riverratt9

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Having friends is not supposed to feel like “Labour” by Paris Paloma

[riverratt9]

WIP Prologue

Next time you toss a guy off a building, try to make sure he’s not the love of your life. 

Although, I knew it was Ray behind the mask and have since high school when we both emerged on the superpower scene. We were in AP Chemistry when the meteor shower right before a solar eclipse hit, and our teacher let me, Ray, and the three others in our class go outside to take pictures. I never fully bought the theory behind superpowers, how people were genetically predisposed to developing them after traumatic or cosmic events, but that’s the only explanation I have for what happened to me. We snapped our photos, felt a weird pit in our stomachs when the Moon moved in front of the Sun, and went about our days. When I woke up the next day and found that I could move my shadow with my mind, making it rise and fall and bend into a tangible thing, I had one thought: I hope this doesn’t make me late to AP Calc. 

Ray, however, didn’t show up to school that day. Or the rest of that week. I texted him, and he said it was a stomach bug, but I knew deep down that he had changed, too. My suspicions were confirmed, though, when I saw him in his hero outfit looking for something in his backpack. 

“You, uh, going somewhere?” I asked.

He jumped. “Lena! I mean, hello, citizen! I was just, um… shit.” He held up his mask. 

“You might need that,” I said, crossing my arms. 

He placed the yellow mask over his eyes and started backing up down the hallway. “Look, please just don’t tell anyone about this, and I’ll tell you everything later. Please?”

I shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me anything, just be safe, ‘kay?” He smiled. “Okay. Be safe out there, Lena. These villains are no joke.”

“I’ll try my best, Ray… diance. God, you had to go with a cheesy name, didn’t you?”

“You know me,” he said, winking, and ran down the hall.

I walked into the bathroom, went into the handicap stall, and let the shadows swirl around me, clinging to my clothes and forming my black, leather-like suit, billowing cape, and pointed mask. I fell back into the shadows and popped back up in the parking lot, ready to keep Ray on his toes. I may have known him, but he didn’t know me.