THE BOY INDERNEATH

Powers come from the worst day of your life. Everybody knows it. Nobody is stupid enough to go looking for one. Callan is. His family can't cover the bills, his best friend has a theory about how this works, and his brother says yes before anyone asks him twice. It takes one Sunday, two sticks they find by a wall, and about ninety seconds of being brave. Then the ceiling comes down. What comes back to him afterward arrives in pieces, and the pieces don't fit. There are minutes he cannot account for. His knuckles are split and there is something under his nails. The friend who promised to wait outside isn't answering. He went looking for the worst day of his life. He found it. He just can't remember all of it.