In my world, some of us attained powers when we were young. Apparently it developed depending on your deepest, darkest desires. Recently, mine ended up being invisibility. And in addition to that, I could float around like a lazy cloud, bouncing around objects and people. 

I still wasn’t completely used to these new abilities, but this power fit me so well. I thought it was the best thing in the world. While the others got the ability to breathe fire or shoot lightning bolts from their fingers, I got to roll around in the air like a floating armadillo. It was so nice to be able to hide away from all the eyes in the world. I just wanted to feel lost and alone, away from people, away from all the problems in my life. I just wanted an escape… 

I was never a fan of watching the news, but recently, I heard there was a terrorist attack near where I lived. Apparently, a young female power-user started calling everyone around her cattle while using her powers to zombify them. She named herself Vampifire. It wasn’t much of a big deal until the number of victims started to surge just last month. 

Soon the doctors all around the world started noticing the dangers of her powers. It seemed like whoever she bit became unconscious as if in a coma. However, these victims couldn’t be treated because they would viciously bite whoever got close to them. Then the next person who was bitten became unconscious just like the victims, and they would in turn, attack, thus furthering the spread of the zombie virus. But this wasn’t the worst part. Because the doctors couldn’t treat them, most of these victims either suffered from an infection from their bite wound or starved to death. Because of this, almost the entirety of the world went into lockdown to reduce the spread of this so-called zombie virus while they tried to find some sort of cure. 

There was, however, a silver lining. One of the doctors concluded that if a very recent zombified victim were to bite someone, the virus would disappear from the original host.

That implied that a person was curable within a certain timeframe right after the bite, but it would still pass the virus along; the bitten victim would essentially still become a zombie.

In tandem to this news, research was being done on whether the virus could be spread to animals. Their plan was to transfer newly acquired viruses from victims to lab rats. This would, in theory, cure the infected human. Unfortunately, the rats would then have to be killed, but it was for the greater good of humanity. 

I was pretty uncaring about the situation though. Since these zombies couldn’t fly, they would never be able to reach me if I decided to float up into the air. Plus, I didn’t really care if my dad was bitten either. The only thing that did worry me was my mom. Her occupation was a nurse, so even though the entire world was on lockdown, she still had to go to work. 

My worries never came to fruition until one day, when I was floating around, my dad walked into the house and yelled for me to help him with the dishes. He couldn’t see me, so as always, I just ignored him. 

“Mel! I know you can hear me,” he yelled. “Get your lazy ass over here!”

Psh, never. I never really respected my dad. He was one of those normies of this world who got no powers and was never able to keep a job for longer than a few months. I mean, my mom was also powerless, but that didn’t stop her from becoming a nurse. 

In the end, he started working around the house while my mom went out to bring home the bacon. But that wasn’t why I didn’t respect him. The real reason was because he’d always try to use me in a convenient way. 

When I was young and didn’t know any better, I always ended up doing all the chores he was supposed to do. Whether it be washing the dishes or even forcing me to lie to Mom about his secret affairs, I couldn’t do anything about it. I had no powers back then and he would always beat me if I didn’t listen. But now that I was able to literally float away from my problems, I felt so free. 

This didn’t help with my parent’s marriage though. My mom never knew how I was being treated at home until just a few months back. After my new powers fully developed, she’d almost always come home to find that my dad had done nothing that day. The trash wasn’t taken out, I wasn’t fed, and my dad was either gone or just nonchalantly watching television.  

Eventually she found out about the real truth. After that, she never really listened to anything Dad would say. And she even took some time off every night to spend some time with me. I was really thankful for her. 

Even before all this happened, she tried to divorce him once a few years ago, but he’d always threaten her, saying that he’d take over our family finances. He demanded that she give him fifty percent of her earned income if she really wanted him gone. I had a feeling that wasn’t legal, but my mom never got the courage to question it, so they continued to bicker and verbally abuse each other every night after she came home from work. And these kinds of nights weren’t anything new. It seemed like they’ve been going at it for over two decades now. It just got a little worse after I had gotten my powers, that’s all.

It was always the same kind of argument. She’d yell at Dad for not doing anything for the household and how he was just leeching off of us. And my dad would just keep repeating the same “just divorce me then.” 

I didn’t want to hear any of that, so I always ran into my closet to hide away from all the incessant noise. But recently, after I had gotten my powers, I got in the habit of floating up above the roof of our house to look at the stars. I could hear them still, but it got easier and easier to ignore them. Eventually, the sounds of their fighting just became background noise. And I could look up at the night sky and smile for the first time each day.