#csom

Not understanding her powers at all, Jess asked for help. It was hard for her. She was naturally talented at the things she enjoyed doing. What would they think if they saw her so weak? They had not made new friends in a long time. Jess couldn’t mess that up the day after! She told the two as subtly as possible. No need for begging on their knees right? 

Jess sat on a bench at a table at Minnie’s Dinner, the only dinner in a 60-mile radius. Jess hoped there wouldn’t be any robberies today, they wanted their milkshake. Rocking herself back and forth, Jess waited for their friends to join them. The dinner at this point was… calme, not empty but calme. The waiter was still waiting with her notepad, sweating hoping that the customer in front of her at least noticed the waiter’s presence. 

“Would you like me to take your order?” The waiter, Cathrine, asked once more, begging for Jess’s attention. Her annoyance exaggerates her Scottish accent. Jess jumped up from her seat surprised at the sudden existence of the waiter. She apologizes frantically ashamed of her blissfulness. “It’s fine Jess, but please tell me what you want to order so I can take some of the other tables?” Now, Jess felt even more horrible.

“S-sure eh… a soda please.” Jess got a dirty look from the supervisor from the other side of the dinner. And now Jess felt her insides turn to mush, lungs, and heart hitting each other so hard, both of these very vital organs weren't working anymore. Jess wasn’t breathing as she heard another voice in her head.

‘Why would someone order a soda anymore, it tastes like trash. Soda is the worst drink of all. It’s too sugary, I can’t drink it without burping like an ogre-’ 

The supervisor was looking away, hiding his trembling hands in his pockets. Why does that guy hate soda so much anyway? The poor client is on the brink of having a panic attack. The radio was playing Aerosmith loudly, The machine was hiding Jess’s short breath. 

Bells rang as two teenagers entered Minnie’s. Both of them walked to Jess’s booth and sat down. The boy, the arcade addict found out yesterday that he was named Michèal, said hello by hitting his head on the table and then staying there. The emo boy had not noticed his new friend's frantic breathing, but the half-Alien Daysie did. They sat next to Jess and initiated the conversation. “Hey, are you ok? You don’t look very ok…” 

Jess put herself back together as fast as she could, unfortunately, it only made it worse. “I- it's fine, It's fine. I'm f-fine.” 

“If you’re sure.” Daysie was not convinced. They kept glancing at Jess from their bottom eyes as they ordered their smoothie from Cathrine. Michèal is still… emoing his way to a good afternoon nap if that's still possible for him.

Jess was almost composed of their bout of psychic causing anxiety. “So! Okay…” She took a deep breath. “I’m going to ask you guys where to start because ever since yesterday I won't stop hearing the thoughts of so many people and I do not know how to control it! My head hurts when so many thoughts are happening simultaneously, and I’m not sure if I have other powers! I have no idea about any of how this kind of thing usually works an-”

 Michèal lifted his head before cutting her rant off. “Listen, if you think we have any idea what’s happening to you. We don't. We said we would help you yesterday, but we ain’t got any clues either except what you've said about your great-grandmother. I’m helping you so you won’t snitch.” He stole a sip of Daysie’s smoothie. 

Daysie snatched their paid drink from the freeloader and commented “This is not helpful Mike.” 

“Don’t call me Mike. And I’m telling the truth. The second she knows what she can do I’m leaving.” He retorted. 

“You don’t have to do this, I won’t tell anyone what you are and-” Jess explained, but was cut off by a pissed-off immortal.

“I’ll help, and it doesn’t mean anything.” Daysie watched with amusement. They hid their smile by covering the bottom of their face with their hair. Michèal noticed the mechanics' reaction and began fighting in a psychic battle without the actual psychic sitting next to them who was sipping on the straw of an empty cup and looking out the dinner window. Watching a black van turn the corner on the road of the arcade. ‘It must be a new game mom bought’ they thought.  The battle ended with Michèal victorious and he swiped Daysie’s drink without them looking. 

“Kay’ we figured you could read people's minds, you’ve said your great-grandmother worked as a psychic when she arrived in America and you can’t find her old stuff because of reasons. Those reasons being?” The black-haired boy asked. 

“I’m really bad at lying.” She answered.

“How does that even relate to what we're trying to do here?” His drink was lost to the original owner, who now kept both hands on the smoothie. 

“If my dad questions why I'm asking for  the supplies, I won’t be able to lie about it.” 

“Lying is not that hard, this is a simple task.” He tried to grab the smoothie again and failed.

“Like you're the one to judge.” Said Daysie while protecting their drink from the Emo thief. The thing about Jess’s parents was that they were great parents but not perfect. They told their teenage child that her they would never judge her for what she did or who she was. The arcade addict said almost everything that crossed their minds at the dinner table. Most of the time, her words would make up 90% of the conversation. She’s never hidden anything from her parents ever. They had even never thought about lying to her parents. 

“The only part of the plan we haven't thought about yet is how we're going to test the powers?” The half-alien asked. 

“we’ll improvise.” The gamer answered. 

“Check a dictionary because that's not the definition of a plan-”

The first part of the plan worked. Use Michèal’s car the get to Jess’s house. Jess asks for the stuff and doesn’t answer her parent's question before sprinting out of the house telling them she’s hanging out with her friends with the needed stuff in her arms. She almost messed up the question part too. The car was bolting off a second after Jess closed the door. Was that the easiest plan in the world? Yes. Was Jess’s parents the most confused parents in the world for that short 3-minute period of time? Also yes. Michèal parked his car in the Arcades driveway. It wasn't opened yet. The store was closed for a while. Jess’s parents said it was because of a problem with the wiring and it caused the games to stop receiving the electricity.  Daysie called it an extremely unlikely scenario based on what they saw while working on the broken arcade game.  Polybius was, yes, still broken. The back alley behind the arcade was empty the only other object was a trash bin. The corridor was empty and dirty. The teens had to bring out a table and a few chairs from the arcade before sitting down to do some improvising. After they didn't feel like they would get an unknown disease because of the concrete, the group pulled out the supplies. A stack of tarot cards, some herbs they had no idea the names of, and a crystal ball. Jess looked in awe at the objects in front of her. She had never met her great-grandmother Alafar but based on her chosen profession. She must have been cool as hell.  

The two other teenagers witnessed the smaller’s seemingly guided hand touch the glass ball and a sparking glow push out of the crystal object. The transparency of the crystal ball was replaced by a sudden multi-colored light flashing and pulsating into Jess. The light turned into stars that flew around the girl in front of it. Jess’s eyes lit up like a radiating rainbow, covering the alley with strange lights and colors. 

70 miles out of Milwaukee there is a small town filled with unknown curiosities. Normally in Wisconsin, there aren’t five different conspiracies happening at the same time. The weird is the usual in that small town. The citizens turn a blind eye to anything weird, and blame Satan or the government like any good small town! The 90s were a wild time… They’re not wrong anyways. But, sometimes it’s other stuff,  like aliens or vampires or a bunch of mafia guys. It depends on the day. It’s not like anyone believes the conspiracy theories of a crazy homeless man. Those guys go missing very often, odd… A good thing for trans people though, the citizens always know the other person’s chosen pronouns. Transphobia is somehow physically impossible. I’m not the one who did that. WINK WINK.

Now, you ask me. Deer narrator, how can a town with no name be so special? And I’d say, it’s not and don’t ask why. 

Anyway, Jess was one of these citizens! We’ll hear more about Jess soon don’t worry. She’s the protagonist of this novel so that's obvious. Let’s use her as an example of how life is in this town. We will start at the very beginning. Her parents had a love of technology, and they fell in love in that nameless town. They wanted to work on something that would live on by itself. Something that could thrive even if they died, a living legacy. So, they started a family business, an arcade. Oh, and Jess was born too. I could never forget about that.

Jess had a normal childhood, they know the names of their favorite servers. They go to school and have to survive a second robbery in a single week. The cops question the students at least once a month. Their uncle went missing one day, and the only clue was the excess amount of blood that was left in his room. Yes, he is still considered missing. No, the police did not do anything. 

Let me, your incompetent narrator, present the popular buildings of this small town. To start, I present Minnie’s Dinner—the most popular restaurant in town. From the sky, I’ve seen it get robbed 4 times in a row despite the fact the police station was the restaurant's neighbor.  No matter, people meet up here. It’s the community hot spot. Chatter lights up the diner every day, making it feel constantly alive. The staff is nice too if you want to give the town a visit. Just assume you might never leave, ever. 

Next up, is the already mentioned police station. Would not recommend going there. It is the opposite of the good kind of chaos in the dinner. The police does everything and nothing at the same time. It’s the epiphany of uselessness. Calling the cops is either waiting 40 minutes for one cop to walk 50 meters or one random dude busting in with guns blazing. The receptionist is the only thing keeping that thing open and working. 

Downtown is the big part of town, which includes Minnie’s and The police station. Jess and friends will include other parts of town I will not explain yet like the cinema and the facility. Oh, and also the multiple abandoned buildings on the outskirts of town but those are mostly in the other books

Forgot to mention this is a trilogy. 

This town will always be a beautiful mess. With a population of 900 people, the community learned to support each other in the weird town of Wisconsin. To help their neighbors mourn the loss of a loved one. The people might be in denial of what lurks around the corner, but they will always support one another. The support is one of the only things that help each other survive. The other option is guns. 

(btw this has not been beta read)

“Good day for a run, we’ll have some perfect clear skies over Milwaukee with a high of 98 degrees and a low of-” The radio made a buzzing noise before changing channels and playing music. The arcade was full today. It’s always like this Sunday evening. A crowd of excited kids and teenagers barged in to celebrate the weekend. Jess herself was playing one of her favorites. The joystick and buttons were controlled perfectly by her hands. They had a huge smile, their eyes reflecting the screen of Street Fighter 2. Her colorful button-down shirt over their yellow and orange T-shirt somehow worked. Her hot pink shorts did not even stand out in their outfit. 

She had a high score on most games in the arcade, mostly because her parents owned the place. When most kids could only play for a few tries depending on how many carters their parents gave them at the time. The energetic fifteen-year-old could play for all her heart's desires. Sure, her house was a 30-minute drive away from town, but that meant nothing when their parents were always at the arcade with them, giving her unlimited access to all her favorites. The sounds of her character hitting kicking, and beating the kid next to her were exhilarating. 

“K.O!” with an immediate celebratory pose from Jess, the kid started crying. Her adrenaline from the victory subsided. His eyes were watering and his loud crying made Jess regret hitting that super cool pose. 

“Hey kid, sorry… um. Hey! here.” Jess had extra coins on their person. She could always get more anyway. They put the coins in the kid’s hand. “Here, you were close to beating me!” He wasn't. “you deserve them.” The child was still crying and ran to where his mother was. The mother looked at Jess in a way Jess could not understand, subsequently the middle-aged woman turned her back, her child in her arms. Jess’s anxiety rose like water over a hot campfire. Should she have given more coins? Should she have simply let the kid win? It was only a kid. She didn't like losing but the kid had feelings too. The other kids at the arcade were judging her, right? God, she was so stupid. Made a kid cry today, such a good day at the arcade Jess! 

She felt the eyes of the guests stare at her, watching their every move, every word, every push of a button. The anxiety was killing her from the inside. Before they ran out, they went to the coin machine got more coins, and speed-walked to a game in the back of the arcade. Inserted 2 coins and her mind went back to work. Pushing buttons, playing the joystick, watching the screen, watching the characters brawl, doing anything to keep her mind clear. A blank mind is a better mind Jess though. Oh wait, she wasn't thinking at all. It was just her games and their hands. 

 As she won more and more tickets, and ran out of coins. The place became soon almost empty. The fewer eyes the better. No more watching the screen, Jess went to the prize counter to give her father the tickets. 

“Sweetheart, did you want to get anything today?” He asked cautiously, aware of his teenager's demeanor. 

“No not today…” Jess planted my butt down on the floor in front of the counter to finish some homework. The arcade was about to close and there were two people left in the Arcade. One of them was a young mechanic trying to repair one of the games. Jess remembered playing that game only once as a kid. Nobody could beat it, but they did. It’s one of the only victories that they have that no one else can beat. No one was able to repair it. When playing it, it felt like her mind was completely blank. True nothingness. She was nostalgic at that, no game could beat it. It was a unique one too. But Jess couldn't remember what it was about or how they beat it. The second she beat the new arcade game, it broke indefinitely. No mechanic could ever repair it. ‘It was too complicated’ they used to say. 

But that teen always tries. They always come back to try and finally fix the devil's machine, even so, the screen has never once come back to life. Sad really. 

Jess wondered if she could get that feeling back, no one watching, the feeling of emptiness. The feeling of no eyes. Constantly having eyes looking at her was exhausting. She thought about playing the old Pac-Man game. Hearing the familiar music, Pac-man’s eating noises. Thus, she tried, listening to nothing, blocking those pesky thoughts away. 

Breath…Breath…

Suddenly she felt the blankness again complete relaxation. Then she heard it.

‘Maybe if I could redirect the power to this wire. It might turn on this button-’

“What?” She whispered to themselves.

‘Be with people, there's no one here anymore. If you want to be a person be with people!-’

‘At least this place is so empty, it lets me experiment with this technology.-

The emo boy and the young mechanic were now the only people in the room. Her father left to join his wife.

‘ ‘Since no one can find out I’m-’ ’

‘Half-Alien.’

‘an Immortal being.’

“WHAT!” Jess screamed.

The two looked at Jess with confused expressions. The shock of what they had heard left a long silence in the room. Jess had a good look at the two of them. The Mechanic had, at a closer look, ashy gray skin. Their long blond hair was dirty from staying on the floor for so long, and their red button-down shirt acted as a dress, the utility belt was used to define their waist and black tights made them look smaller than they were. They also wore a bandana covering their forehead with sunglasses that covered their eyes. The bubbly teen couldn’t see their face properly and never did when they went to repair the game. 

Jess realized that they recalled the mechanic's voice. They were the alien thing! 

The emo boy was tall but smaller than the mechanic. He had straight black hair that covered his eyes. With his black hoody, the chain at his hips, his dark jeans, and eyes with tints of purple underneath them he was that practical definition of emo. He had an expression of concern, not concern for Jess, but with how Jess was looking at him, he knew his secret was out. His eyes a weird color-

Jess sputtered “Y-you’re a- an alien and he- he’s immortal!?” She was flaying her arms, pointing at things close to where the two were standing but never pointing directly at them. The other two tried to do two very different things faced with their secrets known by this small teenager. 

The grey-skinned ones got on their knees and began begging “I’ll do whatever you want, just please. I b-beg of you don’t tell anyone!” Their eyes filled with tears, and honestly looked extremely pathetic.

The other teen-ish boy went bolting in “If you tell anyone, you’ll bet your scrawny face you’ll end up six feet underground!”  He approached Jess with beast-like ferocity. Trying to grapple the tiny lady, however, the tiny hands held his arms together. Jess’s body jumped up and down in excitement. 

“Oh My GOD! That’s cool! I didn't even know that kind of spooky stuff existed! Oh and Aliens, wait aliens exist too? That's awesome!” The boy in black quickly put his mouth over the girl's face, forcing them to shut up. 

He looked back at the half-alien. He was surprised at the existence of extraterrestrial beings. After the rage, he became confused. How did this dumb-looking teenager know exactly what he was? He needed to find out how they knew straight away. He dragged the two left in the arcade in the bathroom in the back of the arcade. His unnatural strength carried the two over his shoulder. 

Jess was hitting their face, berating themselves for acting that way. They surely hated her now. The emo kid was so mad… She and the gray-skinned mechanic were thrown on the floor, the black-haired kid began pacing around the bathroom talking to himself. The sounds of his shoes tapping the floor repeatedly filled the small toilet room. The sounds do not have any echo. The room felt cramped, and a feeling of claustrophobia hit all three of the teenagers as well the awkwardness. The silence, the walking, being in a dirty toilet in the back of an arcade, all things that would make this secret revealing situation even more awkward. 

Jess felt bad for screaming out their super personal secrets, like what kind of person does that? She should've stayed quiet, she reasoned. The boy stopped in his tracks and turned his whole body to look at Jess in the eyes. “How did you know?” 

The neon-colored teen had not considered finding the reasons for that knowledge herself. To focus on the two super cool people she had met the minute prior. “I don’t know, I wanted to feel… I don't know and then I heard voices coming from inside my head, and then boom! They said what you guys were, and then I figured out it was your voices.” They got up quickly from the dirty floor. 

“You read our minds?” The half-alien asked. They also stand, cleaning their clothes off with a few wipes. They looked around a head taller than the boy.

“Yeah… I guess I did. I had no idea I could do something like that! I have to go tell my da-” she tried to run out of the room. The boy grabbed her wrist stopping her in their tracks. With pleading eyes, he whispered.

“You’re going to rat us out like that?” Jess felt the eyes watching her again, judging, telling her it was better if the town knew what they were. Should she trust these strangers? Well, they wouldn't be strangers if they knew their names, right?