"You gotta help me, man. There must be something you can do," I tell the man. He's known for being able to cure people with impossible diseases, and can give you powers with magical drinks he concocts himself.

The potion man moves his eyes back and forth across his shelves, which are covered with glass containers with names labeled on them. "Zach . . . I wasn't the one who gave you these powers. I don't think I can take them away. Tell me again, how did you get them?"

I sigh, trying to remember every detail from five months ago. "I was asleep in my apartment when I was woken up by a light. It was a kind-of-pink white and there was also this voice. It wasn't saying words but I heard it somehow." This is still really hard to describe. "And that kept going on. I can remember the voice saying it right now, but at the time I heard it."

The man is nodding, invested. "And what did it say?"

"It said that I was chosen for a special role. A special role is The Story. But I don't know what that means. Anyways, I felt my skin buzzing and my heart was beating really fast and I went unconscious or something. It actually felt pretty good, like I was in a deep sleep." I still remember the whole thing, clear and vivid in my head, like I'm seeing a movie filmed with a good camera.

"Then when I woke up I felt no different. I tried to ignore what happened but I kept thinking about it the whole day. At some point I was walking around the campus, you know, when I was still in college, and a student was walking out and waved at me. I recognized her from my communications class and waved back. But right after I did, she exploded."

"Exploded?" the potion man gasps.

"Yeah, but there weren't guts and blood anywhere. She kind of just turned into dust. She was declared missing later on and no one found the body because, obviously, it was blown away by the wind. So I tried doing it on other things, like trees and water bottles, and it all worked. But sometimes I can't really control it and that's why the Heroes don't trust me. I can kill with these powers and even though I have no intention of doing that, they won't accept me."

"Dang, that's tough. You don't want to join the Villains?"

"No," I groan. "They've been trying to recruit me but I don't want to be with them. The leader tries to mentor me but it's annoying."

"Why not? It'll probably be fun."

I sigh again. I have considered it but . . . I don't know. My parents raised me to be a good person and the villains are literally villains. "No. It's not for me," I say. "So are you sure you don't have a fix?"

He bites his cheek and exhales before shaking his head no. "Yeah, no. It looks like it was Fate who gave you these powers. Can't do anything about that."

I want to get mad at him, but I guess he can't do everything. "Thanks, anyway," I smile. We both nod at each other before I leave the little room he sells in.

As I'm heading out, I feel someone put a hand over my mouth. Laughter behind me. I can't breathe. "Come on, Zachary. You could be useful," a voice snarls.

"No!" I yell, but the gloved hand muffles it.

"You don't have a choice, kid. No one wants you. Not your college, the Heroes. You have no friends."

Hey, I have friends. And the only reason I'm not in college anymore is because my powers really messed me up and I just couldn't afford it anymore. No job accepted me either so there was not way to work for money.

I use all my strength to push myself away from the man and start running. But as soon as I step a foot, he appears right in front of me. "You can't run from me, boy," he smiles, but even his smile looks evil. He starts walking towards me and I walk backwards instinctively but end up falling on my butt.

"Get away from me!" I plead. I don't want anything to do with the villains. Why can't they understand that?

All the man does is laugh. I close my eyes and clench my fist, my heart beating in my ears and my breathing horribly fast.

Poof!

My eyes fling open. "No, no, no, no, no, no . . ." I mutter. The spot where the man was standing earlier is only filled with a pile of black sand.

I killed him.

Not again.

I have two deaths on my conscious. That's two too many. I stand up and linger there for a bit before running away. I keep going until I reach home.

My house isn't really a house. It's like fifteen boards I put together to create some kind of roof over my head. It's not much but . . . okay, it's not much, period.

This is another reason why I want to be part of the Heroes. I can get my own living area. My own room, along with other good people to share it all with. The people of the city donate to the Heroes a lot too, so they're loaded.

But I know that even the Villains have a lot of money. All the jewels they've stolen, banks they've robbed . . .

Maybe . . . maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I joined the Villains. They want me, don't they? It's a win-win if I go with them. I'm guaranteed a job, a home, and people to protect and teach me.

I can't imagine myself a villain. But I'm gonna have to if I want to live.