Ethan hurried upstairs to his room and flopped down on the bed.

He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, feeling his eyes want to cry, but he just swallowed his tears and tried to get some sleep, even though it was still daylight. He just wanted the time to pass.

It was Friday, so he wouldn't have class the other day and wouldn't have to face Jessica at school so early.

He closed the window to let his body gather energy and rolled over onto his side, sleeping.

A few hours later, Ethan feels his cell phone vibrating in his pocket.

He gets up, half drowsy, and holds the cell phone in his hands.

"Hi Ethan. Can I call you?". It was Alice.

Ethan stares at the message for a few seconds, not knowing what to answer. He opens the bedroom window, realizing that it was already dark. Then he walks to the bathroom to splash some water on his face to help him sleep it off.

When he reaches the bathroom and splashes the water on his face, he realizes that he no longer feels any pain in his arm.

Ethan unclenches his arm and realizes that all the bruises are gone, like magic. His arm was in perfect condition again.

His regeneration had improved, along with his body's endurance, since he didn't break his arm when he was hit.

Ethan walked back to his room and decided to answer Alice:

"Yes you can!". He replied, wondering what he would say to her.

After a few minutes, Alice called him.

"Hello!". Ethan answered.

"Are you feeling better? How's your arm?" Alice asked, concerned.

"I'm fine, it still hurts a little, but it's okay." He answered, lying, since he didn't feel any pain.

"I'm glad you're better! About earlier today...". Alice said, half shyly.

"Hm...?" Ethan replied.

"You were right. Nothing happened... I guess I just got nervous about the accident and got things mixed up.". Alice said, her voice despondent.

- What? What is she talking about? She knows what she saw. Why do you want to keep it from me? - Ethan thought.

"Huh?" He said, confused.

"I think we'd better just forget about that subject. It's better..." Alice added seriously.

Ethan remained unresponsive for a few seconds.

- They forbid her to talk to me about it? It's the only explanation... They must think I'm some kind of threat.

"Are you sure?" Ethan asked, insisting on the subject.

Alice hesitated a little to answer, keeping quiet.

"Are you there?" Ethan asked.

"Yes, yes... Yes... Yes I'm sure!". Alice replied, stammering. "Well, are you going tomorrow?". She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Tomorrow?" Ethan asked, confused.

"Yes, we have a school outing tomorrow. Did you forget?" Alice asked.

"With Mr. Molina, right? I remember him talking about it, in my dreams, since I slept in his class last class!". Ethan said thoughtfully.

Alice giggled a little and said, "I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye Ethan!" She hung up the phone, not even waiting for Ethan to answer.

He found the whole thing strange, she seemed to be uncomfortable with him, but Ethan didn't understand why. He preferred to just leave things quiet with Alice and focus on his powers.

Since he had already recharged his energy in the time he had slept, even though it was late, he decided to train his abilities.

Ethan closed the door and windows, doing the same ritual as always, and sat down in the middle of the room.

The sensation of the thick smoke began to embrace his body. He closed his eyes and focused on gathering as much energy as he could inside his body.

He felt that at some points, his body would give little clicks, as if he had too much energy in some parts of his body.

After almost an hour, Ethan opened his eyes and everything was clearer than before. He could see the details of everything perfectly, but as if there was a blue filter over his vision.

He stood up and opened both hands on the side of his body, wanting to know how his shadow arm was progressing.

As Ethan opened his hand, he noticed that the particles coming out of his arms were coming out of his hands like smoke, denser and darker, and in much greater quantity.

Ethan stretched his hand harder, wanting to potentiate the power more, and the particles now looked like shadow flames coming out of his hands.

Ethan stretched his arms toward the closet, and they quietly moved toward it, together, as if they were two dark fumes.

Ethan moved his hands so that they held the closet door, and when he pulled it open, the shadow arms did so with such force that the closet began to tumble forward, like last time, but this time, it would actually fall forward.

Ethan moved faster than usual toward the closet, to steady it, and put his hands on the closet doors. The smoke around his arm began to rise and he, with a little difficulty, managed to push the closet back into place.

Ethan looked down at his arms, and they still had the shadowy flame coming off his hands. He wasn't shaking from it, nor was he feeling tired.

Finally, he had managed to evolve his stamina.

It was then that he had an idea: to be able to cast those shadows, as if they were balls of energy.

Ethan then began to aim at a corner of the room. He knew he wasn't strong enough to do enough damage to destroy the room, but he wondered if he could cast shadows somewhere, in case he needed to recover and had no shadow in place.

He began to open and close his hand, making force with his arm, as if he were throwing something.

The particles on Ethan's arm, which looked like shadow fire, just went back and forth, but each time he repeated this motion, the particles went further forward and seemed to almost detach from each other.

Ethan kept doing this and closed his eyes, trying to pull more energy into his body. He began to feel his arm tremble and the energy inside his body pass like a gale, causing his body to begin to heat up.

Ethan kept repeating, ignoring the symptoms of fatigue, just opening and closing his hand, until suddenly, he felt something detach from his arm.

Ethan opened his eyes at the same moment and saw something falling to the ground. A small, round, black ball dropped into the corner of the room, in the middle of the darkness.

Ethan was sweating with heat, but he was so curious to find out what had come loose from his arm that he didn't even notice the heat.

He looked down at the floor and the little black ball seemed to race out from under his bed.

Ethan ducked down quickly, looking for what it was.

He looked under the bed from side to side, and in the corner, behind one foot of the bed, was hidden a small black ball of shadow. It was so small you could barely see it straight.

Ethan reached out to pick it up, carefully, afraid that he would destroy the little ball of shadow he had made.

When he touched it, he realized it was a soft texture, like a tiny little hamster, but it wasn't warm like one. It felt like a mini draft in his hand, but it was still dense enough that it didn't just remind him of smoke.

He took it in his hand and sat up in bed, trying to understand what it was.

As Ethan brought the little ball close to his face, he noticed something: the little ball was moving, as if it had a life of its own.

Ethan was startled by the moving ball and dropped it on the bed. It ran under the blanket, trying to hide from him.

- What the hell was that? - He widened his eyes, staring at the blanket.

He slowly lifted the blanket and saw the little ball hiding, as if it was afraid.

Ethan slowly took it in his hand. It had no shape, just a furry smudge of smoke that seemed to explode at any rough touch.

"Are you alive? Or do you just move?" Ethan asked the little ball of shadow, but it just kept staring at him still. It had no eyes or mouth, but she seemed to be listening to what Ethan was saying.

He looked down at his arms and the energy particles were very clear, as if he had used all he could get out of that little shadow ball.

"And you are useful for what exactly? You don't seem all that useful." Ethan said, twirling the little ball in his hands, which seemed to have gotten annoyed at Ethan's speech.

"You got mad? Wait, so you have a life?" Ethan said, impressed by the little ball of shadow on his fingers, who was staring at him.

Just as he said that, Ethan heard Enid knocking on his door.

"Ethan? Is Mike there with you?" Enid asked, opening the door.

---

 

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