“Come in”
The young girl walked into my office. Her eyes were puffy as she’d been crying and she was nervous and confused. She was wearing a Negaband someone had fitted on her. She sat down at my desk and Lydia walked in. She came and sat next to me, also facing the girl. She looked down, sad. She had come in alone, there was no one there for her. I got up and sat down next to her, put my hand on hers.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Better,” she replied, “but emptier.”
“Emptier?”
“I can feel my power has gone”
“It’s not gone,” Lydia added, “temporarily disabled. Until we figure out what you have, we don’t know how unstable it is”
“I know what I had but something went wrong and it changed.”
“What do you have?” I asked.
“I had the ability to glow.”
“Glow? That was all?”
“No, it made me warm during the winter and cooler during the summer. But yeah, it was just glowing. But earlier, it hurt. It really hurt, it was instant pain from every part of my body, like I was melting down. That’s why I was crying. It hurt so much.”
“It’s okay now.” I turned to Lydia. “What’s going on?”
“She’s telling the truth. Her power didn’t cause this, it was manipulated just like mine and Bishops. You can take the band off, she didn’t cause it.”
She held her arm out and I took off the Negaband. Her glow returned to her.
“It’s brighter, but I feel much better now”
Lydia added, “Boss, this is the problem with the bands, you can’t have a setting on it, powers get enhanced after the Negaband barrier is removed, if people keep switching, they become stronger and may lose control of their power. I can see what her power was before, and she seems to have gained the ability to feel better in herself when her glow is on. If she feels low, she can glow, and it gets better. The Negaband needs to be on permanently or not at all.”
“So, it can be a cure if they really want it?”
“Um… Can I stay here, I don’t want to go back home? The glow may make me feel better but I’ll need it on all the time at home,” the girl asked.
“Yes, what’s your name?”
“Just call me Firefly”
“Great name, I’ll show you downstairs to your room.”