Experimentation
Chapter 8

How does time go slowly during the day but the months fly pass us? It’s been two months since my return and the action has halted to a stop, nothing new and nothing old. The world is simple peaceful, and that is what scares me. I don’t know why but a feeling in my gut says that this peace won’t last for that long. I wish I could explain this for myself but I don’t know how. My mind keeps drifting to this unsettling sensation and I can’t stop myself, what is happening? I am free from Malignant but my mind is still constantly in fear of being attacked and hurt or even someone close to me being killed again. Why am I like this? In Malignant I had a sense of who I was, even when I was at my weakest, but now when I’m out in the open who am I?

“Iz, you alright?” Mona whispers into my ear as the bell rings releasing our class to the next. “Yeah, I just spaced out a bit. Sorry, lets go to lunch.” I slip my bag over my shoulder and begin to walk out as Mona follows behind me trying to catch up to my pace, how do I figure out who I am? Is this my life now, where I’m a confused teenager trying to piece together the remaining fractures of my life when it has fallen apart too much? I don’t want to be this way, I beat hell and I can beat this time of confusion. Our lunch block is still as awkward as the first day, but not in the same way as before. The room doesn’t go silent once we enter but the eyes always land on me, if I was a girl who loved attention, than it would be great. Sadly for them, I’m not one of those girls. The curiosity of the people in our lunch blocks always stays the same, how is the way that people distract themselves from life. The freshman and sophomores of our school want to know more about me, the mystery girl who the juniors and my fellow seniors are shocked to see returned. The old center of attention is once again the focus of the school, but now I would rather be lost in the crowd of high-schoolers.

I manage to get to the back of cafeteria with all the prying eyes on me and sit at the lone table tucked in the corner. I toss my bag onto the table plopping my body into one of the seats, relaxing into the seat. “Mrs. Zillah is being unfair, I understand that the project was about picking any american event in history but the Writing of the Magna Carta is important to our history. I wrote an amazing piece and I’m being told that the project is incomplete.” Mona lets out a puffy breathe expressing her angry towards our history teacher. She stuffs her face with the school’s pizza which looks like it uses plastic as cheese, “I can’t believe you eat that stuff.” Mona just glares at me, she’s mad. I move my hands up into a surrendering motion, rolling my eyes at the satisfied look on her face. “I have to show you something, can you ask your sister if you could hang with me after school today?” I move my eyes slowly towards Mona as she focuses on her phone. What the hell could she possible have to show me? Knowing Mona, its going to be epic. “Okay.”

My sister texted me back a hour later saying that it was fine to go out with Mona, and that she was happy I had a friend. God, Sarah is a great sister and guardian but she can be annoying.

The rest of the school day slips past me, the only memobial thing about today was when a girl in my spanish class wore a sombrero the entire time. That girl didn’t have a care in the world when she did that, she had just done something for herself that she love or thought would be cool to do. She made my day feel a bit better, helping clear my thoughts of this surprise that Mona is showing me. The final bell rings snapping me out of the trance, I quickly grab my stuff and run out of class shoving past the distracted seniors. The halls filled with carefree teens, not knowing the evil of the world. Moving through the halls isn’t easy, people moving swiftly through the hallway mixed with those staying behind at their lockers. Being pushed and shoved was apart of my daily routine in high school, and I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy almost falling but I enjoy the normal sensationing I get when it happens. I’m normal now, even though I’m not normal.

“Iris, there you are, I’ve been trying to catch up with you for the last ten minutes.” I stop slowly allowing Mona to catch up to me. “What do you have to show me?” I whisper into her ear as she loops her arm into mine, pulling me closer to her as we allow people to get by us. “It’s not here, we have to get in my car and drive for a bit.” Mona drags me behind her as she rushes towards the entrance pulling me out the door. The wind blows harshly against my skin, blowing my hair behind me. “What the hell happened to the weather, I thought it was supposed to be warm today.” Yelling out to Mona as she continues to drag me through the parking lot. “I don’t know Illton doesn’t like to be cold, maybe its trying to break the weather in early?” I slowly shake my head at her, even with her attention at her car. Her car is a navy blue truck, I don’t know truck brands or anything about cars. I don’t even want to ask her, scared that she would replace a way to rant about it. We are best friends but that doesn’t mean we are exactly alike, we have our small and major differences about the both of us. She likes cars, I like books. I have powers due to a maniac in a mental hospital, her power is kindness. Those sort of differences are what make us different but it is also what we love about each other. “Izzy, lets go.” Mona shouts out my new nickname as she gets into her car, I’ve must had been to busy in my thoughts to notice that we were leaving already. Her bag neatly in the back seat as I climb in tossing mine with hers. My body lets out a sigh as I plop down in the seat, throwing the seat belt over me. Mona justs looks at me before starting the car and pulls out of her spot.

“Why are you grump all of a sudden?” Mona pulls me out of my name as I begin to fall asleep. The road to this place is long and bumpy but I’ve sleep on and through worse. “I’m not grumpy, I just wish to know where we are going.” Crossing my arms across my chest while facing away from her, that will show her grumpy. “It is a surprise, I’ve never shown anyone alive this place. I need you to be patience okay?” Mona lets out a soft hum after her little rebuttal. She hasn’t shown anyone alive this place? A little fear replaces its way to the surface of my emotions, is she sane? I know the kids call her Creepy Harmony but I didn’t think insanity was something that was sought out for me. I swear if she is like Edwin, mentally insane, I will blast her far into the sky that people will think she is a meteor.

After Mona and I’s conversation, the car had a awkward silence throughout the rest of the ride. The energy that was resting in my system is now awake and swirling due to the nervous that lay in my stomach. I have to get that under control once more. I seem to lose all the control I once had after K- Hell’s escape. I guess I lost my anchor of escape that kept me under control, I need a new anchor. I can’t live on like this, scared of my emotions. I have to grasp onto control once again, living through a new challenge can be difficult but worth it in the end.

Mona turns into a small parking lot before parking her car in the middle of it. “Why are you blocking all of these parking spots?” I whisper to her as she takes the keys out of the key hole. (I really don’t know cars) “No one comes up here much anymore. I would know, I’ve been up here way too much in the last year.” Mona says nothing else as she hopes out of the car, walking to the back and grabs a black bag. I slowly make my way out of the car feeling the energy surge into the ground a bit as I place my feet on the dirt. Mona turns to me, nods her head and continues down a dirt path. The air around me has a salty smell, close to the ocean sort of smell. I haven’t been near the ocean in years, before my mom had died. We used to go every summer but fell out of the tradition after she died and I got locked up. The hill kept going upwards, leading deeper into the woods. Did Mona bring me here to murder me? I don’t think she would be that dumb to go against someone that can literally explode on her. “We are almost there, keep up Izzy.”

I has been 10 minutes since Mona said we were almost there, almost there Mona? Were almost there? The ground in front of us starts to flatten out but Mona stops suddenly in her path causing me to crash into her back, knocking us both down. “Are you okay?” I whimper into her ear, I feel so bad. “Yah, I’m fine. Are you ready?” Mona stands up off the ground, wiping of the dirt from her jeans and sweatshirt. I swiftly turn my body onto my back and push my hands behind my up jumping into a standing position. “Yeah, I’m ready. Show me the way.” Mona starts to sprint towards this path on the side. Quickly to keep up, I dash after her. The woods around me blurs together my speed than surpasses Mona’s surprising me. I turn forwards and keep running not paying attention to where I was going. “Watch out!” Mona yells snapping me out of my speed trance, I take a look at my surroundings and notice I running straight towards a cliff. I shoot my hands up creating a barrier of lighting to stop me from flying off the cliff, my body hits the wall at full speed sending me flying back into the ground landing in front of Mona’s running body. “I didn’t….. know you…... could run……. that fast.” Mona’s words comes out in pants as she places her hands on top of her head. Her breathing is heavy, I guess running full speed after your best friend who is going faster than humanly possible towards a cliff can be tiring. “I didn’t know either, don’t worry.” My whole body feels sore from being shot back twenty feet in the air and slammed into the ground. Mona holds her hand out for me, pulling me towards the cliff once more. “I love you Mona but I don’t really want to go cliff diving.” Jokingly, I move my hands away from Mona’s and create a diving pose. “My body isn’t made for that sort of thing.” Mona just rolls her eyes before marching over to a small white bench in front of an old leafless tree. This is the place she wanted to show me.

“What is this place?” I whisper into her ear as she seems to be compelled by the waves. I gently squish her cheek, her eyes snap to mine giving me a stern glare. “Its a long story.” Her voice cracks at the end with a tear falling down her face. I let my instincts take over as a friends and swiftly grab her hand causing her to look at me. “Tell me about it, I’ve got plenty of time to listen.” Her head falls onto my shoulder as more tears begin to fall down her face and hit my arm. “My grandma had passed away two years ago, I found this place because of her. There is a graveyard down the hill if you follow the path behind the tree, she was buried there once the cancer had finally beat her. I was so upset, my mom had left me the year to be with some guy and now my grandma is dead. My grandma and I were so close and I didn’t know how to feel, as her casket was being lowered I looked up in the sky and whispered ‘How will I replace peace now?’ The wind began to pick up and all these dandelions started to all blow off into a path. My father was too busy flirting with his girlfriend at the time to notice me running towards the dandelions up the path. The world was showing me a new path to take and I wasn’t going to let it go. My feet wouldn’t stop moving, determined to replace this peace once again that I’ve let slip through my fingers. I kept running up the path, through the bumps and ridges until I got to this spot. The bench was here, covered in that same moss and dirt. The view is what drew me in the most, watching the ocean crash against the land was a peaceful experience. I had got exactly what I wanted back in life, a way of having peace again. I had stayed here for a good hour before heading back to the funeral, my father had finally noticed I was gone 5 minutes before I came back so I just lied and said I was in the bathroom which was a ten minute walk to and from. After that day I’ve been coming once a week, and in the summers I’ve been here almost everyday. I had to take the bus for the first few times because I didn’t have my license at the time, but I got to see more of our wonder town of Illton. My grandma was still by my side, even when she is dead”

Mona and I sit in silence, letting the time pass. Mona opened herself up to me, letting me see more of how she truly is and I appreciate that. At least she isn’t a murder, right? I gently place my hand on her knee tapping it softly, I sink into the bench watching the sea’s waves hit the rocks below. “Mona, do you want to see more about my powers?” Mona’s head snaps towards mine, meeting my eyes. “Seriously? Is it dangerous?” I begin to stand while shaking my head at Mona. “If I use them more, I get more control on them. I’ve been neglecting them for a few months now. That’s why I had the explosion, the energy within needs to be released. Now I know I can do it a bit by running but I’m not a superhero so that’s not the most hidden way of releasing the energy. I’ve learned a few things about them with trial and error, I can show you a part of me that no one alive knows about but you. What do you say?” Mona just stares forward at the ocean, her eyes show confusion and curiosity. My foot moves slightly back as Mona’s eye grow wide. “Show me.” All Mona can get out of her mouth before jumping to her feet and facing me. “I want to see them.”

I shake my hands out a bit getting the stiffness out of them, and turn my neck side to side creaking it as I go along. “Let’s stare with something simple, its one of the first things I’ve learned to do I think almost a year ago.” I place my hands together before letting my eyes meet Mona’s, the energy surging through my body shining through my eyes. My mouth forms a small smirk as excitement shows clearly on Mona’s face. Mona nods for me to begin and I step back slightly. “Ready?”