Read Power for Free Online

His name is Damien, and he is very bad news. He is the leader of The Rising. Have you ever seen this man in real life, or only in your dreams?” he asked, dripping with honest concern.
    “No, of course I’ve never seen him before. He isn’t real! What do you mean, ‘He is part of the Rising’? What does that even mean?”
    “That is a long story, best told another time. I am sorry I interrupted you again. Please continue.”
    “Fine. Anyways, like I was saying, I felt like he was burning me from the inside out, and right at the last moment something changed. I started filling up with… energy or something. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it. It was really weird. I felt like I could overcome anything. I felt strong and powerful!”
    “That was your power returning!” After another loud sigh from me, he apologized and I continued again.
    “So, I felt like that… power came out of me somehow and went over to him. It was strong. I felt like I could beat him for once. Then I thought I woke up but I still felt that same power stuff. It was so overwhelming it started to hurt me. Actually, it hurt a lot. So I got out of bed and ran outside,” I paused then, not sure if I wanted to continue. But Rick seemed like he believed me and it felt so good to actually say it all out loud, so I did. “That’s when I screamed. Just once, but really loud. Looking back on it, I can’t believe I didn’t wake anyone up. Anyways, when I screamed, it looked like… umm…” I tried to think of how to word it. “Well, it looked like some kind of wind or something came out of me and moved the clouds or something.” Oddly enough, despite how strange the words were, it felt right when I said it out loud.
    Waiting for a reaction, I looked up and he simply said, “I suppose you think that you running outside and moving the clouds was part of the dream?”
    “Well, yeah! Of course! Nobody can actually move the clouds with purple wind coming out of their hands,” I said incredulously.
    Drenched with sarcasm, he said, “But of course.” Then shook his head slightly and continued. “Listen, to make a long story short, until you have full control of your power, when you get upset in any way it will keep overloading you like that. Though I must say, I am impressed that you managed to release it without doing damage to anything. Large outbursts of power like that are easy to trace though, and with good usually comes evil. You have already seen Damien in your dreams, which means he knows about you. Now that you have your power back, and released it in such an obvious way, he will be tracking you. You need to come with me now so that I can keep you safe…” he paused briefly, presumably to assess my reaction. “What?”
    “Go with you? Are you completely nuts? I have had enough of this. Rick, I don’t know what happened to you, but there is no such thing as ‘power’ not the way you mean it anyways. I will not go anywhere with you. And I can take care of myself. Like I said earlier, it was all just a strange dream. How you found out about it, I have no idea. I came here thinking I would get some answers, but really, I got nothing. Now, if you will kindly leave, I would appreciate it. I would go, but like I said earlier, I am meeting someone else here.”
    As I stood and walked away from him, toward the spot where Alex and I usually met, I heard him almost shout back at me, “Please be careful, darling! You are not safe like this and neither is your family.”
    I stopped and faced him one last time, “Don’t ever threaten my family again or I will call the police on you! Stay away from us!”
    I walked toward the smallest gazebo, fuming at the way I had been sucked into Rick’s story. The wood was old and looked darker than usual now that the sun was dropping in the sky. It was maybe ten feet across, but was shaded completely by several trees which cast eerie shadows across the floor.
    This had been my favorite place to come