elvendara:

Mysme Fictober Oct 21st

For@mysme-fictober2020 

Day 21: Immortals

My name is Yoosung Kim. I died when I was 18 years old. Walking home from school I ran into a classmate who had been bullying me since grade school. I knew he was going to hurt me, I was ready for it, resigned to it. Sure enough he dragged me into an alley and started punching me. I dropped to the ground and tried to protect my head. This only made him angrier and he started stomping on it. I felt my eardrum burst; it was the most excruciating pain I’d ever felt. Then everything stopped. It wasn’t gradual, I didn’t see my entire life flash before my eyes. Suddenly, there was nothing. Like someone turned a switch from on to off. It was over.

Until it wasn’t. I woke up hours later, still splayed out in a dirty alleyway. I waited to feel the pain of my body but it never came. I sat up and held my head, but although there was dried blood in my hair, there didn’t seem to be any wounds. None. I checked myself as much as I could. My clothes were dirty and ripped, but the skin beneath was smooth, unbroken. I stood hesitantly, but my legs worked just fine. I felt fine. In fact, I felt better than I had ever felt in my life. I walked home, unaware of anything or anyone around me, trying to get my head around the fact that I had died. Was this the afterlife? Was I a ghost? But no, people reacted to me, walking around me, grumbling when I didn’t move out of their way. Someone even bumped into me. I was alive, by some miracle.

I went back home and continued to live my life. The bully wasn’t at school the next day, or the day after that, he didn’t show up until almost two weeks later and when he saw me, his face went pale. He left and I never saw him again. I tried to pretend everything was normal, but I was no longer me. There was me before death, and me after death. I experimented. I cut myself, superficially at first and watched in fascination as the skin knit itself back together almost instantly. I cut deeper and deeper, eventually getting to the bone. I healed from all of it. The deeper the cut, the longer it took to heal, but it was still fast. I wondered if I would heal from a broken bone. I still feel pain, and I have never been able to actually try that.

I started to feel alone. I had this big secret that even if I shared it, wouldn’t be believed. I wasn’t sure I believed it either. A month after death I began to notice a van following me. It wasn’t subtle. Bright orange with blacked out windows. I should have been scared, but I’d already died, and it didn’t stick, what else could anyone do to me? They finally stopped and a tall skinny boy about 20 years old stepped out of the back and walked towards me.

He waved at me but said nothing. The driver got out and joined us. He was shorter but still taller than me, with a little more meat on his bones. I was poised to turn and run if I felt I needed to but I’m glad I stayed. I learned a lot. I learned I wasn’t alone. The tall skinny boy is Bart, he is capable of talking, but hasn’t since his own death. Barney is the other boy, and he talks enough for them both. They explained what had happened to me. There is a dormant gene within some people that most never know is there. If however they die during adolescence, the gene is activated and makes them immortal. This is what happened to me. I wondered how they knew about me. I learned that day that sometimes people gain abilities because of this gene. Bart was telepathic and Barney could sense when someone with the gene was close to death, though he had to be close. He had felt my death and they had made their way towards me but I was already gone by the time they got there.

He could no longer feel me since I had died already, so they began to investigate the area and figured out I had been the one.

It’s been three years. I have entered University and am trying to become a doctor so I can study this gene. At the one year anniversary of my death I finally manifested an ability. I can see disease, and I can remove it. Which as a doctor I can certainly utilize, but I have yet to figure out how to do it without anyone finding out. It’s draining however, and I cannot use it indefinitely. I’ve tried to heal regular wounds, cuts, scrapes, headaches, but I am unable to do so. Cancer however, I can eradicate in a few minutes.

Since meeting Bart and Barney, we have unfortunately inducted one more immortal. MC. She was only 17 when she was killed in a much more brutal way than I was. The boy she loved raped her. Then murdered her without even realizing it. She dies slowly and in pain as he satisfied himself in her, letting his two other friends take a turn as well. We found her in the alley, covered in garbage. She is still recovering, unwilling to go back home. The trauma is going to take her a long time to heal through. And there is the question of what should we do about her attackers? We will take our queues from her, once she is able to think more clearly.

There is one other thing of note. I have met someone. Someone who is hard on the surface but soft underneath. I hadn’t meant to fall for anyone, but I tripped and fell hard. He makes me smile, and he makes me happy. But how do I tell him what I am? Will I lose him if I do? I can prove it now. Show him how different I am. I can’t continue with him if I am unwilling to let him know. It’s a huge secret. I will tell him. Because I am in love with Saeran Choi.