I leaned toward the mirror, inspecting my face under the harsh bathroom lights. Ever since Olivia had half-jokingly said that I wasn't aging, the thought kept niggling at me. My power wasn't immortality—it was immunity to others. If I was indeed not aging, the conclusion that followed seemed too ridiculous to pursue.

A clang from the living room made me frown; I lived alone and wasn't expecting guests. Stepping out of the bathroom, I killed the lights and walked warily toward the source of the noise.

Stepping through the doorway, I did a double-take. Before the ajar window stood a well-built, sharply dressed man with a handsome face everyone on the planet knew. My momentary panic was quickly replaced by giddy excitement.

"Holy shit," I exclaimed. "Universal Man? What are you doing here?"

He smiled, but it didn't reach his icy blue eyes. "Have a seat, Tom. We have a lot to talk about."

I hurried to the couch and sat down, not even questioning his ordering me around in my own home, or wondering how he knew my name. "Let me just say, it's an honor—"

He raised his palm as if to silence me, and a frown crossed his face. "So it's true."

"What is?" I asked, bemused.

"Your power—it blocks others. How... irritating." Shaking his head, he reached into his jacket. "Well, no matter. I read your friend's memories so I came prepared."

"My friend?"

He drew a gun, and I froze, more stunned than scared. Universal Man could crush concrete and lift cars without breaking a sweat. What would he want with a puny little pistol?

"What's going on?" I laughed nervously. "This is a joke, right?"

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." The gun sat awkwardly in his hand as he leveled it at my chest. "I never encountered anyone like you before. I never would've even known, had I not picked up your friend's thoughts. You're far too dangerous to be left alive."

I swallowed. "Olivia? What did you do to her?"

"I merely ensured she wouldn't remember the past few days. Much easier to deal with than you."

"I don't understand," I said in a trembling voice. "How am I dangerous? My power's so minor they gave it the lowest classification—"

He laughed, a high, chilling sound. "The idiots. Tell me, why do you think I have all these abilities?"

"Y-you're special, everyone knows that. The pinnacle of human evolution..."

"A convenient excuse. One power per person; the rule hasn't changed for millennia." He glanced down at his other hand and clenched a fist. "Mine is to take from others. Their powers, even their lifespan. Take from everyone... except, it seems, you."

"The whole world is growing old because of you?" I exclaimed, half-rising from my seat. "That's absurd! People have been dying for ages—"

His face rippled, shifting to another man's, then a woman's, his body following suit. "How long—do you think—I have lived?" asked an ever-changing voice.

I laughed because the truth was too much to bear. Gunshots rang loudly in my ears, and my chest suddenly burned. I slumped back, my eyes bulging out as I found myself unable to draw breath. The monster's icy eyes, the only feature that wasn't changing on that shifting face, watched me with detached satisfaction.

[Part 1 of 2]

“You’re looking good. How longs it been since we last got coffee? Five years now?” Kyle asked, sitting down at the nearly empty café. Only a few dedicated customers braving the hot weather to come grab a cup.

“More like ten. It’s strange how time flies. What are you talking about, anyway? You think I look good? Look at yourself. It’s like you haven’t aged in ten years. Did you get some surgery done?” Tricia leaned over the table, pinching Kyle’s cheek, testing the elasticity of his skin. In her mind, any surgery would have made it impossible to pull on his cheek, but her theory had some flaws. The more she pulled, the more his cheek stretched until she let go after noticing Kyle’s annoyed stare.

“Must be my diet of pizza and whiskey. Not that I’m an alcoholic or anything, I just like to indulge on the weekends. Works stressful, you know?”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re a big deal now, the swiss army knife of the police force. Able to walk into any situation and walk out alive.”

“Don’t say it like that. You make it sound like I’m some sort of weapon. I’m just there to make the other members of the force get to go home to their families. I’m nothing special.” Kyle said, sipping his coffee. He had ordered a triple shot today, but the taste felt more bitter than usual, making him scrunch his face up at the first sip.

“Nothing special? You have more medals than anyone else. Where do you even keep them at this point?” Tricia smirked, watching his brief look of disgust before he went back to his coffee, acting as though it hadn’t happened.

“I used to hang them up on a board or frame them, but now I just toss them into a box. It’s easier that way.”

“Wow, I wish I had that life. Best I get at work is a brief thank you before getting another load of work thrown on my desk. The hero's life sounds a lot more exciting.”

“I’m not a hero. I’m a public servant.” Kyle corrected.

“A public servant. Then can you serve the public by paying for my coffee today?”

“Not that kind of servant, unfortunately.”

The two shared a laugh before discussing a few idle pieces of conversation. They discussed friends, families, holidays, hobbies and eventually love lives before Kyle checked his watch, noticing he had to head back into the office.

“It’s been nice seeing you. Now that you’ve moved here, maybe we can see each other a little more? We can bring our partners next time; it will be fun.”

“I would love that. Seriously though, you haven’t aged a day since I last saw you. It’s weird. Maybe someone is using their powers to stop you from aging?”

“That wouldn’t work. My power stops abilities from affecting me. An ability like that would just be void. It wouldn’t age me quicker or slower, I would just continue to age as normal. Although, if someone tried to speed up my aging, that might stop it.”

Kyle didn’t like the little theory he was developing. He hadn’t really thought about it before. Sure, he still had a baby face, but some people just did, right? What was a thirty-five-year-old even meant to look like? Surely someone couldn’t be stopping him from aging. They would have to be in direct contact with him. Or at least close enough that their powers would reach him.

“Earth to Kyle. Did you hear me?”

“Huh? Sorry, must have zoned out.”

“I just said that it’s weird that you haven’t aged since you took the job. Maybe it’s all the running around you do. Well, See ya.”

“Yeah, See ya.”

Kyle finished the last of his drink, standing outside the coffee shop, reflecting on her words. He joined the force about ten years ago and in that time; he hadn’t shown many signs of aging. Was there a person with abilities in the force? That was pretty rare. Most people like him became heroes or villains to cash in on their abilities. Not police. Not to mention, there would be a record of their ability. They couldn’t have kept it hidden, could they?

When he returned to work, he was a little less cheerful, not giving his usual enthusiastic greetings as he passed by his colleagues. Instead, he went straight to his desk to test his theory. He twisted the lid of the coffee cup, making it sharp before giving his finger a small cut, watching the blood trickle down it. If someone was affecting his aging, the cut wouldn’t heal, it would just keep trickling.

Minutes passed, then an hour and still the cut trickled blood, becoming a little messy until a few others noticed the bloody tissues he was hiding under his desk. James, his partner on the force, lent over his desk, offering another box of tissues.

“What a nasty cut, little things really bleeding. Want me to get you bandaged up? Can’t have our star officer dying to a paper cut.”

“No, I’m fine. Just a little cut. That’s all.” Kyle didn’t want any attention on him. All this chatter and staring made it impossible to determine who was using their ability.

“If you say so. If it’s still bleeding when I get back to your desk, I’m patching it up, though. I’m not letting you die.”

“It’s just a cut.” Kyle argued, but James was already heading off to do something else. Another ten minutes passed, and the cut had stopped bleeding. The person must have found out he was hurt and stopped using their ability, at least that’s what Kyle concluded.

He quickly got up from his desk, heading into the police chief’s office. Most people would have been yelled at for entering without an email or appointment, but Kyle had earned the privilege of wandering in unannounced. He took a seat, noticing the stoic look of police chief Holly. She hadn’t said a word since he entered, just tapping away at her keyboard, paying him no mind.

“Chief. Do we have any people with abilities working for us?”

Part 2

We were on my bed going through our happy memories on her phone when my wife, Delisha, first pointed out that I didn’t seem to age. I told her it was nonsense and that I had photos of my childhood, growing from a small baby to the adult I was. I was wrong.

I loved her. She was the first love of my life. I had many lovers after her, and countless wives, but she never left the little sweet home at the bottom of my heart.

I took out a tattered photograph. She and I were so happy that day, we were on a beach, celebrating her birthday. I looked into her eyes and felt sorrow and regret. Regret of not dying with her.

There was no soul alive in the universe. It had been aeons since she had died. I didn’t remember anyone else from that era, not even my parents.

I didn’t regret my life. I was given immunity against other superpowers, a boon showered on me by the Grim Reaper himself. That didn’t mean I couldn’t die of old age but here I was. Had Grim Reaper given me that additional power unknowingly?

It was all meaningless for nothing mattered any more. I wanted to die. I had, in fact, attempted suicide countless times but it never worked. Was Grim Reaper blind to me?

I had even kissed a lot of superheroes. Not because I loved them, no. Grim Reaper had given me my powers on the condition that I wouldn’t get involved with anyone with supernatural abilities, or else he’d come for me.

I was never interested in superheroes. Delisha was also just another normal human being. A tear dropped over her face in the photo. I wished to see her again. It was painful to look at her static photo.

I cried loudly begging God to end me.

Suddenly there was a voice in my head

“I’ll give you what you want and more.”

“God?”

“Yes. Fulfil your task, do it with diligence, and then I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“What's the task?”

“You’ve to take the place of the Grim Reaper.”

“The Grim Reaper?”

“Yes, he is no more. He vanished ages ago.”

“But people still died. All of my friends are dead. Who was behind all those deaths?”

“You’ll know soon. Do you agree to the task?”

I agreed.

The next moment there was a bright flash of light flooding my vision. My eyes took some adjustment but then I was in a dark room floating like a ghost. There was a bed in front of me.

I looked at myself. I had dark robes on. I realised it was my first day of collecting souls.

To my horror. There she was, Delisha, sleeping peacefully, with her arm around me. I felt a mix of emotions churning in my guts.

I noticed something else, there was a humanoid figure floating prone in front of the bed wrapped in dark clothes.

The voice in my head was back.

“You’re here to collect the soul of the Grim Reaper.”

“Am I back in time?”

“Yes”

“Why did he die?”

“He tried to kill you, but the curse backfired.”

“Why?”

The voice was gone.

I spent ages collecting souls. God had promised me anything I wanted, and I wanted to go back and live a normal life with Delisha, growing old together, even if it meant working for billions of years again.

When I had collected the last soul of the universe, I heard the voice again

“You’ve been excellent. Tell me what you want?”

“I want to go back to Delisha and grow old with her.”

“I am not surprised. The girl was special. In fact, I was the one who gave her the power.”

“Power? You’re mistaken, she didn’t have any power.”

“I’m not mistaken, I am god. She had supernatural power. You both didn’t know of course.”

I connected the dots.

“That’s why Grim Reaper was there that night. It was the first time I had kissed her and that broke my promise to him.”

“Mm hmm.”

“Why don’t I age? Did you also give me that power?”

“No. When the curse back-fired the Grim Reaper’s time bubble transferred to you.”

I wondered to myself why it backfired. God heard.

“It back-fired because of Delisha of course.”

“Did she use her superpower to protect me?”

“Yes, but not knowingly.”

“What superpower did she have god?”

“To have an unbreakable bond. Now off you go.”

I went back to the night I was supposed to be killed. It was the night I had first kissed her. I looked at her sleeping face, knowing she wanted nobody else but me. She had unknowingly created a bond between us that even death couldn't break.

Decades later, we died together holding hands after a life full of happy memories.

A familiar face in black robes appeared after our souls left our bodies. He didn’t recognize us in our old wrinkly state, but I did. I greeted him like an old friend but not revealing who I was. He took me beyond the mortal world, with Delisha by my side.

He returned to collect more souls, hoping to return to her own Delisha soon – only billions of years more.

That moment, a mirror shattered. The veil was pulled back, and light streamed through, giving utter clarity to the people of our world.

Somehow, aging was caused by a single person with a super power.

Chaos erupted, my brothers. Oh, my brothers, how the world was set on fire.

You see, brothers, we only had to kill one bloody man! How easy of a task that is, if you really put your mind to it.

“Stop!” Martha screamed, holding her hands in front of her face.

The metal pipe came crashing down first on her right wrist, which lay limply by her side. She wisely moved her left hand, taking the pipe on her left temple.

Several more blows rendered her mush.

Yet, people kept aging.

The man moved on throughout the hero academy in search of his next victim.

The search was coming to an end. Ever since his friend, whose name he had long forgotten, realized he wasn't aging, the Unaffected was searching.

​

Even his own given name had long eluded him. Instead he chose to go by different names as the centuries, as well as friends, foes and families passed by him like a neverending river, taking everything he had with him, but leaving him behind, as the rock in the surf, slowly being eroded by all the losses he had to suffer.

​

When he desperately explained his situation to the Seer, the only man with the power to "see" powers being used, he was surprised to find out that there was indeed a power affecting him constantly, however they had to trace the source first.

​

Through the Seers efforts, it had long ago been established that everybody was affected by one and the same, unreachable source of power deep within the core of Earth, which was granting the abilities to the superpeople on Earth.

However, astronauts and superhumans with the ability to fly, daring as they were unlucky, had found out that these powers only extended to the exosphere of Earth.

​

But his source of power was of a different kind, hidden in a unseeming suburb in Central Europe. A one-family house with a patched lawn in a awfully silent neighborhood.

​

"Thank you for your assistance," the Unaffected told the Seer coldly, as he had long gone past the point of building relationships, no matter how much time was spent together "but I have to do this by myself". The Seer nodded reluctantly. He was intrigued about this source of power, but he understood the grief, which the Unaffected had to go through and wanted to defeat, so he left.

​

When the Unaffected approached the front door he felt something for the first time in decades, he felt as if he could finally be freed from his curse, that had driven him nearly mad.

​

He thought of all the lives he had lost, especially of his first wife. All memories that remained of her were her auburn hair, her green eyes and that beautiful special smile, which was reserved for him and his children alone.

Even as she lay on her death-bed, slowly fading away, she smiled, while her husband, whose appearance never changed since the day they had met, held her hand, crying.

​

He thought of his first son, and the day when he realized that he himself looked more like the son, than the father. He thought of his greatest regret, when he had run away, not wanting to watch his son wither away, while he stayed ever the same.

​

He rang the rusty doorbell and the ringing replaced his memories with a sense of dread. What if this wouldn't be the solution? What if he couldn't relieve his curse?

​

A young woman, about the same age as the Unaffected, opened the door."Can I help you?" The Unaffected mustered her, her blonde hair and blue eyes, her colorful sweater and black yoga pants, and asked:

"Who are you?"

Visibly confused the woman answered "You're the one who rang my doorbell, who are you?".

"I don't know."

"Sir, should I call the Medical Services?"

"You know why I'm here, tell me about your powers!"

The womans demeanor changed from confused to intrigued.

Fearlessly she asked "Why don't you come inside?".

​

As he stepped inside, the Unaffected studied the interior of the rooms they were passing. She led him through a hallway, past a kitchen with a refrigerator decorated with childrens paintings, into a spacious living room, the walls adorned with pictures of a happy family, her, her husband and two children.

As she sat down and offered a seat to him she asked:

"So, why are you interested in my powers?"

​

He explained his curse to her, his neverending search for the reason and that she seemed to be the cause for it."I-I-" she began to stammer, "What I tell you next may never leave this room."

​

"My power is immortality through absorption. Believe it or not, I have lived for millenia. I can direct or avert the life force from any living thing and use it, to keep myself and my family alive and well.

Because I rarely want or need to use it solely on a single person, I chose to hide it, and instead absorb a tiny piece of life force from everybody and everything on this planet at all times to support my family.

I'm- I'm so so sorry, I truly didn't know there could be unaffected people."

​

The Unaffected at first surprisingly, felt relief.

It was not him who had caused all this pain to himself and his loved ones.

Slowly however, rage started to build up.

"So you take lives to enjoy your life?" he asked, "what makes you think you can take from everybody just to...". Words failed him.

​

"I don't take lives, I grant death.

Tell me, what would humanity be without death?

With nothing to lose, with no pressure given through the fragility of life, what could humanity hope to achieve but a hedonistic state of constant satisfaction, with no need of progress? How could the Earth support mankind without death? Mankind needs progress, to go beyond, and once we reach this, I can finally rest.

Earth is like a cup of water, overflowing constantly, leaking. Unless we find a way to make more cups, we are all doomed.".

​

"All but us" the Unaffected replied grimly, "life itself wouldn't end, just humanity."

"In another life or time we might've made the perfect couple" he added sadly, once again thinking about all he had lost.

"There is only one life, it's up to us to make it worth remembering, to leave our mark, to be the change we want to see in the world." she responded.

​ As the Unaffected stood up to take his leave he muttered "Worth remembering you say...we shall meet again." and not paying attention to what else the woman, whose name he didn't even learn, had to say.

​

The Unaffected spent the next few decades reminiscing about lives past, about the joys and pains he had unwillingly caused and about his loved ones, whose faces stayed blurred in his mind, but for single features, as the fiery red hair of his third wife or the crooked nose of his sixth. He had done his part for mankind, the progress was up to those, who had the urgency.

​

When the time finally arrived, he found the now old Seer, to help him search for an old acquaintance. With two seperate spacefaring tickets and ships awaiting their arrival, he found her once again and she didn't hesitate to come with him, even as he explained his plan.

​

As the now not so unaffected Unaffected left Earths exosphere, with the womans spacecraft following a few thousand kilometres behind, he remembered his first wifes smile one more time.

As he remembered the rest of her face, even he smiled, one last time.

Disclaimer: I am noob and looking for feedback, and this is not a complete story (yet)

“Welcome, gentlemen, to a new life in New Vegas,” was the line that woke me up. It had been a long ride on the inter-continental train, and I did not want to interact with these passengers. The only people still taking old-world transportation were the crazies who refuse to accept that the eclipse happened, and me.

The eclipse didn’t do me any favors. All I got was the power not to get affected by other superpowers. What kind of ripoff is that? Things would be so much easier if I could just hire a teleporter like a normal person.

Soon, the ugly hum of this old-world tin can had finally ceased. Half asleep, I picked up my bags and shuffled off to the exit. I started suspecting that this trip couldn’t be worth the trouble. “Why am I the only one that has to sit in this tin can for hours just for a stupid job interview? Ugh.” I thought to myself as I dragged my feet to the ticket booth. It wasn’t all bad. “At least I get to catch up with Jake”, I thought as I pulled out my phone and started walking like a plebeian. It’d been 10 years since Jake moved out of the country.

When I got to the cafe called “Chameleon”, they took me to my seat and told me Jake wasn’t here yet. I swung at the air in front of me to check, but he really wasn’t here this time, I thought. That’s when I went to sit back down on a seat that was no longer there. Jake was standing triumphantly over me as he became visible again. I was glad to have a friend like Jake. One whose powers could still affect me, though indirectly.

“You don’t look like you’ve aged a day!” said Jake, offering a hand.

“And you haven’t aged a day either, mentally.” I said with a smirk.

We talked about old times, made inside jokes, the usual, but that remark never left me. I looked young for my age, even before the eclipse, but standing in front of a mirror in my motel room, I noticed this was definitely not normal. The implications were ridiculous, so I shoved them into the back of my mind and went to bed. Scrolling through my phone when I should have been sleeping, I heard something fall out of of my phone case, but couldn’t see anything. “Classic” I thought. It was an old trick of Jake to hide invisible pieces of paper and make you wait for the invisibility to wear off to read them. I put the invisible paper back in my phone case and went to bed.

Next morning I was lucky to find a taxi quickly. Sitting inside one of the few taxis left in the city, I started mindlessly scrolling again. The driver said, “You hear about that ‘victimless murder’ last night?”

“Victimless… murder?” I said.

“Apparently, just this morning, they found a gruesome amount of blood in an alleyway just by the Chameleon. The one next to the station. No bodies, though. So they're calling it the victimless murder” He said.

"I see". I remembered Jake and the paper. My heart started beating faster. I took out the paper from my phone case to read it. It said “Fuck your job interview, you need to get out of New Vegas right now, they could kill me just for telling you."

As soon as I finished reading it, I asked the driver to stop. Jake would never joke about something like this. I was thinking whether I should call him, or go check out this "victimless murder" myself, when I was interrupted.

“But don’t have your interview with Atlas?” said the driver.

“How did you kn—” I looked up to see a gun pointed at my head.

“Pleasure to meet you Mr Nate. I’m the hiring manager for Atlas Inc. We could do the interview right now if you want.” said the driver, gun still pointed at my head. “Tell me, what was your gift from the eclipse.”

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