Chapter 3: I have powers?!
The sound of the shower filled the house. Carmike fried eggs and
sausage in the kitchen. Carmike smiled as he heard Emi singing. He shook his
head at the silly song his nephew was singing. He finished the meal and placed
it on the table. He held the still hot frying pan under the sink facet and
turned it. Cold water shot out for a brief second and the pan sizzled as the
water evaporated. This was normal.
What wasn’t normal was that the water in
the spout started coming out as bubbles that floated around the kitchen.
Carmike stood still watching for a moment in confusion.
Emi walked into the kitchen. A bright
smile was on his face. He was brushing his curly hair and was singing a Johnny
Horton song. He plucked the hairs out of the brush and threw them away.
“So what’s for…?” He paused as he stared
at the floating bubbles. He gestured to the bubbles with his hand, “What? How?
Why?” The soft whisper was barely audible.
Carmike flung his arms about. “I turned
the nob and then those came out! I was just trying to rinse the pan out so it wouldn’t
be super greasy later. So I held it,” Carmike began to ramble and Emi tuned him
out quickly.
The ebony haired male walked around the
bubbles. His eyes were wide with curiosity. He reached his hand out to poke one
of the bubbles and it burst. All of the bubbles burst at once. Leaving the
floor and most of the items in the kitchen nicely wet. Luckily it was mainly
the floor.
“It’s a good thing I’m working in between
the dinner and lunch shift today.” Emi mused dryly as he went to grab the mop
from the storage room. Carmike could only nod in agreement.
It took about two hours to clean up all
the water. Neither Carmike nor Emi could come up with a reasonable explanation
for what happened. Carmike dropped Emi off at work, stating he would call a
plumber friend and ask.
Today Emi got to wear a costume. The
first time since he wound up in a coma. Today he got to dress up as a fairytale
princess. All his female co-workers had agreed that it suited him. Emi didn’t
mind, so he proudly wore the outfit. He was very thankful to be wearing flats
though.
“Can you do magic?” A little girl asked.
She had round brown eyes. Her cute little curls were tight to her head. Her
yellow and black dress reminded Emi of a bumblebee.
“Oh, not much,” Emi focused hard on
keeping his voice an airy high note. “I’m still in training.”
“Can I see?” She bounced in excitement.
Her family giggled in amusement.
Emi smiled as he pulled out the small toy
want from his sleeve. “I can’t guarantee anything will happen.” Emi hummed a
bit as he waved the wand around the table. His eyes drifting up to see Jeff in
the rafters above. A small bucket of confetti in his hands. Emi’s smile grew
across his whole face as he turned his blue eyes back to the little girl.
“Abracadabra!” Emi flicked the wand.
Confetti fell down from the ceiling onto
the young girl. Giggles erupted from her. Her family members clapped happily.
All five of them.
“And well you look at your cup honey,”
the father explained as he stared at the cup. “That’s some magic trick.”
Everyone turned to see the cup. It should
have been a simple hard plastic cup. It was green in color. But now, the cup no
longer looked like the simple cup it had been. It was now adorned with frosty
images of ballerinas and snowflakes. All of it was made in ice it seemed. It
also appeared to be on both side of the cup. Around the straw was more frost
with a dolphin shaped tip to sip the Sprite through. Everyone marveled at it.
Except Emi. He glanced up to Jeff, who shrugged, not knowing how it had
happened. He looked around at all the nearby servers. All of them seemed amazed
by the cup as well. No one gave any sign of being the cause of it. Emi felt a
sickening feeling in his stomach.
“Thank you very much princess!” The
little girl cheered as she hugged Emi.
Emi smiled back as he hugged her. “You’re
welcome dearie. I guess I have more magic then I thought.” He gave a sweet
laugh as he helped the girl back into her seat. “Is there anything else I can
get you?” His attention now on the adults.
“So more unsweet tea please.” The
grandfather stated holding up his up.
“I’ll be right out with that,” Emi walked
back into the kitchen.
The kitchen was full of people dashing
back and forth. Emi felt his body begin to shake as he began to walk to the
cups.
“Are you okay?” Jeff appeared from his
side. “You look pale.”
“I’ll be fine.” Emi lied. “They need an
unsweet tea.”
“I got that right here,” Jeff held out
the red cup. “That thing with the cup though was amazing. Was that your doing?”
“I,” Emi began, but nothing else came out
as the sound of crackling ice caught their attention. The two turned to the red
cup. The unsweet tea was frozen.
Jeff whistled at the sight.
Emi shrieked a shriek so high that it
broke a glass pitcher of lemonade being carried into the kitchen. Jeff feared
Emi would faint, so he grabbed a hold of the young man’s shoulder. Other
employees rushed over to help calm Emi down as two other employees watched on
curiously as they cleaned up the lemonade.
Jasmine prepared another cup of unsweet
tea out to the table.
“Here you go. My apologizes, but the
princess has slipped and injured her foot. So I will be your server for the
remainder of your meal,” She gave a bow. Jasmine was dressed as a maid, the
standard cosplay outfit for the café. They nodded in understanding.
Jeff merely stared at Emi. Jeff was 24.
He wasn’t a big guy. He was strong from years of gymnastics, but there was no
way he could carry Emi to the back room. Not with him hyperventilating the way
he was. “I’m going to need some help here.”
Emi was hoisted into the air. Grey eyes
stared uncaringly at Jeff. “Where do you want to take him?” His wore black
pants and a black vest. His shirt was a bright white. His dark grey hair was
neatly cut and framed his sharp face.
Jeff numbly pointed to the door that led
to the back door. Grey nodded as he walked to the door. He shifted Emi in his
grasp so his hand was under his knees. He opened the door slightly before
kicking it open the rest of the way. He walked down the small hall and into a
larger room. There was a small two seat sofa there. Big red and fluffy. Grey
carefully placed him there.
“Who are you?”
Grey turned to see a woman standing
behind him. She was a very curvy woman with red lips. Her hair stacked on top
of her head. Grey gave her a flirtatious grin.
“Can I help you miss?” He responded.
“Grey! Don’t. You. Dare!” Symphia busted
into the room. Her hair disheveled and she was breathing heavy. But her brown
eyes were out to kill him.
Grey sighed as he stood up. “I haven’t
done anything.” He held up his hands innocently. He stepped away. “He’s
freaking out.”
“He’s in shock.” The woman ran to the
Emi’s side. “Emi dearie, what’s wrong?”
“Boss?” Emi looked up at his employer.
His icy blue eyes were so pale they were almost white. “I froze a cup of
water.” She opened her mouth to comment. “Just by touching it. I think I did it
earlier with that girl’s cup. And I think I froze the mop water. I don’t… I…”
Tears formed in his eyes. He curled up tighter. “Something’s wrong with me!”
“Nothing’s wrong with you Emi.” The boss
rubbed his back.
“Pfft! Wrong? I think developing weird powers categorizes as
wrong.” Grey laughed. “But when you’re done,”
Symphia punched him in the stomach.
“You’re only making this more stressful for him!”
“Who are you people?” The boss demanded
as she hugged Emi to her. Emi looked up at them. His vision blurry from his
tears. He blinked a few times.
“Symphia?” Emi uncurled some. “What are
you doing here?” His eyes widened. “You’re a nurse! Do you know… what’s wrong…
with me?” His voice became a soft squeak by the end of his sentence.
“Nothing!” Symphia blurted loudly.
“Nothing,” she softened her voice. “You’re just changing. Like a butterfly!”
Grey rolled his eyes as he crossed his
arms. “Do you know what a deity is?”
Emi turned to look at Grey. He had never
seen someone with grey eyes before. “They’re like gods, aren’t they?”
“Kind of.” Grey nodded. “We’re deities.”
He waved his finger and himself and Symphia. “We’ve been deities for a while.
And you are a new one. Granted deity status by some god somewhere, who
apparently didn’t explain heads to tails to you beforehand.”
“Can’t you be a little nicer Grey?”
Symphia growled. She patted Emi’s foot as she sat on the couch. “Don’t worry,
I’m here to help.” Symphia smiled.
“I’m just here to observe.” Grey smirked.
“We have a bet on you,” he gestured to himself and Symphia once more.
“Bet?” Emi perked up curiously.
Symphia gave him a warning glare.
“Yeah. If you die by the end of the
month, I win. If you survive, she wins.” Grey stated. “Most new deities don’t
last long. Especially without the god who made them one there to protect them.”
“Why would I die?” Emi asked. “Can these
powers kill me?” He began to panic again.
“Oh no. no.” Symphia patted him on the
knee. “Your powers can’t cause you any harm at all.”
“Demons, lesser gods, ghosts, a human,”
Grey listed on his fingers. “There are lots of beings that would kill you just
to harvest your powers. That’s just the way of life.”
Symphia nodded. “But the quicker you
learn how to use your powers the better off you’ll be,” she added. “I can help
you with that. If you let me.”
“Can you freeze water too?” Emi asked as
he uncurled.
“No,” she shook her head. “I’m a deity of
love. You seem to be a deity of water. But tapping into one’s powers are usually
very similar.”
“What about you?” Emi turned to Grey.
“Deity of death.” He stood filled with
pride for his job.
Emi had stay in bed for the next two days. It was such a shock
to his system. He was a deity now. It was hard to take in. He finally had
enough of just laying in bed. He couldn’t just sit there for the rest of his
life. According to Symphia, he didn’t have any major duties because the god who
gave him his powers hadn’t given him any. Which was still confusing.
Why would a god give him powers?
Or did he gain these powers by accident?
Maybe the god had bad aim.
Emi washed his face before heading down
stairs.
Uncle Carmike greeted him there with a
bowl of tomato soup and a box of gold fish. They sat quietly at the table. Emi
staring into the bowl and Carmike fiddling with his fingers. Carmike was
supposed to be going home today.
“Do you want me to stay?” Carmike broke
the silence.
Emi wasn’t sure as he slowly looked up at
his uncle. “You have your business to run.”
“I could always expand it out to here.”
Carmike suggested. “And then I could run it from here.”
“Weed isn’t legal here.”
Carmike clucked his tongue. “Crud. Wish
they would come around and make it legal already. But you’re right.”
Emi heard the chair squeak and then the
clacking sounds of Carmike’s shoes. He looked up when Carmike paused next to
him. Carmike’s arm wrapped around him.
“I love you. No matter what.” Carmike
stated.
“I love you too.” Emi hugged him back.
“You call if you need anything,” Carmike
ordered. “I don’t know much about deity stuff, but,” he paused, “I will do my
best to be here for you. Rather it’s an ear, a shoulder, or whatever. I’ll do
my best.”
Emi smiled as he nodded.
“Now eat some of that soup. You haven’t
eaten in days! Look you at you. All skin and bones already.”
Emi chuckled as Carmike when off. He
grabbed the box of gold fish and poured a handful into his hand before dropping
them into the soup with a little ker-plops. He stirred the fish in with his spoon before bringing a
spoonful with one fish to his mouth. He knew the soup was cold by now. At least
it should have been. To his surprise, though, the soup was warm as if it had
just cooled down enough to eat.
“I can warm liquids too!” Emi exclaimed
at this revelation.
Carmike paused in his rant. He looked at
the bowl and sure enough, it had steam rising off of it. “Wow,” he whistled,
“At least you can melt what you freeze.” He gave a nervous laugh. “It’ll take
practice to figure out what all you can do.”
