JASON

…

« T-this…this is unbelievable! » the girl’s eyes were wide in surprise, as her shaking body took an instinctive step back. It wasn’t for fear, just a reflex to retract from something so far from our common understanding as to feel extraneous to our world. A step that could have very well led her to a very fatal fall, if it weren’t for the teenager the grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him.

« Watch your steps, my Bella » Jason said, with his usual impish smile. « I know it’s a lot to take in, but I am pretty sure falling from a pyramid would be pretty…painful » he laughed.

Bella didn’t have the time nor intention to respond to the joke, as her brain was still processing how he had just teleported the two of them to the top of the Great Pyramid. It took her a while to accept that what she was experiencing was real and not a dream, or a psychotic breakdown or maybe some drug that Jason had put in her drink. Finally, she settled down, sitting on top of the monument. The sun setting, the red sky, the golden desert. The view was stunning.

« S-so…how does it work? You can just teleport anywhere? » she asked, curious about this “superhero” boy that had crushed in her life like a lightning strike on a sunny day.

« Yes, more or less. I can jump – sounds much cooler than teleporting, right? – any place I want, if I have a clear image of the place in my mind. I don’t necessarily need to have been there before, but I need to know how it looks like. It’s a very visual thing. » Jason started to explain, reporting what he had discovered about his powers in the past weeks. « And if I am touching anything that can physically move with me, then it can jump together with me as well. If I want to. Oh, and if I try to jump inside a solid object I just jump to the closest point where I can actually jump. ».

« That is…wow…unbelievable…this is an actual superpower! You are basically a superhero!! » the boy faked a blush at her words, scratching his head. « I mean if you used it to save people, and not just impress girls…» she mocked him.

« Did you always have it? » she asked.

« I wish…no, it’s actually something pretty recent. A few months at best. Don’t ask me how I got it, because I don’t know myself. I just met a very strange, elegant man, he asked me what I wanted, I said I wanted to get away from my parents and be free, etc…you know, usual absolutely non-sensical superhero origin story » he laughed, a little quitter than usual.

« You wanted to…get away from your parents...? » she asked timidly. It was clear he didn’t intend to actually say that part. The boy sighed.

« Well yeah…I mean I am a teenager after all right? I guess it’s true that we all have our rebellious phase » another laugh, less convincing than the previous one.

« Were they so bad…? » she understood that running away from your family is usually something beyond just “rebellious phase”. He sighed again. It looked like there was no way of getting out of this…he just had to explain things to her.

« I mean it’s not like they were monsters or anything! » he prefaced, crossing his arms to symbolise that he didn’t have any “dramatic abuse story” to tell off.

« I guess they were just…very strict. My older brother had been the valedictorian student in his high school, got a scholarship at a very prestigious university and pretty much everyone thought he was a genius. He thought it too, that arrogant prick… » a few unpleasant memories swirling through his mind.

« Once you get a first son like that, the pride of recognition, as a parent, becomes like a drug, I think. Then the second one must live up to the expectations. Otherwise it means that the first one was just luck. That it wasn’t you, the parent, the real author of that success story. And nobody wants to get their praise taken away from them. Especially it they think they deserve it… » his face turned sullen, as he looked down at his feet. Bella thought, for the first time since she had met him, that right now he really did look like a fragile teenager.

« So they put a lot of pressure on me. Sports, school, extracurricular clubs…I had to be just as good, no, better than my brother. I heard that hitting kids is out of fashion these days, so maybe they did put a little bit too much pressure…» he stroked his arms, as if the bruises were still there. «…but I never could compete with my brother. And look, I am not gonna blame my parents, or the pressure, or anything whatsoever. I am just simply not as smart as him! His results were never something I could achieve! Even though I can assure you that I tried a lot …».

He gave a brief look at her and noticed a look of sympathy in her eyes.

« No, no, no! No pity please. I said I am not as smart; I didn’t say I am a piece of garbage and I don’t deserve to live! ». She laughed a little. He smiled back.

« I just think that everyone is unique in their own way. It can be some talent you are born with, some passion you stumble upon by chance, or some craft you practice with hard work. But sooner or later we all get a hint, from life. A hint about what we could do with the time we have on this earth. How we can make our own short existence extraordinary and beautiful and…true. True to who we really are. ».

She looked at him. When she first saw him, she would have never imagined he would be capable of saying such beautiful words.

« What is yours…uniqueness? Your passion, I mean. » she looked at this young boy with fascination, as if he had come straight out of a fairy tale.

« I mean beside the obvious…» he circled his finger, remarking how they had just travelled thousands of miles in an instant. The girl giggled once more. «…I really like the word…Freedom. Whenever I hear, whenever I say it, I just get chills. Literal chills. For me, freedom is the essence of life. To be free to experience this world to its full extent! No self-imposed limits, no stupid moral norms or unreasonable laws. Just following the sound of your heart! I cannot think of any other ideal or goal worth pursuing than pure, absolute freedom ».

He looked at the endless sky. That was his goal. Endless freedom.

« Wow…hearing you speak like this at your age is almost as weird as you having superpowers » the girl laughed, mocking him and his “philosophical” speeches. It was clear that she really liked it, though. And she was starting to really like him too.

« Yeah, yeah, laugh as much as you want. But I will show you my freedom, beautiful. And you will be…absolutely bewitched by what I show you » he winked, pecking a little kiss on her lips.

« Ok, I’ll go grab some drinks from my place. You don’t move! » he joked. Then he disappeared from the desert in a gust of wind.

…

His heart was beating unusually fast. He felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Did he ever tell anyone his story since he ran away from home? Did he ever show himself to someone as he had done with her? Was he…falling for her? He drove away the thought with a shake of his head, blushing embarrassed at himself. Apparently for some things he was still just a normal teenager.

Though he wondered if he should actually tell her everything. She looked pretty cool with everything he had told her so far. But should he tell her how he actually got the money? Or that apartment? Or…well those other things that weren’t “technically” his.

He pondered for a while, as he looked into the fridge of whichever millionaire owned that high tech penthouse. “It’s not like I have hurt anyone” he thought, as he closed the door of the fridge with two drinks in his hand.

« Jason Palmer » a metallic voice startled him out of his thoughts, as he took a few steps back from the fridge. The display on top of the refrigerator was lit, with those same words appearing on top of it.

« My name is Toh Rian. I am one of the other Players. We need to talk. »