Dating Disaster by Jason Krumbine

Author:Jason Krumbine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jason Krumbine
Published: 2017-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

Nigh-invulnerable.

It’s a subtle, but important distinction.

It meant that while I was mostly invulnerable, if you hit me with a big enough stick, more or less, I’d still bleed.

It wasn’t something I went around advertising.

Of course, when somebody got in a lucky punch and I started bleeding, it was kind of hard to convince them it was just a trick of the light.

But, still, nigh-invulnerable. Even with the qualifier, it was still pretty awesome.

It meant that, more often than not, I could stand at the center of an explosion and walk away, unscathed. And that’s usually what happened.

This time, though, something was…different.

The heat of the explosion washed over me. In truth, I barely even felt it. Around me, flames burst into existence and then quickly faded to flickers as the initial brunt of the explosion destroyed every inch of my life.

Instinctively, I closed my eyes.

Trask was directly in front of me. I could watch as the explosion ripped him apart, piece by agonizing piece.

That wasn’t something I wanted burned into my memory.

So I closed my eyes, twisting away from him and the blast.

In the second before they closed, I caught sight of the flames hungrily reaching out and consuming everything they could touch.

Something was different.

I didn’t know what. But I knew that something was different.

A thousand and one different sensations, questions and feelings all threatened to pull me apart at once. Everything suddenly demanded my attention.

But I couldn’t focus on any of it.

A roar filled my ears and I opened my mouth, probably to scream, although I wasn’t entirely sure. Instead, smoke and ashes filled my mouth and lungs.

I coughed.

I coughed.

I never coughed.

My eyes shot back open.

Around me, everything I knew or owned, was ashes or about to become ashes. Flames flickered in and out.

The remains of my outfit, which, unlike me, weren’t fireproof, crumbled away from me.

I stumbled back, instinctively floating into the air.

In the wreckage I could spot the remains of Trask. I quickly looked away.

Something wasn’t right.

I felt numb inside. But that had to be shock, right? My home was just incinerated around me. Everything was just gone. Everything.

I couldn’t…

Something was wrong. Something other than the fact that my entire life was destroyed and I couldn’t figure out what it was.

I closed my eyes again. There was a sensation at the back of my head that I couldn't identify.

My brain wasn’t working. I could feel myself trying to think, trying to rationalize and focus on the situation, but it was like the neurons in my brain were frozen, sluggish.

I rubbed my hands over my face.

Everything felt off.

Suddenly I remembered the rest of the building.

The rest of the apartment building.

I pulled back, trying to get a birds-eye view of what happened.

My breath caught in my throat. My life had just been completely destroyed, but at least I had survived.

Nobody else in our building was a superhero.

As I floated back, billowing clouds of smoke and ash covering me, the rest of the situation became clearer.

The blast had been localized to our apartment.

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