dragged his hand through his not too long, curly hair, getting his fingers stuck and cursing to himself. After untangling the mess in front of the mirror in the hallway, he took a final look at himself. Pale skin, sharp jaw and slim nose, pierced ears and nose, dark brown, almost black hair, and topping the emo look off with some deep blue rings under his eyes. The biggest contrast in his features were his green eyes, looking almost like the sea, but with spots of yellow. He smirked, winking and pointing finger guns at himself.

“Damn, Silas, what a hot, goth kid you are today.” he said to himself, his voice tinted with sarcasm. Rolling his eyes at himself, he walked out, locking up and beginning the walk down the endless stairs towards the exit. Although he had no idea except for a little gut feeling that something was going to happen that night.