Fantasy Electric Feel

Elysia sighed. The car drive home was getting to be boring, the music was low on volume, no one was talking, and it was starting to put her into a bit of a dreary mood. The rain that had just started outside didn't help, nor the fact that it was now after sunset and getting to be a bit dark. They had just come back from a party that they had all decided to go to, though it wasn't much of a party for Elysia due to her slightly anti-social nature, and the fact that she didn't like parties. Besides, it's Colorado. None of the guys here are even cute. She though to herself, sighing again inwardly. When Elysia became bored, she sighed a lot.


"Mou..." She said with an drawn out exhale. "That party was a tad boring." She said, looking left to her friend Kili. "Ne, what do you think, Jenna?" She asked, looking back at her other friend. Before anyone could respond, all the hair on Elysia's body stood on end, and she got goosebumps for a second or two before it all went back down. She shivered and looked around. "Nande..." She said under her breath, then louder: "What was that?"

Kili had, understandably, been somewhat hesitant to attend a party which featured drunken teens and slovenly guys. She wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the thought of potentially witnessing someone ruining their reputation and dignity due to being highly intoxicated and that wasn't going to change any time soon. She glanced at Elysia before turning back towards the window and shrugging in general indifference, whatever Elysia seemed to be feeling certainly wasn't making itself known to her so she could care less in all honesty. Of course approximately at this moment, a chilling shock rippled throughout her bones and she surged forward in surprise. "Pardon my French but what the hell was that?"

Elysia nodded. She looked out through the back window to see sparks flying from a power line they had passed. The lightning had struck less than ten meters behind the car, but since they were driving they were far from there now.


"That was super close. Kowai, but good thing 'lightning never strikes the same place twice,' eh?" She said, hoping to lighten the mood. She didn't like that feeling of electricity being so close. It made her nervous, and knowing that lightning can kill people shook her up a bit. Jenna's mood didn't help either. She took a few minutes to calm herself. It was a close call, but it was fine. They'd make it home tonight, and then she'd have the whole weekend to forget about it. Elysia had always been scared of lightning since she was little. Not thunder, but lightning, as she had been shocked by an electric fence at the age of eight years old, electricity has always scared her a bit.


Then, time seemed to slow. She watched as a red car passed by them in the left lane, slowly. She looked down to see each of the tiny hairs on her arm slowly rise on end, once more. She looked up at her friends, wide-eyed, open mouthed, fearing for her life when suddenly-




Everything went white.





Elysia had several dreams. She dreamed she was numb and couldn't move, she dreamed of spots of colors appearing on black as she felt the sensation of wiggling her sleeping static-filled fingers. She dreamed she had her hand over one of those science-y plasma-electricity-balls. She dreamed of her hairs standing on end, and her screams being drowned out by thunder.


Then she woke up.


She looked around, blinking sleep out of her eyes, and blinking against the brightness. There was a large window in the wall to her right, covered by a white transparent curtain that made the room very bright with the sunlight filtering in. ...Sunlight? It was day time outside. And she was laying in a bed, inclined ever so slightly up, with pale blue, thin sheets. A woman was sleeping in a chair that was in front of the window, the woman had long auburn hair... Mom? Then she realized, she was in a hospital room.


"Kaa?" She said, and her mom awoke with a start.


"Elysia!" She said, jumping up from the chair. "Are you alright sweety, are you hurt, what happened? I was so worried!"


"Omoi dase nai... I don't remember really well... I was in the car with Kili and Jenna... Wait, where are they?"


"They're in other hospital rooms on this floor. The doctor said your car was struck by lightning, sweetie."


"Oh..." She said, as it all came back to her. She looked down at her arms. Slight redness, a few scabs. The lightning had burned her.


Just then, a man in white opened the door and came in. "Ah, you're awake." He said. "How are you feeling?" Elysia replied saying she felt fine, just a bit tired, and the man chuckled. "Well that's great. You are one lucky girl, it's a miracle you survived what you did. But your friends car? That poor thing practically melted. Strangest thing..." He said, lowering his voice. "Anyways! You're awake and you only have minor injuries. You'll be able to leave here within the next few days, unless you start feeling bad. If anything happens, tell me about it please." The doctor said, then turned to leave.

Her head hit the car seat as she threw up her head back in exasperation and sighed. Jenna could see the sparks fizzing from the power line they had just passed through the side view mirror. Man, that could've been bad if it hit them. That really was a close one. Closer than she thought it was. The road still looked slippery and dangerous, keeping Jenna on edge. She really didn't like to ride in cars in really rainy weather. It was just too dangerous, and she didn't feel like dying anytime soon, really.





"That was super close. Kowai, but good thing 'lightning never strikes the same place twice,' eh?"


Jenna didn't say anything, but merely nodded. Elysia probably didn't see her nod, but it made her feel better that she hadn't completely ignored the other girl's question. A red car passed by them in a speed lower than the speed limit, probably due to the rain pounding down on the road. It never hurt to be cautious, Jenna guessed. As Jenna caught a glimpse of red from the red car in the side view mirror, there was a bright, white light... and then nothing. The girl didn't have time to react or even get the chance to comprehend what was happening. What happened? A lightning struck the car. Just her luck.


It tickled. There was this buzzing sensation that felt like it was running through her veins, her heart, and her whole entire body. She couldn't quite describe what it felt like to other people if she was asked to. It just felt weird. For a moment, Jenna felt as if she was weightless and that she died. Now wasn't that a scary feeling? She thought that she would lose all feeling, she thought that she would dead and was in heaven or something. Instead, the buzzing/tingling subsided as time ticked by and that was when she regained feeling in her body again. She felt like she was in the world of the living, no longer numb from the buzzing and tingling sensations running through her body. Her body and mind no longer felt so distant. There was a beeping sound, a smell that reminded Jenna of her time she spent interning at the hospital, and a light that was bothering her even with her eyes closed. And then came her first coherent thought.





"Killua's lightning hurts..."


Jenna attempted to move, but she was too tired. Instead, she slowly - almost dramatically - opened her eyes and instantly winced at the bright light that flooded her vision. This was definitely not her room. Why? Because her room wasn't so dang bright. Her eyes adjusted to the light, and her blurred vision soon cleared out enough so that she could "admire" the clean, white ceiling of the hospital room.





"Even though I've seen patients while I was interning, being the patient is a whole 'nother experience... I don't like being the patient. Why am I in the hospital?"





Since she couldn't voice these thoughts out loud due to her sore throat, she just opted to say them in her head. She hadn't really talked to herself in her head for a while now, so it was a nice change. As if someone had known that she was awake and coherent, a nurse opened the door and entered. She introduced herself and Sarah, a nurse on the intense care unit floor. Jenna was apparently in intensive care. Then, Sarah checked on her vital signs and made sure everything was okay. When Jenna grabbed her scrubs and tugged, Sarah looked confused. Jenna just pointed at her throat and mouthed, water. Sarah, the nice nurse, delivered Jenna her bottle of water and waited until the girl spoke first. Ah~ The water soothed her throat. It made her feel so much better.


"What happened?" Her voice was raspy and came out in something akin to a whisper, but the nurse heard the question and answered promptly.


"You and two other girls were in a car that was hit by lightning. You three are very lucky to have gotten away with such light injuries," Sarah said. "The doctor will be here soon, so please wait for him." Jenna just nodded in thanks and smiled slightly, not wanting to speak any more than she had. With that, the nurse said her good-byes and exited the room to make her rounds.


Like Sarah said, the doctor came to visit her shortly after she left. The doctor, who introduced himself as Doctor Phil, came in and check for any other injuries that the nurse might have missed and said basically the same thing the nurse said. "Well, young lady, you look as healthy as your other friend back there. It's a pity the car was practically melted, but you three sure are some lucky girls. Not only one of you survived with minor injuries, but all of you girls did. I'd say that it was a miracle," the doctor chuckled. Jenna smiled slightly out of courtesy, not really in the mood for jokes.





"Thank you," she rasped out. Doctor Phil told her to rest for a little more and to call if anything else seemed wrong, to which she nodded to. She didn't feel like risking herself and disobeying the doctor's suggestion to rest. After he left, Jenna finally relaxed. At least she knew that the other two were safe. Going by what Sarah and Doctor Phil said, they were lucky to even be alive. Maybe the reason why she was still feeling this slight tingling sensation was because it was an after effect of the shock. It was barely there, but the tingling wasn't there before the accident, so of course she would notice the new feeling. Jenna sighed and closed her eyes to relax her eyes. It was just relaxing her eyes. Really. This time, she really didn't fall asleep.

Elysia looked around, confused. Where am I...? She wondered. She looked around, and everything was all black. It was void, oblivion, and endless dark abyss with a total lack of light anywhere. She looked down at her hand, and electricity jumped between her fingers, causing her to jump back in shock and scream. The scene changed. In front of her was a giant six-foot-tall double-A battery standing straight up. What...? She was even more confused. Suddenly, an arc of electricity jumped from the top of the battery straight to her, making not only the hair on her arms stand up, but the hair on her head too. This time, she was less scared and more freaked out. What was going on?


She sat up quickly, with a gasp. She had been dreaming? When had she fallen asleep? She looked around the room. This time it was darker, it was night outside, and no one else was in her room besides her. The heart monitor beside her bed told her she was alive with a faint "Beep... Beep... Beep..." She dropped her legs off of the edge of the bed, and sat there, hands on her knees for a minute. Slowly, she tried to stand up, before plopping back down. Her limbs felt like lead, and she was slightly numb. Well, she was awake now, and she didn't know what to do. She noticed a white tray of food on the... nightstand? No, it was a hospital. A small white table about a foot and a half across beside her bed. Either way, it had a tray of food on it, someone probably brought it in around dinner time while she slept. On the tray was cold Mac 'n Cheese, a banana, yogurt, a biscuit, a glass of water, a small cafeteria carton of milk and a plastic spoon and fork on top of a napkin. She sighed, and ate some of the strawberry-and-blueberry-flavored yogurt with the spoon. Cold macaroni is gross, and she didn't feel like having to chew a banana. Yogurt was a good choice. After she finished the cup of yogurt and the glass of water, which took a while due to her tiny spoon fulls she took, she wondered what to do. She wasn't really tired, and she had eaten. Then she looked around the room. Where was her phone? Did her mom take it? Maybe it was fried from the lightning strike. Regardless, it wasn't anywhere in the room.


Elysia sighed, and laied back down on the hospital bed. It wasn't super comfortable, but it was cold at least. She listened to the faint hum of the air vents, and the even fainter beep of her heart monitor, and slowly her eye lids got heavier and heavier. She rolled over on her right side, how it was most comfortable, and attempted to wrap herself in a cocoon with the thin sheets...





Wait. Didn't I just lay in bed? Elysia thought, looking around at the grassy field around her. She was in a park of sorts, and it was night outside. The sky was clear and pretty, and she could see the stars. In one direction, over the trees she could see the light in the atmosphere indicating a city in that direction. Then she saw a streak of white jagged lines make its way across the sky to the city. There was no sound, she realized then. No thunder, no wind, completely inaudible. Another lightning trike tore across the sky, this time closer, and lighting up the night. She saw another flash, this time it came from behind. When she turned, she saw a tree across the park on fire. Then, lightning struck a tree about twenty feet away from her. But instead of hitting the tree, it tore the tree in half, and the ionized air and plasma flew at her in a curvy-jagged line. The lightning hit her in the chest and launched her back, off of her feet. She landed on her back, knocking the air out of her, her body numb. But she was unharmed, and she felt no pain. What is going on? Then, the park stirred and shifted. Shadows were thrown everywhere as the sky turned into strobe lights, lightning hitting trees multiple times every second, many strikes hitting her and knocking her all about. Suddenly it halted and she floated in the void again. Electricity flowed through her clothing as if it were made of strands of metal, she could hear the humming and see the air shimmer. Strands of thin electricity flowed through her hair, which was a static-y mess. Her skin shimmered a light blue and seemed to glow. Then she exploded, electricity went everywhere, flowing through the air like rivers across a landscape, except in a 3d globe around her. it all seemed to freeze and linger there, before she drifted even deeper into her dreams, and could no longer understand what was going on.





When she woke up in the morning, she remembered none of the dreams.

It was 8:00 AM. That's what the digital clock on the other side of the room said, at least. Elysia sighed, "What am I going to do? I'll be bored all day." She wasn't tired, as she had just woken up. She didn't have her phone, and no one was here visiting, though someone would probably come today. Probably. She sighed. Then, she sighed again. Then she emitted a long, deep, audible breath expressing her boredom. Then, she sighed once more. Well this is getting me nowhere. She thought. She looked around the room. 8:02 AM. She looked out the window, to see the busy slow-moving traffic in the street outside of the front of the hospital. A huge parking lot to the left, people crossing streets, and going about their daily lives while she was stuck here inside of a hospital room.


Or was she? I could sneak out. She pondered the idea, before slipping off of the left side of the bed and tip-toeing to the door across the room. When she got to it, she stood for a second, her heart beating faster. What would happen if she got caught. They aren't holding her against her will, but her parents would probably get mad if they found out. She reached for the handle.


And it turned. Before she touched it. She froze, then turned to her right. On the wall to her right was another door in the room that lead to the restroom. She quickly jumped into the restroom and quietly closed the door, as the room door was opening.


"Huh? Elysia? Are you in here, sweetie?" She heard her mother's voice call.


"I'm in the restroom, mom!" She said, flushing the empty toilet before stepping out of the restroom. She saw the doctor next to her mom and she raised an eyebrow.


"Ah, you're out of bed. And you're feeling well?" The doctor asked her.


"Yeah. Why?" She asked.


"Well, you were scheduled for release today if everything is in working order. You are completely unharmed from the lightning strike, save for a few burns, which is weird. Normally, death comes before burns. But it's almost like the electricity didn't affect any part of you besides your skin." The doctor scratched his head. "Anyways, your mom has come to take you home. Your friends are also to be released today."





When they got home, Elysia went to her room. She didn't know what to do, still. She felt like what she should do after getting home from the hospital is go and lay down, but she wasn't tired. She sighed, and went and sat at her desk, and booted up the computer. When she touched the shell of the computer, it shocked her, but she paid no mind. She pressed the button, and it started up. When the monitor flashed on, it had round streaks of color across the screen as if a magnet was close to it.


"Nande kore wa... Mom? What happened to my computer?" She called, and a few moments later, her mom was in her room.


"No one came in your room while you were gone, honey. Except for when I came in to put your phone on your desk, but I didn't touch your computer." Her mom said, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure you didn't do anything to it?"


"What- Me?" Elysia said. She had called her mom in here, asking about it. Of course she didn't do it. She sighed. Great, well her monitor was jacked up now. At least computer monitors aren't too expensive. She sighed again, and leaned back in her plastic desk chair. Suddenly, her room lights went out. What the hell? She thought. she unscrewed the light bulb from her ceiling fan, to discover it was burn out. Sighing, she went to the laundry room to get another light bulb. When she screwed it into her ceiling fan, it stayed lit for about ten seconds, before burning out. She furrowed her brows in confusion, and went to grab her iPhone. She pressed the home button on it and watched as the battery percentage at the top right of the screen literally went down from 100% to 1% in the span of about fifteen seconds, while it was still plugged into the wall and charging. the screen went black, with the symbol of a red battery in the center of the screen with the charging symbol. She dropped her phone on her bed and backed up a few steps. What the HELL is going on?! She screamed internally. She walked out of her room and to the living room.





"Ne kaa? I'm going to walk over to Kili's to check on her and make sure she's fine. I might also go to Jenna's afterwards."


"Okay sweetie," She said. "But if you start feeling bad, call me and I'll come pick you up."


"Haaaaaiiii." She said, neglecting to mention she wasn't bringing her phone with her.


And with that, she walked out of the front door.

Strange things can happen in the world, it seems. Elysia thought to herself. As she walked, she noticed strange things happening on a small scale outside that other people didn't notice. Every time she took a step, when the laid her foot on the pavement, little particles of what she though was dirt, but was actually small particles of metal, would move. When she took a step, sometimes the fine grains would roll over once or twice, going towards her foot, or away from it. In people's yards, beside the pavement as she walked she could see the dirt make swirling patterns. It looks like the lines of a magnetic field. She thought to herself, recalling diagrams of earth's magnetic field she had seen in school. As she walked by a street lamp, her heard a loud buzzing, and when she passed it, the buzzing stopped. She reached the next one, and stopped to inspect it. It was also emitting the loud, annoying, buzzing sound. Bzt- Bt- Bzt-* She stopped and shivered, it reminded her of the sound Tesla coils would make in movies and stuff. But she couldn't shake the feeling that if she were to touch it... She slowly raised her hand to the metal pole. The second her fingers were about an inch away from it, electricity arced between the metal and her fingers, making a loud stun gun sound**. She quickly jumped back and yelped, but was surprised that she was unharmed. Elysia looked down at her hand again, before looking up at the light pole with a determined expression. She reached towards it, electricity jumping between it and her hand, that god-awful noise, and the smell of ozone caused by the ionization and the plasma electricity. Shen, she touched the pole, and she felt power.


It wasn't the kind of power that made you feel invincible and strong and lust for more. The power she felt, felt like a grip on her soul. It froze her in place, as she felt every cell tingle and scream in her body. Suddenly, she could feel everything. She felt the air around her as it buzzed, she felt inside of the light pole as the electricity ran out of it and through her body, then she felt the wires under the ground, spreading to nearby houses, and power lines above the street. She was on the grid, she could feel the city. It felt like a rapture on her soul, a feeling of ecstasy that scared the living hell out of her. But like that time when she was a kid who stuck her tongue onto a frozen light pole, she couldn't pull away. She felt violated, as if the electricity was a living being eating at her... Or was she eating at it? She couldn't tell, it felt as it was dissolving away her soul while she took command over it. As millions of volts filled her body, and her brain's bioelectricity hooked up with it, it sparked back the memory of the car, of the lightning strike hitting the car and ripping through it, of the electricity jumping between the three girls. Then, she let go. She ripped her hand from the pole, the force of her will and millions of volts of electricity in her body commanding her muscles to move. As she pulled away, electricity jumped again between her hand and the light pole, but this time the flow was reversed. All the electricity in her body poured into the light post faster than it could fill up, and like a river being overflowed, the dam broke.


Suddenly, an electromagnetic pulse equivalent to that of a nuclear blast exploded outwards from her body. Travelling at the speed of light, every electronic in the vicinity it touched was fried, The neighborhood lost power. If she had been 300 miles in the air, she would have been able to shut off the entire continent of North America, but since she was on the ground it only affected the surrounding neighborhoods. Cars driving by in the streets instantly rolled to a stop. A toy remote controlled helicopter that had been flying in the air a few yards down dropped. The street light at the intersection ahead shut down, its circuitry fried. The light on a radio tower in the distance vanished.


"What... Do I do...?" She asked herself, dropping to her knees exhausted. "How... How did this..." She coughed into her hand, and felt some phlegm fly out. When she looked into her hand, she realized it hadn't been phlegm, but blood. She stared, speechless. Oh no.


She began running now. Kili's neighborhood was five blocks away, it wouldn't have received the EMP. Jenna's neighborhood was another few blocks away from Kili's, but perpendicular so it was about the same distance. She had to tell them what happened, and they had to figure out what was happening. Elysia was sure now, it was that lightning strike that caused this. She needed to know if her friends were also having these... troubles.




Running nonstop, Elysia would make it to Kili's house in about fifteen minutes, cutting through alleyways to avoid the streets. Finally, she turned onto Kili's street, and reached her front yard. She stopped, putting her hands on her knees, and breathed heavily for a few seconds before straightening back up and taking long strides to the front door, a grim look on her face. Elysia rapped her knuckles on the door, knock knock knock.


*





**

"Oh, Kili!' Elysia said, surprised when the door suddenly swung open. Though Elysia had planned on coming here, and had left the house half an hour ago, the shock of what had happened after she left the house caused her not to really think about what she was gonna say to Kili. "Eto... Umm..." She cocked her head to the side and gave a nervous grin. "Kili," she said, rolling the L like people roll their R's, "Could you come hang out with me... At the park? We'll go by and get Jenna first, too." Then, she lowered her voice to just above a whisper. "We need to talk."

Elysia furrowed her brows, wondering what Kili seemed so suspicious about. Kili had looked around to see behind Elysia, and had looked back into the house. Maybe she already knows.


"Very well, lead the way Elysia." She said. Elysia only offered a single nod and started walking. "We're going to Jenna's, first."





Three blocks. About 1,800 feet. A five minute walk at least. Even though Jenna lived only a third of a mile away, it felt really far. Elysia and Kili walked in relative silence, as Elysia rehearsed what to say to her friends. What if this isn't happening to them? She wondered in horror. They'll think I'm crazy, until I show them I'm not. And then what will they do? She shook her head, clearing the thoughts. they'd support her. They were her friends.


Finally, they reached Jenna's house. Jenna's house was nicer than either of the girls, and though Elysia kept it to herself she generally preferred to hang out at Jenna's over Kili's or her own house. She strode up to the door and knocked, almost getting déjà vu as it was so similar to what she did at Kili's. Knock, knock, knock.

Almost right after she knocked, the door swung open, and Elysia blinked once in surprise. "O-Oh... Hi Mr. Lee..." Elysia said. "Is Jenna home?" She asked.


"Jenna! Your friends are here!" Jenna's father called up to her, and then walked away, leaving the door open for them to enter. Elysia sighed. They'd been to Jenna's home before, so they were more or less welcome in. Moments after her dad walked away, Jenna appeared around the corner.


"Uh, hey guys. Did you guys get the day off too? Anyway, just come in first. Let's go up to my room." She said. Elysia looked sideways at Kili then followed Jenna upstairs into her room. Upon entering Jenna's room, the surrounding electronics shorted out faster than they normally did when Elysia was by herself. She squinted her eyes at Jenna, as she sighed. She's used to it.


"So... how are you guys? Wait, is that... blood? Dried blood?" jenna asked, appearing shocked.


"Ah... yeah. I'll tell you about it. Actually, it's what I came here to tell you two about." She sat down on Jenna's bed and heaved a long sigh, then abruptly looked up at Jenna, a mischievous grin on her face. "Oy, it's been happening to you, ne?" She said, waving a hand at her computer, and the lamp that went off. "And what about you, Kili?" She asked, looking at her other friend. After Kili gave her response, Elysia looked down.


"Electronics have been acting weird around me lately. Ever since the accident a few days ago, it seems. Electronics I'm near start acting weird, or being drained. When I touch them, they fry, drain or..." She paused thinking about the light post. "I touched a street light. Electricity flowed from it to my hand, through the air like a taser. Funny thing is, it didn't even hurt me. Not a little. When I touched it, it's like a flood of energy flowed through me. So much that it paralyzed me with crushing force, and with that energy I could feel the city as if I were a part of it. I don't really understand what's going on, but it reminds me of one of those magic anime or in books where when they first show signs of being able to use magic their powers are all unstable and dangerous and stuff. But magic isn't real, ne? So what's going on?" She said, eyes wide. Elysia was almost in hysterics, the incident with the light post had shocked her, figuratively speaking. Elysia didn't know for sure the girls had powers. It was a hopeful guess, but at the time it seemed more like a curse. They couldn't control the "powers" long enough to stop them from frying their phones, much less use them in any tangible way.

Elysia stared down into her lap, fists clenched. She was stressing out, her body was full of tension. She had a migrane, like someone was learning into a wedge jammed into the back of her skull. She had agreed with what Jenna said, it wasn't magic, and it had to be related to the lightning strike. But just what was it?


"I am not sure if you two understand that this poses extreme dangers to not only the people around us but ourselves. I would hope that this is all merely a coincidence and doesn't concern the incident which occurred." Kili said, as if trying to be the voice of reason.


Air escaped Elysia's mouth twice. Then sound. "Hahahaha..." She laughed, her bangs covering her face as she stared into her lap. Static electricity crackled through her hair with a pop, and the lights began to flicker. "Kili," she said with her accent, the way she rolled her L like people rolled their R's made it sound similar to "Kee-dee." "Hehe..." Gasp. "Hahaha..." Gasp. "Kiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiii... Yare yare, this is no coincidence." She said looking up, suddenly serious. "We got struck by lightning, and the doctors were genuinely surprised we survived, Kili!" She said, silently laughing still. "This is no coincidence. It does concern the 'incident which occurred.' " Then, she heaved a sigh and hid her hands in her face. The lights stopped flickering.


"I just want this to stop... It's... Kowai..." She said in a small voice. She looked at Jenna again. "What are we going to do, Jenna?" Tears brimmed, threatening to fall. "We need to get out of this house. All three of us bunched up in this room is a disaster waiting to happen." She sighed, wiping her eyes. "How about we go to the park nearby?"