Ethan Blackwood understood since early childhood that something distinguished him from everyone else. Not in the way some kids are "special," but in the way that being invisible felt like a curse.
Every morning he roamed Crestwood High unsighted because his presence blended perfectly with other students walking through this ocean of students. Cruel laughter together with whispers trailed him as his invisible companion. The eyes of his classmates usually avoided him and came to rest on him only to see either sadness or contempt. Ethan's lack of concern about his situation represented the worst aspect of his situation.
He learned to live with the dull pain of rejection that burned in his chest since the cut shaped his path forward with little reflection on it. The point of resisting their cruel actions seemed pointless since the world never recognized his worth.
The fellow students were not unkind through their inborn wickedness. The other students treated him cruelly because they considered him worthless and unimportant. A non-entity.
The human beings below him did not recognize his worth thus deserved none of his attention. Members of the jock team shoved him into lockers as they passed by while showing their faces with disinterest. When he walked by the girls would create mocking laughter along with unpleasant statements. Hurt no longer brought him any pain.
Or so he thought.
During his approach to Room 3C for his last period class Ethan encountered the beginning of his strange encounter. The strange humming vibration first reached him in the back of his mind. A barely noticeable sensation tickled his body although it caused his neck hair to prickle.
He dismissed it as the symptoms of anxiousness despite his attempts to wave it away. His body sensed a change before he could detect anything because he had been under an odd state of mind throughout the past few days.
When he entered Room 3C something started to change in his perception.
The lack of organization in that room remained typical of its usual state. The loud chatter of students, the clattering of books, the buzz of the fluorescent lights. The atmosphere held an unfamiliar quality which filled the space today.
A thick atmosphere stretched through the room which should have felt empty. A heavy sensation pushed down on Ethan right at his arrival at the door. None of the students in his class noticed his arrival since they continued their common routines. But Ethan could feel it. Something was wrong.
Then, the laughter began. The sounds coming from the students were different from normal playful laughter because they seemed full of panic. The desperate energy seemed more like a sign of complete disaster than anything else.
When Ethan looked toward the front of the room he noticed something horrifying that produced an instant shiver through his entire body.
The student Trevor who lay convulsing caused other class members to notice him as he became unresponsive on the classroom floor. His body oddly stretched backward while an unseen power emerged from the inside.
His mouth remained stretched wide in a silent scream because no sound escaped him while blood vessels expanded his eyes into a wide panic-stricken state. Ethan observed while his pulse raced out of control because Trevor's body started to bend and break inside the classroom. The sight before him felt disgusting and abnormal to the core.
Then it happened.
Trevor's body launched into a painful twisting motion when red matter streamed from his eyes and nose and mouth. An endless stream of blood flowed violently through the air to hit the floor while it ran over his body and clothes. He cried out weakly after which his cries transformed into monstrous deep animal sounds. A heavy metallic odor dominated the environment as Ethan felt his heartbeat speed up.
The students near him started screaming while running in various directions which made some desks fall apart. The remaining students rushed to leave through the doors. But Ethan didn't move.
He couldn't. Since a supernatural force seemed to have bound his feet to the floor. An undisclosed voice in his heart emerged with a force stronger than his personal voice to deliver an Otherworldly call that kept a deep-seated familiarity in his mind.
{System initializing…}
At that moment words struck him similar to ocean waves overpowering his body. The deep cold voice penetrated his thoughts and this breakthrough brought extensive data which made him feel dizzy.
{Infection detected. Mutation commencing.}
The words delivered with great precision sounded like medical machinery through his mind's internal transmitter. But they didn't terrify him. Ethan experienced an odd feeling of controlling power connected to timeless knowledge flowing through him. The energy flooded him at his core inside his breast.
His blood produced a powerful vibration which seemed to symbolize that the bloodstream contained a transformed state that manifested as alive.
His mental clarity started to develop as the room's disarray began to fade around him. The horrid alterations caused by the infection transformed Trevor's body into enormous swollen flesh which experienced continuous spasms while the disease expanded further. Ethan remained still to observe the scene after the others ran away despite being frozen in his position.
{Bloodline Mutation Detected. Path of the Bloodweaver unlocked.}
The voice emanated an unperturbed tone which made the words sound gentle. His entire body jumped as if an unknown power turned on which revealed the secret mutation that hid beneath his skin since he was born.
Everything surrounding him lost definition and he heard nothing apart from rushing abilities and memories entering his mind. His mind summoned the presence of inner knowledge which always dwelled in his consciousness but remained unacknowledged.
The spreading mutation caused no noticeable effect on him unlike how it damaged the others. The once-human body of Trevor disintegrated before him and turned into twitching and pulsating meat while some sort of biological process kept it alive.
Ethan's hand twitched. And suddenly, he knew. His ability to manage the spilled blood flowed naturally to him. His blood, Trevor's blood—every drop of it. He experienced ardent energy running through his bloodstream making his veins feel on fire.
His mental effort summoned the blood forward when he did not expect this ability. The blood guided itself to him through twisting movements until it fully obeyed his command.
{Blood Grasp Unlocked. Manipulating the infected.}
He grabbed his palm toward Trevor's writhing corpse and the surrounding blood flowed to his command. A spiral motion formed within the pond around the mutilated body of the boy while the blood acted independently by pulling at his decomposing flesh autonomously.
No one remained in the room with Ethan besides the wreckage after all other students had run away.
Trevor's body turned crimson in a violent reaction to the force of Ethan's fist before his blood started tearing through the remains in a boiling frenzy. Silence returned to the room because only the continuing drops of residual blood remained audible.
The power had come so unexpectedly so Ethan remained motionless while looking at his hands. Ethan discovered the power because it appeared suddenly yet became impossible to deny its existence.
The power seemed natural to him since it felt like it belonged there from the start.
A stronger echo arose out of his mind than before.
{New objective: Survive. Evolve. Conquer.}
Ethan released a controlled deep inhalation. Fear did not move his body as it quaked. No, it was something else. He became overwhelmed by the new sensation of power and change that announced itself to him.
Before the change he amounted to a worthless young boy whose life lay under complete destruction. Now, though? Now, he was something else. Something more.
The system had chosen him. A hidden power had risen inside him as only he could grasp its meaning. At that instant Ethan realized he had left behind his state of being the broken one.
The system granted him access to Blood Grasp skills together with an invitation to explore the Path of the Bloodweaver. Path of the Bloodweaver awaits.}
A shiver passed through his body while he walked toward the doorbecause he felt his body resonate with fresh developing powers. The world outside was waiting. And with it, his destiny.