The Green Lantern Ring – Chapter 3

The gypsy guy knows it was me... now he's chasing me. How do I get rid of him? Also, were there any cameras around?

1 month after receiving the ring:

Shit, he realised it was me, I thought after I looked back and noticed the gypsy guy looking at me. He scrambled up from the ground. People can’t know I can do things like this. I continued walking away, headed towards the apartment building I lived in. But he can’t be certain it was me, I could’ve just been a bystander, watching what happened to him. There’s no proof that I created those constructs and tripped him up. I slowly and inconspicuously increased my walking speed.

I looked back again. He was walking now, towards me. Or so I thought, but I couldn’t be sure… He turned his head and looked in my direction. Okay, he’s following me. I increased my speed again, more worried this time. I walked past some smaller apartment buildings and decided to take a right turn once I reached the ten-story building on the corner.

Before turning the corner, I looked back again. He was still looking in my direction and, just before I disappeared behind the concrete building, he started running. Fuck! What should I do, what should I do? This fucking gypsy wants to catch me… fucking gypsies can’t leave a person alone. I need to loose him somehow.

I started running. After about 20 meters, I stopped, already exhausted from the combination of having used the ring earlier and the sprinting. I turned around. Right then, he appeared behind the building on the corner. He spotted me and shouted: “hey, you!”

I looked left and right. There were kids playing on the football court in the park. They were relatively far away, as I was standing right at the foot of one of the tall apartment buildings. There was also an elderly lady sitting on a bench, but she faced the opposite direction. Should I fly up, to the top of the building? But that’s ten-stories and I’m exhausted, I might not be able to use my power long enough to reach the top. Plus, if someone’s out on their balcony, they’ll see me close-up. The gypsy guy would see me fly too: he’d know with absolute certainty that I have superpowers.

I made a decision. At this point, he was already more than half-way through the park, running towards me. I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth and focused on the construct I’d imagined. Please work, please work, please work were the words running through my mind, as I tried to bring the construct to life. It was tricky, because I had to make it appear right in front of the guy, while he was running, otherwise he would go around it.

My hands were at the level of my stomach: my left hand horizontal, palm facing the sky, my right hand on my left, as if I was holding a ball or a cup, or about to do the kamehameha thing from Dragon Ball. Now! I lifted my right hand quickly and forcefully, pushing something invisible upwards. At the same time, a green, transparent pane of glass appeared in front of the guy, like it was pulled up from the ground. He tried to stop, but couldn’t. He only had time to turn slightly and begin lifting his arms towards his face before he crashed into the glass made of hard light. It shattered into a thousand pieces as he fell to the ground. I tried to keep the construct alive long enough for the pieces to cause some damage to his body – that way, his wounds would keep him occupied and prevent him coming after me.

He touched his wounded face, eyes closed and shouted: “aaaah! a kurva anyád [your mother’s a whore]!” At that point, I let go of the construct mentally, turned around and began to ran.

When I reached the next corner, I stopped running. There were more people around, so I didn’t want to raise any suspicion. But I kept walking as fast as I could, although I was about to spit my lungs out. I turned around – he was nowhere to be seen, probably still preoccupied with his wounds. The incoming cars were still farther away, so I crossed the road. Looked back again – still nothing. I think I lost him finally…

When I entered my apartment building, I made sure to close the door behind me and walked up to the first floor. This way, he couldn’t spot me if he started looking through entrance doors. I took off my jacket and sat down on the stairs to try and catch my breath. I was about to collapse. My heart was beating like crazy. I hope no one comes and finds me like this, they’d call the ambulance for sure.

Five minutes passed, or maybe ten, and my body slowly began to calm down. Now that gypsy knows how I look, he can recognise me. But even if he tells people about what happened, who’s gonna believe him? Cameras! Were there any camera’s around? Damn it, I didn’t think about the cameras!

But it’s unlikely, isn’t it? I mean, these neighbourhoods are not the most expensive areas of the city and I haven’t noticed security cameras around here… we sure as hell don’t have one in this building. I decided I was probably safe. Even if there were any cameras and the guy tried to get the security footage, he’d probably not succeed: a gypsy asking for security footage, claiming that someone used magical powers to hurt him… they’d send him away. But, just to be sure, I’ll go back next week and check if there are any cameras in the area.

I realised I needed to be more careful with using my powers in public. I still didn’t know what the implications of owning this ring might be. How many people know about its existence? Do any of them know I have it? Will anyone come for me and try to take it away? Does anyone in the german merchandise shop – which has my address – know about the ring’s true nature?

I needed to try finding the answers to these questions. Despite the potential dangers that might be involved in all of this, I couldn’t help but think: wow, this is so exciting! It’s like a realistic comic book story, but actually happening in real life. And I’m part of it! Okay, I need to buy some clothes that will serve as my superhero costume. Clothes that I don’t wear anywhere else, so people can’t identify me if they see me using my powers in them. And a mask, too, of course.

1 month earlier – the day of receiving the ring:

After I tried using the ring in the restaurant, I decided I would show my mom my superpowers to make absolutely sure – or, at least as sure as I can be – that this wasn’t just a hallucination. She and my sister are the two people I trust the most. But there are still a few more months until my mom comes to visit, so the “record-it-with-my-camera” approach would have to suffice for now.

After I got off the bus, I walked home, still feeling great about my life. In the year that lead up to that point, there’d been so much frustration with my workplace and my pathetic dating life. It was during that year, that I first cut my wrist – not hard enough to actually risk dying, but hard enough to leave a mark. Then, a few months later, I cut myself again. No blood, nothing serious, just a sign that things were getting worse. I’d already thought about suicide during university – whenever I dug myself into that deep, dark hole – but I’d never actually put blade to wrist before.

After I arrived home, I placed a plastic cup on the table and pointed my phone’s camera at it. I pressed record. “Okay, let’s see if this actually records it.” I focused on trying to push the cup with some green light, but I felt tired and it wasn’t working. Shit, did I loose my powers already? Or was it just a temporary hallucination after all? Annoyed by the uncertainty, I sat on my bed and started scrolling YouTube.

But I wasn’t paying attention to the videos in my feed, I kept thinking about the ring: if using it four times made me this tired, I might need to rest and recharge before I use it again. It is a ring of willpower after all, isn’t it? If my willpower is very low due to exhaustion, it makes sense that I can’t make it work, right? It was my first day wearing and using the ring, after all. You can’t master something in one day. And with those thoughts circling in my mind, I fell asleep.

I woke up a few hours later, at 21:37. The first thing I did was to check if I still had the ring on my finger. It’s still there. I pulled down the window blinds, turned on the lights and decided to have another go at recording myself using the ring’s powers. Meanwhile, my OCD triggered the uncertainty loop again: Did I only hallucinate? That can’t be, it had to have been reel, it felt reel. But what if I’m just slowly loosing my mind?

I put the plastic cup in position, phone in my left hand, ready to record. Go! I focused hard, pointed the ring towards the cup and imagined the green light hitting it. A flicker. Yes! More flickers of green light. I still got it! The green light stayed this time, shapeless and seemingly not solid, but visible nonetheless. Then a push – bam! The cup turned over. “Wooooo! Okay, but I still need to see if the camera recorded it,” I said, trying not to get ahead of myself.

I played the recording. There it was: the flickering green light, the push and the cup falling on its side. It’s real! It seems like it really is real! I ran into the bedroom and jumped into the air. It’s real! It’s fucking real! “I still need to show mom, but it seems like this is actually real,” I said to myself with a big smile on my face.

By the way… do Green Lanterns need to point their rings in the direction where they want to aim their powers? That’s what I did every time I used the ring so far, but it’s quite conspicuous if done in a public setting with people around. I googled it and this was the answer I got:

“No, Green Lanterns do not strictly have to point their rings in the direction where they want to use their powers. While pointing is frequently shown, it is more often a result of personal style, concentration, or the desire to focus a blast of energy rather than a required mechanic.”

Great, so I guess I just need to practice enough to not need the pointing anymore. That is, if this ring actually works like the ones in the Green Lantern comics…