About the Author: A member of SVC’s Shires Press Publishing Program for publishing his first book, Jose Ferreras (Creative Writing, Class of 2017) started writing this five-part series of “character teasers” to give sneak peeks into the main, supernatural personality of his novel, titled Decoded. Jose feels happiest when immersing himself in fantasy and supernatural writing. He hopes that this teaser series will encourage readers to pick up a copy of his book at Northshire Bookstore when it is officially released in May of 2017.

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Navire des Dieux, Part Three

by Jose Ferreras

The footage of the wreckage Katrina left in her wake wasn’t the scariest thing that Alexandria had seen this year. Watching President Bush sworn into office for a second term still topped the list for her, despite it not being nearly as terrible as what Hurricane Katrina had done. Maybe it was because Alexandria had hope that, as history shows, people would come together to help one another after the crisis the Southern states faced. She had faith that, somehow, they could get through this.

She turned her television off as she got up and walked over to her kitchen; she should eat before something went wrong and she ended up having to go save the citizens of Portland from whatever evil came their way. With a lazy flick of her wrist, she opened up her kitchen cabinets to retrieve a frying pan. She set it down on the stove, which she turned on, before going to her refrigerator and pulling out a carton of eggs.

As Alexandria set the eggs down on her kitchen counter, she was startled by a loud noise coming from outside. She glanced over to her window and listened quietly to make sure she didn’t have to hurry outside before turning back to her egg carton. Suddenly, the large casement windows swung open, startling her as she tossed the carton of eggs across the kitchen.

Realizing that it was just the wind, Alexandria reached out to catch the eggs and was propelled forward at an incredible speed and caught up to the eggs before they reached the wall.

She hesitated as she tried to process what she had just done. She hadn’t developed new abilities since that night in her aunt’s house, so new abilities was definitely something she wasn’t expecting. Taking a deep breath, Alexandria focused on the stove top and reached for it, before feeling herself propel forward towards it. In an instant, she was directly in front of the stove, where she grabbed the vegetable oil and poured it into the heated pan. She smiled to herself as she considered the opportunity her newfound speed offered. She cracked two eggs into the frying pan.

The heated oil splashed and Alexandria threw her hands up in front of her face, planning to protect it with her telekinetic abilities, but instead created a small, protective shield of sunlight that burned the oil into vapor before it could reach her. Her initial response was excitement, but it was quickly overcome by worry. If she was developing new powers at this rate, it had to mean something.

As the eggs started to cook, Alexandria’s suspicions were confirmed when she suddenly heard a scream coming from outside of her window. Alexandria quickly turned off her stove and ran to her window, looking outside to see a woman fleeing from a man, who grabbed hold of her by the arm and forced her into his grasp. He slammed her up against a car and pinned her down. Seeing enough, Alexandria sprung into action and jumped out of her window, falling down the two storeys, onto the ground. She tossed her head back as she landed catlike and used her newfound speed to quickly get across the street and over to the woman.

“Hey, stop!” she called, catching the man and woman’s attention.

As Alexandria stepped up to the attacker and his would be victim, taking in their appearances, she immediately realized why she was developing new abilities…

It was him.

Want to read more Alexandria Eskil? Check out Jose’s full novel, Decoded, when it is available for pre-order at Northshire Bookstore in April, 2017.

Copyright © Jose Ferreras (2016) All Rights Reserved.