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He didn’t mean to kill the bunny, Phil thought, staring at the corpse as tears ran down his flushed cheeks. His eyes were all puffy and he could feel snot building up in his nose.
He really needed a tissue. And his Mum or Dad, they would make this better, although not even his parents could save the bunny he had accidentally… killed (a part of his mind whispered murdered).
Phil had only moved here a week ago and his parents had said the forest was known to have very friendly animals, and although part of him thought they just told him that to get some time to set up the house without him distracting them, he still went head first into the forest, carrot in hand to find a bunny.
When he finally saw a fluffy bunny sitting by a tree, he slowly crept towards it, a carrot stretched out towards its mouth. It had actually reached for the food and started munching on it and Phil was so excited! He had never fed a bunny or pet one before, but now he had done one of those, so all he had left to do was pet the bunny!
Phil had reached out while the bunny was chewing and tried to rub his hand on its flank, but before he could even make contact, the bunny had freaked out and bitten him, causing Phil to drop the carrot onto the forest floor and cry out in shock.
All he could think was that it hurt so bad and that the bunny was so mean and before he even realized it, a dark green thing leaked from his fingers as they bled.
Phil had first looked at his hand, the shock from the inky shadowy substance and the pain stunning him, but when he looked back at where the bunny had been, expecting it to have run away, he found it was frozen, staring wide eyed at Phil, before it suddenly collapsed, eyes rolling up into its head.
The bunny… the bunny was dead.
Phil opened his mouth to scream, but quickly snuffed the sound out before it could escape. He wanted to yell, call out for help so badly, but he didn’t, he couldn’t, not when he knew that despite not wanting to, Phil was the one who killed the bunny.
(Murderer murderer murderer-)
It died instantly from whatever had come out of Phil’s hand. His touch had killed the bunny.
Phil had known that sometime soon, given that he was six, he would discover his powers, but he didn’t want such evil powers! He never wanted to hurt anything! He didn’t want to be a bad guy!
At the thought of what others would think of him, Phil burst into tears, cradling his hand. He kept thinking of how to tell his Mum and Dad about his powers, how to convince them he wasn’t like those villains they always saw on TV, that he would never want to hurt anyone.
(Phil also knew he might not have a choice. If his touch was deadly and he couldn’t control it, he could never really return home).
Phil was so busy trying to figure out what to do that he didn’t even hear the tiny footsteps approaching him until a hand reached out to lightly touch his shoulder.
Phil jumped up with a gasp, quickly spinning around and trying to wipe his tears away while also blocking the bunny’s body from view.
Phil was expecting maybe his parents, what he wasn’t expecting was a little girl with dark brown hair and eyes around the same age as him, attempting to peek curiously around Phil’s body.
“W-who are y-you?” Phil asked, voice still wobbly. He was trying to distract her from what he did, but clearly despite being shorter than Phil she could see the corpse. Her eyes widened and she pushed past Phil to touch the bunny, not even speaking to Phil.
Phil didn’t even notice her hands start to glow purple, his eyes filling with tears once again as he tried to justify himself.
“I-I didn’t mean to do it!” Phil exclaimed, breathing rapidly, “I just wanted to pet them, b-but when I touched the bunny it died! I didn’t even know I had powers! Please don’t tell anyone, I won’t hurt anything else!” Phil begged as his legs gave out and he fell to the forest floor, crying into his curled up legs.
Phil could already see it, him being locked up, kept away from everyone because of something out of his control. Was this how some villains felt?
The girl finally turned around to look at Phil, although his panicked state prevented him from seeing her expression, he could only hear her moving slowly closer, leaves crunching under her feet.
Before Phil could try to stop her from coming close, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug. He knew he should push her away, but he was so terrified. Phil instantly latched on, holding her and sobbing. He missed the way his hands were emitting the dark green shadows as he clutched onto her back while the girl’s hand’s in response softly glowed purple, saving herself from his powers.
Phil was in her arms for what felt like forever as his tears dried up and his sniffling calmed down. It was only then that he noticed his hands.
Phil sprang away, crawling backwards to get away from her, repeating, “no no no” over and over again as if it would prevent her from dying.
All he could hear was static, all he could feel was death. Why him why him why him-
“-fine, I promise I’m fine, just look!” Phil could vaguely hear through his panic, the girl’s voice telling him she was alive despite that being impossible.
He glanced at her and the girl was… fine? She didn’t even look hurt or scared, if anything, she looked excited.
“Hi! Are you finally listening to me?” The girl perked up when Phil met her eyes. She looked at Phil with a gentle smile. Phil only nodded, not trusting his voice.
“I’m Kristin! What’s your name?” The gir- Kristin asked.
“P-phil,” He said hoarsely, looking at her with a bewildered expression.
“Oh! My parents were talking about you! You just moved here, right? I was so excited when they told me someone my age would be living so close by now!” She chirped out happily, not even acknowledging Phil’s powers or the bunny.
“I-I don’t understand. How are y-you okay? My powers…” Phil trailed off, not even really understanding them himself. Maybe he was wrong about them?
“Did you just discover them?” Kristin asked. Phil nodded his head, “That’s what I thought. I found mine by accident when I brought my Grandpa back to life. Everyone was pretty surprised to say the least,” Kristin chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck.
Phil was staring at her in amazement. That was an amazing power! She could even bring back the…
Phil’s eyes drifted to where the bunny had died, only to find it gone. While he was panicking over his power, Kristin had saved the bunny’s life.
She was maybe the most amazing person Phil had ever met!
“You saved the bunny’s life! Thank you so much!” Phil could feel relieved tears well up in his eyes, although he didn’t release them. “It had just bitten me and I got scared and then it was just… gone. I didn’t want to hurt it- or you! It was an accident-” Before Phil could wind himself up again, Kristin put her hand in his, both hands glowing and the dark green and purple colors mixed together.
It was kinda beautiful, Phil thought unconsciously.
“It can be really scary finding your power and taking time to control it. It’s not your fault! And since you now live here, I can help you! When I’m with you, I can fix when your powers get out of control! It’s like we were meant to meet!” Kristin smiled and Phil thought it was the most dazzling thing ever. He didn’t know why he felt heat flood his cheeks and felt the need to look away.
“So you’ll help me?” Phil asked, hopefully glancing at her.
“Of course! We can be best friends! I won’t even tell anyone. It can be our secret, pinky promise,” Kristin said, holding out her pinky expectantly.
Phil thought it was a little childish, but wrapping his finger around hers did make him feel a little better.
“Promise,” Phil said back.
With a giggle, Kristin took his hand in her’s and pulled him to stand up. Together they left the forest with Kristin telling him tips on how to control his powers based on what she had learned from her own.
Phil didn’t even notice his powers were no longer glowing or that his hand that she was holding was no longer bleeding. He was too focused on the sense of rightness, of calm he now felt.
Kristin might be one of the best things to ever happen to him. Phil hoped they could always be together.