I wake up to a banging on my door.

  “Elena!” A familiar male voice calls through the door. “Wake up!”

  I grumble in annoyance, and turn over in my bed. “Idon’twanna.”

  Blake doesn’t give up as he continues to bang on my door.

  “I’m coming!” I sit up in my bed, and the banging stops. I grumble some more as I put on some clothes.

  Dee yawns from my pillow, and we both stretch.

  I rub my eyes as I open the door to the boy who had dared to disturb my sleep. “What is it, Blake?”

  “What the fuck is going on?” Blake asks, his gaze intense.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I parrot back to him.

  Blake stares at me in surprise, then grabs my hand and pulls me down the stairs with him.

  We arrive to the living room to find my mom, who is usually very anti-television, staring at the TV with my sister next to her.

  Mom turns to me with concern, while my sister jumps in place out of excitement.

  “Elena didn’t kill you for waking her up, did she?” Mom asks Blake.

  “I’m being nice this time.” I respond, my gaze focusing on the scene on the TV.

  A grainy video of a group of Beta Testers punching through skeletons shows on the screen, their faces blurred by the producers. Under the video, words scroll across the screen reading:

  COUNTRIES ACROSS WORLD CONFIRM DAMAGE FROM ATTACKS. RUSSIA AND CHINA CUT OFF ALL TRAVEL. UTAH REPORT MASSIVE DAMAGE AND CASUALTIES IN SALT LAKE CITY.

  The video cuts back to an anchorman at a desk. “This may look like something straight out of a movie, but we can confirm that this footage is unedited, except to protect the identities of those on the scene. Our reporters risked their lives to obtain this video.” The camera switches to an Asian woman sitting across from the anchorman, a small caption reading Tricia Chu.

  “I can confirm that I was on the scene when-”

  Blake pulls me away from my family, and whispers furiously, “What in the world happened, Elena?”

  “Aliens invaded?” I answer. I mean, it is kinda true. The creatures aren’t from this planet.

  “Is this another thing you can’t tell me about?” He asks, looking into my eyes.

  Another voice speaks up from behind me, “Monsters invaded from another world. We went out to stop them.”

  I turn around and pull Rose into a hug. “I didn’t realize you were here.” I pull back to look at her, making sure she’s uninjured.

  “I was on a call in the other room.” She says, “I’m fine, don’t worry.” She gives me a tired smile.

  “What are you doing here?” I notice as my mom looks at us from the other room, curious what we’re talking about.

  “After all that happened… I had to make sure you didn’t do something crazy.” The tone came off as a joke, but I could hear the hint of worry in her tone.

  “You know me. I’m invincible.” I give her my signature smile.

  “You have no idea how much I wish that was true.” She pulls me in for a second hug, and rests her head against my shoulder.

  “Weren’t monsters already invading?” Blake asks.

  I run my hands through Rose’s hair, calming her beating heart as I consider Blake’s question. “Those weren’t supposed to happen. This time, it was… a trial for us.” I motion towards me and Rose.

  “Is that why normal people can see them?”

  “Probably.” I take my hand out of Rose’s hair to make a helpless gesture.

  There isn’t much more to be said after that and we make our way to the living room to watch the rest of the news.

  They don’t have a lot more information, as most countries are keeping information to a minimum. Still, videos of all kinds of monstrosities are shown briefly, coming from social media and regular people.

  Mom eventually turns off the TV, and has us move to the kitchen where she prepares all of us some lunch.

  Elizabeth sits next to me, clearly wanting to ask something. I turn away from Blake to look at her. Blake and Rose continue talking on their own.

  “Hey sunshine, what do you need?” I ask.

  “Elena…” She bites her lip, “What if- what if I’m like the people on the news?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  She leans closer, “Sofia really did get struck by lightning when she was bullying me. What if I have super powers like them? Is the government going to, I don’t know, take me away?”

  I’m tempted to laugh, but the seriousness of her question stops me. I lean closer, and whisper, “Let’s do a test, shall we?”

  “What kind of test?”

  I hold my arm up in front of her. “Try to electrocute me like you did that girl. If you can, that means you have super powers, which is totally awesome. If you can’t, then something else probably shocked the girl.”

  Elizabeth stares at my arm, her face scrunching as she concentrates. Eventually, she reaches out and grabs my arm, but nothing happens. Finally, her shoulders sag and she lets go.

  “It really did happen.” She says, looking up at me with puppy dog eyes.

  “I believe you.” I give her a smile.

  Before anything else can be said, a blue window pops up in front of me.

  I stare at the percentage, watching as it slowly goes up. Food is placed in front of me, and I eat it with half a mind as the percentage inches close to 100%. Finally, after a couple of minutes, it disappears, and is replaced by another screen.

  I read through the update carefully. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Rose also reading the update, although she hides it by looking at her phone. Smart idea.

  “Elly, honey, are you alright?” My mom asks.

  I look up at her, and give her a smile. “Yeah, I just got distracted by my thoughts.”.

  I bite into my pancake, enjoying it immensely. The rest of the food disappears fast.

  “Elena.” I look up to see Blake motioning for me to talk with him in the living room.

  I stand up from the table, put my plate in the sink, then walk over to him. Rose follows me a second later.

  He pauses, unsure about what he wants to say now that we’re alone. “I get that something stops you from telling me everything that is going on. But I… I’d appreciate something- anything more about why the world is changing like this.”

  I look at Rose, but she’s happy to let me take this one. I turn to the ceiling, considering how I can phrase this without the System getting mad at me.

  “Do you believe in god, Blake?” I ask, looking at him out of the corner of my eye.

  Blake looks taken aback by the question, but responds a second later. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

  “What if I told you that I met beings that call themselves gods?” I move over to the couch and fall into it.

  Blake sits down a second later on the chair next to me. “With everything else going on? I’d believe it.”

  “What if these gods were-” I stop, and start coughing as my throat closes up, my whole soul screaming at me to shut up.

  My coughing fit subsides, and Rose hands me a cup of water that I gulp down greedily.

  “Okay,” I say after a second, “I guess telling you that is a big no-no.”

  “You okay?” Rose asks.

  “Yeah.” I give her an extra big smile to show her nothing is wrong.

  Blake waits until I give him a thumbs up, then asks his next question, “These gods have something to do with the changes that are happening to the world?”

  I don’t move, not saying anything.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” Blake says.

  We grow silent as my mom enters the room. “Do you have everything you need dears?” She asks us.

  “We’re good. Thanks mom.” I motion with my eyes, trying to tell her that we need space.

  “Alright…” She says, then looks to my two friends, “Don’t be afraid to call me if you need anything, I know my daughter can be a bit of a handful.”

  I lean forward to enter her vision. “Mom. Not nice.”

  “Sorry dear. You know I love you.” She says before walking away towards the master bedroom.

  Blake waits for her to be out of earshot, before continuing. “Can you tell me why you guys have your powers?”

  I pause. “Nope, can’t tell you that. You’ll just have to live with not knowing.”

  Blake snorts. “Is there anything you can tell me?”

  I look at Rose, but she just shrugs. “Not that I can think of.”

  “I can tell you that you’ve been an awesome friend!” I say.

  “Shut up.”

  “Never.”