The Red
I look again at the clock. 7:53. Two more minutes until I walk the half block to Chehalem High to start my first day of recruiting. My name is Arem, and I am a magic wielder. I’ve been trained to search for others my age like me and my first assignment is this school in Oregon. My leaders have told me that it should be easy, because young magic users are drawn to each other. All I have to do is go about an average life in an average school like an average guy, but just look into any friends or enemies that I make to see if they could be fellow magic wielders. But there are rules. For example, I’m not allowed any interaction with technology that I don’t absolutely need to be using to help my mission, because my leaders say that it could draw me away from the magic that’s inside of me. I’m also not allowed to use magic at all around other people unless to prove to other magic users that I’m no fluke. Which shouldn’t be too hard. I can use basic magic, weak but handy spells, whenever I feel like it. But to draw out my real magical power, I have to be angry. My power is fueled by rage, wrath, hatred, frustration. Think Hulk, but instead of green gamma radiation, I have raw magical power flowing through my veins.
It doesn’t happen very often. I’m a pretty calm guy, but when I get overly angry, there’s no coming back until there’s some kind of release. My senses explode into superhuman precision, and I see red. Literally, when I go fully magical, as it’s called, my eyes glow red from the power, and my vision is tinted red. Even my skin goes a few shades closer to scarlet, and my veins pop out and glow a deep crimson. Sometimes in everyday life I get a bit frustrated or embarrassed, and my face turns reddish. Some people mistake it for blushing, but it’s really held back power showing through.
So basically, on this mission I have to stay chill so as not to scare the crap out of all the normal students in the school.
7:55. Time to go. I stand up off of the couch and walk to the school, glancing back at the house I had just left. It was basically mine. My ‘chaperone’ on this mission, his name is Jomen, is still back at MAG headquarters. MAG is an acronym for Magical Alliance Group. I know it sounds stupid but hey, I didn’t name it. There’s also another group of magic wielders who believe that they are superior to normals and want to rid the world of them, called the anti normals.
As I step through the front doors and look at my schedule, I see in my peripheral vision two girls who have turned and are looking at me. I turn to them and smile, then walk over. They could be other magic wielders. Why not find out early? Plus they’re pretty cute.
“Hey. I’m new here.” I say, “I was wondering if you could tell me where my first class is?”
“Let me see.” The taller of the two takes my schedule. “Hey, we have it together. Math. My favorite.” She makes a face. The other one, whose name turns out to be Lucy, walks away.
“I’m Ellie.”
“Arem.”
“Cool name.”
“Thanks. You too.” MAG renamed me after my parents died and they took me in. They say that Arem is a magical name.
“Well, Ellie’s a pretty common name. I’ve never heard Arem before.”
“Me neither.” I don’t really know what to say.
She shows me where our math class is and we struggle to stay awake through the class period. Eventually, lunch comes around and I sit with Ellie, Lucy, and their friend Marcus. While we eat, I notice a guy from our math class sitting alone at another table and staring at us. Well, staring at Ellie more likely.
“Hey.” I call to him. “Come sit with us.”
He picks up his lunch tray and comes over, sitting down in the little space between me and Ellie. “My name’s Frank.” He says.
“Arem.”
“Lucy.”
“Marcus.”
“Ellie.” Ellie smiles winningly at him.” I didn’t see you here last year either. Are you new here too?”
“Yeah. Just moved here from Arizona.”
“Nice. I love Arizona.”
Dang. Now I know what Jomen meant when he was telling me how easy it is to be distracted by the normal world. I’d already practically forgotten why I was here. But these people could be fellow magic wielders, even if they didn’t know it yet. I had to figure out some way to find out if they were. I’d have to contact Jomen and ask him the best way. I communicate with him through the glass bowl of water that I keep in my room.
Ellie speaks up again. “So guys, I’m having a party tonight at my house to meet new people. Want to come?”
“Sure.” Frank and I say together, then glance at each other.
Ellie laughs. “Awesome! I live on main street, across from the school. I’m the fourth house down from eighteen hundred south on the right.”
“Hey,” I say. “You live just across the street from me.”
“Me too.” Frank says.
“Wow.” Ellie smiles again. Dang. “That’s convenient.”

***

As soon as I get home, I go in my room and close the door. Then I go over to the glass bowl and mentally will Jomen to check his bowl. I send vibrations through the water, which is linked to his.
“What is it?” His voice reverberates back at me.
“I’ve found some potential magic users, but I need a way to tell if they are for sure.”
“Alright. The next step in your mission is to go somewhere with them and a bunch of other people, then leave the group, and do something really powerful magic wise. You know that spells draw other magic wielders to the spell user. They sense it. They’ll come running. All the normals will stay behind. This way, you know who the other magic wielders are, and they’ll know who you are as well. Two birds with one stone.”
“Okay. I’m going to a party tonight with them, so I’ll do it then.”
“Perfect. Good luck.”

***

I’m at the party, and there’s so many people. This Ellie girl is so freaking popular. It’s perfect.
Practically the whole student body is here. Now I won’t just find out who in the group is a magic wielder, I’ll find anyone else who might be hidden in the school.
I walk around half an hour, so any late arrivals will have a chance to arrive. Then I go into the backyard and step into a tool shed that I noticed while I was walking around.
This is the hard part. I have to come up with some way to make myself angry enough to send out a strong wave of magic that would summon any nearby magic users but wouldn’t actually do any physical damage. Harder than it sounds. I think of some ways that I can make myself angry. I’ve trained myself for this, coming up with different ways. The one that I use most often is that MAG refuses to give me details on how my parents died, other than ‘a gas line ruptured.’
But after twelve years of using that one, it’s getting just a bit bland. I mean, it happened when I was three. I never really knew them. That was frustration, not rage. Another technique that I’ve developed is using small little details of my life that made me even a little angry or frustrated, and blowing them up. I overthink them, make them worse than they are and channel the rage into a burst of power. Usually this doesn’t send me into my fully magical state, it just gives me a quick burst of power. Which is exactly what I’m looking for right now.
What happened today that made me even a little mad? I think through my day. There was an earth systems teacher who got angry with me for falling asleep, and then a couple of other students who laughed because I ‘blushed.’ But I find that I just don’t care enough about them to incite a magic burst. What do I care about? Suddenly, it comes to me. It shouldn’t have mattered as much as it did, but when Frank looked at Ellie, the expression on his face did frustrate me just a bit, just enough for a start. Now to blow it up.
‘She’s probably barely noticed me. Not like I noticed her. She probably already loves him. Who does he think he is? I met her first. I had the courage to speak to her. I practically introduced them. Talk about a stab in the back.’
I feel new energy start to flow through me. The shovel that I’ve been staring at with outright hatred has turned slightly red. So has everything else in the shed.
‘Get rid of him.’ The power seems to whisper.
Then, ‘Control it.’ My conscience. What do you know, It’s still there.
I focus every muscle into controlling the power welling from my emotions. Every cell in my body bends over backwards to push the red to obey me. Then I release it, sending it out in all directions. A sonic wave of barely controlled power pushing out, alerting anyone with even a smidge of magic in their blood that’s nearby to my location. I let it all out. I push it outwards until I’m normal again, or as close as I can get to it.
I wait for about thirty seconds, until the shed door is jerked open and I see Ellie staring in at me with a strange expression on her face.
“Hey. How’s the party going?” I ask, stepping out of the shed and looking around, noting all the faces that I see. There’s Ellie, Lucy, two guys that I don’t recognize, and Frank. Frank looks like he’s seen a ghost.
‘Hm.’ I think. ‘Guess Marcus is a normal. That’s cool. He’s chill.’
“How’s the party going?” Ellie practically shouts, waving her arms exasperatedly. “What are you doing out here? And what was that?”
One of the guys I don’t recognize steps forward. “Where did you learn that? And who the hell are you?”
“My name’s Arem. Taught it to myself. What’s your name?”
‘I haven’t really thought this part through…’
“Devin. Why’d you do it?”
“To find out who else was like me.” I smile around at them. “Hullo fellow magic wielders. My name is Arem, and I’m from the Magical Alliance Group. I’m here to recruit fellow youth.”
Devin’s jaw sets into a straight line and he walks away quickly.
‘Whatever. I’ll deal with him later.’
Frank laughs nervously. “What do you mean ‘Magic?’ Magic isn’t real.”
“Sure Frank. And you’ve never been able to refill a mechanical pencil that’s out of lead with just a thought, or been able to make people see different things in reflections than what’s really there. Or even, hear snippets of other people’s thoughts.” I smile at him again and he stares back at me as I turn back to Lucy, Ellie, and the other guy. “What did the magic feel like to you guys, out of curiosity?”
Ellie blinks at me, then looks down. “Jealousy.”
Frank looks at her, aghast. “What? To me it felt like pure hatred. I almost had a heart attack.”
“Power.” Lucy says, nodding. “It felt like power.”
Finally, the other boy, who I don’t recognize, speaks up for the first time. He’s short, and Latino by the look of it. “To me it felt like a wave of caring. Ternura.”
‘That’s interesting. They each perceived it differently.’
“Okay. Thanks for sharing. What’s your name?” I ask the Latino boy who says my magic felt like ternura.
“Um, Mateo.”
“Great. So now that I know that you guys are all magic wielders, I’ll notify my supervisor and he’ll contact each of you somehow, with details.” I say.
They all seem a bit shell shocked, I had just uncovered to all of them a secret that they had all been hiding their whole lives.
“Enjoy the rest of the party everyone. Goodnight.” And I walk off across the street to my house.
‘Did I play that right? Did I freak them out too much? Frank looked ready to crap his pants. Maybe I should have been more careful with my emotions.’
I step into my room and close the door, then lean against the wall and sigh.
Dang I’m tired. I walk over to my glass bowl, which is vibrating like crazy already. I link in with Jomen.
“How did it go? What happened? I felt an insane amount of power being used.”
“Yeah. Sorry, I got a bit carried away.” Because Jomen trained me, his magical power is linked to mine. He can kind of feel what magic I use, and when. “It went okay though. Here are the names of the kids.” I list them off to him, along with a to the point description for each.
“Alright. You did good today, Arem. Now get some sleep. You must be exhausted.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty tired. Goodnight.” I disconnect and climb into bed.

***

Frank isn’t at school the next day, and I feel terrible. I’m worried that I scared him off. Until the announcement on the intercom during lunch.
“Last night, in a tragic accident, the parents of one of our students died. We ask that everyone support the student, and show kindness and sensitivity in this hard time for them.”
My sandwich falls out of my hands and flops onto the table, and my mouth drops wide open. I know with a certainty that it’s Frank that they’re talking about, and I might know why. I had thought of it before, but prayed that it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.
I stand up and storm away from the table, glaring down the ‘lunch patrol’ teacher that tries to stop me from leaving. I hear Ellie start to call me back, but Lucy stops her. I walk past the front office and straight out of the front of the school, trying to shake off the red at the edges of my vision. I look down at my arms and the veins are dark red. I see Frank’s house before I see mine. It’s sectioned off with police tape, which was not there this morning. I start to go up to the front door, but a police officer who had been leaning against a cop car stops me, grabbing my forearm. 
“Sorry son, this area’s closed off to the public. You can’t go in.”
I look at him and his eyes widen, he lets go of my arm and stumbles back.
I sigh and rub my temples. I can’t have this normal telling his cop buddies that a demon child almost killed him.
“Sir, Frank is my best friend. I need details on his parent’s deaths and I need to speak to him. Could you help me with that?” I hesitate, fighting the red. “Please.”
“A-Alright.” He shakes his head, denying to himself the fact that I just made him fear for his life with nothing but my gaze. He coughs. “Yeah, so a gas line ruptured, and-”
I hold up a hand to stop him, and he sputters out.
“‘A gas line... ruptured?’” Red.
“Um, yeah?” He stutters.
“Thank you officer.” I say, still whispering. “Have a nice day.” And I walk off, disappearing into my house. I fly up the stairs in a rage. Totally uncontrollable. Fully magical. I slam my bedroom door closed and plaster sprinkles from the ceiling. I stand over the bowl, my anger literally making the water boil. I try to summon Jomen, but the vibration is too strong, and the glass bowl shatters.
“S***.” I say hoarsely. I storm back downstairs and fill a new bowl with water, and send vibrations to Jomen once more, restraining myself this time.
“What do you want?” He speaks. “You shattered my first bowl. You’re out of control. What happened?”
“Jomen.” The word is so full of betrayal and rage that the water in the bowl turns red. “Tell me again, how my parents died.”
There is a pause, and Jomen doesn’t reply for a minute.
“Come on, Arem.” He says it begrudgingly, but contemptuously at the same time. “You didn’t really think for all those years that your parents were killed by a ruptured gas line, did you? They lived in a freaking hut in the woods.”
Silence.
“We’ve trained you your whole life that you have to let go of things that will tie you down to the normal world to become fully in tune with your magic. Family is one of those ties.”
“I am more in tune than I have ever been. And it’s because of truth. Not death.”
He chuckles cruelly. “You’re too young to understand why it’s necessa-”
“Jomen.” I growl. “Magic. Is not. More important. Than family.” I place my hands in the red liquid, and release all of my rage at Jomen, at MAG and the anti-normals, who now that I think of it, could be the same organization, my fear fueled anger that it’s my fault that Frank’s parents are dead, all of my frustration, hate, anger, and wrath pour into the bowl, and Jomen’s scream reverberates through my kitchen. I don’t want to imagine what came out of his end.
There is a knock on the door, and I walk over and open it to see Ellie, Lucy, and Mateo staring at me with worried expressions. I notice that my blue door is now red.
“What happened?” Ellie asks me, looking honestly terrified.
I run my hand through my hair as her face goes from red, to pink. But the door stays blood red, with dark cracks spiraling through it.
“A lot of stuff, Ellie. A lot of stuff has happened.”
She pulls me into a hug, and I wrap my arms around her, staring at the ground behind her as my vision goes all the way back to normal.
“It’s okay.” She says.
“We have some work to do.” I whisper back.  End of Chapter One.