Open Your Eyes (2 page)

Although
not as glamorous as copywriting for a big ad agency or writing the next
Hollywood blockbuster, Seth still found cleaning enjoyable in its own way. It
was strangely rewarding, putting everything in its place, making order out of
the tiniest chaos. The manual labour of wiping down desks in silence, vacuuming
the swaths of carpet, mopping the endless stretches of tiled floor: it was just
serene, relaxing even.

The
thunder crack was loud. It drew Seth’s attention to the weather outside the
building’s huge glass windows. A massive electrical storm was gathering above
the city, with bolts of lightning arcing between the black clouds that hung in
the sky like some kind of spider web made out of blinding white strands. It
worried Seth a bit, not so much for its fearsome appearance, but for the real
possibility that the power might fail and he’d be forced to stumble around in
the dark.

He
picked up his mop and bucket and moved on to the next sector. He pushed open
the door to the men’s restroom. He frowned.

Just
hold your nose and bear it.

With
the toilet brush Seth scrubbed away at the dry shit stain that somehow still
stayed stuck to the walls of the porcelain bowl despite the many, many flushes
he tried to wash it away with. It was an all too common occurrence; the guys in
the newsroom may act like professionals out there but in here they were fucking
disgusting children who’ve forgotten their potty training.

Still,
just bear it.

With
a few more strokes and a final flush, Seth finishes off his great labour.
Breathing a heavy sigh of relief he heads towards the door, to grab a few more
things from his trolley outside.

Above
him, the lone florescent light flickers.

Glancing
up at it, the thought of a blackout again crosses Seth’s mind. Lowering his
gaze, he looks to the full length mirror that runs the width of the restroom
and notices that it is absent a reflection. His reflection.

“What?”
Seth whispers as he steps towards the unmirroring mirror. The stalls behind him
are visible, but he is not, like he isn’t even there.

He
raises his pink rubber gloved hand, waving it in front of his face. The lights flicker
again.

Seth
jumps as his reflected image returns to the mirror. He breathes another sigh of
relief only to quickly cut it short as his reflection splits, making a Seth
clone. It splits again, making another, then another.

And
yet, on his side he is still alone.

The
light above flickers, quicker, like a strobe light. It glows brighter, growing
in intensity, illuminating the whole room in an increasingly blinding white
glow. Seth is frightened but cannot move, nor does he dare to move. He is
frozen, paralysed as the growing light and the room itself seems to envelope
him, as if the entirety of existence and physics and the very nature of the universe
itself began to change in front of his eyes...

He
tries to close them, but it is useless. They have become transparent. He is
taken into the light, transported into this void. He tries to close his eyes
again.

And
suddenly, things go black.

With
a click and a hum the lights come back on. Seth stares at his lone reflection
in the mirror, bright pink rubber gloves and all.

“Well
that was weird.” he mutters, before the nausea grips him.

He
throws himself upon the tiles and vomits all over the floor, throwing up the
half digested remnants of his lunch from a few hours ago. He gasps for breath,
the bile dripping from his mouth. He throws up once more.

More
gasps. Seth grimaces as his mess.

Another
clean up left for him to do.

Seth
continued on with his work. He still had a job to do, a shift to complete.
Hannah wasn’t working late tonight. It made him a little disappointed.

The
journey home was uneventful. Outside, the storm had already long subsided.
There were few signs that it even came. No damage, no fallen trees, not even a
sign that it even rained that night.

But
still, there was an electricity in the air.

As
usual he checked in on his sister. She was asleep. Hours later, he still had
what happened in that restroom on his mind. He tried to rationalise it.

The
fumes from the cleaning chemicals? Food poisoning? Maybe even a stroke?
Whatever it was, it appeared to have no lasting effects. Not that he could tell
anyway.

To
be safe, Seth takes a paracetamol before going to bed. He turns in, and quickly
falls asleep.

A
dreamless sleep.

Seth’s
heart was racing, his hands shaking. His breaths quick and sharp. He knew the
feeling, he was used to it. He had panic attacks before. But this was
different.

He
had somehow found himself in the lavatory, standing in front of the toilet. But
how did he get here in the first place? Seth didn’t remember getting out of bed,
walking down the hall to the loo. He didn’t remember any of it!

Still,
he needed to do his business.

Days
had passed since the weird thing that happened. He had returned to the restroom
the next night. There was nothing unusual to greet him, just another shit stain
in a toilet bowl.

He
began to put it out of his mind. Seth had no more answers for what occurred
that night, and he began to think that he never will. Might as well let it be.

Then
he started to lose time.

Time
lost moving place to place. He’s find himself in one room then the next, not
remembering actually walking the distance between. He dismissed it; it’s just
some brain trickery right?

Right?

Seth
flushes the toilet. He had begun to calm down, his heart rate was already
slowing. The panic attack was over. He closed his eyes and thought about going
to his room.

Seth
literally found himself in his room.

“What
the hell?” he whispers to himself, his voice unsure, shaky. It was happening
again. How did he get here? There was no explanation. Did he teleport here?

“No...”
It was preposterous. Or was it?

He
closes his eyes again. Makes sure his feet are firmly planted right where he’s
standing.

“Toilet.”
he mutters.

He
opens his eyes. Toilet.

“Oh
shit.”

He
shakes his head. Did I just do that? Did I just freaking teleport?

He
had to test it again. He thought about someplace else. The backyard.

He
felt the grass beneath his feet. He dared not to open his eyes. But he did
anyway.

Backyard.

“Fuck
fuck fuck
fuck
FUCK
!”

A
noise behind him. A door swinging open.

“What
are you doing out here?” It was Emma, come outside to see the commotion. “Why
are you swearing?”

“I’m
a...” Seth mumbles, grasping for any excuse. “It’s uh, it’s nothing.”

He
heads back towards the house. Emma stops him at the door, noticing him to be a
little frazzled.

“Are
you okay Seth?” she asks him.

“Yeah.”
He nods. He pushes past her and enters the house.

Lie.

He
was in the men’s restroom again. It had still not changed since the last time
he was here. Seth stared at his own reflection in the mirror. It was there as
it should.

“What
happened that night?” he thought to himself. “What happened to me?”

The
florescent light above him flickers. He remembers the thunder, the lightning
that was outside. The storm...

“The
electrical storm?” Was that it? Did the storm do something to him?

The
door bangs open as one of the senior journalists working late comes in to use
the urinal.

Back
to work.

Seth
continues his rounds. Again to the newsroom floor. Hannah watches Seth empty
her trash as usual. Not much to clean up today,

“You
don’t look so good Seth.” she tells him. She was right, she could see the
obvious stress on his face. “You feeling okay?”

He
pauses. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m coming down with something?”

“Maybe.
It is the season.”

Seth
places the trash can back under her desk. Ties up the plastic garbage bag.

“Thank
you.” Hannah says to him, appreciative of his work.

“No
problem.” he replies.

“Hey
uh, take care okay?”

Seth
smiles.

“Sure.”

He
needed that.

The
walk to the car was creepier than usual. Seth was often forced to park further
away from the building than he liked, and tonight was no exception.

Walking
quickly, hands in his pockets and a focus on getting through the dark alleyway
as fast as possible, he barely makes out the man with the hood and cigarette in
his mouth ahead of him.

Just
a guy hanging out, having a smoke, Seth thinks to himself. Still, he already
regrets taking the shortcut...

“Yo
bro,
cannai
borrow your phone?” says the man. Seth keeps his head down.

“No.”
he replies. The man follows him. Fuck.

“I
said,
cannai
borrow your phone?”

“I
said no.” Seth tells him again.

“Gimme
your phone!” the man shouts as he suddenly grabs Seth from behind, his grip much
too strong for the cleaner to wrestle away from. Rough and determined, the man
shoves his knee in Seth’s back, pushing him up against the wall of the
alleyway.

“Gimme
everything you got you fucker!” he screams as Seth closes his eyes and
disappears in a blinding flash of white light.

A
blink.

The
man slams into the wall as Seth reappears behind him. “What the fuck?” he
mumbles as he lunges for Seth, his fist out and ready to swing. Seth blinks
again, dodging the punch as his fist cracks into the brick of the opposing
wall, breaking the bones in the mugger’s knuckles. The attacker yelps in pain.

“You
motherfucker!” the man shouts as he lunges for Seth again with his whole body,
only for him to fly through the suddenly absent man and smack head first into
the wall in front of him. Immediately knocked unconscious, the wannabe robber’s
body slumps limply in a pile on the ground, right in front of a reappearing Seth’s
feet.

Without
uttering a single a word, Seth runs off into the darkness.

Seth
refreshed the webpage again. He scoured the local news, looking for any reports
of a man found in an alleyway, dead or injured. Injured at best.

Nothing.

He
was still worried though. While he did not have any empathy for the man who
tried to hurt him for his phone, he was still scared by this power he had been
afflicted with. Just look what he did with it!

He
couldn’t keep it hidden anymore.

Seth
knocks on his sister’s door. She turns away from her work, immediately noticing
the worry on her brother’s face.

“Seth?
What’s wrong?”

“Emma,
I need to talk to you.”

Seth
led Emma out into the backyard. Like many in the city, it was a little on the
small side but still provided some often welcome open space, surrounded by a
few trees that gave it a touch of privacy. It was much safer than staying indoors
for what he wanted to show her.

“So
what do you want to talk about?” she asks him, both curious and concerned.

“Don’t
freak out, okay?”

She
nods.

Seth
stands in front of her, his arms held straight out, slightly akimbo at his
sides. He closes his eyes...

In
a burst of light he disappears, only to reappear again right next to his
sister.

“Woah!”
she exclaims.

“You
see?” he asks her.

“Hell
yeah!” Emma laughs. “Do it again.”

He
teleports again, this time reappearing next to the tool shed by the back fence.

“Holy
fucking shit! That’s fucking awesome!”

Seth’s
surprised by her reaction.

“You’re
not scared?”

“Fuck
no! That’s some crazy
Nightcrawler
shit! You’re a goddamn X-Man!”

“I’m
not a goddamn X-Man.”

“How
does it work?” she asks.

“I
don’t know. I just close my eyes, think of where I want to be, and poof, I’m
there.”

“You
mean
bamf
.”

“Yeah,
whatever.”

Emma
circles him, looking over her new super-powered brother.

“So
what happened? How can you... how?” she asks him.

“I
don’t know exactly.” he replies. “Do you remember that big electrical storm from
last week?”

“Yeah,
it was scary. Wait, were you struck by lightning?”

“No.
I don’t think so. I was at work and something weird happened.”

“Something
weird?”

“Yeah,
like there was light and shit and... I don’t really know.”

Emma
stops circling him. She puts her hands on her hips.

“So
what else can you do?” she asks.

“I
don’t know. I’m not sure yet.”

“Metal
claws? X-Ray vision? Laser eyes?”

“No.”

“Rapid
healing?” She punches him in the arm.

“No.
And
ow!
”

She
smiles, slyly.

“Can
you fly?”

A
moment. Seth hops.

“No.
Trust me, I’ve tried.”

“I
think you can. Have you tried
bamfing
up in the air?”

“Stop
using that word, I’m not Nightcrawler.”

“Okay,
have you tried uh, jumping up? Teleporting up?
Blinking
up? And keep
doing it?”

Seth
shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

“Come
on, try it.” she urges him.

“I
don’t know Emma...”

“Do
it!”

Seth
sighs. He closes his eyes and again disappears in a flash of light, only to
reappear a few meters above the ground in mid air.

Seth
yelps, waving his arms frantically before teleporting again, this time
reappearing a little higher. Again, and higher. Again and higher. Above the
tree line, above the roofline of the house.

He
panics.

“Shit
shit shit
shit
SHIT!
”

Seth
drops out of the sky, falling to earth before again blinking out of existence
and reappearing just above the ground. He collapses in a heap, cushioned by the
soft grass underneath him.

Regardless,
Emma’s impressed.

“Nice.”

“I’m
not fucking doing that again!” Seth yells at her.

“So
what are you going to do now?” Emma asks Seth as they sit quietly at the
kitchen table, contemplating their options. “Tell someone about this?”

“No!
I mean, I don’t know. What would I even say? What would I even do?”

“You
could become like a superhero?”

Seth
looks at her.

“I
don’t think that’s a good idea Emma.”

“And
why not? It’d be awesome!”

“That
stuff only works in the movies, in comics Emma. Superheroics don’t work in real
life. People with weird special abilities become pro athletes, or YouTube
superstars, or they die of some rare cancer. And you don’t see Bill Gates use
his fortune to fight crime do you?”

“Yeah,
but you could be the first! Plus, you have real, actual, honest to god super
powers!”

Seth
shakes his head.

“I
don’t know. Sorry.“

“Well,
I tried.” Emma shrugs her shoulders as she stands to leave the table. “Anyway
I’ve got work to do.”

“Yeah.
Okay.”

Before
leaving the room, Emma turns to look back at Seth one last time.

“Seth?”
she asks him.

“Yeah?”

“Superhero
or not, you’re the coolest big brother ever.”