"Hmph," Enapay said, placing his hands on his thighs. It was evident from his facial expression that the sensation of the liquid moving across his body and clothing was more than a little odd. He sniffed, looked over to Marcus, and blinked a few times. "Definitely need a smoke after that one."
Marcus quickly thought up something to say to change the subject.
"I meant to ask you before, where did you get hat knife I saw you with earlier?"
Enapay pulled out the switchblade and flicked out the blade, inspecting it. "This thing? I happened upon it about 3 weeks ago. Dunno what these intials mean. I had just woke up after few years. Kinda didn't know what to do with myself. Just having the world fall apart in a few minutes, like that. Being fourteen and then you wake up one day and over four years have passed. I was just walking barefoot in my Batman pajama pants after a nightmare, trying to cope, and you wouldn't believe what happened to me."
---
Roughly 3 weeks earlier..
Enapay was walking on a sidewalk in the dilapidated Hell's Kitchen at one the morning, though he did not actually know the time. He was in much physical pain since the day he had escaped, and his powers seemed to not be working. Despite the odd cold, he was only wearing loose fitting, black Batman pajama pants and a plain white t-shirt, with no shoes or socks. He held himself, gazing on the very light bit of snow that began to fall. An incredulous expression on his face, Enapay figured the Event had royally screwed up the Ozone Layer and kept walking.
His amber eyes were slightly bloodshot and puffy, evidently from crying. The nightmares weren't so much fabricated bad dreams as horrible memories. They were of the Omega Event, of course. Brandon and his family dying. All of the people that must have died when his body shut down. It was all too much.
The teen sniffled and exhaled, his breath visible. He heard something, causing him to stop in his tracks. Still getting used to his new found hearing abilities, he started to look around. The noise continued. It was reminescent of a rope stretching, except it sounded much more sickening, more flesh-like. Brows furrowing, Enpay was focusing on where the sound came from. A sewer grate adjacent to the sidewalk across from him. Enapay stopped holding himself and clenched his fist.
Something wrestled with the grating for a few seconds, before the metal was thrown away and a thick, plant-like, brownish green tentacle rushed out of the opening. A disturbing, high pitched squeal that Enapay couldn't place sounded as the horrible extension lashed out at him. Fight or flight insticts engaged, flight was the only option for Enapay, as his powers were inactive. He raced down the sidewalk, running at only around 10mph. The tentacle was his shadow. The teen knew that it wasn't going to let him go.
Breathing frantically, Enapay pushed himself harder and sped up to about 20mph as a result. It seemed that his powers weren't completely inactive. After a few more seconds of running, the teen ducked into a dead end alley, taking shelter. He hugged wall with his back, and, after everything went silent, slid down to a seated position. A loud yelp escaped his lips and he hopped back to his feet, removing a knife that had been driven deep into his upper right thigh.
Enapay only had a moment to examine the bloody blade before the creature that owned the tentacle squealed again. It must have heard him. Before Enapay could even consider where to run next, the tentacle was hauntingly jerking and slithering down the alley. The vile limb wrapped around his left arm, and, with a crushing grip, yanked him off of his feet. It then proceeded to drag it's new victim out of the alley. Legs flailing, Enapay's heart sank as he felt that all hope was lost. The bones in his arm were cracking.
Then, he remembered the switchblade in his right hand and, in a last ditch effort, began to saw at the tentacle with the knife. Despite his currently unimpressive strength, only matching that of a fit human, Enapay made progress, extracting a vicious slime and blood combination that stunk of a warped chlorophyll. The monster's squeal was now one of pain.
By the time Enapay was dragged to the end of the alley, he wrenched the blade completely through the tentacle. The monster cried loudly and the tentacle quickly retracted, traveling back to the sewer grating it exited about two minutes ago.
Enapay felt a tinge of relief, but the chills continued to make their way across his frame. The remaining length of the tentacle, about five feet long when uncoiled, fell off of the teens now broken forearm and hit the ground with a sickening slapping sound. It lazily attempted to wrap itself around Enapay's ankle. Enapay snatched his leg back, turned the blade to a reverse grip, and fell to his knees, wildly stabbing at the section of tentacle until it ceased to squirm.
He then stood up, wincing at the pain of the stab wound under his butt, folded the blade back into the handle, and firmly squeezed it in his hand. He descided that he would keep it in case he remained powerless and needed to defend himself again. "I need to get back to Harlem. It's a long walk," he muttered, holding his injured arm. As he walked, or rather limped, the boy didn't worry much, knowing that his sleep was a healing hibernation, where all injuries were healed.
---
Present Day
"Trippy stuff, huh?" Enapay said, as he had vividly decribed the recollection to the group. He still held the knife in his hand.
"I said get off me!" sounded across the block. It wasn't nearly as splitting as Roar's yell, but it definitely took Enapay by surprise. Enapay looked to Roar before looking towards the person that said it. "Lloyd. Are you related to him or something?"
