“What the hell is this?”

Jacqueline had vigorously scrubbed the toilet bowl to the point where her arm and wrist were blazing. But in spite of all her efforts, there was something that was simply refusing to come off.

Jacqueline groaned, setting the toilet brush aside and getting down to eye the foreign substance for what could have been the millionth time.

It was a tricky thing to catch, simply glancing at the bowl would not reveal it. Jacqueline herself hadn’t noticed it until she began cleaning. And soon it became impossible for her not to notice it.

Never in her life had she witnessed something be this impossible to get off a toilet. The most extreme of stains had presented an easier challenge. No matter what she tried, it wouldn’t budge.

The most bizarre detail of all was that the substance itself did not look or even feel tough. Just a small piece of what looked like white silk. It could move, and it wasn’t a hard substance, but no matter what, it would not detach itself from the toilet bowl.

How did it get in there? How could it have gotten in there?

Jacqueline was stumped, and almost unnerved, which was the last thing she needed to feel right now.

She sighed and washed her hands, deciding to call it quits right then and there. She was planning on cleaning the shower too, until she got sidetracked. She didn’t want to deal with any of this anymore, she had too much on her plate right now.

She went out to the living room and looked outside the window. It was getting dark, and Ben still wasn’t home.

She said she’d be back by afternoon.

Jacqueline sat on the couch and turned on the TV to try to ease her nerves. She couldn’t find anything that interested her. Just a bunch of sports games, chintzy reality shows, and reruns of old TV episodes. In the middle of it she caught a channel playing Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, at the scene where Norman was talking to Marion in the room with his stuffed birds. She lingered on it for a bit, then switched. She’d seen the film before.

She went on for a few more minutes before she finally stopped at a news channel. This time it was playing a story that grabbed her attention, for all the wrong reasons.

“Three men were found lying in critical condition behind a city alleyway earlier today”, the newscaster said. “One of the men had a crushed wrist, another had a broken ribcage, and a third had a severe head injury.”

During the segment, photos and videos were shown of where the injuries took place. Jacqueline recognized them immediately. It was the closest city to their house, the one she had been to plenty of times.

The one Ben was sure to have run off to today.

“One of the men says a meta attacked them. The meta he says, was a young woman. They have not been able to give any further information. Police have not been able to identify this woman, but they say they have reason to believe she was not in her right mind.”

Jacqueline felt bumps line her skin.

“All of the men are currently in the hospital at the moment, one of them likely to have permanent brain damage from the incident. Despite this, they are all alive in stable condition. More will be reported from this story later on.”

Jacqueline reached her hand up and felt along her arm. She couldn’t stop herself from shivering.

The news show went on after that, but she didn’t pay attention. Hearing that story had put her on an edge so high she could hardly concentrate, at least on anything except…

She tried to reassure herself.

It… couldn’t have been Ben, right? No, of course it couldn’t. It had to be someone else. How many metas were in their area? It had to be more than one. Surely, there was some other woman out there with powers walking in that city today. There had to be.

It wasn’t Ben.

Jacqueline looked down at herself, managing to catch her legs raising up to her chest as if to come into a fetal position. She reoriented herself immediately. She was a grown woman, not some scared teenage girl. No sick fantasy her mind could come up with was going to torment her. She could handle this, she knew she could.

It wasn’t-

She nearly jumped as the front door opened, interrupting her train of thought. She was so caught up in… she hadn’t been paying attention to the window.

She saw Ben walk into the living room, dropping off her water bottle on a table and heading over to the kitchen. She came back in with a plate of a leftover steak, which she hadn’t even bothered to reheat.

“Hey Jackie, sorry I’m a little late.” She glanced over to the darkening sky outside. “A lot late. I got sidetracked and wanted to test out my new speed. I think I’m faster than I was yesterday.”

Jacqueline slowly nodded.

Ben continued eating the steak, taking bites that seriously pushed what a human mouth should be able to take in. Her entire demeanor for that matter oozed hyperactivity. Her legs shook at a speed that humans shouldn’t be capable of. Seeing her powers weaponized like this, Jacqueline was having a hard time just being able to gather up the courage to say something to her.

“Oh!” Ben said, as if suddenly recalling something. “Jacqueline, you need to see this. I was going mad about this today.”

She put down the empty plate and stood up, removing her shoes and socks. She got up to a wall, where Jacqueline could clearly see, then jumped. She stuck, just like she had before.

She turned her head to Jacqueline, grinning. “I know, cool, right?

Jacqueline hummed nervously.

Ben moved her hand to the ceiling and soon she found herself hanging from it perfectly. She looked back to Jacqueline, her grin as wide as ever, then let go and hit the floor with a thud that shook the room.

“I can hardly believe it myself.” Ben said. “It’s like I’ve been rebuilt, piece by piece. Every little flaw gone away. I don’t think I could ever go back.”

The following nod from Jacqueline was identical to the first. Slow, stiff, and giving off nothing but the hope that whatever was going on would soon end.

It was a look that Ben was all too familiar with.

She sighed and took Jacqueline’s hand. Jacqueline pulled it away.

“Look.” Ben said, stepping back. “I know something’s wrong. You’re not okay, I can see that. I don’t like it when you’re silent like this. Please tell me what’s going on. Why are you still afraid?”

Jacqueline stared up at Ben’s eyes, reminding herself of the saying that the eyes were the window into the soul. Looking at her, she knew she was seeing Ben, or at least she was trying to tell herself that she was. She just couldn’t shake that something was very, very off.

“Where were you today?” Jacqueline whispered.

“Huh?”

“Where. Were you?” She repeated more forcefully.

“I mean… I told you when I came in, right? I went to the city, then I uh, ran, for a bit.”

“What did you do in the city?”

“Well I just… kind of walked around and-”

“What did you do in the city!?”

Jacqueline sprang up from the couch, her sudden outburst startling Ben and forcing her to involuntarily take a few steps back.

“I watched the news tonight, Ben.” Jacqueline said. “There was a story on. Three men were beaten at the end of a city, badly. It happened in the city closest to us, the one I know you were at.”

Ben’s face was drained of color.

“I know you’re gonna tell me it wasn’t you. I don’t know if I can trust you.”

Ben’s heartbeat increased, she could feel the guilt and shame rushing through her body.

Jacqueline sighed, beginning to walk out of the room. Ben reached out to her shoulder and stopped her.

“I’m sorry you think that.” She said. “You can trust me, I’ve never beat anyone like that in my life.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Jackie, I’m a good person.”

Jacqueline turned around, meeting Ben’s eyes.

“It’s what you’re becoming, Ben.”

That comment ignited something deep within Ben’s soul. In a second, her rage increased tenfold before she even knew what was happening. When Jacqueline stepped out of her grasp and walked away, Ben followed.

“You’re a fucking cunt!” She shouted.

Jacqueline stopped, but didn’t look back.

“I guess that’s how it is, right?” Ben started. “I’ve been given this opportunity to be a part of a better world much larger than myself, and you can’t stand it. You get all pissy about it and put on some fake concern for my safety just because you can’t accept this new power that I’ve been given. I can climb walls, punch through metal, jump thirty feet in the air, and you think I was better when I could die from being hit by a single car? Is the human species improving too much for you to handle?”

With a quick turn of her head and a stern look, Jacqueline surprised herself with the amount of courage she showed in spite of Ben’s rage.

“I don’t know who you are.” She said. “Whoever you are, you aren’t Ben.”

“I don’t give a fuck who you think I am.” Ben said back. “I’m better than the old Ben. I could crush him to death like a fly. You want to be a fucking prude? Fine, I don’t care. I’ll just have to find a place better suited for us.”

Jacqueline shot a sharp glare toward Ben, putting on a veneer of confidence much stronger than what she actually felt inside. She knew she was going to regret it later, but she didn’t intervene when Ben stormed off to get a jacket. She didn’t intervene when Ben went to the refrigerator for a bottle of water. She didn’t intervene when Ben walked up to the front door. She didn’t even intervene when she opened it.

The one time when she did intervene, was when Ben was about to leave.

“There is no ‘us’.” Jacqueline said to her.

Ben’s glare back was so unsettling and empty it chilled Jacqueline to the bone.

“I wasn’t talking about you.”

The front door slammed shut.

***

Tree after tree passed by Ben as she ran deeper and deeper into the forest. Before her transformation, there would have been no way she’d be able to see where she was going. Clouds covered the night sky and the moon was nowhere to be seen. No man could ever see anything in this pitch black maze.

Fortunately, she wasn’t a man anymore.

Her night vision had improved significantly from before. She could still tell it was dark, but she could see very clearly. Not only that, but the cold didn’t bother her nearly as much now. Even when she accidentally stepped into a small creek, she was mostly unfazed.

It was crazy how just being wet in the cold would have been enough to kill her back then. How could Jacqueline think that was superior to what she was now?

No, Ben wasn’t going to think about her. If Jacqueline wanted to believe that being superhuman was bad, then that was her problem. Ben didn’t care.

Sure, she may have lied to Jacqueline when saying she didn’t beat up those men, but those men deserved it anyways. Jacqueline would never understand.

Ben had no clear idea of where her destination was. She just kept running deeper and deeper into the forest because she felt she had to go somewhere. After all, it wasn’t like she got tired from running anymore.

At some point though, the day finally caught up to her and she did grow tired. She laid her head on a tree and looked up to the cloudy sky, ready for sleep to overtake her. The excitement of what she could be capable of the next day made it a bit hard for her to rest her mind, but eventually, she managed.

Before she shut her eyes for the final time however, she saw a blue flower in the distance. It was a vibrant, royal blue, absolutely beautiful. Despite its appearance, Ben couldn’t shake the sense that there was something very off about it. She didn’t know where it came from, it almost felt like instinct, but it was strong regardless. She tried for a while to pinpoint what exactly was wrong with the flower, but she could never quite figure it out.