Rush

Chapter Three

Crash, Bang, Boom

A car door slamming outside my window jolts me out of a deep sleep. I get up to peek outside, to see Parker stumbling around to the back of the house. "Subtle" I groan. I make my way downstairs to let him in. When I open the door, Parker falls face first through the doorway. Rolling my eyes, assuming he is drunk, I reach down for him. "Come on Parker, let's get you to bed." He moans a garbled reply, but when I grab his hand it is slick. Then the stench of wet pennies hits my nostrils.

Crimson red blood covers my hand as Parker passes out cold on the kitchen floor with his feet hanging out of the threshold. I pull them inside and lock the door. In a panic, I decide to strip his jacket off to look for the source of blood. It's much harder than it sounds; Parker easily outweighs me by 50 lbs. of pure muscle. I manage to pull the injured arm free of its constraints and begin to search for whatever is causing my brother’s pain.

Not seeing anything but blood, I start to panic. That's a lot of blood. He's not waking up. Alcohol thins your blood and I’m sure he has been drinking. Oh man, that is a lot of blood! I turn towards the stairs to call Mother down before I start to cry. I can’t lose my brother!

"Myah? What's going on?"

Parker is awake! I rush over to him.

"Are you ok?! What happened to you?" I ask, still forcing back tears.

"I...I don’t know. I was driving home from Alyvia's"

"Wait!" I cut him off furiously, "Alyvia let you drive home drunk?"

I am steaming mad. Not only did he make the stupid decision to drink and drive, but my best friend let him!

"Woah, calm down. I haven’t been drinking. All I remember is hitting a deer on the way home, and being so tired. Jackson's dad saw it happen and he followed me home to make sure I made it safely."

Starting to calm down now, my attention is drawn to the blood on his arm.

"Let's get you cleaned up. How did that even happen?"

As I lead him towards the kitchen sink, Parker tells me that he doesn’t know what happened to his arm, or why he collapsed just that it hurts. Upon washing away the blood, we find nothing wrong with him, aside from a small hole in his inner bicep, with a little bulge just under the skin.

"What is tha..."

As my fingers skim the mark I feel electricity shoot through my body. The whole room turns black. I feel myself hit the tile floor, and can hear Parker fall beside me, but I can’t help him. I can’t help myself. All I can do is succumb to the darkness that envelopes my mind. I am gone.

Swimming in a sea of darkness, I feel nothing but cold all around and a soft tingle radiating through my body. Distantly, I hear something moving. What is that? What could possibly be out there in the darkness?

“Myah?!”

My name! I definitely heard my name! The blank space begins to swirl, gaining color with each revolution. The coldness that once surrounded me is now concentrated on my back. My head begins to ache. I open my eyes to see Parker’s blurry face just inches from mine. He has placed a cold wash rag on my forehead, and looks concerned.

“What happened?” I ask groggily.

He sighs in relief. “I don’t know but you must have hit your head pretty hard. You have a pretty nasty knot forming above your eye.”

“Excellent. I’m sure it will look lovely with my dress tomorrow. What in the world is in your arm? And why are my fingers still tingling?”

As I rub my pointer finger and thumb together, a spark emits from between them!

“Woah!” Parker and I both gasp in unison.

“Do it again!” he squeals like he is eight years old again.

I run my thumb across the pads of all four fingers and sparks shoot off of them lighting my hand up like a sparkler. Parker's eyes go wide, mirroring my own I'm sure.

“What is happening to me?” I whimper.

I'm starting to panic now. A tingle runs from my left shoulder down through my fingertips. It feels like my arm is on the verge of falling asleep, and I need to shake it to wake it up before the pain comes with it.

Parker must see the fear in my eyes, because he reaches for my hand. Before I realize what he is doing, his fingers wrap around my left hand and suddenly it’s dark again. I thought for a moment that we had passed out once more, but I can still vaguely make out Parker's outline. The lights in the kitchen blew out the moment his hand touched mine! I could have sworn I saw a blue light coming from our hands before the lights went out.

“Hmmmm, I wonder…” I say, reaching for his hand again.

Parker jumps back quickly, “what are you doing weirdo?” he jokes.

If we can turn the lights off, I wonder if we can turn them back on!

“Do you trust me?” I dare him with a grin.

Parker thrusts his arm out quickly, “Always”.

His response gives me the chills. We lead different lives and annoy each other to no avail, but at the end of the day we are more than just family, we are twins. I put my hand up as if to high five him, and he places his hand on mine. Instantly, our hands blaze blue as electricity pulses through our fingertips.

The kitchen light begins to flicker then turns on. Then the living room. Then the dining room. Within a matter of seconds, every light down stairs was on and burning brighter than I have ever seen! I look at Parker, full of excitement to find a concerned look on his face. “What's wrong?” I ask.

He pulls his hand away, and the glow is gone. He shakes his head, looking like he was on the verge of tears. Parker never cries! “

Hey, talk to me bubba”. At the mention of his childhood nickname I finally catch his attention.

“I can't be a freak. I can't have ‘mystical powers’. Not now. I am The Parker Rush...”, at this point I roll my eyes. I understand him being scared, but not for his reputation! “...starting quarterback, pretty girlfriend. I'm supposed to be winning homecoming for our school in front of recruiters in less than 15 hours! And now I have this thing in my arm and have sparkle fingers?! I can't do this!”.

As he stomps up to his room, I’m left on the floor flabbergasted. How can he be so petty at a time like this? After turning off the lights, I retreat to my room and collapse on the bed. Dreams of blue sparked electricity run through my mind.