Chapter 10: Thursday Afternoon, 4:06PM

Alaina rolled her tight, sweaty shorts down over her hips and stripped them off her legs, tossing them into the laundry hamper. She performed a similar process for her likewise moist and snug top, followed by her sports bra. The scrunchie holding her hair up was the last to go.

Then she cleaned.

This is truly the greatest Skill of all time. One second I’m so sweaty and hot that I want to fall over and die, and now I just want to sleep forever because I’m so tired. Ugh, I guess that’s what I get for skipping my rides for a couple weeks. Never again!

She looked down at her trim stomach. At least I don’t eat a lot, otherwise I might have started getting fat. She snorted. An onahole with love handles is probably a specialty item. Gross.

She pulled open her dresser and retrieved a plain set of cotton underwear, then finished off her home-wear with her usual sweat pants and hoodie. The hoodie somehow managed to get caught on her head as she threw it over her, and she closed her eyes and pulled it down harder just like always. She felt a pinching on her forehead as the material finally slid down, and a cool breeze flowed over her face. The abrupt temperature change stung.

The redhead threw back the hood of her sweatshirt and brushed her hair back, wrapping it in the scrunchie she held in her hand. That feels much better. She opened her eyes and looked at herself in the mirror over her dresser.

Her mouth dropped open, and her breath caught in her throat. Her lower lip began to tremble.

“That was a great ride, Lainy,” said her freshly-showered mom, stopping in the doorway of her daughter’s room. “You kept up pretty—Lainy! Oh, no, what happened!”

The left half of Alaina’s face was an angry red, oozing blood in some places. The skin had been completely stripped away, hanging loosely at her jawline in a bundle. “M-mom,” she stammered, looking over with wide eyes.

Her left eyelid was gone. The left side of her full lips—the same lips she’d always been proud of—were now a sinewy texture she didn’t recognize, and blood flowed freely down over her mouth.

The entire half of her face began to radiate an unbearable stinging that made her eyes immediately start watering. Blood began to flow from more spots. “Help...”

She turned back to the mirror, her eyes widening further as she took in the monstrosity that she’d become. Tears flowed from her eyes, and she didn’t know whether it was from the shock, the pain, or the disfigurement. “What...”

“Lainy, don’t look!” her mother raced over and grasped her daughter around her shoulders, gently turning her away from her hideous reflection.

Alaina sobbed, clutching at her mom’s arms.

Her mother shushed her soothingly. “Don’t worry, Lainy. I’m here. It’s going to be okay. Let me have a look.” The older woman pried Alaina’s hands off of her arms and pushed the girl back slightly before she tipped her daughter’s face upwards. Her gaze turned analytical, and her pupils began to grow.

“You’re going to be fine, Lainy,” she said, giving a Mom smile. She grasped her daughter’s hands in hers. “This is going to feel ... Well, it’s going to feel bad, okay? And then it’s going to itch. But you trust me, don’t you, Lainy?”

Alaina squeezed her right eyelid shut and nodded. Her tears mixed with her blood on the left side of her face, flowing down onto her hoodie.

The pain stopped. Her body began feeling warm and comfortable, as though she was laying tucked in her bed about to fall asleep.

She looked up at her mom with hope in her eyes.

“I’m going to stop you for a moment, but only because I don’t want you to accidentally claw your face off again, okay, sweetie?”

Alaina tried to nod, but found that she was unable. She tried to blink, but her eyelid refused to budge. Her lungs were frozen. Her heart no longer beat in her chest.

But somehow she felt fine. She didn’t need to breathe, and her lack of heartbeat was not troubling.

She could still see, however. Mom had the tip of her tongue between her lips and seemed to be concentrating on something. At the lower edge of her vision, she saw her mom holding onto her hands.

A green tendril snaked out the top of her mom’s shirt. It approached Alaina’s eyes slowly. The end of it began to elongate and widen, until it blocked out her sight entirely.

It moved forward, and the essence of lilacs overpowered her senses.

She felt nothing, but somehow she knew that it was touching her face. She continued to feel nothing, but she knew that her skin was shifting, adjusting.

Her stomach couldn’t move, but she felt it clench, and a burning sensation spread through her entire body even though she was unable to feel it.

She panicked.

But she was floating on a cloud, far from anything that could be real.

The right side of her face itched. She couldn’t feel anything. But she felt this. It began spreading to the left.

She felt one of her fingers twitch. She had to scratch at her face, to tear at it, to do anything to make the itching stop. Another finger twitched.

The itching intensified, spreading up into her hair and down to her neck. It spread to her left ear.

Her arm jerked upwards slightly before it was restrained by a gentle, but impossibly strong force.

The itching turned into a prickling sensation that was somehow worse.

She lost her mind.

Her other arm twitched. Her legs trembled.

And then it was over.

Her vision returned, and the brightness of the overhead light burned her eyes.

She squinted.

“Whew!” said Mom. “Let me see how that went.” She carefully nudged her daughter’s chin upwards. “I do great work, if I do say so myself.” She nodded approvingly. “You can look now.” She applied pressure on her daughter’s shoulders to turn her towards the mirror.

Alaina let herself be rotated, her mind still trying to find itself. She stared at her reflection.

Her face was whole. Her pale skin was unblemished like it had been, her eyelid restored, and her lips were once again as she remembered. She touched her cheek softly, feeling her finger as it made contact.

She whirled around, her eyes watering.

“Hold on, young lady,” Mom held up a hand, preventing a life-threatening hug. “Don’t touch anything.” She frowned. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but it’s like your cells are losing adhesion. Your entire body is extremely fragile right now. Any significant force at all would...” she trailed off, her frown deepening. “Did someone do this to you? Who was it? Who did this?”

Alaina opened and closed her mouth. Her mind finally picked itself up from where it had been gibbering on the floor. What the fuck! Oh fuck, that was scary. Fuck, fuck, fuck! She turned back around, looking at herself in the mirror. Fuck, that’s a memory I never want to think about. Ugh.

She grimaced, watching her newly-grown face contort just like she expected. “Amazing,” she whispered. “How did you do that?” She looked over her reflection’s shoulder at her mom.

“We can talk about that later. I need to know who did this to you. Then I’m going to make them undo it.” Mom’s frown morphed into a scowl.

Someone did that to me? Alaina trembled. Who could do something like that? A Skill that makes someone fragile? That’s... She frowned. Then she tipped her head back and groaned. Yup, that’s just one of my fucking Traits that I didn’t have to live with before it changed. Level eighty one now. Great.

“It’s...” she sighed. “It’s something from my Class, Mom. I think it’ll probably pass in an hour or two.” Or after Laura spends a little more time cuddling and fucking me out of Will’s head.

“From your Class?” Mom’s expression grew thoughtful. “Interesting.” She tapped a finger against her lip. “If you think it’ll be over with in an hour or two then I don’t want you to leave this room until then, okay, Lainy? I don’t want to risk anything happening if you try to go down the stairs.”

Alaina frowned. “What could happen to me just going down some stairs?”

“If you stepped down even a tiny bit too hard, your femur would probably shatter, for starters,” said Mom while looking up out of the corner of her eyes. “Honestly, I’m amazed that your body is able to hold itself together under its own weight just from the force exerted upon it from gravity.”

Alaina blinked. Is she serious?

“Be careful when you talk, your tongue might shred itself in your mouth if you move it too quickly. Don’t walk around, don’t sit down, Lainy, you probably should avoid moving as much as you can.” Mom gave her a worried look. “I’m not trying to scare you, but this is serious, sweetie. I can only do so much.”

The older woman looked at her watch. “If you aren’t better by six-ish I’ll call in and tell them I’m coming in late tonight. Or maybe not at all.” She pressed her lips together tightly.

I’ve never seen Mom this worried before. So this is what “fragile” means from this fucking Class Trait, huh? I should have expected as much.

Alaina’s stomach growled. How did I not notice how hungry I am? “Um, Mom, do you mind getting me something to eat if I have to stay here? I’m so hungry. What time is it, anyway? I feel like I haven’t eaten for days.”

“Sure, sweetie, I’ll go make you some soup. And it’s a little after five; I took my time cleaning you up so you’d be just as pretty as always.” Mom gave her a smile which quickly turned into another frown. “I don’t want you getting bored and breaking your fingers by fidgeting while I’m downstairs. Let’s do this...”

I guess maybe I do fidget a little when I’m nervous. Sometimes.

Alaina’s mom walked over to the desk, passing out of her daughter’s range of vision. “Don’t look over here,” she called. “I’m not going to say it’s a secret or anything, but you’ll regret it if you see this. It’s gross, and I say that as someone who’s operated on smokers’ lungs.”

If Mom thinks it’s gross then I really don’t want to know. But at the same time I kind of do. Ugh. I’m so curious! But I think I’ve already hit my quota for grossness today.

“That should do it,” Mom’s voice came from the spot she’d moved to. “Now don’t look over here until I say it’s okay. Or do. But I did warn you, Lainy.”

Mom walked back towards her field of view. “Okay, I’ll be back in a few.” She continued walking, speaking as she walked out the door. “First—”

The source of her voice snapped over to the corner of Alaina’s room, just outside her field of view. “—I want to know about what’s going on with your Class. You said it’s only going to keep going for another hour or two? Is this some kind of Quirk?”

I really, really want to look. I just watched her walk out of the room. But it sounds like she’s right over there. What the fuck, Mom. “Something like that. Um, Mom, did you just clone yourself?”

The sound of her mother’s chuckling echoed in the room. “No, Lainy, don’t be silly. I’d never do that. Can you imagine two of me running around? The world isn’t big enough. But I thought you’d want to know more about my Class, and we can’t exactly talk about that over a phone. You never know who’s listening.”

I can’t help but notice she didn’t say that she couldn’t do it, only that she wouldn’t. Mom, what are you? “Alright, um, that’s a good point. I didn’t really think about that. So what is your Class, Mom?”

“Oh, Alaina,” Mom said, sounding amused. “You want to know what my real Class is?”

Her real Class? So she’s not an [Oncologist]?! “Yeah, I do.”

“Well,” her mom said. “Hm. I thought it might come to this some day. I didn’t think it would be so soon, though.”

Someday? So soon? “Um...”

“You see, Lainy, I don’t have a Class. I’m actually not even from this planet originally. But that’s probably obvious to you now since you’ve seen what I can do, isn’t it?”

Alaina blinked. What the fuck. I’m ... I’m part alien?

“Yep, your old mom’s an alien. I’m the last of my kind, locked in a bitter intergalactic battle for dominance since the dawn of time. My species comes from a galaxy far, far away—”

“Moom!” Alaina yelled. “Can’t you be serious for one fucking second?”

Her mom’s cackling laughter resounded in her room. “Was it the ‘last of my kind’ bit or the ‘bitter intergalactic battle’? You always did love those kinds of movies when you were little.” The laughter continued.

Argh! Mom is really the worst sometimes. Alaina frowned.

“My Class is [Oncologist], just like I’ve always said, Lainy. I’ve never lied to you. There’s just some things that you weren’t ready to know about yet.”

“And the things you can do are common for everyone who has that Class?” asked Alaina.

“Don’t be silly. There’s nobody else like me. Probably.”

Alaina rolled her eyes. “Then how did you get to be ... Y’know. Like you.”

“You know I had the [Biologist] Class before this. What level do you think I was when my Class changed?” her mom’s disembodied voice asked.

What level? Didn’t she tell me once? I thought she said it was around fifty. “Fifty-ish?”

“No, no, sweetie. You’re thinking of the time when I said what the average level for Class changes was back when you were ten years old, aren’t you?”

Was I really only ten? She has an amazing memory. Or did she read my mind?

“I told you the other night that I worked in a lab researching Classes. While I was there, I formed a hypothesis. What if Class changes aren’t supposed to be beneficial? What if, instead, they’re an attempt to maintain the natural order?

“You’ve heard of how Skills and Traits grow more powerful based on the level they’re acquired—they even teach it in school. So why on earth would anyone want to change Classes if it means they would start getting weaker Skills? Why does everyone want their Class to change instead of wanting it to stay the same?”

Alaina frowned. “Well,” she began. Then she frowned more. Why would they? That’s a really good point. When Daniel was describing Will’s father, he said that his Class was [Arbitrator] and that it had changed multiple times. I thought it was scary at the time because it meant his other Classes had probably reached level fifty or so and his new Class was more powerful. But what if he’d just kept his original Class? Wouldn’t he have even more powerful Skills?

Just from my own experience, the Skills that I started getting after level seventy or so were on a completely different level. I stopped fucking aging! I could heal injuries by licking them!

“I mentioned anomalous Classes to you, Lainy. The first requirement for a Class to be anomalous is that the Class has to level fast. By the time I had turned twenty two, my [Biologist] Class was already level one hundred fifty.”

Alaina blinked. That’s unbelievably fast. And that would have been ... Fuck, that was almost thirty years ago? Her Class only changed to [Oncologist] when I was ten, which means she had another seventeen fucking years? If she gained that many levels every four years... Her eyes widened.

“That’s not to say my growth was constant,” her mom’s voice continued. “That’s not how Classes work. The speed of my Class growth scared me back then. The Skills and Traits I was gaining—the Quirks—it was completely overwhelming for a young city girl. So, I shut everyone out and lied, saying my Class was always level four or five. People pitied me, they mocked me, they even harassed me while I was finishing my doctorate. But what does any of that matter when you’re a twenty five year old doctoral student with a level two hundred and three [Biologist] Class?”

Her mother laughed delightedly, and Alaina felt like everything she knew about her mother was crumbling away.

Then Mom walked back into the room, smiling, with a tray and a tall, narrow mixing bowl full of soup. “Just a sec, sweetie,” she said as she walked over to her daughter’s desk. Alaina saw her put the tray down on the desk of the desktop and then step out of view of the mirror.

A discomforting squishing sound echoed through the room. Alaina struggled, barely managing to resist the urge to look.