Josh continued…

He wanted her at once. It was like a magnetic force at work, trying to pull him to her, drown him in those shadowed eyes that were glancing around the multitude of people, eyes that were perhaps looking for something or someone interesting enough to help pass the time.

Fortunately for Josh he wasn’t yet drunk enough to bluntly ditch the girl he had come with and cause a scene when he invariably went bounding over to the new one.

Josh settled down, content for the moment to wait, continuing to make empty small talk with the banquet server while subtly keeping an eye on the short girl on the other side of the campfire. He observed a male friend of hers generally sticking to her side, but from the way they interacted he didn’t think that they were together. Perfect.

He didn’t manage to escape from the current girl until shortly before midnight, when he successfully pawned her off on some other dude they had met in passing. By this point the girl was so drunk and horny that she didn’t even notice Josh walking away as she was too busy locking lips with the new guy.

Josh wandered over to the circle of kegs and refilled his beer slowly, watching as the girl handed her cup to her friend, who started walking towards him. Josh finished and put the tap down, heading in a wide arc towards the general vicinity of the girl. This of course took him past the guy friend (who he ignored, and vice versa) and around the campfire. Short girl was standing on the outskirts of the firelight puffing on a pipe.

Fingering the little baggie of weed in his pocket, Josh grinned. He had an in.

He came up and introduced himself, managing not to slur his words even a little bit.

She smiled and shook his hand, told him her name was Teeny. He commented on the unusual name and she giggled, saying that her name was actually Christine but that so many people called her Teeny that she forgot her real name sometimes. He shared in the laugh.

Still acting casual, not like he was trying to pick her up, Josh pulled out his baggie and offered to load a bowl. She hesitated for a second, then agreed, on the stipulation that her boyfriend Nathan could join them when he came back with her beer.

Josh, more drunk than he was willing to admit to himself, assumed she was lying because she wasn’t attracted to him. He called her on it.

She said no, why would she lie? If she was single and wasn’t attracted to him, she’d just say so.

Chagrined and a little wobbly, Josh put a hand on Teeny’s shoulder to steady himself while he started to apologize.

PAUSE

You already know how I entered the scene and turned the three of them on, so we can skip that part and get right to the action.

PLAY

Teeny wrongly assumed that he was being entirely too forward and jerked back. Her shoulder turned to shadow and slipped right through Josh’s fingers, the momentum carrying her half around and sending her tumbling to the ground.

Josh was completely confused, and not only at her reaction. Did she just dematerialize or something? Or was he that drunk?

That line of thought cut off abruptly as a glowing blue strand of what looked like lightning passed over his eyes and down to his neck, where it tightened into a noose.

Josh felt the briefest tingle of static electricity before his power kicked in and absorbed the bolt into his flesh. He spun around to see the supposed boyfriend, a skinny little white kid, looking as confused as he felt. The kid was staring at Josh’s neck with eyes as big as dinner plates. Drunk, confused, and totally freaked out, Josh turned and ran.

Somehow he managed to snag a ride with a couple workers heading down the mountain, as they had work early the next morning and took pity on his drunken plight. Both of them commented on how cool his tattoo was. Josh replied incoherently, mumbling something about how he loved tattoos. After that they turned the music way up and thankfully cut off the need for conversation.

When he got back to his family’s hotel room, they were all asleep. He crept quietly past them and into the bathroom.

He saw in his reflection the ‘tattoo’ the workers had mentioned. Around his throat, in a perfectly circular necklace, was a band of white-blue lightning. Still confused and growing more than a little scared, Josh reached up his hands to his neck, fingers clawed as if to rip the ‘ink’ out of his flesh.

Again he powered up, and when his nails drew over the discolored skin the electricity started to pull free. What he didn’t foresee, though, was that as soon as it was free of his skin, it was once again live electricity, and it gave him one hell of a shock. He quickly let go, the lightning snapping back into place, once more a perfect imitation of a tattoo.

Josh was utterly wiped out by this point, so he decided screw it, he’d deal with it in the morning.

By the time his family started waking up, he had already showered and was wearing a turtleneck.