Adam stood and walked to his bedroom. The previous owner had been some kind of YouTube Doomsday Prepper and Adam had always found it a little funny. The man had been prepping for the end of the world while living in a condo, but given how the day had gone, maybe the guy had a point.

  Every window had been fitted with steel security shutters that could be closed and bolted into place. The sliding glass to the deck had a mall-style security gate recessed above it, designed to be pulled down and latched into the floor.

  He took a few minutes to secure the windows in his bedroom, the office, and the small guest room. It looked like Natalie and Samantha had claimed that one for themselves while he was working on the front door and most of their bags were stacked in the corner near the bed.

  Back in the living room, Adam addressed them both. "Before I come off like an apocalyptic psychopath trying to lock you inside my murder house, the shutters weren't my idea. The last guy installed them. I just never got around to tearing them out. Now I'm glad I didn't.

  He sat back down, picked up his lukewarm mug, and took a sip. He wished it was coffee.

  "When you're done explaining, I'm going to close the gate to the deck." Adam pointed at the gap above the sliding glass door. "I haven't tested it since I first moved in, so fingers crossed it still works. After that we'll be locked in for the night. I know we just met, so I want to be clear. You're not prisoners here. If you want to leave, preferably during the day, just say the word. I'll unbar the door, no questions asked. Sound fair?"

  Samantha and Natalie nodded. They were clearly aware of the weirdness of the situation but doing their best to take it in stride.

  "Plus, Natalie can always shoot me," Adam added, nodding toward the gun still holstered under her jacket. She laughed nervously but gave a confirming nod.

  "And I absolutely will," she said in a way that made Adam know she was joking, but also dead serious.

  "Alright. Mind continuing now that I've had my moment?"

  Samantha nodded, lacing her fingers together in her lap. "Do you remember when The Voice said: 'your natural limiters are being removed. Your potential will now be essentially limitless?"

  Adam's skin crawled hearing the phrase repeated out loud. It felt almost like an eldritch incantation, but he remembered it. In fact, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to forget a single word of that speech and maybe that was the point.

  "I think that," she said, pointing at the pile of torn paper, "is exactly what it meant. Whatever limits we had before… I think they're gone. Now our will dictates our reality. I mean, at least to some degree." She glanced between them. "It was a common idea in a lot of those self-help books. Create your own reality. But now, I think it's actually possible.”

  Adam felt a pit settle in his stomach, tempered by a flicker of excitement. What was possible now? How far could they go?

  "At the moment, we're not very good at it," Samantha said. "Considering it's only been a few hours, I'm surprised we can do anything at all. But with practice, maybe we'll get better at changing things. Or maybe we're just working with more power now. 'Potential' is kind of an open-ended word, and The Voice didn't explain much." She paused, choosing her next words carefully. "But not everything has changed."

  She let a thin chain bracelet fall from her wrist onto the coffee table.

  "Gravity still exists. The sun still provides light and warmth. We still need to breathe." She drew in a deep breath, as if to underline the point. "I don't know if those things will ever change, but right now it seems like we just have more options. Maybe it's as simple as being better at whatever we were already good at. Or maybe anything we practice will improve, or become possible."

  She let out a long sigh. "But I don't know. It's all just guesswork."

  Natalie, who had been sitting very quietly next to her, finally spoke up. "I think you're right. Adam's heart stopped and… I think I brought him back."

  She glanced at him, her expression unreadable. "I've pushed plenty of drugs for heart attacks and trauma patients, but never once have I seen a heart start beating again from CPR alone."

  The intensity of her stare made him uncomfortable, like she was looking through him.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "I wanted you to live and I willed you not to die. I'm not saying I brought you back from the dead, your heart was only stopped for about a minute and that’s not really long enough for brain damage. But it did start again. Maybe because I wanted it to?"

  She finally looked away, staring down at her hands.

  Adam laughed, startling the two women. He laughed at the situation, the conversation, and the absurdity of it all. He briefly considered sharing the dream he'd had after the lightning strike. Maybe Natalie hadn't been the only thing that brought him back.

  "So you're telling me both of you have superpowers, and all I've got is a bat?" he said with a grin. "I guess someone has to lose the superpower lottery."

  Samantha plucked the pen light from Natalie's jacket pocket. She unscrewed the base and removed the batteries.

  Natalie gave her a puzzled look and Adam raised his eyebrows, but Samantha only shook her head and pointed at him. "Hey Adam, catch," she said, tossing the flashlight his way.

  He caught it easily. "What?"

  "Try turning it on."

  He frowned. "You just took the batteries out. I watched you do it."

  "Just try."

  "This is silly. What's the point?" he asked, even as his thumb hovered over the button.

  "Just. Try. It," she said again, calm but insistent.

  Adam sighed, pointed the light at the floor, and pressed the button.

  A bright beam shot from the tiny bulb.

  He stared at it in disbelief, then unscrewed the back and saw the battery slots were still empty. He dropped the tiny flashlight like it had burned him and the bulb went dark the moment it left his hand.

  "I don't think you lost the superpower lottery," Samantha said smugly. "I think you might have won it."

  Adam just stared at his hands.

  "I noticed when you hit the arm-thing, I kept smelling ozone. And I saw little sparks of static on your bat every time you made contact with it." Samantha gestured animatedly, her voice gaining speed and excitement until Natalie gently took one of her hands. "I wasn't sure what would happen with the flashlight. I figured it might turn on, blow the bulb, maybe explode. But it seems like there's some instinct to it, too?"

  "Wait. Explode?!"

  Adam picked up the penlight again, turning it over in his hands. He glanced down at the empty battery socket, then flipped it to inspect the bulb before pressing the button. Once more, the beam lit up. He sighed and handed it back to Natalie.

  "So, how does this work?" Adam asked. "I just want something to happen, and it does?"

  "I was wondering that too," Natalie added. "I didn't believe I could save you, not really. I just didn't want you to die. So how did that work?"

  "Hey, hey," Samantha said, pulling her hand back and holding both palms up in surrender. "I'm not an expert. This hit me just as fast as everyone else. It's just a theory." She paused. "Maybe my practice with meditation and visualization helped me get a little further along, but I think either of you could learn to control it too."

  "Hypothesis," Adam said, deadpan.

  "What?"

  "Hypothesis, not theory. Theory comes after." He fought to keep the corners of his mouth from twitching.

  "Are you serious right now?"

  "Nope." Adam rubbed his eyes with both hands. “But I don’t think we have much of a choice. I don’t think this is just going to blow over, and if we’re going to survive…”

  “We'll have to learn to use what we have,” Natalie finished.

  They let the silence fill several long moments before Adam stood.

  “I’m going to shut the gate now. I'm really glad the previous owner was a security nut. It even made the place a little cheaper. Maybe he knew something we didn’t?" He walked toward the sliding glass door. “After that, I’m going to cook something and maybe take a shower. We’re on well water here, and as long as the pump has power, we’ll still have water.”

  “Doomsday Prepper in a condo...” Natalie snorted. “But no shower until I look at that leg.” She grabbed her backpack from the seat beside her and began digging through it.

  Adam shrugged and nodded. He got up and pulled the security shutter down, latched it into the anchors, and gave it a few sharp tugs to check the lock. Once the door was secure and the heavy curtains drawn, he returned to the couch and let Natalie examine the wound.

  Samantha stood and excused herself to shower.

  "I forgot to put towels in the guest bathroom," Adam called after her.

  "I'll bring her some when we're done. Now sit still." Natalie cut the leg off of his already ruined pants, examining the wound. After a minute of poking and prodding she applied a harsh antiseptic to the cut.

  “It doesn’t look too bad. Honestly, it looks older than just a few hours. Maybe it’s my mysterious healing powers!” she teased. “I’ll throw a bandage on it after we all clean up. Do you like steak?”

  Adam blinked as she got up and started rummaging through the bags of food they hadn’t put away. She pulled out two thick steaks and a package of fish fillets.

  "Don't think this is going to be a regular thing," she said, turning toward the kitchen. "But we all need to eat, and this is my way of saying thanks for letting us stay here. And helping us... you know, not die."

  She turned her back, opening cupboards and drawers in search of cookware.

  Adam lifted a finger to tell her where things were, then let it fall. His arm felt like lead; the day's exertions were catching up fast and Natalie seemed determined anyway.

  "The towels are in the hallway closet,” he said, heading for his bedroom and stepping into the small adjoining bathroom.

  Adam stripped off his clothing and stared at himself in the mirror. He looked like hell.

  Bruises mottled his arms and chest, some a deep purple with yellowing edges. He hadn't noticed them under his shirt and the lightning left behind a tapestry of fine, spiderweb-like burns. The fractal patterns climbed up his arms and converged on his chest in a delicate pattern.

  He pressed a hand over his heart and felt the steady, metronomic beat. Just hours ago, it had stopped and the thought made him shudder.

  He turned the water on and stepped into the blast of warmth. For a moment, he thought he smelled ozone again, then the rush of water took over, washing away the worst of his worries.

  If only for a little while.