Hi. You don’t know me, but you will. I don’t exist. Not as a human anyway. You’re a human, you who are reading this. Unless I am reading this. Or Mehjeer. But we’re still not sure about him. This might sound a little bit stingy, but I personally hope he’s not human, because otherwise…I’m alone.
My name is Ettina, or Etti, and I’m a fourteen year old girl. I’ve lived a pretty normal life for what I am. Only thing is, I have a pretty weird life. This time I mean the word life as in the way I am created to live as, not the way I have adapted to live like. I have a ton of weird powers-and I don’t mean stuff like flying; that classifies as normal compared to the powers I have.
Mehjeer is a thirty-year-old scientist who discovered me. He completely erased me from everyone’s memory I was close to. I didn’t demur. Actually, I shouldn’t label them as people I was close to. I was close to them physically, of course, and they were close to me emotionally, but I wasn’t. I just couldn’t bring myself to have any emotional connection with them. So it didn’t really faze me to start a whole new life.
Mehjeer is such a better human than any of those other people. He’s helping me with my powers. He’s not evil, either-he is like a parent. Maybe because we are close, mentally and emotionally, and because he is somewhat the same kind of human as me. Actually, we aren’t even sure if I’m human. We think I’m not. He is human, definitely; he is a much less severe case of whatever it is. He’s pretty sure that the world will know far before I do about any of my incoming powers. The only way I gain them is when my brain goes into overdrive and I put myself into a coma. I’m frozen for the whole night while the power moves in.
Frozen mentally, not physically.
Actually, I have no control over what happens when I’m in those coma things. I mean, I could set fire to the forest and I wouldn’t know.
The good thing is, it only happens when it’s a New Moon. Yup, once a month I either get a new power or do something else weird, like teleport to the sun, or hypnotize the world into a zombie army, or like, start demolishing cement.
Mehjeer has the same problem. But he thinks that we need an outsider to help. Luckily, we look perfectly human when the moon has some body to it. We look perfectly not human when the moon is completely blackened once a month. And the night before and the night after we look a little dysfunctional, too, but at least we have control those nights. We just can’t leave our house. Our house triples as a safe area, a laboratory, a home. But, our home isn’t safe enough when we go on that rampage, which is why we need a human to help us.
Before we get into that, let me tell you the powers I have developed so far.
There is one power I got before I met Mehjeer, and that is why he discovered me. It’s the power to slow down time. Mehjeer and I have unusually high levels of adrenaline, which allows us to slow down time when our adrenaline hits our bloodstream. When he first saw me, a little girl was just about to fall out of a shop window. She fell out, and my adrenaline raced. I leapt up in the air, time slowing. I was able to climb up the jutting brinks just in time and grab her, placing her in the window. I sprinted down half the boulevard before time caught up and ran normally. It was all over the news; the only available picture was a smear of gray, me, and a smudge of pink, the girl. I ran. I didn’t want to be praised. It was the first time I had used any powers. The next day, Mehjeer brought me to join him.
This one was the toughest one to master, Mehjeer and I got this one the same new moon, about a year after we met. I can move my hair. That’s why Mehjeer and I have really long hair that tickles our knees. Both of ours are snow white and shimmer with glints of silver in the moonlight. We can move our hair like limbs, and they’re better because it doesn’t hurt if they get cut, and they only hurt a little if it gets ripped out. It’s great, because well, first of all, my hair always looked perfect, and I didn’t have to coax it with clips, I just moved my hair. Also, while having one short one is powerless, an army of long hair is deadly! Or can be-with the right training.
Mehjeer likes this power of mine the best-he is so envious that I have the ability to Squam and he doesn’t. Just one mystery of our lives. My power is hard to describe. When I move my spirit, I take over the body or item. When I Squam, my spirit goes into the person or animal, but my body stays out, and stares into the animal’s or person’s eyes. Then, while my spirit is in the person or animal, I have no control-my spirit generates fear. The fear takes over the person or animal, while I am unfazed. That is all the Squam does, but, unlike spirit moving, I can Squam many people or animals at once. It works well if we need to clear an area.
The next power I am about to tell of is the most powerful of all-and the most deadly when the moon is new. I have ultimate control over gravity. Mehjeer has very little control over gravity, but enough to pin me down to the floor if I get out of control near New Moon and he still has some sense.
One New Moon not too long ago, or so the security cameras told, my normally white eyes turned blue. And, when I mean white eyes, I mean the normally brown or blue or green part-and the pupil. The normally black part of my eyes is always, always white, New Moon or not. My old parents were told it was a birth defect. No-Mehjeer has it too. It’s a birthmark of whatever-we-are. So, my eyes are all white, except for two faint gray circles in each eye outlining the edge of the normally colorful section and the pupil.
Anyway, they turned blue, a deep, meaningful ocean blue that seemed to have a certain kind of depth, like they were windows to an unseen world-my world. My skin paled to match my hair, and radiated light, like I was a disco ball, and my uncovered skin was the light. Blinding light, so bright the camera barely picked it up. My skin tightened and illuminated my muscles, bones, organs…whatever was closest to the skin. My mouth was pitch black, teeth, tongue, and gums included. The part of your eyes that is white, maybe with some red veins going through them…Pitch. Black. Normal for New Moon. Then, my hands, so white you could see blue blood pumping throughout them, dived down and spread out like they were trying to squish an octopus into a box. The camera fell to the floor, the ceiling crashed to the floor around Mehjeer and me, and pretty much, the gravity tripled on the planet-except under me. A scream erupted out of my mouth, my hair all standing up on end-a spitting image of a banshee. I never took a breath. During New Moon, I don’t need air. This went on for hours, until the breaking camera picked up on the pale pink lights of the rising sun. The second the area the moon would have been was gone on the horizon, my hair and arms fell. My eyes started to lighten, and as they did, the world was fixed, and the humans just thought they had a bad dream.
So, no biggie, right? No. The animals knew. Infants knew. Young children, too. They just get calmed down by the stupid adults and teenagers who forgive and forget.
So, normally I have to wear sunglasses when I go outside. Whatever the weather. Or else, someone will see my eyes, and, it all goes downhill from there.
Well, there is only one last one I know of. It’s…well, it isn’t as dramatic. But it’s useful in school-and yes, I go to school. Have you heard of auras? Well, it’s supposed to be the light that radiates from your soul. Well, I don’t know anything about that, but I do know that one of my powers is that everyone, every single person loves me. And I’m not being full of myself, and I’m not lying. It’s a fact. It’s actually a power, Mehjeer tested it. He has no other explanation other than that I have the power to make humans love me. That comes in handy too-and in many ways. No one is unaffected by this, except Mehjeer-but he loves me anyway. But, trust me, I’m grounded. It will never get to my head. And I am not superficial. It is simply a power-and this one I cannot turn off or on. But, I don’t mean in love, love, I mean friendly love. Mehjeer has a feeling that the power to make people fall in love, like, romantic love with me is coming, which is either a good thing or a bad thing. Pro, I’ll have a date to the dances. Con, that power might not come in time. Okay, so when it comes to boys I’m like any other fourteen year old girl.
So, you may be asking, so what? Who’s the good guy? Who’s the bad guy?
I am the good guy.
I am also the bad guy.
Most of the time I’ll help you.
But come to me on New Moon…you might just die.
I’m not mental. This is the real deal.

Okay. So.

Mehjeer wanted to find a human helper, an outsider to help us on New Moon. I go to school-I’m a freshman in high school. I do have a couple acquaintances, none of which I would label as “friends.” Except for one.
Kirk Robin.