Chapter 4 - How It All Went Wrong

Art by jaeaxcel 

The next day, I borrowed Dad's car again and drove back to Skystead. I had spent most of the day rereading Looking For Alaska, watching YouTube videos, and napping, so I felt rather productive when I finally made the decision to get into the car and head over to Ellen's castle. Summer had arrived at last, and as much as I wanted to make the most of all of the free time that I suddenly had, I also needed to finish the job that I had started with Ellen.

I drove into the forest that concealed the castle once again, and I parked Dad's SUV right next to the gates. By the time I got there, the sun was already setting, making the castle look even more terrifying than it already was. I got out of the car, nervously walked up to the huge wooden doors, and knocked. A few seconds later, Ellen creaked the door open. "Hello Jay," she said. "It's good to see you again."

"Hi Ellen," I said as I entered the castle. "How was your day?"

"It was okay," Ellen said. "Thanks for asking. I'm just planning to start one last earthquake in the downtown area before I retire. You would not believe how much work goes into my schemes. I have to make sure that all of the right areas are affected so that my plans work, while ensuring that the people that I like don't experience any problems. Vanessa might have to go through an earthquake during work, but it's not my fault that the San Urbano Times building is sandwiched right between two administrative buildings for the Academy. I can't have an earthquake affect both of those buildings while avoiding the San Urbano Times building completely. At least Vanessa will know that it's coming. How about you? What else were you up to today, Jay?"

"Not much," I mumbled.

"Well, sometimes no news is good news," Ellen said. "Are you ready to get started on the garden?"

"I think so," I said.

"Great," Ellen said as she opened the castle gates again and walked around the building. I followed her as she explained, "Just place a few souls around the perimeter of the garden, and please don't touch any of the plants. Most of them are only poisonous if ingested, but I really don't want you to get hurt on my watch. Can you handle that?"

"Of course," I said.

"Excellent," Ellen said. "I'll leave you alone and let you do your job, but I might send Terry out here to collect some castor beans. In this business, you never know when you might need to poison someone, Jay."

Ellen walked back into the castle, and I stood just outside of the garden, unsure of what to do. I didn't particularly want to repeat what I did the night before, but I also didn't want to make Ellen unhappy. Besides, she had offered to pay me, and it would be stupid to bite the hand that was feeding me. I let my powers flow through me, and ghosts quickly began to float over the garden, if you could call it that. I then did exactly what I had done the night before and placed each soul into its place. It was an easy job, and after a while, it seemed like brainless work. However, I still didn't like the idea of enslaving all of those souls. As they all cried in pain, I prayed for the wicked and hoped that I wasn't doing those souls too much harm.

I was almost done with my job when Terry came out to the garden. He barely noticed me at first, leisurely picking fruits off of Ellen's plants and dropping them into a basket with his robotic arm. After he had collected a few fruits, he looked up and asked, "Jay? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," I said as I put one of the last souls into place.

"You've grown a lot since I last saw you," Terry said.

"So have you," I said. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Almost three years," Terry said.

"I didn't know that you were related to Lady Quake," I said.

"I have a few superhumans in my family," Terry said. "Aunt Ellen took me on as an apprentice after we escaped from the Academy. I know that she hates the Academy just as much as you and I do, but sometimes I don't think that she's doing enough." Terry sighed and then said, "I don't know what I'll do after she retires though."

"You'll figure something out, Terry," I said.

"That's easy for you to say," Terry replied. "You seem to know what you're doing."

"Actually, I really don't..." I said. That was when I realized just how much my conversation with Terry had distracted me. I was beginning to lose control over the ghosts. They were flitting about wildly, and my heart pounded in my chest as I began to panic. Something was definitely wrong. My powers built up within me, and no matter what I did, nothing would stop it. Fear got a hold of me, and it wouldn't let go. This hadn't happened in years, although I could clearly remember the last time that I had felt like this.

I hadn't felt like this since I had stolen Harper Knight's soul and her powers.

I replayed that day in my mind, but it only made the problem worse. My powers were growing stronger and stronger, and I had to let them out somehow. I tried to keep my powers bottled up, but it was useless. I had already lost control over my powers - the worst thing that could happen to a superhuman.

I closed my eyes and hoped for the best, knowing that there was nothing else that I could do. All of a sudden, I heard a scream, and I began to shake uncontrollably. When I finally managed to rein in my powers again, I opened my eyes. The ghosts were gone, but something far worse had happened. Terry was lying on his back on the garden soil. He was still breathing, but his deep brown eyes were lifeless. I backed away from him, horrified by what I had done.

Even if it was an accident, it didn't change the fact that I had stolen Terry Black's soul.

It wasn't long before Ellen ran outside to see what had caused all of the commotion. I backed away from Terry and then froze, unable to tear my eyes away from him. Ellen, on the other hand, walked over to the garden, and when she saw what had happened, she pointed a finger at me and shouted, "What did you do to him?!"

"I don't know," I said. "It was an accident."

"I don't care if it was an accident or not," Ellen said. "I trusted you, Jay, and you betrayed me. You're not going anywhere until we fix this."

I opened my mouth to tell her that this wasn't something that could be fixed, but I decided not to tell Ellen that. Arguing with her would only make things worse. However, I did know that if there was some way to fix this, then maybe there was hope for Harper. As far as I knew, it was impossible, but maybe Ellen knew something that I didn't.

Ellen stormed back into the castle, and Terry mumbled something unintelligible as his aunt walked away. Without his powers and his soul, Terry was completely helpless. I had trapped him in a fate worse than death, and I felt awful about it. If you didn't have superpowers, this never would have happened, I told myself.

When Ellen returned, the brown-skinned scientist from the lab was with her. The scientist looked over Terry for a few moments and then declared, "You're right, Ellen. That kid you hired definitely stole his soul."

"Can you do anything about it?" Ellen asked desperately.

The scientist thought about it for a few minutes, and then she said, "There is not a known technique for returning someone's soul, but that doesn't mean that there isn't one out there someone. If you let me do some tests on Terry and the kid who stole his soul, I might be able to give Terry his soul back. It will probably take a while though. Important discoveries like this don't come overnight." She gestured towards me and asked Ellen, "What was his name again? It was Jay something, right?"

"I'm Jay Sasaki," I said.

"I'm Carmen Alvadora," the scientist said as she shook my hand. "I suspect that we'll be getting to know each other quite well this summer, Jay." She gave me an unnerving smile, and I backed away. This whole situation reminded me far too much of my Academy days.

"Carmen, there's no need to make Jay nervous," Ellen said. "How often will you need him for testing?"

"I'm not sure," Carmen said.

"How about this?" Ellen said. "Jay, I want you to stop by the castle every single day until Terry gets his soul back. I'm not paying you for this job until this is all resolved, so hopefully that will motivate you to cooperate with Carmen and I."

"Don't worry," I said. "I'll cooperate. I want Terry to get his soul back too. As I said, this was all a terrible accident, and I'm really sorry."

"I believe you," Ellen said. "I'm not sure if I forgive you yet, but we'll see if Carmen can come up with a solution. She's the brightest scientist alive, so if anyone can do it, she can."

"You're exaggerating, Ellen," Carmen said.

"Only a little bit," Ellen said. "To be honest, I'm just glad that you don't work for the Academy."

"Believe it or not, working at the Academy as a researcher doesn't pay that well," Carmen said. "They save all of their funds for the superheroes. Working here is a much better deal."

"I always pay my employees fair wages, Carmen," Ellen said. "Jay, you're coming back here tomorrow, right?"

"Yes," I said as I glanced back down at Terry. Even though I felt terrible about what had happened to Terry, every time I looked at him, I thought of Harper. If Carmen could save Terry, then there was no reason why she couldn't do the same to my old friend from the Academy. If Carmen's experiments worked, then this could be good for everyone.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Ellen said. "Have a nice night, Jay."

I said goodbye to Ellen, entered the castle once again, and then left through the castle gates. As I walked through the interior of the castle, I could already hear panicked voices whispering about Terry. I cursed myself and my awful powers again as I headed outside and hopped into Dad's car. It just wasn't fair that I had to be stuck with the power to steal souls. There were all kinds of nice, happy powers that I could have gotten that would have been able to help people. Instead, the best I could do was trying to help Ellen and then condemning her nephew to a fate that was even worse than death. His powers were gone, and unless Carmen found a way to fix it, he would live out the rest of his life as a barely human mass of blood and foam.

When I got home, I flopped onto my bed and replayed the day's events over and over again in my mind. Dad didn't even bother asking me what was wrong - he and I both knew that any conversation about my superpowers would be entirely useless. I hated myself for what I had done to Terry, even though it wasn't really my fault. My superpowers were what had caused this mess in the first place.

If I could have relinquished my powers at that very moment, I would have done so gladly.