The Many Faces of Tully

We watch it in normal speed at first. You see me curl into my ball, and then Nash stands up to brace himself. The white flashes across the screen and when it focuses again, Nash is across the room and I look different.

Jace rewinds it and makes it play in super slow motion. I’m curled up into a ball and it creeps forward. I wonder if my heart has stopped yet. I held my breath for a little while so I know it’s going to take longer to get to me exploding.

“I’ve wanted to ask you,” Jace says, as we watch the video creep forward. “Why do you curl up like that? Do you think that has anything to do with the way you explode?” He’s staring at me the way he does when he has an unanswered question.

“Did you see how fast my heart was beating?” I raise my eyebrows at him.

“Well, yeah, but-”

I cut him off. “It’s painful. Have you never been so angry in your life, or scared that your heart is pounding in your chest, and it hurts? Have you ever felt like the world was crashing in on you, and suffocating you?” I don’t expect him to answer.

He drops his eyes. “Yeah, I have actually,” he mumbles. He clears his throat after a second and then looks back up at the screen.

What did that mean? I want to ask, but I have a feeling he won’t answer. I look up at the screen now. I’m blowing out my air in a burst. The white light starts from within me again and expands outwards. I don’t know what I’m expecting.

It creeps towards Nash, and I feel scared for him. It’s silly to feel that way, because I know he’s all right. I didn’t even knock him out this time. I wonder why that is.

The light reaches Nash then. He’s off of his feet in a second, but the white light is faster. It swallows him up and I can’t see him anymore, but I know he’s flying through the air. Jace pauses it then. He switches it to thermal and I see Nash’s and my body again. It almost looks like an action scene in an action movie. He is flying backwards with his arms and legs stretched out in front of him.

I watch his body hit the wall behind him. His head snaps back and hits the wall, and his limbs fly back and hit the wall too. He inches down the wall in slow motion until he hits the floor and he kind of slumps there.

Jace pauses it again. He rewinds it. Puts it in thermal from the beginning and plays it in normal speed. It’s scarier this way. You don’t see my explosion. Nash is just thrown backwards to the wall for no apparent reason. I cringe when he hits the wall. But he just shakes his head after a moment.

“Very good,” Rozen says. “I look forward to seeing how you progress Tully.” He stands up and walks back through the door he came from. I shiver. I don’t like the idea of him keeping tabs on me.

Jace is watching me again. “What?” I ask him.

“I’m just really curious as to why his powers have no effect on you,” he says. He’s looking at me like I’m a complicated problem. I want to distract him.

“So, why do you think I didn’t knock Nash out this time?” I ask him.

“I have a theory,” he says. He always has theory, and I have a feeling that they are generally right. He’s really smart.

“What’s that?” I ask him.

“Well, Nash’s body is seemingly normal like yours, until it’s active, like yours. When he is being attacked, his body becomes exceptionally more dense,” he explains. “His powers work off of his memory though. Like, what would happen if an arrow was shot at you?”

“Uh, I’d most likely be shot by an arrow,” I say.

“Yeah, explain it in technical terms. Like you’re breaking it down for a dumb person.” He sounds like a teacher, or a professor.

“Um, well, an arrow is sharp and my skin is soft. If it comes at me with enough force it will penetrate my body, possibly damaging vital organs if shot in the wrong spot. I would bleed profusely and need stitches to help it heal?” I say it like a question. I don’t know how he wants me to explain.

He smiles at me. “Exactly. You know that would happen to you, and if you could protect yourself from it, you would. His body does that automatically. He knows if a bullet is shot at him, it will go inside of him, so he doesn’t let that happen. His skin becomes so hard that a bullet will just bounce off. Same with a knife.”

I stare at him, absorbing all of this. He’s never really explained Nash’s power like this.

“He knows that a bomb will blow him into pieces and burn him. So his body turns fire proof and inseparable. He knows that falling wrong on your legs or arm will break them. So his bones turn diamond hard. It’s purely amazing. His body adapts to whatever is attacking him.”

“I understand. So how did I knock him out?” I ask. My curiosity is burning.

“I think that, since he had never experienced your kind of explosion, he didn’t know what to expect. His body didn’t know how to protect itself, so it went with the basics. Harden itself and braced itself for anything. It didn’t expect to be flung backwards with that much force, so it didn’t protect his brain enough. The force knocked him out.” I’m nodding. This makes sense.

“The second time, he understood. He had experienced it before, and saw how it worked. His body knew how to protect him this time. He couldn’t stop himself from being thrown backwards, but his body could make itself sturdy enough to receive that kind of blow. It’s fascinating.” He talks fast, but I follow along.

“That is fascinating. I’m glad I can’t hurt him. It’s nice that I can’t kill someone,” I admit.

“I wonder what it feels like,” Jace utters then, staring off into space.

I balk. “Why do you wonder what it feels like?” I demand him. “It would kill you!”

“I’m not sure if it would kill me,” he speculates. “I can heal myself you know.” He looks at me over his glasses.

“You can’t heal if you’re dead!” I nearly shout at him.

“What if I don’t die from the impact?” he questions me. “I have healed from some bad wounds. Life threatening wounds.”

“Collapsed lungs?” I ask him. He nods. “Punctured organ?” He nods again. “Internal bleeding?” He nods. “Brain hemorrhage?”

“I’ve never experienced one of those, but I’m sure I can,” he says.

“What if your heart is punctured?” I demand him.

“I’m not too sure on that one. We haven’t tried it yet because of the 'what if' factor. We’ve shot right next to it, and I healed from that. I think I might be able to though. It might take me a while, but I think I could heal,” he explains.

“How about all of those at once?” I ask him. That stumps him. He stares at me, contemplating it.

“There is only one way to find out,” he says. “And I honestly want to know what it feels like.”

His curiosity is going to kill him one day, I think. Then I say, “I won’t do it. I will not explode around you.”

“Since when have you gained control over your powers? I was under the impression that your powers worked on their own accord. I’m sure with the right technique I could get your heart rate up,” he threatens me.

“Don’t you dare,” I glare at him.

“It would be much too simple,” he says nonchalantly.

“Please, Jace, I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to kill anyone else. Don’t make me do anything I don’t want to. Please,” I beg him.

He searches my eyes for a moment. I don’t know what he’s searching for, but I stare right back at him. I don’t know why he wants to experience it so bad. It would kill him, and I don’t want to be the cause of his death.

“Fine. But you’ll cave one day. You’ll see what I’m capable of and then you might understand more that I could probably survive it,” he says confidently.

“I don’t like the chances of 'probably',” I say, frowning at him.

“Whatever. You’ll see. I will experience it one day.” He smiles.

I hope he doesn’t.