I arrive back home, my mind buzzing with what Efflorescent told me. I might get new powers? I should open up to someone about my powers before making this decision. I’m so caught up in my thoughts that I don’t realise at first that I’m blinking around my apartment instead of walking around it normally. Once I realise, I stop, taking a breath. Once I’m calm, I realise the main thing I need to do is tell someone about this before I make a decision, and that means Hanna. She’s my best friend, and there’s not a lot of people in my life to be honest, so I pull out my phone and send her a text: Hi! I need to talk to yooouuuu!
Before I can even put my phone down, it starts ringing. Hanna is calling me, of course. I answer quickly, “hey Hanna,” I say.
“Robyn! You can’t just text me things like that! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“Sorry, sorry! I just really needed to talk to you about something, I didn’t think about how it would sound!” I exclaim, laughing at her reaction.
“Ugh, fine, but if I’m rushed to the hospital, I expect a very guilty Robyn to visit me,” she jokes. “What did you wanna talk about then?”
“You got it,” I joke back, before taking a breath, “So, you’re all obsessed with extra-humans, right?
“I’m not obsessed, Ro! I just find them really interesting, okay? But so what? You’ve never cared about them before.” She exclaims, voice full of fake outrage.
“Well, maybe something happened recently that made me rethink that…” I admit nervously.
“What could’ve…” she says, trailing off. “Wait, the break-in at the museum!?”
“Yeah, I… I awakened during the break-in.” I say, pausing, almost vibrating as I wait desperately for her answer.
“You… you what!?” she says finally, “and you’re only just telling me?!”
“Hey, it’s only been a single day!” I exclaim, “And you’ve already been so good to me and with accepting me, I didn’t wanna add something that would make it too much!”
“Too much? What are you talking about, you fucking spoon! You’re my best friend, you’ll never be too much for me, for fuck’s sake!” she snaps at me.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!” I say quickly, “I just get in my head about these things, and it’s been a lot to deal with, I didn’t mean to not tell you, I’m sorry.” I add, feeling myself get hot as I start to panic that I’ve really upset her.
“Hey, it’s okay. You did a thing that upset me, but we’ve talked about it, so there’s no need to panic, okay? Now, I assume there was more that you wanted to talk about?” Hanna says in a soft voice.
“Wait, how did you know…” I trail off, realising I don’t really care how she knew — I just love that she did. “Yeah, there’s more. So, I went to the Weird Sister’s HQ to ask about using my powers to help people and I spoke to Efflorescent-“ as I say this there’s a slight strangled noise on the other end, but I ignore Hanna fangirling, and power on, “and she told me they have a program for essentially sponsoring new Extras, but I should have a real good think about it before deciding anything as even if you can go through it anonymously, there’s a non-zero chance my identity could get leaked and all that. She also suggested I should talk to someone close in my life about it before making a decision, so that’s basically you, and here we are.” I finish, out of breath, not having realised I was rushing to get it all out.
“Okay, as concerning as your admission that I’m the only person in your life is, I’m glad you chose to talk to me about this,” Hanna says, “I’m proud of you for actually following their advice, I’m not sure I would have. But like, what’s Efflorescent like? She’s my favourite of The Weird Sisters!”
“Thanks!” I reply, glowing at the praise, “She seemed cool, kinda sorta otherworldly though? Like, I’m not sure she thinks of herself as a human anymore. The vibe I got from her is that she’s kinda way more powerful than everyone thinks? She was really nice though.”
“Oh, gods, that’s so cool, Ro! You have to help me meet her! But like, at a time and place where that would be cool, and not like I’m a crazy fan, right? Oh, I need help, Ro,” Hanna says, in what really seems like one breath.
“Anyway, I promise I’ll help you out, Hanna, but you gotta help me decide if this is something I should do! I really like helping people, and this seems like such a cool thing, but do you really think people here want a trans extra-human? Like, I’m proud to be trans, you know that, but I also don’t want it to be the thing I’m known for… Like I don’t wanna be the trans extra-human, you know?” I say, starting to ramble, “and like, I don’t have anything in the way of an offensive power, so what if I suck? I can just see the headline now, Hanna!” I finish fully rambling and starting to shake from the stress of it all.
“Hey, Robyn, take a breath. I’ll help you work through all this, but you gotta take your time, I can hear you getting all worked up over there.” Hanna starts in a soothing voice, and I can feel my body relax a little already. “First, I just wanna say that I think you should totally do the thing where they sponsor you, I can’t think of a better way to learn the ropes and all that. I’m also slightly biased as Efflorescent is my fave. Everyone has a fave right, Ro?” She says and I blush a deep red, my mind immediately going to Shelter, she pauses for a second before continuing, “and, I know I can’t really talk to being trans while being a hero, but like, I think if it’s something you wanna do you should go for it and not think too much about that. Like, never let people be the reason you don’t do something you wanted to do, right?” she pauses again, and I can almost hear her chewing her lip, “So, what exactly can you do then?” she asks, clearly excited to find out.
“Well, I have this extra sense kind of thing, where I can sense things around me and just know things about them, it’s hard to describe. Like I can tell there’s a guy out in the corridor a few doors down, pacing and muttering to himself.” I tell her, letting my awareness spread for a second, it’s getting more and more comfortable every time I use this power, despite its initial weirdness. “I can also teleport anywhere within the area of my expanded sense. I’ve been calling it Blinking, because there’s literally no intervening time.” I say, laughing.
“And because you’re a huge Dishonored nerd?” Hanna jokes, laughing.
“Yes, but shush,” I say, laughing too. “But yeah, that’s all I’ve got. Although I will mention that Efflorescent told me that a lot of Extra-Humans develop extra powers and the powers they do have get more powerful as time goes on. I assume that as you use your powers and stuff. So I might get more powers or the ones I do have might get more powerful, or I might be unlucky and get stuck with just this.”
“That’s so FUCKING cool Ro! Gods, I just wanna gush about stuff but I will hold back out of respect. I can’t believe my bestie has ESP and short-range teleportation man.”
“Thanks Hanna, you’re the best.” I say warmly.
We talk for another half an hour for less important and more inane topics, before Hanna starts yawning and rings off to go bed.
As I lay on my bed, my mind drifts to the last time I was asleep and the crazy dream I had. I’ve never had a dream so vivid before, it was almost like I was in that park and the vision afterwards still gives me chills and a bit of a headache to think about it now. I just wish I knew what any of the words were or even what language they were in. It definitely felt like something was speaking to me and I hate that I didn’t understand any of it.
I guess it’s just a mystery for some other time. I think to myself, sighing.
As I drift off to sleep, I feel glad to finally have some time to process all the wild shit that’s happened to me over the past couple days, I just really hope I don’t have another wild dream.
The next day, I’m back at work, and things seem to be returning to normal, although workmen interrupt the reception’s standard routine as they try to fix the smashed main door. Luckily, today is just a reception shift, and there’s no tour guide duty for me today, and the museum is generally quiet, as you might expect from a weekday.
As it gets closer to the end of the day, only an hour before the museum closes, Larissa comes out of her office and wanders over to the reception desk.
“Hi Robyn, just wanted to check in with you after the awful day we had on Saturday. You doing okay?” She says, resting an elbow on the reception desk.
“Yeah, things are going okay, it’s good to get back to the normal routine a little, actually. Thanks for asking, Larissa.” I tell her, a genuine smile on my face.
“Good. I’m glad to hear that. It got crazy for a sec, just glad you didn’t get hurt,” she says, nodding at me before walking off again.
The rest of the afternoon passes at a snail’s pace until finally everyone else has left and I’m just doing the last walk around before leaving to go home. Luckily nothing happens this time and I lock up the side door to the museum and start walking home.
I get most of the way home with no incident, but as I’m a few minutes away, I see a guy cross the street behind me.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath, shoving my hand into the pocket where my keys are and steadying my breaths. I casually look to the side as I walk, gauging the man’s distance from me. It’s difficult to see in the dark street only lit up by a few streetlamps, but I can sense his presence behind me.
Fuck, that guy’s close, he’s gonna catch up before I make it home. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Once the guy starts to close the distance, I can hear his slurred speech.
Oh, he’s drunk. Fucking great.
“Hey, you,” he starts and I can’t make out the rest of his sentence, as slurred as it is.
I turn around as he speaks, hoping maybe that he’s just a talkative drunk and he’ll be on his way. Once I’ve turned around, he looms over me, a fair bit taller than my 5’ 8”. He says some other unintelligible string of words and all I catch is the word ‘pretty’ before he’s reaching for me.
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My heart is instantly in my throat, beating like crazy, I try to will myself to blink away, but I can’t focus on anything but the thumping of my throat. Just before his hand makes contact with my shoulder, the dark street plunges into an even deeper darkness that seems almost physical, like I could reach out and grab a handful of it. I can’t see the street lamps anymore, but I can see the street and the guy in front of me fine. It’s then I notice that the guy, and everything else, has simply stopped moving—no, everything is still moving, but at such a miniscule speed that it’s almost impossible to notice.
My gaze travels up to meet the man’s eyes and I swear I see them vibrate as we make slow motion eye contact and with a burst of what sounds like static, like someone tuning a radio, the ultra darkness recedes and everything speeds up. I let out a gasp, shocked at the sudden return to normality and then freeze, fear spreading through my gut. The man is sat, crumpled on the floor in a dark puddle. He’s… he’s sobbing, crying uncontrollably. After a moment he notices me still stood there and without looking at me, he wobbles to his feet, stand there unsteadily for a second before sprinting away, screaming.
I quickly run to my flat and lock the door behind me and collapse to the floor, my back against the door. I feel the sobs clawing their way up my throat, as the adrenaline leaves me. As I sit there crying, I only have one frighteningly familiar thought.
What am I?
Bzzt, bzzt. Bzzt, bzzt.
“Ugh, what is’t?” I say groggily, unaware of my surroundings. I sit up sharply, the memory returning in full force. I’m still sitting back against my front door. Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I check it. On the screen are at least 6 or 7 text messages from Hanna, growing increasingly unhinged as time has gone on without a reply from me.
I groan, standing up and shaking myself. I blink into the kitchen and sit down on one of the chairs. I send Hanna a quick text back to stop the tirade of messages:
Hello, yes. I’m alive, please don’t blow up my phone.
I receive her reply immediately: Well, maybe you should answer me next time, I was about to go to form a hunting party and fetch the tracking hounds, you know?
I read this and immediately burst out laughing. Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I assume we’re still meeting today then? I ask.
Yup, you bet your ass we are. I demand a show of your abilities as recompense for you being a spoon yesterday. Hehe, spoon. Ass.
I shake my head and sigh. God, you’re so immature sometimes, you know? Fine, see you in our usual spot at the park in like an hour?
I’ll be there, Ro. She texts back immediately, and I drop my phone on the table, resting my elbows on the table and putting my head in my hands.
Ugh, Jesus. Last night was awful. What did I even do to that guy?
I sit there for a few minutes, just breathing and calming myself, before getting up to go get ready.
I head to the bathroom, and strip yesterday’s clothes off, clambering into the shower and turning on the hot water. The water is scalding, washing away the awful feeling from last night. I think back to how I felt when the darkness surrounded me and everything seemed to slow down, and suddenly it happens again, absolute blackness shrouds the bathroom, but I can somehow still see.
Is this another power?
I feel like I’m going a little crazy, what even are my powers? I guess that’ll be a good thing to ask about once I’m sponsored by the Weird Sisters, I’m sure they can help with it. Just as I’m about to relax a little, I glimpse myself in the mirror and I freeze in shock. They’re like pits of the same blackness that surrounds me now, with hints of stars and objects — a kaleidoscope of colour within them. I blink and relax, and I feel everything return to normal, a little shaken but in awe of whatever I can do now.
Once I’m freshly showered, I get dressed in a cute dark navy blue blouse with stars on it and a pale blue miniskirt, I grab my bag and head out the door to go meet Hanna.
When I get to the park, Hanna is already there waiting for me, looking hot as hell in her signature leather jacket and the tightest black skinny jeans I’ve ever laid eyes on. I wave as I approach, calling out, “Hey Hanna!” as I do.
“Oh, hey, Ro!” she calls back, “how you doing? It’s not like you to not answer your phone, or to sleep in really.”
“Yeah, I had a pretty rough night, hence the sleeping in and not answering my phone.” I say a tad sheepishly. I then explain what happened last night.
Once I’m done, Hanna looks like she’s about ready to commit a murder, so I jump in to keep my best friend out of prison. “Well, look, he was super drunk, so I don’t even know what his intentions were.”
“That doesn’t even matter, Robyn! Are you saying you didn’t feel threatened?”
“Well, I did, yeah, I just- considering the state he left in, I feel like justice has already been served, okay?” I say, trying to get my point across.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t still wanna beat him up, Ro. I guess you’re right though,” she admits, “although, new power then?” She asks, the excitement creeping back into her voice.
“Y-yeah,” I say, laughing nervously a little. “It’s a bit weird though, it’s like a few things combined into one. Like it makes the area around me super dark, although I can see perfectly, and also my eyes turn into like, voids. They’re the same darker than pitch black, but you can see stars and objects of god knows how many colours in them sometimes. Also, if I make eye contact, it drives you insane and/or terrified?”
“Well, that sure is something, eh?” Hanna says, laughing. “Can I see? I promise I won’t look at your face, but the darkness part sounds so fucking cool. You’re gonna inspire an entire album’s worth of cosmic horror songs, Ro.”
I blush at her praise, and bite my lip as I decide. Eventually, I nod. “Okay, let’s go somewhere quiet and I’ll do it. But I mean it, no looking toward my face! I’ll never forgive myself if I break your brain or something!”
“Can’t break what’s already broken, baby!” she drawls sardonically, earning a glare from me.
We head over to a secluded corner of the park with no one nearby, and I reach inside for the sensation I felt earlier. Like my other powers, it comes easier with my repeated use, more natural. The darkness falls around me, and I hear Hanna gasp in shock, I look up and see she’s just reacting to the sudden darkness, she’s still looking over to the side from where I am, to avoid looking directly at me.
“Ro, this is so trippy. Like I can tell that it’s still light out, but my brain is telling me it’s dark too? I can barely see anything around in the dark though!”
I let out a laugh at her sheer giddiness before dropping the darkness. Hanna jumps again, shocked at the sudden change. She looks at me, awe clear on her face. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable, this sudden admiration from someone who I’ve always thought was so cool. So, I deflect a little. “So, Efflorescent’s your fave, eh?” I ask, my tone a little teasing.
She gives me a defiant look before answering, “Yeah, what of it? She’s clearly the coolest one of the team. Remember, you promised you’d introduce us!”
“I know I did, don’t you worry.” I say, laughing, “I’ll help you with your fan crush, Hanna. Also, I’m not so sure about her being the coolest.”
“Oh?” Hanna asks, pouncing on my comment, “I bet you have a crush on one of them, eh? Little old Ro, who hates romance, has got someone she’s into?” Hanna says grinning. She’s always happy to play on our big difference, she’s declared herself celibate but crushes on everyone she thinks is cool, and I love sex but struggle to understand romance.
“Look, of the two other members, I haven’t really interacted with one, and the other is the fucking cutest person I’ve ever seen.”
“Wow, I’m on the Weird Sisters team?” Hanna asks sarcastically.
“Ha ha, very funny. No, you’re hot, not cute, you know this.” I tell her, rolling my eyes.
“Thanks, but stop deflecting, we both know you have the hots for Shelter.” She accuses me while laughing.
“Wha- You… How… Shut up!” I complain, unable to form a coherent sentence, as the idea of meeting Shelter soon, floats through my mind.
At this, Hanna collapses to the floor, clutching her stomach and laughing uncontrollably.
I decide I have no choice but to blink right up close to her and make her jump as revenge. As I do this, she yelps and then just starts laughing harder.
Once we’ve all calmed down, we hang out for a little more before Hanna goes to band practice and I head home. Once I get in, I pull my phone and the card the Efflorescent gave me out of my bag, and dial the number.
“Hello, Weird Sisters, you’ve reached the weird one, how can I help?” a flighty voice sounds on the other end after it picks up. I didn’t realise this was a direct line to Efflorescent, I’m so glad I never showed this to Hanna.
“Hi Efflorescent, it’s Robyn here. We spoke the other day?” I say waiting for confirmation she remembers me, gods I hope she remembers me, I might die of embarrassment if she doesn’t.
“Oh yes, hi there Robyn. I hope you’ve recovered nicely from the Museum break in?”
“Y-yeah, I’m doing fine now. I just wanted to let you know that I spoke with someone important to me about what we discussed and I’d like to go forward with the sponsorship thing, whatever that entails.” I say, nervously thinking about her response.
“Okay, sure. I just want to check one more time Robyn. This is definitely what you want?” she asks, voice level and calm.
"Yes. Yes, this is what I want. I’m sure.” I reply, determined.
“Okay then, can you come in around lunch time this Friday?” she asks.
“Yeah, absolutely, I’ll be there.”
“Great, can’t wait to see you and introduce you to the others. See you then.”
The phone clicks as Efflorescent hangs up, and I can’t help but grin at the thought of meeting The Weird Sisters. Bring on Friday!
