Moonstruck

“Two weeks ago was the first time I noticed my interesting power. I’m not exactly sure if it existed before, my parents did always have a tough time controlling me as a child, but I’m sure my temper tantrums were banal in comparison to what I’m about to tell you. My hands...they glow. I don’t know how else to explain it, really. I was in my apartment in the dark, trying to find my phone when I heard a noise. It was late at night. And I’m scared of the dark. One second I was closing my eyes and the next thing I noticed, my hands were glowing! I guess instinct just took over, and my palms just began to shine a bright yellowish aura. I haven’t been able to produce the light again, but it was almost...moonstruck! I know you must think I’m crazy, but it’s true!”

The psychiatrist was jotting down notes as Sami looked up at her, finishing her monologue. The Doctor sighed, with a visible expression of exhaustion on her face. “Try to get some rest, Samantha. it sounds like you are just experiencing some side effects from the medicine I’ve prescribed you.” The young auburn haired face of freckles scowled at her doctor, “It’s Sami,” she snarled, packing her things and slamming the door to Dr. Jane’s office.

As she made her way out of the office and onto the concrete of New York City, Sami spoke to herself in distress. This wasn’t the first time she’d been dismissed. Sami’s parents also had little faith in their daughter. As Sami advances towards her home, she recalls the instance in which her parents kicked her out of the house.

At 18 years old, Sami thought she was superior to her parents, but really was just a rebellious teenager, so coming home at 2 in the morning was a regular. This particular time, her mother waited up and Sami was ready to pick a fight. Screams illuminated the house for an eternity and her father came out to diffuse the situation, inevitably only making it worse. As he tried to comfort his daughter, Sami was unaware of his presence and took her left hook to his face. Sami’s mother immediately shoved her out the door, slamming it shut as her father held an ice pack to his face.

Now a sprawling 21 year old who had spent three years with diagnosed mental illnesses, Sami was used to dealing with these emotions of anger and emptiness. Recently however, it had become harder for her to control her emotional outbursts. Breathing exercises were no longer working for her, and everything Sami attempted came up short, medicine, yoga, acupuncture, nothing effected her like it used to.

At home, Sami set her backpack down on a lonesome plastic chair in the middle of her apartment. She sulked into a beat up leather couch and flipped through the cable stations to find nothing amusing. Sami, contrary to the doctor’s orders, needed background noise to feel okay. It was what she was used to and no uptight lab coat could tell her otherwise.

As she began to doze off, tired of staring at the ceiling, the crash of a metal trash can was heard next to her window. Sami awoke with a gasp to find a stray cat staring back at her. Opening the window to let her new feline friend in, Sami waltzed into the kitchen to rummage in her cabinets for a fishy treat. Sami set a can of tuna on the cold tile for the calico princess to feast. “You and I, we’re outsiders. But we may as well stick together,” she sighed. Leaving the window open for the cat to come and go as it pleased and the television blaring for her sanity, Sami got herself undressed and ready for bed. Tucking herself into her sheets in a separate room, Sami pleaded with the gods (and the voices) for a better tomorrow.

At 3AM, Sami woke to a thud. She rubbed her eyes to the blinding lights that she slept with every night and poked her head out into the hallway. The coast clear, Sami tiptoed to the living room, where she spotted two assumed men with masks on, carrying weapons. Sami’s heart was struck with fear as she plotted her escape. Then, one of the men turned to see her, as if her own thoughts were too loud. As he reached out for her hair, Sami’s vision went white and her hands went bright yellow. As she regained her headspace, Sami noticed fear on one of the men’s faces, who had taken his mask off in awe at her glowing palms. The beautiful auburn now had platinum blonde hair and her cat was no longer calico, but a bright white. The other man reached for her still and Sami screamed, “Get away from me!” She stuck her hand out at him, blasting him with a beam of light. The room shook and the lights turned off as she aimed her hand at the other man, overwhelmed with her power. “Get out. NOW!”

As he climbed out the window in horror, Sami glanced at her unaffected cat and smirked, “I don’t think we need any lights from now on.” Concentrating her palms together, light began to swirl and her whole apartment building began to shake now. Sami raised her arms to the sky and a bolt of light illumined from each hand, wiping the entire city’s power out. Sami climbed out the window and her cat followed. Gandering at the sky, Sami noticed the moon had disappeared and the world felt dark. She smiled and muttered under her breathe the word ‘Moonstruck’ that she had used earlier in Doctor Jane’s office. Sami was right about something and she was ready to prove it. And to top it off, Sami was no longer afraid of the dark. “Come with me,” Sami clamored over the sound of sirens in the distance, “I’ve got a few people to visit.”