Kyle sat atop a mountain of wealth, his underlings knelt below him in admiration. All who knew his name feared and respected him. He was power in it's purest human form. All bowed before him. But a low rumble entered his palace halls, an almost electronic hum that soon filled every inch of his mind. The palace and his power crumbled around him. No more palace, no more servants, no more power, just the buzzing rumble. It sounded almost like... an alarm?
Kyle groggily opened his eyes to a poorly lit early morning room. He slowly focused his eyes on his phone buzzing on his night stand and shut the alarm off to have some quiet. He'd had that same dream again. The dream he'd been having for weeks. Every time he had that dream the images he saw became clearer. If he had been a superstitious man he may have believed it was some sort of metaphorical prophecy, but he chalked it up to little more than an idyllic dream scenario. He heard the soft footsteps of his mom coming down the hall to assure he had actually woken up, and not just lazily slapped his phone alarm off and just went back to sleep. After his mom left the room he crawled out of bed and got dressed in whatever clean clothes he could find.
He continued to go about his usual morning routine as he usually would, thinking little of the recurring dream he kept having. He grabbed his backpack from the front door and walked to the bus stop. One tired bus ride later and he arrived at Spring Hill High School. He departed the bus among the other teenagers. Kyle certainly didn't stand out from the crowd much. Being a Junior in high school, he definitely wasn't overweight for his age. Though that isn't to suggest that he's in shape either. Rounding in at a solid 5'11", with short brown hair and virtually no facial hair, he looked much like anyone you would find in his age range. He never really stood out socially either, though still not an outcast. He had his group of friends and rarely moved outside of it.
He walked idly until he reached their first period classes. The bell rung, and with it rung in another boring day at a school that Kyle could never truly get into. The day proceeded in what seemed to be a flash, and before he knew it he was in his last period. He had many of his friends in that class, and they talked while they worked.
Kyle got up to sharpen his pencil, and when he was heading back to his seat the teacher spoke up from across the room. "Kyle, would you mind erasing that artwork on the board?" He looked to his left and saw the artwork she was referring to. For being in marker on a board, it was expertly done. It appeared to be some sort of mandala with very intricate lines drawn across it. He almost felt bad erasing it. He wiped it with the eraser, but it wouldn't come off. He wiped harder but it was only just starting to fade. Someone had drawn it in permanent marker or something. Eventually it came off completely, and he put the eraser away, and he felt the board. The board was hot, like really hot. He pulled his hand away but the warmth remained in his palm. Odd. A strange occurrence sure, but no cause for alarm. He had probably just pushed too hard when erasing and caused too much friction.
The rest of the period wrapped up and he went home. The rest of the day continued as normal until around 8:00 when he went to bed early with a raging headache. No dreams that night, none at all. He woke the next day to his alarm making the same buzzing it did every morning. He still felt too tired to unwrap himself from his blanket and turn it off."God I just want that thing to stop.", he said in a hushed whisper. And with impeccable timing it did. Dammit he must've forgotten to plug it in, and now it was out of batteries. His mom came in just a few seconds later to make sure that he hadn't just ignored his alarm, which he had.
"Come on Kyle you have to get ready for school. At least it's a Friday." his mom said.
"I just want one more hour of sleep today." And before he knew it he was out like a light.
He awoke exactly one hour later, much more rested but also confused. when had he fallen asleep again? He got up and headed out to the kitchen to ask his mom what had happened. She turned around and smiled when he entered the room.
"Oh you're awake now. I figured after you fell asleep so fast you might really need the rest." Well she was right about that.
"What about school though?"
"Well since you are only getting up an hour later, I suppose I should still take you."Damn. Guess today couldn't be that lucky.
"Man, I just want the day off today."
"No such luck I'm afraid." She said, "You'd better get going though, wouldn't want to be any more late."
Kyle left his house and went to the bus stop, same as yesterday. He waited for several minutes before realizing that the bus wouldn't come because it had already come an hour before. He walked back to his house, hoping that his mom would give him a ride if she wasn't busy. When he got in she greeted him and said, "Oh good, you're back. I just got a call from the school district that school has been cancelled. Guess it is your lucky day." Whoa, that was good timing.
He began to wonder though, first the phone, than the sleeping, and now school was cancelled? This was all adding together strangely. He walked back to his room. "I'm not crazy, I just need to check. There's no way I'm that lucky." he said, staring at himself in the mirror. Maybe he'd just say something normal to test, like something anyone would say. "I wish I was an inch taller." Nothing. Of course it was nothing, that would be absurd. though thinking about it, it was kinda funny. "Ya know I do kinda wanna be a little taller I guess." he said absently. He started walking away from his mirror when he felt a little bit of vertigo and a strange tingling. When he looked back, there it was. Him, in the mirror, visibly getting taller before his very eyes. He felt a strange stretchy grinding in his bones, but not necessarily painful. There is no way this was real, but there it was. He was growing from something he had merely said. He'd grown about 2 inches when it suddenly stopped.
Oh... wow. He had powers. The implications of that were boggling. He had to sit down. It felt like blood had rushed to his head. He didn't know what to do, who to tell. Where had it come from? The Mandala. It must've been the mandala. That was why it was so hot yesterday. It must have been magic or something like that. His head flowed with possibilities. What were the limits to this? Were there limits? He had to know. He had to test them. But what to test it on.