In her next class, she drops into her seat with a quiet thud. Her head falls forward onto her desk. The room is spinning. Her powers have never done that before. Not like that.
She lifts her eyes just enough to glance toward Mr. Man. His aura burns low, warm, steady. Fire coiled beneath skin.
Could she trust him?
She hesitates. Then takes a slow, shaky breath.
She has to tell someone.
Kate: "Have you ever... seen something you weren't supposed to? Like a moment out of time?"
Mr. Man (raising an eyebrow): "That's a loaded question. What kind of moment?"
Kate (hesitating): "Not exactly a vision. More like a... feeling. A flash of something real, but not now. Like I knew something before it happened."
Mr. Man (leaning in slightly, voice low): "And what did you see?"
Kate (quietly): "Him. Ray. Not like he is now. Different. Older. Hurt. Standing next to me. It felt... important. But I don't know why."
Mr. Man (nods slowly, gaze sharpening): "Then it wasn't just a vision. It was a tether."
Kate: "A tether?"
Mr. Man (sits back, hands folded loosely): "Some people cross our paths for a reason. Not always love. Not always tragedy. But... something. A thread that connects you, even if you don't know what it means yet."
Kate (almost whispering): "It felt too real to be nothing."
Mr. Man (softly): "That's how it starts. Not with answers. With weight. With questions that won't let you go."
(He pauses, as if considering his next words carefully.)
Mr. Man: "Fate's not a straight line, Kate. It's messy. Crooked. Sometimes it feels like we choose... other times, like something older is choosing for us."
Kate: "And what if I don't want to be chosen?"
Mr. Man (half-smiling, but not unkind): "Then fight it. Ignore it. But don't pretend it didn't touch you. Chance meetings leave marks. The good ones—and the dangerous ones."
"I have this... ability," she admits, her voice trembling slightly. "I can see people's auras. Like, I see these shapes and colors around them. It's like... each person has their energy. I can feel it, see it. I can see their past, their present... sometimes even the future."
Mr. Man stares at her, processing her words. "You're saying you see colors around people?"
Kate nods, her hands shaking as she tries to calm the chaos inside her. "Yeah. And they mean things. Your aura, for instance, is mostly blue. Calm, steady. But there are these unstable glass cracks where threads of black emerge. It's wisdom, clarity, but also... tension. You've seen a lot, Mr. Man. You understand things, but you're holding onto something. You don't trust everyone, especially me. Not yet."
"And Ray's... his aura? It's different. I've never seen anything like it. It's this deep purple, almost black, swirling like smoke. It's chaotic. Unstable. However, at the core of it all is a tiny light, there's this magnetic pull, something that feels dangerous... powerful. It's like it's alive, reacting to everything around it. It's... unnerving."
Mr. Man watches her closely, a flicker of concern in his eyes. "Sounds like you're describing something pretty intense. Dangerous, even."
Kate swallows hard, her throat tight. "Yeah. It's why I'm so drawn to him. There's this fear, but also this need to understand it. I can't just ignore it."
Mr. Man's face tightens, and for a moment, Kate wonders if she's crossed a line. But instead of getting defensive, he sighs, a deep, weary sound that seems to come from somewhere far deeper than their conversation. He looks down at his hands, his fingers twitching slightly. Then, in a flash, he raises one of his hands in front of her.
A flicker of flame erupts in his palm, glowing bright against the dim light of the room. It dances for a moment, casting strange shadows on the walls. The fire is no ordinary flame—it seems to pulse with an energy of its own. It flickers like it's alive, as though the very essence of his being feeds it.
Kate's breath catches in her throat. Her heart races. "Mr. Man... what is that?"
He extinguishes the flame with a flick of his wrist, the embers vanishing into thin air as though they were never there. He lowers his hand slowly, his expression darkening. "That's part of me," he murmurs, more to himself than to Kate. "A power I don't show often. It's not something I use lightly."
Kate's eyes widened. She feels a shiver run down her spine. "You can control fire?"
Mr. Man nods, his gaze heavy. "I've learned to control it over the years. But it's not just the fire. There's a lot I've had to... endure to get this far. To learn to control everything inside me." He looks up at her then, his eyes more intense than she's ever seen them. "It's hard to trust people, Kate. When you've seen the darkest parts of a person's soul—when you've felt that darkness crawl under your skin... it changes you. It makes you cautious. Suspicious. You learn to keep your distance, to trust only the smallest pieces of yourself. And even then, it's hard to know if anyone's worth it."
Kate is silent for a long moment, feeling the weight of his words, the depth of his experience. Her eyes flicker over his aura—something is shifting. The calming blue she saw before is now consumed with jagged black lines, It's not just tension anymore. It's something darker. Something heavy.
She swallows, her voice barely above a whisper. "I can see it... your aura. It's changing."
Mr. Man looks at her, his eyes softening for just a second before the guarded expression returns. "It does that sometimes. You learn to live with it."
Kate is struck by how much more complicated he's become in that moment—how much more she has yet to understand.
"It's hard, Kate. To let anyone close enough to see you for who you are, after you've seen the truth about everyone else."
Kate stares at him for a long while, feeling the gravity of his words, of his past. And in that moment, something shifts between them, something unspoken but understood.
Mr. Man is silent for a moment, his gaze shifting to the door, then back to her. "Whatever you're seeing... You need to be careful. Auras like that? They don't just appear. They mean something. And if you're right about Ray—well, you need to be prepared for what comes next."
Kate bites her lip, a weight settling in her chest. "I know. But I need to figure it out. Before it's too late."
Mr. Man leans back in his chair, his expression softening. "We'll figure this out together. Just promise me you won't do anything rash."
Kate gives him a small, reluctant smile. "I promise... for now."
He nods, his face serious. "Good. Now, you'd better get going. You've got less than two minutes to get to your next class."
Kate jumps up, startled by the time. "Crap!" She grabs her stuff and rushes out the door.
As she exits, Mr. Man mutters under his breath, barely audible: "Take care of yourself, Kate."
Classes end. The halls buzz with noise, but Kate feels distanced from it all, like she's still carrying some of that firelight from the conversation.
Kate stands near the register, awkwardly clutching a small bag of bird seed and a little water dropper. She's quiet, unsure if she's doing any of this right.
CASHIER (cheerful): "That little bird's lucky to have you."
KATE (half-smiling): "Hope it feels that way."
The door swings shut behind her with a soft jingle. She exhales and adjusts her bag. The late sun glints off glass storefronts. Just as she turns the corner—
—bam.
She crashes right into someone.
KATE (startled):
"Ah, I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking—"
Her bird food drops, scattering across the sidewalk. She crouches instinctively—but the man is already kneeling beside her, calmly gathering the supplies.
STRANGER (quietly): "No harm done."
His voice is deep. Polite. But not warm.
Kate looks up—and her breath hitches.
He's handsome. Ridiculously so. Almost like something out of a dream: clean-cut, perfect skin, soft features, and golden hair that catches the light like a halo.
But that's not what hits her the hardest.
His aura.
Kate freezes for half a second as he hands her the bird seed.
Then she looks up.
And stares.
The man before her looks carved from light: perfectly tailored suit, golden hair catching the glow of the streetlamp, and a soft expression that borders on ethereal. Nothing is threatening about his smile.
But his aura.
It pulses.
Black and red, ancient and vast. Not just dark, but vile, like a dying star collapsing into itself. It slithers beneath his skin like something alive. A storm is trying to be human.
It doesn't match his face at all. And as she looked too long, she fell inward.
Glimpses.
Cities in flames.
Skies are bleeding black.
People screamed without sound as the ground cracked open like dry paper.
Statues of gods melting.
Children turning to ash in golden light.
Something—something standing at the center of it all. Still. Watching.
The aura wrapped around it like a serpent eating its tail.
Kate's pulse spiked. Her eyes widened, pupils shrinking. It wasn't just a dark future—it was every possible future collapsing. The threads split and split again, infinitely, and in each one...
He was there.
Sometimes with fire in his eyes.
Sometimes with wings.
Sometimes a king.
Sometimes a corpse.
All of it radiated from him like heat off asphalt—inevitable, inescapable.
Her hands trembled. Her breath caught halfway in her throat like it didn't want to leave. She felt cold, even though the sun was warm against her skin. It was like standing in the middle of a crowd and watching everyone turn to dust. Like being the last person on Earth, and somehow still not alone.
Her lips parted.
Kate (barely audible):
"...Armageddon."
The word slips out before she even realizes she's said it.
The man's head tilts. A muscle jumped in his jaw, but his voice stayed smooth, the corner of his mouth lifts, ever so slightly.
MAN (slightly furious): "How do you-?"
Kate's breath catches. Her fight-or-flight hits hard.
She bolts.
No warning. No words. She turns and runs, full tilt down the sidewalk, bird supplies clutched to her chest, heart racing like a drum. She doesn't look back.
"Don't think. Just go."
Her legs didn't feel like hers. The sidewalk swam under her feet, and every second felt like she was moving through static.
She clutched the bag of bird food tighter to her chest like it was the only thing anchoring her to the moment.
And then, the thought hit her like a brick:
She was just like that bird.
Shaken. Alone. Vulnerable in ways no one around her could see.
"You're not gonna die," she whispered, but she wasn't sure if she meant the bird or herself.
Maybe both.
The bird's fading aura. Her own trembling hands. That thing—that man—with a smile as sweet as poison.
She ran faster.
"I'm still here," she thought, repeating it like a mantra.
The world might be burning somewhere in the distance, but right now, all she had to do was get back.
Before it was too late.