Ivory closed her blinds as soon as she got home. She jumped into her bed and hid under her blanket. The coldness was unbearable. She had decided to hide the sunburn which might have saved her life temporarily. Unfortunately though there was no telling how long it would be before they found out.
She breathed in and out into her pillow and muffled a scream.
Ivory hugs herself, "Why did this have to happen to me now? I have work later today. I couldn't miss my quota. Everyone would suspect something is wrong with me."
Ivory picks up her phone trembling and scrolls through her missed messages to distract herself. Abigail had sent several text messages asking how she was feeling. Could she lie to her best friend?
No it wasn't if she could lie to her best friend. She had to, at least over text. There were rumors after the readjustment period, that the councilors had access to every single person's phone through some kind of hive mind device.
Ivory sends a quick message to her friend, "Hey Abby, sorry for the late reply. I'm feeling great just going to stay inside today to get some sleep. I'll see you in a bit."
Abigail sends a text back immediately, "Ivory, I'll let Nathan know you can't make your quota today. You need to rest so get well soon alright?"
Ivory sends a thumbs up emoji as she lays in her bed shaking. She held her phone tightly in her hand unconsciously as it freezes and turns off.
The phone gives an error message that the device was getting way too cold to operate.
Ivory curses throwing her phone across the room, "Why is this happening to me? I didn't do anything…"
She gets out of bed while shaking slightly and makes her way to her bathroom. Ivory stands in front of the mirror and her sink for a long time before pulling up her sleeves revealing dark red marks trailing down her forearm.
The red marks had begun blistering on her arms. She felt weaker for some reason at that moment but something felt different. The weakness and itchiness of the mark was replaced with a new feeling. There was something bubbling in her fingers that wanted to be released.
Ivory held her hand out instinctually as small ice particles came out of her hand. The particles started off small but rose in size to small chunks of ice.
Ivory says with an awkward smile, "How.. Did I just do that? I'm imagining things aren't I? The sun burn has probably just given me some kind of a fever. I'm having some sort of fever dream aren't I?"
The young woman stared down into her sink as small chunks of ice laid in an organized pile almost resembling a snow man. She noticed how the ice released from her fingers didn't melt and stayed frozen.
Ivory breathes in and out, "No. No. Why? Why would I ever want this? This can't be real. I had to be imagining all of this.."
The proof was in front of her eyes. She couldn't help but stare at the chunks of ice laying in her sink.
She gazed from the sink to her face where the color of her eyes had shifted to a dark shade of blue replacing her light brown eyes.
She touched her face as the blood vessels underneath her skin glowed beneath her touch. Her short black hair shot up as the sun burns on her arms disappeared. The color of her eyes returned back to a shade of brown.
Ivory says, "What the hell just happened? Whatever this is… I couldn't let anyone know. The council would have me executed for having this ability."
Ivory fixed her hair as she imagined the faceless entity that hovered over her bed in the hospital.
Ivory whispers to herself, "That creature would tear me apart if they knew. I have to keep this hidden. I had to pretend to be a regular human being. How hard could that be?"
She walks out of her bathroom and pulls up her sleeves.
Ivory's hands turned warmer so she could finally use technology again.
She types in the password to her laptop in a few clicks and tries to find articles about recent sun burn cases.
There were several cases that weren't documented well. Most of the articles had the same format. The story started with an emphasis that the sun burns weren't anything special and merely a biological issue due to overexposure from the sun due to the endless day cycles.
Ivory holds her face, "Damn it. The council must've limited the amount of information on the sun burns online."
Ivory hugs herself as tears begin streaming down her face, "I just need one case to tell me something about what's happening to me."
The universe seems to answer Ivory's call as her phone lights up on the ground. The message was from an unknown contact. She picks up her phone cautiously and checks the message.
The unknown contact texts her, "I know you have it too. You have the gift."