Chapter 19: Sometimes Gravity Hits Back
(3/10)
Believe it or not... My entire day has turned hella shitty. Can't get enough sleep without me phasing through my bed into the basement... Or DIRECTLY TELEPORTING INTO CAROL ROOM MID DRESS!!
Or like now!
I don't think the hallway walls are supposed to bend like that.
But there they are, rippling like someone dropped acid in the school's foundation. The lockers? Wobbling like Jell-O. And I'm ninety percent sure the linoleum just sighed beneath my feet. Or maybe that was me.
Either way, I'm losing it.
"Yo, Leon, you good?" Flash asks like he didn't just flinch when I walked past. He's pretending not to notice the fact that his shoelaces just untied themselves. I don't answer. Mostly because if I open my mouth, I think I might scream. Or implode. Or explode. Honestly, I don't know which would be worse at this point.
MJ avoids eye contact. Gwen looks like she wants to say something but doesn't. Felicia didn't show up in school today, a long with Roxy, while Liz was preoccupied with the school paper. Even the janitor gave me a look like I'm one sneeze away from becoming a human black hole. Which—okay, fair.
My hands won't stop shaking. Or maybe the air is shaking around them. It's hard to tell.
Principal Greaves calls me into the guidance office. Says I've been "acting out of sorts." That's what you say when someone might be possessed. Or radioactive. Or both. I brace for the usual pep talk. Instead, I walk in and find…
A bald guy.
Sitting calmly behind the desk. Smiling. Like he's been waiting for me.
"Leon Walter," he says. "Take a seat."
His voice is soft. Polished. Feels like warm silk with a hidden needle inside. I sit, mostly because gravity makes me. Ha. Funny.
"You new here?" I ask, already sweating.
"In a way." He tilts his head. "I'm Dr. Xavier. Just helping out temporarily. You seemed like someone who might need... guidance."
He's not looking at me—he's looking through me. Like he's already seen the ending, and he's just watching the rerun.
"You ever feel too heavy?" he asks.
"What?"
"Like you're sinking. Not physically, necessarily. But emotionally. Spiritually. Like the world is pressing down on you harder than it should."
I blink. "You mean, like... depression?"
"Sometimes gravity is just another word for guilt."
I want to laugh. I really do. But his eyes are too calm. Too deep. Like pools you drown in quietly.
"Leon," he says gently, "has anything… strange been happening to you lately?"
I think about Gwen's necklace floating. The static in the lights. The coffee mug that exploded when I looked at it too long.
"Nope," I lie.
He nods. "You're very brave, Leon. But you don't have to be alone."
The air hums. My ears pop. For a second, I feel him—not physically—but mentally, like fingers brushing the edge of my thoughts. I jerk back.
And just like that, he smiles again. "We'll talk again." He said, sliding a slick white flyer across the table to me which I just quickly shoved in my pocket.
I stand up fast. Too fast. The floor feels like it's five degrees tilted. My vision glitches.
I bolt.
Out into the hallway, the world starts to pulse. The bell rings—but it sounds like it's underwater. Kids walk past in slow motion. Their faces warp. Someone says my name, but it stretches into a drawn-out echo: "Leeeeeeooo—"
I clutch the wall. It pulses beneath my palm.
And then—
Snap.
A light above me bursts.
Snap snap.
Three more.
Gwen appears at the other end of the hallway. "Leon!"
"Stay back!" I bark, but my voice doubles in pitch and tone, like I'm speaking through a cracked radio.
She takes one step forward—then stops as the air around me ripples, shoving her back gently like a cushion of wind. Her hair floats. Her shoes lift off the ground for half a second before gravity remembers she exists.
My eyes sting. My hands burn.
And then it stops.
Like a switch flipped off.
Everyone stares.
I run. I don't know where I'm going, but I end up on the football field. The bleachers sway slightly. The goalpost leans. I collapse into the grass, chest heaving.
And then—
Darkness.
No—not darkness. Something else. A vision.
I'm floating.
Above me: a vast celestial garden. Roots spiral through stars like vines through shattered glass. Glowing seeds orbit dead suns. In the middle, I see... me. But younger. Smaller. Naked inside a vat.
A voice, warped like old tape: "The seed only blooms through pain."
Then the garden burns.
I see cities collapsing. Oceans rising. A flash of silver-blue and then…
I'm there. Standing on a tower of rubble.
A god. A monster. Both.
Then a whisper: "You were built to ascend."
I gasp awake.
The sky is gray. Someone's standing over me.
It's Jesse.
No smile. No jokes. Just a hand offered down.
I take it.
Across the street, Carol watches from her car.
Her eyes are unreadable.
And in my chest, something hums.
Like it's waking up.
> Something's wrong with me. Something's inside me. And I think it wants out.