Something touched me, and I woke up. I opened my eyes and immediately felt as if a mountain had landed on my chest. I couldn't move anything other than my eyes. Even breathing was difficult under the intense pressure. Panicking, I searched the room for the cause. I saw nothing. Just sterile white hospital walls. A monitor on a long metal pole beeped beside my head. None of it explained why I felt like a crumb under an anvil.
"So, you're Typhon's latest spawn? Rather unimpressive, to say the least," a deep voice said.
To the left of my head, bands of golden electricity formed into the shape of an enormous man. As it towered over me, the weight on my body intensified. I screamed as my bones splintered like thin glass. The pain made me wish I could just pass out or die, but I couldn't do either. I had to just lie there and take it.
"Fight through the pain. Your own divine presence needs time to counter Zeus's," Typhon said.
"You should have just given up and died. At least then your death would have been quick. I promise what comes next will make you beg me to end you."
Zeus vanished in a lightning strike that shook the entire building, knocked out the power, and set the walls and ceiling ablaze. Black smoke filled the room as an alarm started honking. Water sprayed out of the sprinkler, and a red light flashed.
The second he was gone, the weight lifted off me, and I inhaled deeply as the fire alarm kicked on.
"Why is all of this happening to me?" I asked aloud as I sat up and regained my breath. I looked at my soaked skin and realized that the invisible barrier didn't stop this water from hitting me. Why was that?
"This is happening because you belong to me," Typhon said.
"We've gotta get the power back on!" someone yelled from the hall outside my room. I looked out the door and saw that the hall was dark as well. So, he had knocked out the power on the entire floor.
"Yeah, it's time to go," I said and swung my legs over the side of the bed.
I jumped off the bed to join the chaos taking place outside my room. I stumbled out of the room looking for an exit.
Nurses and doctors in blue scrubs rushed past me in every direction as I shambled down the hall toward the first door I saw. None of them seemed even to see me. I was just about to walk into a stairwell when an earsplitting scream came out of one of the rooms. It stopped me in my tracks because I knew the voice making it. As the backup generator kicked on, I searched the rooms down the hall until I found the one Mike was in. The smell of something rotting filled my nostrils as I stared into the room.
"It fucking hurts!" he screamed and thrashed. He was lying in a hospital bed with his arms and legs strapped to the side rails. Doctors and nurses rushed around him, trying to help. As he whipped his face from side to side, I got a good look at it. The skin on his left jaw was gone. Exposed bone and teeth made my stomach turn.
It seemed impossible that Mike had survived. He was one tough son of a bitch. I snuck out of a side door and found myself standing in an alley behind the building.
"How did you get out here?" a female voice asked me as I walked away from the hospital. I glanced over and saw Nix. She was leaning against the wall of the hospital, looking like something was troubling her.
"Nix, what the hell are you doing here?" I asked, shocked to see her.
"I was honestly trying to think of a way to sneak in and see you. Stormie there is so much I need to tell you," she said. She looked on the verge of tears.
None of this made any sense. The only logical conclusion I could make was that the fall off that balcony had killed me and thus was all a strange dream.
"How did you even know where I was?" I asked, ignoring the existential crisis that was trying to start.
"I followed the ambulance that brought you in."
She said it as if it were the obvious answer. I just stared blankly at her as she continued.
"I was going to come in and see you, but I felt a strong divine presence. Did an Olympian visit you?"
The memory of the man made of golden light standing over me made me shudder.
"Yeah, Zeus came to see me," I said, wondering how Nix knew about any of this.
Nix's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
"Zeus came to see you?" she asked, running a hand through her long, black hair.
Why didn't she call me crazy and try to force me back into the hospital? Something strange was going on, and she was in on it.
"Yeah, why doesn't any of this surprise you?" I asked, wrinkling my brow at her.
"Think about my jokes since we met. Does it seem like this should surprise me?" she asked. There was a soft hesitation in her tone, and she kept her hands out wide at her sides. She looked as if she were approaching a wild animal.
I mentally replayed all the stupid jokes about me having storm powers, and then I remembered the wind shooting out of my skin to catch me. This time my eyes widened.
"You knew the entire time?"
I couldn't hide the accusation in my tone. I felt betrayed. Nix was one of only three people I actually trusted. How could she not tell me this about myself?
"You look pissed. Please let me explain after you get dressed?" she asked.
I was already fuming. My fists were balled, and I was seething. It didn't matter to me at all that I was standing outside in nothing but a pale blue backless gown and some blue socks. I wanted answers immediately.
"Are you working for Zeus? Are you here to kill me?" I asked.
The words came out high-pitched and rushed. Nix threw her hands up defensively.
"Calm down, Stormie. You know me."
She took a step closer, with her hands still raised. I backed away, shaking my head.
"That wasn't a no. You're here to kill me."
My heart was doing a drum solo in my chest, and my body felt hot. The churning in my stomach came back.
"Don't let her deceive you. Give in to your power and eradicate Zeus's minion," Typhon said.
"I am the girl you know. I'm just a lot more than that as well. But no, I don't work for Zeus or any other Olympian," she said, and tried to touch my arm.
I yanked away from her. I couldn't trust her anymore.
"She knows she cannot match your strength, so she plots and waits. Kill her and be done with this," Typhon said.
"If I wanted to hurt you, why would I have waited till your powers emerged? That's a stupid plan," she said as she caught up with me.
That made sense. It even rebutted what Typhon had just said. If she were going to kill me, she had had plenty of chances. My resolve splintered.
"I don't know, okay? All of this is new to me, and I don't know who to trust."
She sped past me, walking backward with her arms folded over her chest. Something was wrong, though. She was too tall. I looked down at her feet. She was floating. Black arcs of electricity were coming out of the bottoms of her feet and lifting her off the ground.
"Stormie, I promise you our friendship is real. You're not some kind of target for me."
I believed her. She had powers and understood how to use them. It only made sense that hurting me wasn't in her plans. I glanced back at the black electricity, and all of my suspicion turned into curiosity.
"How the hell are you doing that?" I asked. I was completely distracted by what I was seeing.
"Don't be impressed so easily. This confirms that she is out to get you."
I heard Typhon, but I had checked out. If Nix had had powers the entire time, it didn't make sense that she hadn't attacked me before. Especially since she knew about me having powers. Maybe she could be trusted. She cocked her head at my sudden shift in focus. Her brow furrowed as she followed my eyes down to her feet.
"Oh, I'm just using one of my elemental powers to lift myself off the ground. I can move faster this way."
She spoke with nonchalance as if she weren't standing on air right in front of me. I started to say more about it, but she suddenly jerked her head up and her face turned bright crimson.
"Stormie, can we please get you some pants now?" she said, staring into the sky.
"I was in the hospital. They make you wear stuff like this," I said. I suddenly wanted to know how much of me she saw.
"I get it. I just never thought I would see that side of you."
She kept her eyes pointed at the sky as she spoke, which made me feel the most self-conscious I have ever felt in my life. I changed the subject and started walking home. This felt as close to normal as I had since before my birthday.
"So Zeus himself came to see you in the hospital?" she asked.
"Yeah, just being around him was like having a building on top of me."
She faced forward and glided beside me. I looked over at her. She was smiling.
"Yeah, his divine presence is overwhelming. I felt it outside the building. It's amazing you didn't die."
My eyes widened as I remembered Zeus mentioning the name Prometheus. He called him a traitor. As we walked up to my house, I asked her about it.
"He mentioned that name, Prometheus. What does he have to do with all of this?"
Her eyes dropped and then quickly rose again just before her cheeks turned bright red.
"Go get cleaned up. I'll explain everything the next time we see each other."