Ren learned early that secrets could save lives.He also learned that they could break them.
At twelve years old, he had no words for the thing inside him only sensations. A trembling in his bones. A pull behind his ribs. A feeling like a door swinging open in his chest. The first time it happened, he had been reaching for a fallen toy, wishing he could get to it faster.
And then he wasn't in his room anymore.
He had reappeared in the courtyard, barefoot on cold stone, his toy clutched tightly in his fist.
His mother found him minutes later, sobbing from fear he didn't understand. She held him, whispered comfort, and then very quietly, almost fearfully told him never to speak of what he had done.
"Some powers," she said, stroking his hair, "invite danger. The world is not always kind to those who are different."
So Ren learned silence.
He learned control on his own, practicing in hidden corners, counting breaths until he felt the tremor gather in his limbs and whisk him somewhere else. Sometimes the travel felt like leaping through wind. Other times, like sinking into the dark. But it was always secret.
Always lonely.
By twelve, he could slip between rooms without a sound. Hide from bullies. Avoid questions. Disappear from the world whenever the world felt too heavy.
Until the night when rain and fate tangled together—and his power brought him somewhere he was never supposed to be.
---
The Alley Behind the Academy
Storm clouds hung over campus like bruises. Students hurried indoors, but Ren lingered, drawn by a tug he didn't recognize. His powers sometimes moved with his emotions, and today he had woken with a knot in his chest he couldn't unravel.
He leaned against a stone wall, trying to breathe past it.
*Don't go anywhere,* he told himself.
*Not now. Not without meaning to.*
But the knot tightened, sharp and sudden. Ren gasped and the world blurred.
The air rippled.And he vanished.
When he reappeared, he stood in a narrow alley behind the academy dormitories. Rain streamed down, pooling around his shoes. The air smelled of wet earth and something sharp fear.
Then he heard it:
A choked gasp. A thud. A cruel laugh.
Ren peered around the corner.
Harit, a boy he'd seen only in passing, stood pressed against the wall. He was sixteen then, strong but outnumbered. Three older boys circled him like crows, throwing taunts sharp enough to cut.
"Come on, hero," one sneered. "Thought you could talk back to us?"
Harit didn't beg. Didn't cower. He clenched his jaw, eyes fierce even as rain plastered dark hair to his forehead.
"I said," Harit growled, "leave me alone."
Ren had no intention of interfering. He never did. His mother's warning echoed in every memory:
*Powers like yours must stay hidden.*
But seeing Harit cornered alone, soaked, still trying to stand his ground did something to Ren.
The knot in his chest unraveled.
Heat flooded his veins.
And before fear could whisper stop , his body moved.
He traveled. The world snapped.
Ren appeared behind the attackers, heart hammering, breath sharp. The rain around him twisted, pulling into a sudden gust that burst outward like a shield. The boys stumbled back, startled and disoriented as if shoved by invisible hands.
Ren ran. He darted through shadows, slipping between sheets of rain until he was sure no one could see him.
But Harit… Harit felt it.
A whisper of wind.
A presence beside him.
A moment of impossible safety.
He looked up quickly—hope flickering in his eyes—but saw no figure standing with him.
Only footsteps fading into the storm.
---
Ren didn't sleep that night.
He replayed the moment again and again—the wind, the force, Harit's stunned face. He curled beneath his blanket, wishing he'd never appeared in that alley, wishing he had more control.
But another part of him, quiet and small, thought:
*I'm glad he's safe.*
He didn't know that the boy he saved would never forget that night.
He didn't know that a single choice, made in fear and instinct, would one day unravel every secret he kept.
He only knew that he had crossed a line he could never uncross.
Because for the first time…
Ren had used his power *for someone else*.
---