Rage was a fire, and my grief was the fuel. I sat up in my bed, the darkness of my room a suffocating blanket. My tears had dried, leaving behind the cold, hard resolve of the truly desperate.
"Useless?" I spat the word into the silence. "I'll be the judge of that."
Again, I focused on my palm. I summoned the pathetic spark, but this time, I didn't let it die. I poured every ounce of my willpower, every shred of my anger and humiliation, into that single point of energy. I pushed. Harder.
The spark didn't grow. Instead, the faint tingling sensation intensified, spreading up my arm like a fever. My vision began to swim. The familiar outlines of my room blurred, the shadows twisting and deepening. A low hum started in my ears, growing steadily louder until it drowned out my own frantic heartbeat.
My body felt impossibly heavy, then weightless. The sensation of my bed beneath me vanished. The scent of old books and dust in my room was replaced by the clean, sharp smell of ozone, like the air after a fierce storm.
My eyes shot open, but I saw nothing. Not blackness, but an absolute, featureless void. I was floating in an endless expanse of non-existence. Panic tried to claw its way up my throat, but my earlier rage kept it at bay.
"Where am I?" My voice didn't echo. It was simply swallowed by the oppressive emptiness.
I tried to move my limbs but couldn't feel them. I was a point of consciousness, a disembodied mind trapped in nowhere. Was this death? Had I somehow overloaded my pathetic gift and erased myself from existence?
It was then that a new energy made itself known. It wasn't mine. This was ancient, powerful, and vast beyond comprehension. It felt like a slumbering titan, and my frantic pushing had been the equivalent of a fly buzzing in its ear.
Suddenly, a pair of eyes opened in the void before me. They were not physical eyes, but two burning maelstroms of pure, violet electricity. They crackled with immense power, each one a contained supernova of lightning. They were terrifying, magnificent, and they were looking directly at me.
A voice, deep and resonant like the rumble of distant thunder, rolled through the void. It wasn't just a sound I heard with my ears; it was a vibration that shook the very core of my being. It was impossibly old, laced with boredom, and a faint hint of amusement.
"Well, now. It's about time someone knocked. It has been dreadfully, dreadfully boring in here."