[center][img]http://fontmeme.com/embed.php?text=Jesse%20Callaghan&name=Coffee%20House.ttf&size=50&style_color=E3DAC9[/img]
[img]http://49.media.tumblr.com/5c751c03357dd02f8334e57974a6f200/tumblr_n5lz1xHjOe1r03eggo8_250.gif[/img]

[b]Location:[/b] Home → Verona Clinic
[b]Interacting With:[/b] Richard King[sup][@Liriia][/sup]
[/center]
[hr][hr]
It had been a night like any other. Jesse was at his checkout, trying to get some homework done before he inevitably had to ring up some condoms, but that was when he saw it; [i]the eclipse[/i]. Through the glass panes and fluorescent lights, Jesse could see the glowing circle hanging right in the centre of the sky. No doubt he found it strange, but sooner than later, he’d turned his attention back to the task at hand. His algebra homework, more specifically.

The next morning, Jesse woke up with an [i]unbelievable[/i] headache. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought that someone jammed a nail through his eye-socket while he was asleep. Still, it was all he could do to grit his teeth and push through. As much as he wanted to stay home, the guilt that crawled up his spine was enough to convince him otherwise. Mom would want him to go to school, make something of himself, so that was what he was going to do.

He’d made himself a quick breakfast of eggs and toast, taking care to prepare an extra portion for Mom. She was still passed out on the living room couch, having just gotten back from her nine-hour shift at the diner. Most days, Jesse barely said a word to his mother. Most days, Gillian Callaghan was too tired to do anything but sleep. It wasn’t the best arrangement - both of them knew that much - but when you had to work two jobs in order to pay rent, cultivating a healthy mother-son bond was the least of your concerns.

Jesse just grimaced at the sight of the sofa - a hideous, moth-eaten affair the colour of mustard - before draping a blanket over his mother’s sleeping form. In a few hours, she would have to leave for her second job at the clinic; the least he could do was let her catch some shuteye.

Then, Jesse had followed his usual route to school. The day was rather uneventful - up until lunch, anyway. After the usual, torturous boatload of lessons, he’d been on his way to the cafeteria, and while it might’ve been hard to believe, he wasn’t looking for any trouble.

He should’ve known trouble was looking for him when he got cornered in the bathroom.

[url=http://24.media.tumblr.com/62ed7733be29b3a640f63dfcb7a6d9ab/tumblr_mgwt5zySLS1qimfrko1_500.gif]Logan Hall[/url] and his cronies were like a pack of hyenas, baying for blood the moment they laid eyes on him. The group might’ve seemed vicious - cruel, even - but there was a primitive, feral efficiency to their penchant for violence. They were bruisers, sure, but they were bruisers who knew how to wield their fists as well as any weapon. A few weeks back, Jesse had made the mistake of passing a little too close to Logan in the hallway, and they just never let go of a grudge, did they? They never let go of a grudge no matter how utterly [i]asinine[/i] it was.

The wind-up was so massive that Jesse was able to dodge the first blow, but it didn’t matter, and when he delivered a fist against Logan’s stomach, it was like punching a rock. An uppercut sent Jesse stumbling backwards, and a well-placed hook dropped him to the floor.

If he felt intimidated to be facing someone three inches taller and a good sixty pounds heavier than himself, he didn’t show it. The dull, sluggish pain thrumming through his skull didn’t seem to bother him one bit, even as warm blood slowly began to drip down his chin, and onto the linoleum. With a valiant effort, he tried to stand, but all it earned him was a kick to the ribs. He wasn’t getting up anytime soon, was he?

[color=E3DAC9]“[i]Well, shit[/i]. Looks like I hit a nerve, huh?”[/color] Jesse spat through gritted teeth, a humourless huff of laughter bubbling up from his throat. [color=E3DAC9]“Thought you were all bark no bite. Guess I was wrong.”[/color]

Every last fibre in Jesse’s body screamed at him to stop, to run with his tail between his legs before he got [i]really[/i] fucked up, but when Logan grabbed him by the throat - that was when it happened.

Like jet fuel, the sudden burst of energy left a toxic afterburn in his veins. It only lasted for a second, but a second was all he needed to subconsciously tap into his newfound abilities. Jesse still isn’t quite sure what happened, only remembering bits and pieces of information, but the moment Logan’s fingers loosened around his neck, the moment the screaming started, he knew that all this wasn’t just some crazy coincidence.

Logan and his crew didn’t stop shrieking about the [i]“bugs under their skin”[/i] until Jesse had left, and as far as anyone could tell, they’d clawed themselves open without any help. It itched and they’d given in, perhaps with a rather misguided conviction that with sufficiently surgical application, they’d be able to remove the creatures dwelling just below the surface.

Sneaking out the side gate, Jesse only noticed the nosebleed when he got home.

[hr]
That was two days ago.

Since then, he’d heard a few rumours about the eclipse, and the alleged effects it had on the population of Verona. It sounded ridiculous; I mean, come on. Superpowers? [i]Really[/i]? Who’d ever heard of an eclipse causing some [i]fucked up[/i] alien shit like this? But all the same, he found himself entertaining the thought that maybe - just maybe - all this could be true. What happened that day in the bathroom… Jesse couldn’t think of another plausible explanation, and when half of Lincoln Memorial High’s senior class landed themselves in the hospital after a freak accident involving [i]lava[/i] of all things, he felt this was worth looking into.

Barely an hour later, he found himself at the clinic. Call it a gut feeling, but he figured that this was where he needed to go to get answers. It was an easy enough matter to get into the wards, the nurses were all in a dither trying to deal with the sudden influx of patients, too busy to pay any heed to an extra visitor.

The building was deceptively large, filled with winding hallways and the stinging scent of hand sanitiser. Truth be told, Jesse had little idea who he was looking for. He’d never been particularly close with any of his classmates, and would they actually be in the mood to entertain his inquisitions? Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe he was just having a psychotic break, maybe all of this was just in his imagination. What if he’d hallucinated this whole thing up and was now seconds away from being hauled off to the funny farm?

While he was having this internal meltdown, however, Jesse’s feet continued to carry him towards a ward near the back of the clinic. It was only when he peeked through the blinds and saw those telltale locks of golden hair that he realised who was inside.

[i]Richard King[/i].

[i]Huh[/i]. So [i]he[/i] was caught up in this mess, as well. Jesse didn’t know what he expected, but this sure as hell wasn’t it. For a moment, he felt almost torn. Did he [i]really[/i] want to talk to him? King was already bad enough on a regular day; now that he was hopped up on a cocktail of painkillers? Jesse didn’t even want to [i]think[/i] about what he’d be like.

Still, as he turned to leave, something stopped him in his tracks. Maybe he could wring some answers from King about the accident… or just take a video of him and upload it to Youtube. Whichever was fine, really, though the latter clearly had greater potential to go viral. Quickly stepping inside, Jesse made sure to close the door behind him.

[color=E3DAC9]“Hey, you awake?”[/color]