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 Five

by Jose Ferreras

Alexandria Eskil was gently rubbing her thumb and index finger together, generating small sparks of light as she surveyed the city of Portland at the top of the Wells Fargo Center. She wore a skintight, black leather jumpsuit and her hair was cropped short in a pixie cut and dyed black with blue streaks. Ten years ago, the young, Mexican-American would never have even thought about expressing herself in this way, but now, it was how she felt most comfortable. The clothing she wore empowered her; it boosted her confidence, and with it, she felt like she could do anything.

With her newfound assertiveness, and her coming to peace with her father’s killer, she found herself more comfortable and willing to explore her powers and their limits. She learned a lot about herself and how she could manipulate light to increase her speed, strength, agility, and senses. She learned how to use it to create powerful, protective shields made with a light as intense as the sun, and how to even make herself invisible. She could even fly. She was the media proclaimed Angel and the light that was constantly building inside her was welcomed. She had found that she could do almost anything with her powers if she put her mind to it.

Her eyes were scanning the city outline when she caught sight of a fire truck speeding down the downtown street towards the housing complexes. In the distance, she could see the smoke coming from one of the apartment buildings and jumped off the side of the Wells Fargo Center, letting the air engulf her, hitting her in the face as she fell 40 storeys down towards the ground.

When she was about halfway down the side of the building, Alexandria was hit with an overwhelming surge of power and blacked out.

When her eyes fluttered back open, she immediately realized that something was different. She was still falling, yes, but not along the side of the tallest building in Portland. Instead, she was free-falling beside a large, red suspension bridge. She forced herself to turn in mid-air, heading head-first towards the ocean. Before she could get too close to the water though, she felt someone suddenly grab hold of her and bring her back safely to the bridge, landing on their feet and setting her down before speaking. His voice was plagued with annoyance as he nagged her, but before she could look up at the man, she felt everything slip away from her and was brought back to consciousness…

When Alexandria’s eyes opened again, she was back in Portland, mere feet from the pavement. She threw her hands in front of her and stopped the fall using her powers of levitation. The few people that were near her jumped back in shock and immediately started to call out to her: “The Angel!” She set herself down onto the Portland street carefully and took a deep breath before taking off at the speed of light towards the direction the fire truck had been heading.

There was no time for her to process what it was that had just happened.

In moments, she had managed to catch up to, and then pass, the fire truck, making it to the location of the fire. She could hear screams for help coming from the third floor and immediately ran into the building and up the stairs. She made it to the front door of an apartment and kicked it open to reveal a small family. A young, teenage male and his family huddled close to one another as the flames surrounded them and blocked their path to the main door. The boy, who shielded his younger siblings alongside his older brother, couldn’t have been much older than 17 years old. Their father hovered in front of them, attempting to protect them.

The clouds of dark gray smoke erupted from the room and suffocated Alexandria, who covered her face and signaled to the family with her other hand in a come forth motion and encouraged them to hurry up and leave the apartment. As they started to make their way out, the ceiling began to collapse and a beam fell in front of them, blocking their exit. As the family stepped back, Alexandria rolled her eyes, annoyed by the clichéd inconvenience. The harsh flames spread threateningly near her and she was overcome with the urge to retreat, before she took a step forward to clear the rubble.

Cracking her knuckles, she raised her hands towards the rubble and shot out a beam of light from the palms of her hands, clearing a path as everything in the way turned to ash. The family jumped back away from her in shock, trying to avoid the blasts. Before they could move through, the apartment building started to collapse further, threatening to crush them before they could escape down stairs. Alexandria moved with great speed and appeared by the family’s side in a blink of an eye. She rested one hand on the 17-year-old’s shoulder, determined to protect him and his family. Yet, the brief touch struck something in her; the light inside of her suddenly shifted into something greater. Instinct took over and she threw her other hand out just as the building fell and the light from her hands erupted to shield the family from the collapsing building, just as a name popped into her mind:

Arlyn.

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.