Dan looked down at his hands. He definitely felt a shock. Maybe it was static electricity. He had just run around the church seven times. He could have built some up. But then why did it not shock when he touched the minister’s shoulder. He was genuinely confused. “You all can go back to your seats now,” Eli’s father said softly. They all turned and started to walk back slowly, hardly realizing that the bodies of the congregation had started to rise up off the floor and sit up on the pews. Dan kept walking while everyone else went back to their seats. He walked out of the back of the sanctuary and found a bathroom. He looked at himself in the large mirror over the sinks. He looked the same. He wasn’t even sweating after running so much. He looked around and didn’t see anybody in the restroom with him. He stood straight and breathed deeply.

I can’t believe I’m gonna do this. But I guess it won’t hurt to try.

He gathered some spiritual energy, just like he had done before. He focused it in his left hand.

There it is again. The feeling of something tangible.

He started to build it up, executing more focus than he had ever used trying to do anything spiritual. He felt something roll over his hand. Something moved. He opened his eyes which he didn’t even really realize were closed. He saw small streaks of lightning dancing all around his hand. Shocked he looked up and saw himself in the mirror. His eyes. His eyes were glowing yellow, which was quite jarring as it was such a contrast from their usual dark brown. He could even see little cracks of lightning going off inside them. Absent mindedly, he reached up to touch his face with his left hand and jumped when he realized there was still lightning in it. But it didn’t hurt or shock him. Cooooool. He wanted to try some stuff but thought it unwise to do anything in the church’s building. So, he decided he would just go back with his friends for now and experiment later. He stopped concentrating on the energy and the lightning went away. But when he looked at the mirror, his eyes didn’t change back. He made sure he wasn’t still gathering or focusing on spiritual energy and blinked. When he looked at his eyes again the lightning flashes were gone but they were still bright yellow. No, no, no. This isn’t good. I can’t go out there like this. He started to freak out a little. Maybe I’m the only one that can see it. Maybe it’s like a personal spiritual thing. He had an idea. He got out his phone and texted Ricky.

Dan: Come to the bathroom. I need your help.

He waited a couple minutes and Ricky came through the door. “Hey man, what’s wrong?” Ricky asked concerned. “What color are my eyes?” “Hey man, I don’t think now’s the best time to try to make a move on me. And this definitely isn’t the place.” “No crazy,” Dan waved off. “Just look at them and tell me what color they are.” Ricky looked at his friend confused. “Uuummm, black? Same as normal?” “Actually, my eyes are really dark brown but if you never looked hard or saw them in sunlight I guess you would think they were black,” Dan explained instinctively. He looked over in the mirror and saw his eyes were still yellow though. Well that’s weird. But it does prove that only I must be able to see it. “Ok. How about this?” Dan stated as he brought his hand up between them palm up. He focused some energy again and made the sparks reappear. Ricky stood expectantly and looked between Dan’s hand and his face. After a beat he said, “so what am I supposed to be looking at here?” “My hand. Do you see anything?” Ricky stared at the hand in front of him for a few seconds and then looked back up at Dan. “Are you ok? You’re acting weird and that’s saying a lot for you. What am I supposed to be looking at?” “So you don’t see the electricity?” Dan asked more inquisitive than accusatory. “What are you talking about? Are you high? I thought you said you didn’t get high and go to church.” “No I’m not high. It’s just…something weird’s happening I guess.”

Dan shook off the energy in his hand. He looked up and started walking out the restroom. “I’m fine. Let’s get back to the others.” “Um, ok.” Dan led Ricky out the bathroom and walked back in the sanctuary. When he looked over at his friends, they all looked normal except one. Matthew had an aura around him. It looked like the wavy air around a fire. Well that’s weird. As Dan walked by Matthew to his seat Matthew grabbed his wrist. Dan stopped and looked down. A beat passed. And then the two jerked their hands away from each other. Dan’s wrist felt hot, like it had been placed in a fire. Matthew thought for a second he had got shocked, but it was stronger than a normal static shock. Dan continued to his seat.