Chapter Text
JANUARY 1ST, 2016.
A young pair of siblings were merrily heading into town. Now that the holiday season was over and no more relatives were infiltrating their personal space, the duo decided it was finally time to spend their Christmas money. Afterall, what does the average American do in the middle of the day on New Years?
The two siblings were similar in height, with the older, a shy young boy, only being a few inches taller. The younger, a hyper little girl with long black hair, was practically buzzing with excitement. She grasped her brother’s hand, restraining herself from taking off and dragging him with her. “I’m so excited! Shane, what do you think they’ll have? I want a new dolly, but what if they have a cute little Teddy? Oh Shaaaaane!!! So many options but hardly any money!”
Shane smiled softly at his little sister’s lament, “I know Ritta, but we have to see what they have.”
Ritta huffed, “I knooooooooow, but still! If I get both a doll and a stuffy for $20 dollars they won’t be too high quality, but I can’t just get one or the other! They need to be together!”
“I was thinking of getting a stuffed animal, if that helps,” Shane admitted. “We could play with them together, and it would be like you got both anyways.”
The girl kicked a rock that was on her path, “I guess but… I don’t know. If you…”
She was suddenly interrupted by a commanding voice behind them. “Hey, you kids!”
Said kids turned around just to be met with metallic weapons aimed at their faces. Shane nearly jumped out of his skin, while Ritta stared up at the offenders blankly. “Misters, what are those?”
This time, the first born grabbed onto her the last born’s hand, whispering in a harsh tone, “Ritta, don’t provoke them!”
“Provoke?” She asked confused, “But I don’t know what they are!”
“You should listen to your brother, young’in.” One of the offenders said. Towering over the children were two giants, they had to have been in middle school at least. The men had guns clutched in their hands, pointed at the youngsters. “Now, we don’t gotta shoot ‘ya or nothin’, ‘long as ‘ya hand over yer bands.”
Shane instantly reached for his pockets and pulled out his twenty, “Y-yes sir!” He extended a shaking hand over to one of them, who lowered his gun and yanked the green out of his hand. He nudged his sister, encouraging her to do the same.
However, a still confused yet stubborn Ritta wasn’t so easy to convince, “No.” She said with finality, tossing her head to the side and attempting to cross her arms.
Her brother’s grip was too strong though “No?!” He scolded, startling the girl with an unusually harsh tone. “Ritta, these guys are robbers!” His hair started to sway slightly in the wind, although the others seemed unaffected by it.
Ritta’s eyes widened at having the situation being spelled out for her, but it was too late as the muggers grew impatient.
“If you won’t give us the money, we’ll just take it!” One of the muggers shouted. He leaned forward and violently ripped the two siblings apart. Ritta was being pinned to the sidewalk, a gun pressed against her head.
Meanwhile, Shane fell to the side and hit his head against the fence. He blearily opened his eyes and could make out the blurry figures of the situation occurring. His heart started beating at an unhealthy rapid pace as blood trickled down from his head.
He was the big brother… he was supposed to protect his sister!
What can he do?!
Let me handle this.
No… he can’t!
Leave it to me. You can’t do anything.
But…
Do you want Ritta to die or not?
Shane slumped backwards unbeknownst to the attackers. Suddenly, a violent wind surrounded him, startling everyone around. They all looked to the source, just to see Shane get up, his hair and clothing rapidly whipping in it.
“Unhand her!” A loud voice boomed, sending a loud sound wave all around.
Ritta covered her ears and closed her eyes, but to her dismay she could still make out the noises surrounding her. One of the muggers screamed, “It’s a monster!”
The sound of a loud bullet rang out above the sound of the raging air, and Ritta instinctively opened her eyes to it. The piece of metal ricocheted off of the tornado. Out of terror he started shooting at the tornado repeatedly, with Ritta pushing her hands harder into the side of her head.
“Holy shit dude!” the mugger called out as none of his bullets landed, “Fuck, help me out man!”
The other still towered over the poor girl, but used both of his hands to keep his shaking gun steady. They both shot at him, but the impenetrable force still didn’t allow it. “Shit!”
Suddenly, the force grew bigger and swept up all of its surroundings, hurling it all up to the sky. The two men and girl went barreling into the air. Ritta’s hands flew off of her ears as she watched in terror at the ground shrinking beneath her. The person with the aura didn’t even bother to look up at them in concern, it just stood by and checked it’s nails.
It was that moment that Ritta knew that thing wasn’t her brother.
Then she hit the ground.
When Shane peeled his eyes open, the first thing he could register was red. It was splattered all around him, staining the white concrete. He could make out a couple of lumps, which he only then processed as the source of the color surrounding him. His breath quickened, eyes looking around rapidly before they stopped on the form of a child. A child, whose long black hair was draped onto her face. A child, who should’ve been running around and having fun. A child, who was supposed to trust her brother.
Shane couldn’t do anything but hide his head in his hands and cry.
—
Junior year was a bitch, Shane knew that for sure. Only a month in and he already hated it. The popular girls would giggle and laugh at him with Stanley cups and glitter dumplings in hand. He wanted nothing more than to put those objects down a shredder. Meanwhile, their athletic boyfriends would constantly threaten him to not mess with their girls. Why? It was beyond Shane what those meatheads were even thinking… if they thought at all. Not to mention all of those weird anime obsessed geeks, intelligent smart ass dorks, strange band kids, embarrassing theater kids… He could go on. Everyone here was so annoying and constantly got on his nerves. It felt like it took everything in him not to snap.
But he won’t. He promised.
However, it was getting increasingly hard to.
English class, the class that Shane had before lunch, was torture. It wasn’t the repetitive and boring lessons that made him angry (although it was a contributor… Are Americans so illiterate that they have to learn sentence structures six years in a row?) but rather the people in his class. Idiotic is the best way to describe them. They are the people who are responsible for the complaint in the parenthesis.
Currently Shane was sat with a group of a bunch of random boys. He didn’t make any attempts to know them, but he already disliked them due to the utter amount of noise they made. Still, they left him alone so he couldn’t really complain. Overall, not the worst people he could’ve been grouped with.
So of course his teacher, a woman with too much foundation over her wrinkles, had to make his life miserable.
“That’s it! I’ve had it with this rude behavior… you’re getting a new seating chart! Find a new table with at least two people you haven’t sat with before!”
The class had a collective groan and Shane rolled his eyes as he packed his bag. Great. He would have to find a new table and hopefully not get in the way of any dumb friend groups. While the boys from his former table ignored him, instead choosing to play rock paper scissors to see who would sit together, Shane went to a random table in the back. It wound up being the furthest table away from the teacher’s desk, but it was pretty close to the door. Overall one of the best spot in his opinion. On top of that, since he got here first nobody could complain about him sitting there since they were joining him.
Apparently not, since a group containing three girls looked at him with discontent. Shane didn’t bother waving or making eye contact as they filed into their seats. He couldn’t recognize the majority of them, but he did recognize the person who sat to his right. The lavender hair was hard to forget, afterall.
Her name was Mina, if he could recall correctly. She was pretty revered at school, but Shane doubted it was for any reason other than Daddy’s money. While it was true that he didn’t know her, everything he’s unwillingly eavesdropped from others gave him the impression she wasn’t someone he would want to associate with.
The teacher resumed with her lesson, so Shane tried his best to pay attention. It was a little bit hard, however, since Mina was texting on her phone even though it’s clearly stated to be prohibited in the state of Texas. It was an unspoken rule amongst students to never tattle on each other though so he kept his mouth shut.
Five minutes before the bell everyone packed up and crowded in front of the door. You could say… they were a MOB. Shane decided to remain seated at his desk, but was still looking at the entourage of people ready to leave. He could’ve imagined it… but he swore the purple haired student smiled at him.
The bell rung before he could truly tell, but he was glad since lunch was the highlight of his day. Not only was it a break from all the school work, but he also got to see his ray of sunshine in the dark desolate cave that was Salt Highschool.
“Hey Ritta.” He greeted flatly, although the other knew he was happy to see her.
“Hey bro, figured I’d eat lunch here today. My friends are being annoying…” She took her bag off to set it to the ground and brought her lunchbox into her lap. She brushed her spiky bangs out of the way and made sure her ponytail was tightened.
Ritta hung out with the popular girls often, but she wasn’t like them. She had no interest in following the latest trends, dating, gossip, or reality TV. Instead, she only socialized with them to get on good terms with the general student body since the student council votes were based on popularity rather than actual policy. It’s simply what she had to trudge through to make the differences she wanted to.
However, Ritta had her limits. Hanging out with her brother was the perfect excuse to slip away from them. That, and she just wanted to talk to him.
“What did they do this time?” Shane asked, biting into the sandwich.
The young lady unzipped her box and rolled her eyes, “Jessica is just being a bitch! She keeps cheating on her boyfriends and sleeping around. We keep telling her to stop but she never listens. In fact, before class today she went to the bathroom to send nudes to both Asher and Tyler! So don’t look at me when they get leaked again!”
“Dang, sounds rough.” Shane said while chewing.
“Tell me about it.” She got her sandwich out and took a bite before leaning back and crossing her arms. Mouth full, she said, “I’m starting to question if all this is really worth making this school a better place. There’s a lot of filth to clean up.”
The older one didn't respond and just fidgeted with the band aid on his face.
“So, did you hear that a new kid is coming next week?” Ritta asked.
Shane shook his head, “No, I don’t really hear much of anything… Do you know what grade they’re in?”
“That’s actually why I brought it up. I heard they are a junior!” Her face brightened, “I was thinking that maybe you could befriend whoever it is. Afterall, if they don’t know anyone it’ll probably be easy!”
He didn’t match her energy. “I don’t know… I guess we’ll have to see.”
“Oh, come on Shane!” The girl whined, “I’m your only friend! You have to get out there!”
“You're not my only friend…” He mumbled.
“Seriously? Who else is there… oh don’t tell me you consider that man a friend…”
Feeling the need to defend himself the boy spoke, “He is my friend. He helps me use my powers in a way that doesn’t hurt people.”
Ritta sighed, “Shane. He’s using you. How many times do I have to say that? If you didn’t have psychic powers he wouldn’t have ever given you the light of day.”
It seems like Shane’s career decisions always managed to get brought up in some way when talking to Ritta. All roads lead to Rome or whatever. Shane could understand why, she was his sister so of course she’d look after him, but as the older brother it’s his call to make.
“I guess so.” Shane relented, deciding to avoid an argument.
They remained quiet before Ritta started up a new conversation.
—
Once school ended Shane dropped his sister off at their house before taking off to his part time job. He parked the car in the lot and gazed at the sign outside of his windshield… “Spirits and Such.”
He got out, locked his car, and entered the office. He creaked the door open, and was met with boring beige walls, a cheap couch set, and an empty desk. Figuring his boss was probably in the bathroom, Shane sat down at his desk and waited. And waited. And waited. Right when he was considering leaving, someone called him.
His boss’s contact filled up his cracked phone screen, and the employee could only sigh. He accepted the call and brought the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
“Yooo, Mob! I have a spirit for you to exorcise if you would come down!” He sounded so nonchalant. Shane clenched the phone a little tighter.
“I’ve been waiting here for 30 minutes. You couldn’t have left me a note?”
The man on the other end chuckled nervously, “I mean I could but I figured you could come here quick with… y’know… superspeed?”
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Shane hated superspeed and his boss knew it. “Whatever. Give me a second… and a bonus.” He hung up the call before the man could spew any sort of reply, and got up to go outside.
Once he felt the windy September air ruffle his hair, he summoned his aura and sent it over to his legs. This way, the energy would amplify his musculature and allow him to obtain super speed. It was a technique he was still working on, but his boss liked to test his training during work hours. His boss was also somewhat of a careless ass wipe.
After completing some quick stretches, the boy took off running to the address his boss had sent him to. After only ten seconds he had arrived, and immediately relinquished the aura in his legs. Disoriented, Shane leaned against the wall of the abandoned building and caught his breath. His legs burned as if he had just ran a marathon, his breath was uneven, and he felt motion sick.
But that’s alright… he could deal with this. All he needed to do was complete one exorcism.
He stumbled into the building, an overwhelming tiredness coming over him, and hobbled to the third floor where the ghost was waiting for him. His boss noticed his heavy footsteps, and turned around to smile at him, “There you are Mob! The ghost is right over there!” He pointed behind him, as if Mob couldn’t see the glowing translucent man.
A couple he hadn’t noticed yet (most definitely the clients) started making a racket. The man started yelling, “A kid?! That’s your secret weapon? He looks like a depressed middle schooler!”
The woman clung to the man, “Hank that’s so rude! We don’t know anything about the paranormal, just let him do his job!”
Shane ignored both of them and stepped in front of the spirit. The spirit made similar remarks as the man but he didn’t bother listening. This wasn’t any new information to him… he’s heard all of this for many years now. He reached his hand out and summoned his power. A red aura swirled around him as he started to apply pressure onto the ghost. The thing spun and contorted with each passing second of the exorcism, before it eventually fizzled out into nothingness.
He spun around and blearily said, “I did it..” before suddenly closing his eyes and falling forwards, being caught by his boss at the last second.
“Ah! Mob, you good?” The boy gave no response, so the man turned to his clients and smiled, “Sorry, that must’ve taken a lot out of him! So… how about my pay?”
The couple looked upon them with concern.
When Shane woke up he was lying down on a cheap couch. His eyes shot open and he instantly sat up. Shit. He had lost consciousness…
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What did he do?!
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“Ah, so you're finally up!” His boss said casually, slipping him a warm mug. “You like tea right? I probably didn’t make it right, I just microwaved the water and threw a tea bag in it…”
“No it’s fine…” Shane warmed his hands on the cup, making no move to consume the beverage. He licked his lips before speaking again, nervous. “Mr. Reagan… Did I do anything while I was unconscious?”
“Are you asking whether or not you injured your little sister again?” Shane flinched at the bluntness, while Mr. Reagan continued on. “Don’t worry about it, you just fell asleep after the ex-sore-cism. But what was that anyway? I know you didn’t over exert yourself, I’m pretty sure that’s impossible.”
Shane nervously looked into his cup of tea, observing himself in the reflection. “I’ve just been falling behind on sleep. That’s all.”
“Oh really?” Mr. Reagan questioned before immediately dropping it, “Whatever. You never bother to talk to me about this crap anyways, even though I’m your master…”
Guilt swelled in Shane’s chest, “…sorry,” he muttered.
The man stood up and walked over to the cash register, opening it and taking out a couple of dollar bills. “Your shift is basically over so I’ll go ahead and send you home early. I should be able to handle the rest of the clients.”
Shane got up from the sofa, “Are you sure? I only performed one exorcism.”
“Yeeeahhhh I’ll be fine. What, are you doubting the greatest psychic of the twenty-first century, Arik Reagan?”
“N-no…”
“Great!” Mr. Reagan came barreling towards the boy, shoving his well earned money into his free hand and pushing him towards the door. “Alright then I think it’s time for you to go okay bye!!!!”
Once Shane was outside of the office Reagan locked the door on him, smile falling shortly after. He sighed, “Little does he know, the greatest fraud of the twenty-first century can only pay the bills because of a child.”
He sat back at his desk, opening back up all of the websites he hadn’t wanted his employee to see. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right…
Oh yeah.
The man rushed outside, trying to catch his student before he left. “Mob! I need my mug back! Hello?!”
He had already left.
The man kicked the wall in frustration, “That was my favorite too… damn it- ow!!!” Turns out kicking a wall hurts.