After taking the truck and leaving the airbnb, Ellie and Byron drove to a nearby estate ten minutes away.
“Go in here,” Byron said, as they arrived in a street called Grendel Close.
“I live just up here, this little cul-de-sac,” Byron explained.
Ellie looked around her new surroundings; it was dark, but it was clear this was a nice area. For a moment, she wondered how Byron could afford to live in such a place and then she recalled what he could do. She parked her truck at the instructed driveway and they jumped out.
Byron shuffled into his pockets and pulled out a set of keys. A few moments later, he pushed open a green door marked “35” and turned to Ellie.
“Come in.”
The house was small, but nicely decorated. Ellie first noticed how warm it was. The walls were clean and the cream carpet that ran through the hallway was free of stains.
There was a big mirror above the mantle of the fireplace in the living room that impressed Ellie; compared to her home, where everything was cluttered and there were beer stains in carpet, ripped up floorboards and walls and doors with holes in them, this place felt like an actual home.
When they entered the living room properly from the hallway, Ellie realised it was long and narrow, and that the first door they passed in the hall led to the other side of the living room. The room was furnished with oak shelves and a coffee table. A moderately-sized LCD TV stood on an oak stand and the window beside it was curtained shut, dark red with gold trimmings.
The coffee table was full of stacks of what seemed to be comics. Byron noticed Ellie looking at them and scrambled to pick them up, his face reddening.
“Sorry it’s such a mess, I wasn’t expecting any visitors.”
Ellie laughed out loud.
“A mess? You should see where I was living…”
She let the statement hang in the air, and then felt embarrassed for such a confession. Byron didn’t react in any way that said she overshared, though, instead changing the subject.
“So, do you want a drink? I’ve got… well, coke or lemonade, probably. I, uh – don’t drink alcohol,” Byron admitted, almost apologetically.
Ellie waved her hand dismissively, “Me neither. Coke is fine, thanks.”
Byron returned moments later with two full glasses.
“I did find one other person, before you,” Byron said.
“You did?”
Ellie took her glass gratefully.
“Yeah, a few weeks ago. He was this big, bald guy. His name is Lee. When I found him, he was sitting on a park bench, crying his eyes out.”
“Crying?”
Byron sipped his own drink, shrugging.
“Yeah… maybe I should have left him… but knowing he was right there, I just couldn’t.”
“What did he say?”
“Well, I asked him if he was OK. He got very defensive, jumped up to his feet and told me to go away. I tried to ask him again if he was alright and he told me to fuck off. He pushed me to the ground and everything started shaking.”
“What do you mean, shaking?”
“The ground shook. Like an earthquake. They did mention in the news that there were tremors. Of course, no-one really thought anything of it – but I knew it was him. That’s his power.”
“His power is… earthquakes?” Ellie raised a brow.
“Yes. Well, you know, geokinesis.”
Ellie stared at him blankly.
“He can manipulate the ground and earth around him. You know, I think if I’d really pissed him off, he could have created a huge earthquake.”
Ellie absorbed this information. People causing earthquakes? Hacking ATMs? How could she have gone from no knowledge of any of this three days ago to now knowing of at least two other people with abilities like hers.
“That’s crazy.” Ellie finally responded, when she realised she hadn’t spoken, “Where is all this coming from? A few days ago, nothing like this had ever happened to me.”
“I don’t know. It could be anything, really. I looked in my comics about this kind of thing.”
“Comics, really?” Ellie grimaced.
“Well, see, there’s a shortage of literature on real life super powers,” Byron shot back.
Ellie conceded, “Fair enough. What did you find?”
“Well, there’s all sorts of explanations. I don’t know how much the science makes sense in real life. But it’s things like radioactive spiders, meteorites carrying life forms, aliens from another planet or sometimes just magic…”
“So probably none of those,” Ellie grinned.
Byron returned the grin, sheepishly, “No, probably not.”
Ellie’s mind lingered back to Byron’s encounter.
“So, this Lee guy, have you seen him again since?”
Byron nodded, sipping his drink.
“Seen him, sure. He’s always in the same areas, sitting around. I don’t think he’s doing too well. But I haven’t spoken to him again since, because I don’t want to antagonise him. I love my powers, but they aren’t exactly useful against him. And if he did lose control…”
Byron, who was looking at his lamp light absent-mindedly, turned to look at Ellie.
Ellie pre-empted Byron as he opened his mouth to speak.
“You’re going to ask me to help you, aren’t you? I -”
Byron held up his hands defensively.
“I’m not asking you to do anything,” Byron interrupted, “I’m just saying this man is suffering and could be dangerous. I’ve been thinking it over for a while; and I’m going to have to confront him again.”
Ellie sighed, slightly exasperated at this answer.
“But why? Why antagonise him?”
Byron shrugged.
“I just – I just want him to know that he’s not alone. That there’s others like him out here. Maybe it can help him. It’s helped me. It’s helped you, right?”
“But he’ll already know that. He’ll sense us, like you sensed him.” Ellie argued.
“Will he, though? It took me a while to realise what I was feeling even meant.” Byron hit back.
Ellie sighed again.
“What do you want us to do? Go and take him on like a couple of superheroes, as if he’s some supervillain? He sounds depressed. Then he has some annoying guy badgering him while he’s at his worst… no offense… but he hasn’t done anything bad, has he? Last I checked, we haven’t had any off the scale earthquakes destroying London, and we haven’t heard of any mountains suddenly sprouting out of Croydon.”
Byron raised his brow in a way that begrudgingly accepted Ellie’s point.
“No, we haven’t. But what if he is really depressed? What if he is all alone, struggling with these powers, and doesn’t know how to handle it?”
“Look, Byron… I get what you’re saying, and it’s great you want to help people, but I barely know how to control this… whatever this is… and you have this fantastical idea about us going to save the world from a disaster that hasn’t even happened. This isn’t a comic book. We aren’t superheroes.”
Byron’s expression turned to the first frown Ellie had seen on it.
“Aren’t we?” Byron interjected, “We can do the same things.”
There was another silence. Ellie considered her next words.
“Yeah, we can do these things but… I just started my first job a couple of weeks ago. I was in college this time last year. I’ve lived alone for a total of three days in my life. I’m just a teenager trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to live in London, after running away from home. That’s it. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Byron waved his arm around the room.
“You’re trying to figure out what you’re going to do with your life here in London… maybe the answer is staring right in your face, Ellie.”
There was a stubbornness in Byron’s voice that rubbed Ellie the wrong way. She felt a flair in her chest.
“Grow up, Byron. We’re not the Avengers. We’re nerds.”
“The Avengers were nerds.”
“Byron…” she replied, and failed to hide the warning tone in her voice.
“Look, I’m not trying to keep on but… just give me one good reason why we can’t try… just try to help someone who clearly needs it.”
Ellie looked down at her glass. She almost felt bad for wanting to destroy Byron’s fantasies with a dose of reality.
“Because I’m scared, OK? I’ve been around depression. Maybe I’ve been in it. It’s not easy to help someone like that. How can I help someone else when I’m still trying to figure out how to help myself?”
There was a small silence. Ellie looked away from Byron.
“OK, Ellie,” Byron replied, “I get it. It’s alright.”
“Sorry,” Ellie said, now feeling a surge of guilt, “I wish I could help.”
“Don’t worry about it. That’s not even why I asked you to come back here. I shouldn’t have dumped all that on you, it’s just… it’s been a lot, and I’ve had no-one to talk to about it. See… it’s not just Lee Hooper. There’s others out there. And well, I’m sure you want to know what’s going on as much as I do.”
“Yeah, of course… but how?” Ellie asked. She was almost eager to help in this way, after her refusal to help Lee.
“I have an idea… see, I find it easier to track down those signals we get, with a map in my hand. I’ve been using a map of London, but what if… we went bigger? See how far we can sense these things… and I was thinking, with your power you could… I don’t know, scout those areas, see if you can find any information, any clues. No-one would see you, right?”
“Right,” Ellie answered, and her mind was racing again.
She could not deny she liked the idea, or at least her curiosity was strong enough that she would consider it. The more she tried to think of a reason not to, the less she could come up with. Byron was right, nobody would see her. It wouldn’t take her long to travel long distances. She could get in or behind anything. Maybe there was a clue somewhere out there, and she could find it, without anyone ever knowing.
“Alright, let’s try it. Do you have a world map? Maybe I could get it up on my phone?” Ellie suggested.
“Nah, I have one here… I find a physical map works better, for some reason.”
Byron got up and reached behind a bookshelf, pulling out a cardboard tube. Flipping off the lid, he pulled out and unrolled a world map. It was like the ones Ellie used to see in geography class.
As Byron unfurled the map across the table and held it down with an empty mug and an ashtray, a curious sensation ran through Ellie’s body. There was a tingle, and it was as if she had heard her name being called by several different people at once, so that her brain wanted to divert its attention to several different places on the map.
“Woah,” Ellie gasped.
“Did you get the map rush?” Byron asked, knowingly, “I did too, when I first opened that London map… but when I tried this map, it didn’t really work. If it did for you, maybe your powers help you receive signals from further away.”
“Maybe…” Ellie replied, only half-listening. She had become fixated on the map, as it continued to call to her without sound.
“Give me something I can mark this with, please,” Ellie asked.
Byron reached over to a small drawer and pulled out a packet of mini post-it notes. Ellie took one from the top of the pile and hovered her hand over the map. She put a post-it on the UK immediately.
“What are you -”
But Ellie held her hand up to quieten Byron, who immediately stopped. He didn’t say anything else as she took several more post-its, and stuck them in several places on the map. One in Russia, one in California and one in the North Atlantic ocean.
When she stuck the last post-it down, she felt the world narrow and was suddenly aware of Byron’s presence again.
“That’s all I can sense,” Ellie said.
Byron looked over at her work in awe.
“Russia… America… do you think this is all of them?”
Ellie raised her brow, “All of them? I doubt it. If I can sense more than you, then there’s probably someone out there who can sense more than me.”
Byron nodded slowly, absorbing what she said.
“So if there are more, why can you sense these ones specifically? It’s not like they are all close together, so it can’t be a range thing.”
Ellie frowned.
“I know as much as you,” she sighed, “it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe you should try finding them… where’s the UK one?”
“I don’t know exactly… I’ve never tried long-distance projecting before.”
“Do you need anything to prepare?” Byron asked.
“No, just – I don’t know, exactly. I’ve never done it with someone else watching me before. Just… don’t talk to me, in case it pulls me out or something.”
© 2026 Rhys Clark. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, including scraping for AI training or large language models, without the prior written permission of the author.
Writing by Rhys Clark 