Chapter 5

I gasped and sat up a little too quickly. I coughed violently as my head pounded. After I caught my breath, I held my head and moaned. Seriously, it was the worst headache ever. I slowly looked around and noticed that I was in the same dull colored room I was in before. I had no idea how much time had passed but something told me that it took more than a day for the superhuman change to happen. I still wasn’t even sure exactly what I was; I just knew I was no longer a regular human being.

 I felt it in the way my heart was comfortably beating three times faster. I felt it in the way my body felt ten degrees hotter. I felt it in the way my vision and hearing were dramatically enhanced. I could see every single detail down to the specks of dust floating in the air. Everything had a defined definition. I could hear noises that, I’m pretty sure, were coming from the somewhere further away. I could hear voices and bustling underneath me. My headache slowly disappeared. I felt a tingling sensation in my body. I looked over to the only chair in the room to see Ian smiling at me.

“Welcome back,” he said. I smiled softly and he stood. “You may come downstairs to eat. You’re probably hungry. Dying takes a lot out of you,” he joked. I laughed and nodded before I walked to the door. Well, I thought I was walking. I moved too fast and tripped over my foot as I almost ran into the door. Ian caught me swiftly and set me back on my feet.

“I-I thought I was walking,” I mumbled. He chuckled softly.

“It will be hard to control at first but you’ll get the hang of it. Just focus on slowly putting one foot in front of the other. Think snail pace,” he instructed. I took a deep breath and tried again. It felt painfully slow, but I eventually made it down the stairs at a normal person pace. I smiled triumphantly and froze when we reached the kitchen. There were three people around my age sitting at the kitchen table. I guess these were the other three Ian was telling me about. They all looked at me immediately. I felt uneasy under their stares. It took a moment but I finally realized that I recognized all of them.

They all went to my school. Damon on the far right was tall and athletically built guy with messy short blonde hair and the same electric blue eyes and Ian and me. Damon was a school jock, although he mostly kept to himself except for his select group of friends. Kylie was a girl known at school as a firecracker. She was the equivalent to the school’s bad girl. She had wild wavy red hair and a fit curvy body that all the guys drooled over. At our school, she was queen bitch… I mean bee. And lastly, Cadence…

Cadence was considered the most dangerous guy at our school. He got the title from a fight where he knocked a guy out clean with one punch. No one really knew what the fight was about, but I think it had to do with his name. Cadence wasn’t a name you heard often, especially for a guy. No one ever messed with him after that. People tended to steer clear of him. Oddly though, he was quarterback of the varsity football team. You would think that that meant instant popularity, but he still kind of kept to himself. Girls seemed to love his bad boy persona and often threw themselves at him, but it was like he didn’t even notice. Damon was his best friend, and now I knew why. He had light brown hair that was clean cut and off of his gorgeous face. He had a strong jaw line and smooth, tan, and blemish-free skin. His eyes were the same electric blue as everyone else’s, but to me, his eyes seemed slightly brighter.

They smiled at me in welcome… well Damon and Kylie did; Cadence kept his judgmental scowl on his face. After a moment, Cadence averted his eyes towards the table. I don’t know why I was so offended by that. Ian placed a hand on my shoulder and led me forward slightly.

“Damon, Kylie, Cadence… this is Elliot,” he introduced me. “I expect you to welcome her with open arms,” Ian said, giving cadence a stern look. Cadence only sighed and looked at me reluctantly.

“Congrats, you survived dying. Welcome,” Cadence said sarcastically. He stood and walked towards me. I resisted the urge to hide behind Ian as Cadence placed his hand out. I shook it timidly. I pulled my hand away quickly as I felt a shock. I glared at him. He probably did that on purpose. Cadence looked at me amused for a moment before he headed for the stairs.

“I’m going to my room,” he muttered. It was silent for a moment. I flinched when I heard a door slam.

“Don’t mind him. He’s on his period,” Damon said.

“I heard you!” Cadence yelled from upstairs. Damon smirked.

“You were supposed to!” he yelled back. Damon turned his attention back to me and held out his hand. “I’m Damon… welcome to the dark side,” he joked. I laughed along with him before Kylie pushed him aside. She smiled and wrapped me in a hug.

“Finally, another girl! I can’t take all the testosterone,” she sighed happily. I giggled as she pulled away. “Oh yeah, I’m Kylie,” she smiled at me. I was pleasantly surprised. She was actually nice and kind of funny.

“You can call me Ellie,” I smiled back at her.

“Don’t mind Cade, he’s really harmless,” she said with a smile. Ian cleared his throat and we all looked back to him.

“Ellie, it’s going to be a while before you can leave. We need to make sure that you can control you’re speed and strength enough to go back to school,” Ian informed me. I looked at him curiously.

“Wait, how long was I out?” I asked Ian. He thought for a moment.

“Well, you were here for two days before you started the change and that took a week… so about 9-10 days,” he answered my eyes widened. That long? My parents were probably freaking out…

Everyone was probably freaking out and there was nothing I could do about it.