Higher Power In the Real World.

Chapter 1: Eye Power.


-Lou-

"This frame goes for 8 dollars but the other one costs 10 dollars."

The receptionist says, holding up two glass frames.

I lost my last one when a basketball connected with my face. And no, I wasn't on the court playing, or on the side watching.

Let's just say, I'm not too popular with a certain crowd.

I realize she's waiting for me to say something in response. My wallet is light, so I smile and point at the cheaper one.

"I'll take the 8 dollar one."

She nods and leaves me for another room, with the words, 'Staff Only' written in bold on the door.

As soon as she's gone and after making sure no one in the reception is staring my way, I go to rub my eyes only to hesitate.

Rubbing them only makes it worse. Besides, the itchiness will pass as soon as I have my glasses back on.

She's not back fast enough and so I end up rubbing them afterall, which in turn makes them redder and more itchier.

Dammit.

Once she's back, I pay and I'm out of there.

The world outside the Optician's is much clearer now that I have new glasses. I can see where I'm going and read the signs that on my way here, appeared blurry.

Tonight I might even game a little. It's been so long and there are some games that have been on my library for months that I'm yet to touch.

A little bit of shopping later, followed by a quick lunch and I'm on my way back to my dorm room.

I pass by a few students, mainly girls, who snicker at me but I ignore it and soon enough, I'm closing the door to my room and breathing out a sigh of relief.

The outside world hates me for now, so I try to not stay out for long. In any case, I had my fair share of socializing in high school, so fuck them.

And fuck this stupid college too.

"I'm beat."

I fall on the bed with a sigh, staring up at the slow moving fan on the ceiling.

And before long, the slow motion gets me and I drift to sleep.

I don't dream. Which I'm grateful for. It's only been nightmares these days.

What wakes me up is loud knocking on the door. The room is dark. One glance at the window and I realize why.

By now, the light outside has faded and it seems to be evening.

My eyes still itch a little despite having the new glasses on, but it must be the adjustment period so hopefully it will soon end.

There's another impatient knock on the door.

"Coming!"

I yell, grumbling as I grab my T-shirt and put it on while going to open it.

"Christ Lou, I've been knocking the fucking door for 10 minutes!"

My roommate says while staggering past me. He stinks of liquor and weed.

"What were you even doing? Wanking off or something?!"

"No. I just fell-"

I try to say but he cuts me off.

"Yeah I don't give a fuck."

He waves it off and jumps in his bed, throwing the covers on himself.

"Oh, make sure you wake me up before 6. I have a French paper to turn in."

I glare at him, my recent frustration added ontop of the stubborn itch in my eyes, making me consider doing something stupid to him.

Like use a pillow and suffocate the bastard. But Mark is in the college football team, and despite being drunk and stoned, I know he's stronger than me. Taller too.

He's 6'2 to my 5'8. And built like a truck.

But my anger has been getting the better of me. He knows what those assholes in the Basketball team have been doing to me.

Hustling me for money and beating me up for their amusement. But as far as Mark is concerned its nothing to do with him.

Just like everyone else in this school. Including the Dean.

"Assholes."

I mutter under my breath.

"All of you."

"Huh? You say something?"

Mark asks from under the covers.

I'm tempted to call him out on his bullshit. But like the coward I am, I turn away.

"No, goodnight Mark."

The words taste bitter as they leave my mouth.

And my eyes are still itching. Even more now than before.

I need a walk.

-0-

It's 1 a.m outside but you wouldn't know that, as there are students coming and going out of the Dorm.

Guys with their girlfriends. Some are making out on the hallway and there's a fight outside the building that the security guards are trying to break apart.

If it escalates, they might even call the cops. It wouldn't be the first time.

Thanks to the commotion, I slip by, adjusting the hood of my jacket and leave the school.

-0-

By now it's 2:30 and I'm seated on a park bench staring at a fountain. I've been here before.

Not even once. Or twice. It was the place she and I met during our first year. That was a year ago.

"Everything was so different then..."

I talk to myself, something I've been doing a lot recently.

The fountain was our favorite place to hang out. She would read one of her romance novels while I played with her hair.

But that was then.

Now she's dating my worst enemy.

The same guy that has been running a smear campaign on my name. The same guy that set me up and had me accused of r*pe. That son of a bitch, Alex Mahomes. He throws his wait around because his father is some bigshot CEO.

I hate him with everything I have. I hate him in a way I've never hated anyone else. The way he talks, the way he walks...I despise it all and wish he could drop dead.

I've even considered buying a gun and doing the deed myself. That guy stole my girlfriend away and cost me my life. And now everybody who knows my name thinks I'm a creep.

I fucking hate-

The itch in my eyes grows so much, I throw the glasses away with a cry and press the heels of my palms on my eye sockets.

My foot taps uncontrollablly as I hiss at the irritation, which is only getting more and more intense.

And so I rub. I rub until my fingers grow hot and tears start leaking out of my eyes in rivulets.

"Fuck fuck fuuuck!!"

Curses leave my lips, as I rub until rubbing with my finger pads isn't enough anymore, and so I start clawing at them with my nails.

Everything else fades away as the itch evolves into pain.

And now I worry that I've irreversibly damaged my eyes. It feels like an entire cannister of pepper spray has been emptied into them.

And now I'm crying. I can hear my own howls as I roll on the ground, my vision colored red and blurry.

The sound of running water cuts through the haze and like a man dying of thirst, I crawl my way to the fountain and dip my head in the water in the well, hoping to relieve the pain.

It works somewhat but only for a single second, and then unexpectedly the water grows warm, then hot and in just a short time it's already boiling.

Steam rises up and my face gets scalded by the hot temperatures, bringing forth another different kind of pain.

So I jerk myself out of the fountain, only for the back of my head to smack on the stone structure of the fountain and I instantly black out.

-0-

A knock on the door doesn't wake me up this time.

Instead, the sound of birds chirping and cars moving on the highway brings me to open my eyes.

Only to instantly close them as the sunlight proves too much. I wince, noticing that I'm cold.

The jacket I'm wearing is drenched, the back of my head hurts and my fingers feel raw for some reason.

That's when the memories hit, and I remember everything that happened last night.

"Shit! My eyes!"

I scramble to my feet, turning to the fountain with my eyes still closed.

I'm scared of opening them and staring at my reflection on the water's surface.

The itch in my eyes the night before had sent me into a frenzy. Causing me to rub, scratch and claw at them like a man possessed. I've never experienced such a horrible sensation in my life.

And there was no way my actions hadn't left behind some sort of injury. I might even be blind.

Oh god, I pray I'm not blind. That would be my worst nightmare. Even more than my current predicament. As an art student, everything hinges on sight.

'Calm down,' I slapped my face. Only to remember it was supposed to be tender. But surprisingly, there's no pain.

Only smooth skin, including around my eyes.

Impossible!

I remember the sensation of my bloody tears pouring through the spaces in my fingers. There should at least be marks.

I take a chance and peek my eyes open, expecting the worst but praying to anyone who can hear me.

And...

Has everything always been this clear? I mean...I can see more than I ever did before. More than I should.

Like the minute cracks on the stone making up the fountain. Cracks that I've never noticed before.

And they cover the whole fountain, including the cupid statues spitting out more water into the well.

And that's not all, the water itself seems different. My eyes capture the individual drops in the stream, shot from the cupid's mouth as it broadens into a decorative spray.

There are millions such drops separating into a faint rain shower that disappear into the air.

I follow one until it splatters on the cobblestone path I'm on and dries up.

The cobblestone itself is full of activity. Insects scurry around, moving in and out of the cracks. There's a line of ants carrying away a dead cricket missing it's legs and abdomen.

The more I focus, the better my sight becomes till I can see the hairs on the ants.

A shadow passes overhead and I look up, taking a second to wince at the sun's rays before I capture the form of a large bird flying in the sky.

It's almost a 100 meters away and yet I can spot it's plummage with great detail. It's a bald eagle, native to this area but how am I able to see the rat in it's beak?!

I look around the park and it's like I was blind before and I'm only now starting to see.

Excited, I turn to the water in the well below the fountain and gape, tongue tied.

My eyes are different. Instead of the horrible injuries and scarring I was expecting, both the right and the left sclera are completely silver.

A silver that is subtly glowing. But that is far from the biggest change, both the iris and the pupil seem to have merged into a single orb and are now a radiant purple.

An inverted cross symbol is smack dab in the middle of the right eye. And a regular cross in the middle of the left one.

"What the fucking hell..." I say in shock, rolling my eyes as I study this new and unexpected change.

That's when I catch a glimpse of something glinting at the corner of my right vision. It seems to disaappear when I stop focusing on it. And moves with my sight when I do focus.

I raise my hand, trying to see if it's real or a new trick that came with the eyes.

The instant my hand presses on the object, a red light flashes before my vision, startling me.

The light takes shape into a red panel, similar to the ones you see in game prompts.

[Demon Eye]

[Awakening:- 10%]

[Core Abilities]

• 110% sight enhancement.
  

[P.S:- Negative emotions from the user and other souls will increase the rate of Awakening more abilities.]

I sit down on the bench I was on last night, reading and re-reading the words on the pannel.

It's pretty straight forward. The increase in the power of my sight can be attributed to the 110% sight enhancement.

But one thing stands out to me. The description says Demon Eye. Not Demon eyes. And with the only notable differences in both eyes being the shape of the cross, I can't help but speculate.

Which leads me to stare at the upper corner of my left eye, in search of something. And sure enough, there's another object glinting in my sight.

I tap it with my hand and the red panel recedes. There's a flash of blue light and a blue panel appears, taking center stage in my vision.

My brows rise up in surprise but it's quickly forgotten, as I read the description on the blue panel.

[God Eye]

[Awakening:- 10%]

[Core Abilities]

• 110% sight enhancement.
  

[P.S:- Positive emotions from the user and other souls will increase the rate of Awakening more abilities.]

I see.

The Demon Eye and God Eye. Opposites of each other.

This might be a fever dream. I might be in my bed, waiting for morning to arrive and start another miserable day in my life.

But if it's not... If this is really happening, then I might have stumbled on something that can help me get revenge on those assholes.

[Demon Eye]

[Awakening: 11%]

In response to my hatred, the red panel flashes before me and my vision grows just a tiny bit sharper.

A smile stretches across my face.

::--------------------------------::

Happy May, my birthday Month.

I'm planning on setting a schedule for all my current fics.

So here's the plan of upload. From tomorrow,

Thursday:- Spiderman X/??

Friday:- Son of the Savage(double chapters)

Saturday:- Fated Chaos(double chapters)

Sunday:- Spiderman X/??

And so on...

As for this fic, I might work on it if it gets commissioned. If not, well, creativity is not in short supply.