The incredible Alk.
Her phone buzzed incessantly, and Suvarna was frantically running about her room. She quickly picked up her phone and immediately threw it down.
‘9.02. Shit. Shit shit shit shit SHIT!!!’
Just then, her phone screen lit up – “Your cab will be there in 2 minutes.”
She got into the cab at 9.15. Alka watched as she got in, decked up like a doll. Suvarna did not notice the pulsing nerve on Alka’s forehead. And so, as fate would have it, she sat right next to Alka and made conversation. Or tried.
‘I’ve become so fat! None of my clothes fit me anymore, Alka!’
Alka mustered up all her restraint and gave a tight smile.
‘I’m serious!! Look at my thighs! I must be the fattest person in this —‘
A few seconds later, Alka was walking in the sun, looking almost like a blur. If it’s even possible, she looked grumpier than she did at 9.15.
‘Fucking bitch,’ she cursed.
If you’re wondering what happened to the rest of Suvarna’s sentence, forget about it. Alka slapped it into silence.
Probably shouldn’t have done that. Felt amazing though.
She walked on, rejoicing the sweet “splat” that echoed when her hand met that bitch’s face. Lost in thought, she almost bumped into a pole. She looked up, and saw people in a rush. Mornings were her favourite. Nobody had time to spew pure bs. But she still wasn’t used to those white blurs she saw floating above everyone’s heads. She sighed and looked down.
Am I going to be stuck with this forever?
It all began last evening. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though she was the one who fixed the time and place, that is.
She and her boyfriend were meeting for lunch at the new Italian place on his block. The food was bland, lacklustre. Their conversation? Even more so.
Desperate to impress, her boyfriend leaned in and whispered, ‘I’ve been working on this experiment for a while. Top secret project. But I want to show you. I think you’ll like it.’
She looked at him and rolled her eyes. He was a physicist with an obsession for crazy experiments. Things often blew up in his face, and his hair was permanently singed.
Why am I dating this idiot again?
He dragged her out before she could answer that thought.
His apartment was gloomy, a smell of chemicals wafted out as soon as she opened the door.
‘It’s going to change the whole world, my discovery. A new type of radiation. You’ll never guess what it will do.’ He looked at her expectantly.
‘Well? Show me then? What is it?’ She smiled uncertainly.
‘It’s a new type. I’m calling it Gomma rays. Too much exposure could kill you though. But the right amount of it gives you an ability to read minds!’
He opened the door to his lab and she immediately felt it. Something wrong. She turned to tell him she wanted to get out, but it was too late.
He was already inside the room, his hands on the switch.
She almost saw it in slow motion. The explosion threw her boyfriend across the room, Alka receiving the full impact of it. Pieces of broken glass covered the floor. Her ears felt blocked.
‘Are you ok?! I’m so sorry, I don’t know how this happened!’
She slowly opened her eyes, and immediately she saw, on the pieces on the floor, there was something wrong with her reflection. Her face had a few cuts and bruises, her hair was disheveled. There was also a white, glowing “0” floating above her head. She waved her hands above her head. No effect. She rubbed her eyes and glanced again. No change.
Her boyfriend was now shaking her by her shoulders. ‘Are you alright? Do you remember your name?? Please don’t tell anyone that I’m working on this. I could lose my j – ‘
Her hand stung. ‘His face must sting a lot more,’ she noted with satisfaction. She saw the same ‘0’ above his head too. But it was preceded by five more digits. Her own reflection now showed a feeble ‘5’. She wondered what that meant.
That evening was more eventful than she had expected. She flipped tables, pushed people out of her way, even flicked an annoying kid’s nose. Every time, she noticed the number go up from ‘0’ to a few more digits. But never more than 10.
Slapping Suvarna was the best so far, though. Always wanted to kill her.
But still, this was an oddity. What did these numbers mean? What was happening to her?
Just then, her boyfriend called. She cut him short before he could start his monologue – ‘What exactly were you working on again? What do those rays do?’
‘That’s what I wanted to tell you… there’s been a mistake…’
She gripped her phone tighter.
‘Overexposure to Gomma radiation drastically reduces your tolerance for human society. It induces abnormal amounts of adrenaline in sudden spurts. I’m so sorry. I never should’ve put my girlfriend in such danger.’
‘Ex’, she said with relish and cut the call.
Tolerance for human society, my ass. It reduces tolerance for absolute bull shit.
This is my calling. This is my destiny. I’m meant to save this world from idiots. Wherever they cause trouble, I’ll be ready for them. Waiting in the shadows.
I am… the incredible Alk.
-Cue music-.
