Read Online I Am Phantom (Novella): Subject Number One by Sean Fletcher - Free Book Online

Missy? So that had been what Colin was
trying to tell me. I mentally smacked myself. I should have guessed Kent would
have made his move already, but I hadn’t been in the social know, hadn’t been
paying enough attention.
    His buddies snickered. A couple of them drew
closer behind me. This was quickly turning into a situation I didn’t want to be
involved in.
    “Your name wasn’t on her,” I said.
    Kent’s face crinkled to confusion. “What?”
    Ugh. Idiot. They must really be wasted. “Never
mind. Sorry, Kent. I didn’t know you already asked her.” I tried to walk past
him, but he shoved me back. He wasn’t strong, at least not compared to me, but
I let him push me and pretended to stumble.
    “I’m not done. You’re not sorry enough.”
    I wasn’t stupid. I knew what was coming next.
And there wasn’t a single thing I was going to do to stop it. There were four
of them, but even after training myself to restrain my strength and speed, I
could mop all of them up in about five seconds.
    But what would that accomplish? Questions would
get asked. Uncomfortable situations brought up. And as much as I didn’t like
Kent, and felt sick at how Missy had treated me, the thought of doing something
like that to them made me internally cringe. It just wasn’t me.
    The first punch came from the side. I saw it
coming a mile away, but I let it glance off the side of my head. What horrible
aim. That probably hurt his hand more than it hurt my hard head.
    I decided to make this easy for them and dropped
to the ground. In a second they were all over me like a pack of dogs, kicking
and punching, yelling slurred words and laughing. I just curled my head in and
covered it, trying not to think how I could have easily destroyed them, broken
their bones, made them pay…
    After a minute they let up. I didn’t hurt at
all. Whether they were so drunk their strength reverted back to that of a
two-year-old or my fast healing ability deadened the pain, I didn’t know.
    Kent spit on my hoodie. “He’s done.” I picked my
head up. Kent had leveled a finger at my face. “You stay away from Missy. In
fact, you just stay away from everyone. Nobody wants to see your face.”
    He laughed and backed up towards the side
railing of the bridge. A couple of his friends looked back at me as he pulled
out a cigarette and lit it.
    “Hey,” one asked, “we done or what?”
    Kent took a drag and stared down at me, his
upper lip lit up in the orange glow of the tip. “Yeah, we’re done.” He wound up
to deliver one more kick.
    That was one too many for me. I caught his leg
and leapt up, shoving him gently back. “Go home, Kent.”
    Kent staggered, thrown off guard. His arms
pinwheeled above his head as he tried to regain his balance. And then his back
hit the railing and he was toppling over, the lit tip of the cigarette
disappearing over the edge into the roaring river below.

 

 
    Chapter
Two
    Put
to the Test

 
    Are you kidding me? I barely shoved him.
    Out of all the clumsy, idiotic morons to go
tumbling into the river, it had to be him.
    “ Kent !” One of
his friends yelled. They hurried to the edge and peered over the railing. “Man,
somebody get ‘em! Somebody save him!”
    Yeah, somebody could help him, like maybe his friends . But none of them looked willing to do it. So it
came down to me. I swore to myself and vaulted over the edge.
    The fall was a lot farther than it looked. I had
a second to take a breath before I hit the roiling water, and it felt as if it
had just thawed right before I jumped in. My lungs froze. I tried to grab a
rock, but my fingers were already numb and the rock just out of reach. My
backpack had soaked with water and was dragging me down. I could vaguely hear
kids shouting above my head and see Kent’s flailing arms just cresting the
water. He was getting away from me.
    Abandoning all pretense of subtlety, I let loose
with all my strength. No amount of hiding it would do any good if Kent or