Kill me with your love. Part I. Iggy Joutsen

Ema had introduced some of them to me. Even before I got the power, I already knew how to choose people for friendship. “Everything is predetermined” some unknown voice sounded in my head. That thought was definitely not mine. The ball gradually went out and, finally, attention was paid to us. Not believing their own eyes that I turned out to be the new Bernaus (I must give a credit to Ema: she skillfully kept it a secret from them), the guys rushed to meet me and began to hug tightly.

      When at last everybody calmed down, being a little embarrassed I said:

      “I understand that I am the last among us who has gained the magical powers. Weren’t you ashamed of yourselves not to wait for me?”

      Laughing is the best therapy for any stress, and I still had a lot to worry about.

      “So it is. We were waiting for you, although we were not sure that it would be you specifically. We just felt the birth of a new energy. The Bernauses, you know, are closely related to one another,” replied Lucas, the quietest and shiest friend from our noisy and cheerful company.

      Despite the fact that Lucas was 24, he looked like 17 years old. They even refused to sell alcohol to him in stores without an ID. His unruly brown hair was always up on his head and his ears were like an elf’s. With his big blue eyes, Lucas would have easily become a prototype for Japanese anime. In addition, he was incredibly thin and hardly weighed more than 110 pounds. Girls always found something in him, although he was not so handsome as other men. Like Ema, Lucas had the powers of suggestion, but unlike her, he could hypnotize any living being and control it to fulfill his goals. He also knew how to create an illusion of reality, that is, a false idea of an event that happened, which in fact did not exist at all. Our friend demonstrated this clearly by the example of an uttered word: “sea”. The surrounding reality immediately changed before our eyes. We found ourselves on the coast of an imaginary sea. The waves broke peacefully on the shore, seagulls screamed and with a warm breeze we felt the aromas and taste of salt water. Peace took control of us, the bodies relaxed, surrendering to the warmth of the setting sun. Another moment and the illusion disappeared, as if it did not exist at all, and everything we saw seemed like a long gone dream. The sea was not around us, but the gloomy walls of the abandoned factory stood instead. We applauded our friend passionately as a sign of admiration.

      Liepa was standing next to Lucas. A 28-year-old fragile and graceful girl with golden hair like the sun and a shapely waist. She was distinguished by a very cheerful and never depressing disposition, as well as full of energy and life. Liepa was able to get along with any person. She was always active, had a lot of actions, ideas and plans in stock. Deservedly, we called her an “Angel”. Besides, she was the only one from the company who had already managed to become a parent. Our “Angel” had a son, whose father remained a secret for everyone, carefully guarded. Even her closest friend Leia didn’t know him. The powers granted to Liepa were opposed to her outward appearance. She could move huge objects over long distances. In the blink of an eye, the ground beneath us trembled, and we realized that the building was slowly rising. Plaster fell from the ceiling and walls. It seemed that everything was going to collapse and crush us to death with its weight, but a few minutes later we safely got down on the ground in one piece.

      The next went 28-year-old Matas who had the gift of mind reading. He could also predict the thoughts and ideas of people, even if they hadn’t thought of them yet. He probably knew more about us than we did ourselves, but he never used that information as a weapon and politely concealed it. By appearance the guy looked like a giant: tall and large, but gentle and kind inside as a kid. Although he was not particularly lucky with girls in life, but he did not despair and believed that his day yet to come and he would meet his soul mate sooner or later. Matas showed his powers by reading the thoughts of each of us, which caused more discontent than joy, but no one got really offended.

      Emilia, a 27-year-old black-haired and brown-eyed beauty, was standing next to Matas. Maybe because the girl used to work as a police investigator, she looked stern, strict and unapproachable. She did not like the weaknesses in men. Her temper was considered quite complicated. Going through her was not an easy task. She could not stand criticism and all sorts of coddling. She always spoke to the point and appealed only with facts. Nevertheless, the girl managed to harmoniously blend into our company and make everyone fall in love with her own nature, although she was perceived unanimously obnoxious and unbearable due to her temperament. Emilia, or, as we called her among ourselves, Milie could heal any wounds and injuries on the body: both external and internal. She also possessed the powers to resurrect from the dead, although it is more accurate to say from the “half-dead”. If the victim’s brain had not died and his activity, even in the form of weak impulses, remained active, then healing would not have been difficult for her. Using the example of cuts on the arm of Gabrielius, who volunteered, she showed her powers clearly. Today Milie was in a particularly good mood: she was planning an affair with an unknown Bernaus, so we were all looking forward to meeting a fan of such a difficult tempered friend.

      Everyone knew that this affair haunted the 25-year-old Gabrielius, because our friend liked Milie very much, and he never tried to hide his feelings. That’s just the girl did not pay attention to him and was not serious about his pick-ups, putting off with fun, which brought me very close to the guy because of a similar situation I was in. Gabrielius was Chinese by mother and Lithuanian by father. Because of that the nature gifted him with a beautiful and unusual appearance, which attracted the eyes of many girls. He had a rare power, even more frightening than exciting: Gabrielus could communicate with the dead. It was enough for him to approach the corpse so that the image in the form of a soul appeared before him and answered all the questions put to it. Sometimes the dead came to him by themselves. The guy did not know the reasons for that, since ghosts disappeared as suddenly as they appeared. Of course, he refrained from demonstrating his powers to us, and it was not physically possible.

      Leia was the last to complete the circle. She was 29 years old at the time, but looked older. However, the girl was not shy by character but not relating to her appearance. Being overweight, she compensated with charm. Everyone loved Leia. We adored her for sense of humor, the ability to support at any moment and a smile that could cheer everyone up. She had the powers to walk through walls, to return to the past (but not change it) and to foresee the near future thanks to short visions lasting from one second to several minutes. She demonstrated her powers: guessed who would say exactly in a couple of minutes. It happened so.

      Finally, it was turn of 27-year-old Ema. Ema commanded natural phenomena (caused precipitation, winds, heat and cold), moved small objects over distances and possessed the gift of suggestion, but only for a short period. What would I be able to do? What would I be capable of? This was still to be found out after I got harmony with my energy. So far, it seemed to me chaotic and uncontrolled movement of particles. Since only Ema was immune to my unbridled powers during mentoring, the others decided to leave after a short conversation to give us space to train and not get hurt themselves. Saying a warm goodbye, we agreed to see one another again soon.

      8. My Nature

      “Now it seems to you that the continuous chaos has been inside. It’s like the energy flows randomly through whole body, and there is no end to it. In fact, this is a natural process. You just don’t know how to manage your own powers yet”.

      Ema was standing in front of me a few feet away looking straight into my eyes. I couldn’t concentrate, thinking only about her: how beautiful, smart and brave she was. She was driving me crazy.

      “How did you know that you would be my mentor”?

      “It just happened. Of course, it is impossible to explain. You’ll understand when you have completed the initiation, and such questions will disappear by themselves”, she replied in a tone as if she expected to hear it. “Well, enough questions for today! Let’s get down to work”!

      Ema moved away, still maintaining eye contact. Suddenly, a lot of small and medium-sized objects (various debris, fragments