no sex The Chase (Part 2 Added!)

[Philosopher]

I wrote this on a whim, and therefore some things might not make sense.

I think it's something a bit different than the usual, so I hope you'll enjoy.

* * *

Outside, the weather was worsening. A deep, thunderous applause emanated from outside the dorm building, and the torrents of rain promised something more than a cold to whoever was foolish enough to be out right now.

The two boys closed their door behind them, deep breaths and sighs coming out of their bodies as they finally escaped the storm outside. Even though it was nearly summer, the weather was as unstable as ever.

The shorter of the two locked the door and threw the key into his bed on the left of the room, trying to make it fly to a wooden desk next to it. As always, the metal key bounced on the soft bed and fell to the ground in an unceremonious order.

I am so bad at throwing things.

The taller of the two proceeded to jump into his own bed on the right, the massive body almost enveloping the whole furniture from the top to the bottom. "Hey, Thomas, do you think we could ask the RA for a bigger bed? I always wake up with cramps and it's so fucking irritating," the muscular man said and his low voice echoed around the small room.

Thomas sighed.

"You know, I never signed up to be your babysitter, Luke. You can do what every single student does and go talk to the RA on your own. She's a lovely person, and I'm sure she has a crush on you, so you literally have nothing to lose. Do I need to remind you that we have more pressing matters to attend to, though?" he breathed out as he picked up the metal key from the ground and stored it in his pocket.

"Oh, shut up," Luke chuckled. "You know for a fact that most people are intimidated when they see me. I mean, look at these guns!" he smiled as he flexed, and instantly, too massive balloons of muscle stretched his university-provided shirt to its limits. 

Thomas stared at him for two seconds before he rolled his eyes. Luke was always of the show-off type. He didn't really mind it most of the days, but sometimes it just got too annoying for even him to handle. Between the secret tinges of envy he felt every time he saw his roommate's handsome face and his Adonis-like body, the feelings would turn into a sour cocktail of anger and bitterness, that Thomas did his best to expel out of his own, average-sized body.

It worked. Most of the time.

"Hey... I don't remember your whole foot poking out of your bed. Don't tell me..." he said.

Luke's smile turned to that of excitement and slight smugness. "Yup. Currently going through another growth spurt. You thought I was already super-tall before, well, just wait until this one is over. Then you'll see what real tall means. All thanks to the jewels," he raised his massive body, and a silver ring shined on the small light of the lamp above their head. Luke had to duck to avoid it, something that he didn't have to do a month ago.

Thomas felt another sigh coming from his lungs.

The jewels.

Granted, he wanted to think of himself as a rationalist, despite him being the grant age of eighteen and a half. Thomas never knew that by spending most of his time in the library, he'd find an ancient tome in the 'Mysteries of History' section of Stanford's University Libraries. That book would, in turn, lead him into a treasure hunt in Santa Clara County, visiting places such as the Winchester Mystery House, to the Our Lady of Peace statue and even though the Big Basin Redwoods forest in the middle of the night, in an attempt to solve the mystery in the yellowed pages of the book.

He never expected to actually solve the mind-numbing riddles and locate a massive cave in the outskirts of the forest, where something resembling a tomb was hidden behind the massive oak and redwood trees.

Being the wuss that he was, Thomas had to recruit Luke as his buddy in order to enter the cave. Luke was both taller and more muscular than him, even then, and he knew that if a bear was residing the creepy cavern, then he'd just shout at Luke to fight it before both of them became minced meat.

Not that the blonde and green-eyed Luke could defeat a bear, but it was better than nothing, right?

Thankfully, there was no murderous bear in the cave, but instead some sorts of an altar, where five jewels had been placed in the middle of it. The altar reminded Dylan of Mayan architecture, although he knew that this was impossible. Beautiful drawings of humanoid figures had been drawn on the walls, each depicting a different person, or god, as Thomas found out through the help of the book.

Apparently, by wearing these jewels, each user would be granted certain 'powers', that could both be used for good or evil, whatever the finder wished for. The book did not explain anything else, just that the finders could not pick a jewel on their own.

The jewels had to pick them.

They soon found out how, because the beautiful, silver ring on the top right of the altar levitated in the air, and hinged itself at Luke's arm. Similarly, a bracelet with a black orb intertwined itself with Thomas' hand, and even worse, both would not come out.

That was a few months ago.

Since then, Thomas had to look at his 'friend' grow even taller than he was before, his frame filling with muscle and power, growing as the days passed by.

On the other hand, Thomas had only found a single 'power', and needless to say, he was not happy.

"Okay. So, here's the thing. We really have no idea if the jewels have any sorts of limitations, or how many powers are inside them. You've only found super strength in yours, right?" he asked Luke, who was busy playing with the lamp.

"Which didn't really help us back there..." Luke turned at him, now a puppy-like frown on his chiselled face. "We should have known that the other two had followed us in the forest. If we had been more careful, then we wouldn't be here in the first place," the frown turned colder and angrier, and a tiny vein formed into the giant man's forehead.

Thomas liked calling Luke a giant, as he was 6'6 and slowly, but surely, growing more. With him being 5'9, Luke towered over him. In many ways, Thomas was a foil to Luke. Black hair that resembled the I-just-got-out-of-bed look, and black eyes that seemed to reflect all light in them. On the other hand, Luke had wonderful, blonde and wavy hair, while his viridian green eyes could hold your gaze for hours without stop. All that were enhanced by the strong jawline and pure virility that both his face and his body were overflowing with.

The rain outside had stopped, but Thomas could see that the sky still had the ominous, dark clouds preventing the Californian sun from shining through.

"We know they're students at Stanford, that's for sure. If they weren't wearing these suits, then we would know who they are by now. What annoys me is that they've stolen two jewels for their own and they know who we are. They think that by stealing our jewels, they can eliminate us from the race."

Luke's body now trembled with rage, something that usually happened when the conversation turned to that mysterious duo that had made Thomas unable to sleep most of the nights, in fear that he would find a silhouette standing in front of him if he opened his eyes.

"Dude, calm d-" Thomas tried to say, but it was already too late.

"SCREW THIS!" Luke boomed with a volume that made Thomas' ears tingle and with a speed that was too fast for the smaller roommate's brain to comprehend, Luke's fist found itself embedded into the wall next to him.

Thomas closed his eyes reflexively at the sickening crunch that emanated from Luke's hand, and he was absolutely certain that the towering man had probably broken one or more of his fingers. 

And yet, Luke made no sound at all.

Thomas opened his eyes, and saw more than half of his roommate's hand inside the wall. 

What the fuck.

"You... you did not just punch a hole in the wall. Do you have ANY IDEA what the university will do to us now? How are we supposed--ARE YOU INSANE?!" Thomas shouted as he rushed at the now swiss-cheese hole decorating the left wall of the shared room. He placed his hand on top of it, barely covering half of it with his palm. He then turned to a still-angry Luke, his fist still clenched in a desperate attempt to not destroy more of the poor wall.

Thomas didn't know what kind of material the architects had used for their dormitory, and he wasn't about to guess. Instead, he picked the ancient book he was reading from the wooden floor and did his best to calm himself down, lest he wanted to go into a screaming match with Luke. Besides, their neighbours would have to be deaf to not hear the groan the wall made once the blonde man's fist defiled it. 

"Have I ever told you that sometimes, you make me want to strangle you in your sleep?" Thomas whispered as he tried to contain the ocean of fury boiling in his mind.

At that exact moment, a white butterfly tapped at the window of the dorm, and he moved to open it. The butterfly flew around Thomas for a few seconds, almost as if it was happy to see him, and then it zoomed in the bracelet on his hand, disappearing the moment its small body touched the black orb.

That was Thomas' overpowering ability. The power to use butterflies as minions. The book didn't explore the hidden powers of his jewel at all, only that the primary ability of the Bracelet contained something too dangerous for the user to use immediately.

"Crap. The next part of the race is due next week. In Los Angeles, from all places. I still think that we need to tell Alice and Sam. They already know about our 'situation', and both are smart and honest, so why not?" he argued with his roommate, who had taken a white piece of paper and stapled it on top of the hole in an attempt to hide it.

"Can't your little butterfly tell you that that's a terrible idea? How do they even know where the next fragment of the final Jewel is going to appear anyways?" he brooded as he flexed his long fingers, not a single scratch or bruise on them.

Thomas didn't have an answer to that.

A knock on the door snapped him out of his momentary stupor, and he slowly approached it before he was halted by Luke's wide body. He tried to dodge his hand, but it was simply impossible, as Luke could literally hold his full force in one arm, as he had repeatedly proven to him.

"Can you not?" Thomas tried sleeping out of his grasp, but couldn't. He knew that Luke wasn't even using half his power, but that only made him angrier. "It's probably Sam. Who's not one of the bad guys! We have checked him countless times, haven't we?" he said.

"Fine."

With a swift move, Luke's paw enveloped the knob of the door and pulled in. A sound of screeching metal snapping was heard for a second, and Thomas found himself looking at the horrified face of Sam, Alice looking terrified behind him.

"It... it was locked, wasn't it?" Luke whimpered and moved his hand away.

"Yup."

Sam's face turned from that of horror to that of amazement and awe. "Holy shit," he said and bent down to pick a slab of the metallic lock.

Alice did her best to stop glancing at Luke's face, instead forcing her gaze to the more gentle Thomas, who was looking like he was about to explode.

"Say, who's ready for the Summer Feast?" her face beamed with happiness and excitement. "I heard there's gonna be tons of booze."

Thomas' black eyes looked at her and he managed to produce a meek smile.

"I think I'm going to need something very strong."

[dredlifter]

Great setup!  Unique and interesting, I'm impressed and excited to see what happens.  And how BIG Luke is going to get!

[furfucked]

Nice little vignette. I'd love to see more!

[Philosopher]

Hi, y'all! Second part is here, and I really liked writing it. Although it's a bit hard to write some scenes where muscle is involved (mainly because I'm afraid of repeating myself), I really enjoy showing the fantasy aspect of it as well.

Just some information, I have no actual plot structure in the story, I mainly plan it as I go! It's a lot fun to do, but it does raise the danger of making the story kinda stale. 

Without any further adieu, here it is.

Part 2 - A Conflict of Emotions

Thomas was in front of the group, trying very hard to ignore the creeping anxiety of facing the RA about the numerous damages in the room. Behind him, Alice and Sam were bothering Luke with their usual, hype-filled questions. Obviously, Luke was all too happy to answer them.

"So, like, how much can you lift now?" Sam said as he avoided a thick root of a redwood tree below him. They were entering the small forest near the dorm areas of Stanford University now, and despite the time being late in the afternoon, there was not a single ray of sunlight, courtesy of the thick clouds of the storm above them. 

"Oh, um, actually, I never bothered to go to the gym after I got the ring, so I have no clue. It seemed like a waste of time, back then, since I'm literally gaining mass by doing nothing at all. I suppose I could give you a demonstration at the party," he winked at him, and Sam's hype levels achieved a new record. Alice was the next to ask, although she appeared to be a bit more reserved by the laid-back Sam.

"Okay, this is going to sound weird, but how aren't you suffering from any growing pains? In our Human Growth lectures, all professors keep ranting about how the human body doesn't actually finish growing at eighteen, but it still has the potential to grow even after the early twenties of a human lifespan. But the process of doing so is quite painful, especially if you're gaining height in a very short period. That's why most teenagers suffer from growing pains."

Alice was the resident Pre-Med guru of the dorm, and she took deep pride in being able to answer all questions in a matter of seconds, despite the complexity or severity of said question. After all, she had the top spot in her class.

Luke laughed and flexed his pillow-like pecs. He always did that when he felt proud, as Thomas had noted infinite times before. "You see, since I'm also gaining muscle mass, my guess is that it balances out the height growth spurts. I'm actually growin proportionally, both height and weight together. And the growth is happening in all places, you see," he chuckled and took a giant leap forwards, instantly reaching Thomas with a single step. "Say, the butterfly has already returned in your bracelet, why don't you release another one? It'd be good to have some eyes above us, don't you think?" he said, and Thomas looked at him with a bored expression on his face.

"I already did. Butterflies are not eagles, Luke. The best they can do is observe the forest clearings for a few minutes, and then return to me. Honestly, if I could release more than three at a time, then I wouldn't be so sad about my powers," Thomas complained as he started walking a bit faster, still trying to be the head of the group.

Luke reached him with ease, his long and pillar-like legs being on a whole other league compared to Thomas' agile but smaller ones.

It was during these times where Thomas had to take some deep breaths in order to repel the darkness hidden in his mind. Every time he wanted to be first at something, Luke would appear out of thin air and try and take his position. This happened all the time, from who's going to be the first to shower, to who's going to use the kitchen first. It was an unconscious battle for dominance, and Thomas hated it with all his being, mainly because Luke didn't even try to act dominant.

After all, it was like second nature to him.

Thomas had even tried to cook the same food faster than Luke, but the beast of a man would always somehow come first.

Every. Single. Time.

The darkness inside him proliferated, and Thomas found himself clutching his right arm in an attempt to restrain himself.

This would happen sometimes, losing control of himself, that is. For example, he had to be really careful when he was close to knives. Once, when Luke was lording how much taller he was than everyone, able to reach the ceiling of the kitchen with just his elbow, Thomas had found himself taking a sharp knife out of the drawer.

A slithering voice was calling him to use it.

With the silence of a snake, he had crept behind an aloof Luke, who was making his usual breakfast, that being a dozen eggs and bacon to feed an army, and aimed at the finger that the powerful ring was on.

Thankfully, he was involuntary snapped out of the trance when Luke took a step back to flip the eggs, sending Thomas and the knife away to the wall with a slight brush. His power was just that strong, that even a sudden movement from Luke was enough to send people flying away.

The giant man had never suspected a thing, and Thomas had to knock on Alice's door so she could fix a thin cut on his arm, courtesy of the sharp knife he was holding at the time. That was before Spring Break and since then, Thomas was afraid of himself.

Afraid of losing control and hurting people he deeply cared about.

Thomas shooed the terrible memory away, and with a sigh, he let Luke take the lead.

"Hey man, are you okay?" Sam joined next to him, his previous excitement disappearing and replaced with slight caution. He was a handsome adolescent, with thick and long brown hair, tied on a bun, while his face resembled more of the teenagers Thomas would see on Riverdale rather than real-life people. Sam had the same height as him, but a more toned physique, as he was part of the swimming team of Stanford University, having won a scholarship for his talent in the water.

Thomas smiled at him, trying hard to make the smile look genuine. "Of course, we're going to a party after all. I'm just very... tired. I think that overusing the bracelet gives me some sorts of magical fatigue, so I can't really summon more than ten butterflies per day," he lied. Thomas could summon all the butterflies he wanted, but he simply didn't do so because they were literally useless against any sorts of enemy, never mind the two mysterious figures who had stolen the other to Jewels for themselves.

"OW!" Luke shouted, and everyone stopped right on their tracks.

Oh frick, oh crap, an ambush?

Luke growled like a bear on steroids and snapped the branch in front of him like it was a matchstick. He held the giant piece of wood with one hand, before he began pulverizing it with his bare arm, the redwood branch proving to be no match for the unyielding strength of the not-so-gentle-giant. The branch proceeded to be reduced to smithereens, prickles and splinters exploded outwards as the poor thing was squished right in the middle.

The branch eventually gave in, and its middle section became a fine paste of sticky wood at the iron grip of the musclebound eighteen-year old. With a satisfied grin, Luke grabbed the now-two smaller branches and threw them away into the forest, the force of his throw being so strong that one of the sticks lodged itself deep into another tree, while the other simply vanished from everyone's eyes, never to be seen again.

Thomas was the first to regain his voice, his legs trembling in primal fear at the show of true and masculine power. "Wh-wh-why did you do that for?" he stammered like a child.

Luke raised his wide shoulders, his t-shirt stretching to the maximum by the motion, threatening to give in to the overwhelming force hidden behind it. "The branch almost hit me in the eye! It's not my fault I'm so tall!" he roared in laughter, causing his abs to tighten, revealing a deep eight-pack of pure granite under the overstretched shirt that did nothing to hide it away. Sam could only look at the beautifully sculpted slabs of muscle, and Thomas couldn't help but do the same, his envy fighting between astonishment and buried arousal. Alice could only see the behind of the massive, Hollywood-like superstud, but she didn't look disappointed at all, taking the full glory of an intricate yet hypnotizing maze of striations and bulges, Luke's white, XXL shirt leaving nothing to the imagination.

Eventually, the overwhelming emotion of envy won the inner battle of Thomas' mind, and he broke the spell by clearing his throat in a theatrical manner. "I think we're gonna be late. Come on, we're just a few steps away," he sighed and went further into the woods, his only direction being the glimpse of a campfire that was becoming stronger as he approached it.

Unconsciously, his hand went to his bracelet, feeling it become a little bit uncomfortable, but not nearly enough to alert him.

Nobody noticed the black marble bleaching out to a clinical white, the drops of a ferrous, obsidian substance seeping away at the grounds of the forest.

A single, black butterfly emerged from the tattered earth and flew away into the nearby clearing, keeping a close distance to its owner.

* * *

The Summer Feast.

A cryptic celebration of all first-year undergraduates that had successfully survived the first year at Stanford University. Rumours said that the party was actually some sorts of cult initiation, as not many people were able to be invited to the 'secret' location. The same whispers would say that the same secret society was the cause of the recent disappearance of many people, taken right out of their homes with no signs of struggle.

Everyone knew that the rumours came from the poor sods that never had the chance of being invited to the party, having to spend their whole four years at the campus without tasting the joy of the Summer Feast.

Thank god for Alice. And Luke, I guess.

They could hear the sounds of the giant amplifiers booming their music at the small clearing, in the middle of the forest. Even from this distance, Thomas winced at the loud music that would surely prevent him from having a normal conversation with anyone besides himself.

I hate parties. But I also don't... Jeez, get a grip, dude.

The storm above them still prevented the sun from coming out, but a sizable campfire made more than enough light for the sixty people currently dancing their lives away around it. Countless humans of different sizes and shapes jumped up and down at the rhythm of the music that would only go more chaotic as time moved on. The few people that weren't dancing, were in charge of the 'booze-tables', careful to not let a random idiot smashing into them and ruining everyone's fun.

Everyone's eyes instantly turned and looked at the massive behemoth that Luke was as he and the other three entered the clearing. Even before his new growth spurts, the model-like man had some kind of powerful, charismatic Aura around him that enchanted everyone who managed to go near him.

That effect was only amplified after obtaining the ring, and now the whole party could do nothing but stare at the demigod who had been gracious enough to walk among them., showering the mortals with his inhumane beauty and brawn.

The only person who was unaffected by the mystical enchantment was Thomas, who was feeling more tired by the second, already a massive headache tearing at his brain. He could see both of his arms trembling as if he had swallowed a beehive and now the bees were trying to escape. Furthermore, the light of the campfire was playing tricks on his eyes, creating the illusion of some dark-like veins that originated from the bracelet, spreading among the rest of his arm.

What's... happening?

"Alice, w-would you mind getting me a drink? A strong vodka with... whatever would be fine..." Thomas managed to breathe out, and took a few steps in the clearing, before throwing himself into a nearby branch, his legs finally giving out.

Alice didn't even respond to him, her eyes still enthralled by the magnificence of Luke, his Adonis looks and body drenched from the golden light of the fire. And yet, she followed his orders, walking to the booze-table like a robot and grabbing a bottle of vodka from the stand. She then walked to Thomas and gave it to him without a single word coming out of his mouth.

As her hands touched his, a tiny, silver spark came out of the bracelet, and Alice's senses returned to her. "...Oh, sure thing, Thomas. Let me get-," she started saying, but when she looked down, she could already see the bottle at her hands. "Huh. I... actually, never mind. Try not to get alcohol poisoning, my dear friend," she smiled at him, her blonde, curly hair flowing into her light brown eyes at a sudden gust of the wind. 

Thankfully, even Luke seemed to be perplexed as he saw everyone just... looking at him, so he cleared his voice and shouted with a volume that was even louder than the booming music itself. "COME ON, LET'S ROCK THIS LAME-ASS PARTY, FOLKS!" he roared, and instantly the 'start' button was pressed again. Everyone started dancing and yelling with renewed vigour, the groove resuming as if it was never gone.

Thirty minutes later, Thomas had finished half the bottle, the headache disappearing as the soothing alcohol lowered his inhibitions and mellowed out the pain until it was nothing more but background noise. Unfortunately, that meant that he was also quite drunk, his legs behaving like a sentient glob of jello. He couldn't find the strength to get up and party with the others, so as a way to spend the time, Thomas raised his hand and released a white butterfly on the world, ordering to flow around him and keep him company. The bracelet's marble seemed to be a little bit lighter than before, its previous midnight colour having some grey smudges in it.

Probably the campfire and the alcohol. Haha... ha.

Nevertheless, the white butterfly escaped out of his hand and made a few circles around his head, before landing on his shoulder, its tiny legs tickling him. The combination of the alcohol and the tickles made Thomas to burst out laughing, causing the butterfly to fly away from his shoulder, now landing straight on top of his straight, smallish nose.

Despite his power being rather pathetic when compared to the overwhelming strength and passive effects of Luke's ring, Thomas couldn't help but genuinely feel happy at the moment, a thin smile spreading on his lips.

The feeling of weightlessness was crushed by a sudden whisper in his mind, one that certainly didn't originate from him. The voice sounded... old. Ancient, even.

Powerful.

Your rivals are here... They're waiting. Observing you. Surround yourself with allies, or the Butterfly will be lost. Along with your hand. I will follow your orders.

The drunkenness was instantly evaporated by the sudden rush of adrenaline that invaded Thomas' body, the sensation seeping deep into his bones and gifting him with heightened senses. He could smell the smoke from the campfire, feel the grass beneath his thighs, taste the bitter alcohol in his tongue. With surprising strength, Thomas lifted his frail body up and slowly walked towards Luke, who stood more than a head taller than most of the people.

He looks so... amazing. I want that. 

His emotions swirled inside his head, as he finally approached Luke and placed his hands on his back, feeling just how warm he was. Hot, even.

Luke immediately stopped talking with some random group of girls who kept gazing upwards at his bright green eyes, every single one wanting to swim in them. His attention was now 100% on Thomas, and he smiled down at the smaller guy, revealing his pearly whites.

Thomas was surprised at that. Luke would usually finish a conversation first, but now, he didn't seem to care about anyone else but Thomas and Thomas alone. He couldn't even see the disappointed girls behind his wide torso, able to hide their slim bodies with its sheer mass.

"We... we have a problem," Thomas gulped, taking his hand away from Luke's titanic body.

Jesus, my arm is probably smaller than a single ab of his.

"The... 'rivals'. They're here, at the party. We can either make an excuse and go, or... we can investigate. We finally have some suspects!" Thomas whispered, not realizing that his voice was drowned out by the thunderous music.

And yet, Luke nodded, as if he had heard him perfectly. He then lowered his massive body down, crouching so that he could be at the same height as him. His head moved closer to his ear, and Thomas could only tremble as his warm breath touched his neck. "We have to find who they are. I trust your intuition," he soothed and Thomas felt like fainting right there and then.

The duo spent the next twenty minutes walking around the forest clearing, looking out for any suspicious activities and more importantly, for any Jewels.

Thomas knew for a fact that the rivals had stolen two Jewels. The first was a golden necklace, with a crystal-like orb in the middle of it, while the second was a pair of earrings that had the distinct shape of eyes, with a dark-blue centre in the middle of each earring. He had seen both of them back in the terrifying cave, placed in the altar, directly on the other side of the bracelet and the ring.

He could already sense Luke getting angrier as they inspected the neck and ears of every person in the party, even the ones who had rushed in the forest to make out with each other, teenage hormones running rampant in the party.

Thomas felt like intervening in order to prevent his roommate exploding and accidentally ripping a tree from the ground. "Obviously, it wouldn't be this easy. For all we know, they might even be invisible. The book doesn't list any powers of the Necklace and the Earrings. That would be too convenient for us," he lamented as they reached the edge of the clearing, where the music was a little bit quieter.

"How do you even know they're here?" Luke suddenly asked, and Thomas found himself gazing at his granite-carved face, trying to come up with a believable excuse.

"I-uh, look, it's gonna sound crazy, but I he-," he started saying, but he stopped.

The music wasn't playing anymore.

Thomas looked over at the other side of the clearing, expecting to see the DJ fixing the amplifiers.

He didn't expect to see one hundred and twenty pairs of eyes looking at them. Everyone's bodies were frozen in place, and they weren't moving a muscle. The statues that had been dancing teenagers just mere minutes ago wouldn't even blink. They all stared at them, a blank expression on the myriad of young faces.

Thomas was about to walk closer at the bizarre sight, but he was immediately stopped by a giant arm of Luke, his body going in front of him like a shield made out of impenetrable muscle. "Not safe," he growled like a wild animal.

Out of the sixty frozen people, a figure broke their lines. It was one of Thomas' classmates in his Ancient Civilization lectures, the one who always begged him to lend her some of his notes. Her eyes were different than the rest, with her scleras turned completely black, no light reflecting out of them, producing a horror-movie like effect. She opened her mouth, only to reveal a pitch-black emptiness as well, a well so deep that it seemed to be a gate to another dimension.

"Hello," the voice of a child came out of the mouth, one that didn't belong to the young woman at all. "My name is..." the voice stopped, seemingly confused for a second. "I don't have a name. Would you please name me, owner of the Bracelet?" the high-pitch voice said and looked at Thomas. 

What.

"W-what? I don't understand," Thomas trembled and took a few steps back, ready to start running into the forest in order to escape the nightmarish creature that his classmate had turned into.

The woman continued.

"Do not worry, User. I will proceed to fulfil your command. My only purpose is to make the owner of the Butterfly happy. You will be happy."

She then turned to Luke and the smile of a killer out of blood was slowly carved into her face. "Hello," she said and pointed at him.

The zombified mass of people started walking towards the two of them, particularly aimed at Luke, their hands raised in a strangling position. The woman kept smiling all the time, as sixty bodies crept closer and closer until the first line was only a breath away from the duo.

"Goodbye."

As if something had snapped at the collective unconscious of the possessed mass, every single student started throwing themselves at Luke, who had already taken a battle position, his wide chest almost doubling in size as he flexed it, his rock-hard pecs threatening to tear the white shirt in half. Luke's fists curled into the size of a football, able to smash through stone and concrete with ease, his tendons tensing with overwhelming power. His jeans were also struggling to hold their structural integrity as the man's thighs and calves already started stretching the material beyond recognition, thin blue tears appearing out of nowhere. 

His crotch was no exception and Thomas used all his willpower to not look at the sleeping python contained in the deteriorating jeans.

Thomas was more than certain that Luke could easily destroy an army of sixty people with an arm tied behind his back, but he wasn't about to allow students become absolutely decimated by the godly power of his musclebound roommate. "STOP!" he screamed at the supposed leader of the group, and the horde instantly followed his commands, stopping like someone had frozen time. Luke had already grabbed two of the larger students, both of them raised more than six feet above the ground as if they were nothing but feathers. "DON'T HURT HIM! DON'T HURT THEM!" Thomas blurted out loud, and his bracelet pulsed with a sudden twitch of heat.

The black-eyed woman stared at Thomas for a few seconds, before her smile returned to that of calmness and peace. Maybe of understanding.  "I... see. You are a very interesting user. So much hidden potential. Perhaps enough to unlock the true powers of the Bracelet. I think I'll enjoy being your Butterfly, Thomas."

And with that, a midnight-black butterfly escaped from the woman's mouth and flew into the clearing, before being absorbed into Thomas' bracelet with lighting-fast speed. The colour of the bracelet returned to obsidian, the traces of white disappearing in an instant. The crowd suddenly took a deep breath of clear air, as if they were underwater for more than a minute, and everyone looked at themselves and each other, the main emotion being confusion and fear.

"Uh, can you let us down?" a young, muscular man whispered against the vice-like grip of Luke's hands. The student must've been at least six feet and more than 190 pounds of muscle, but he was nothing compared to the titan body that could manhandle him with no strain at all.

"Oh, sorry about that," Luke smiled and slowly lowered his hand to the ground, not before using the man as a human barbell a few times.

Thomas had to act fast. "Oh man, someone must have spiked the drinks. Whoever did it, they better reveal themselves," he threatened, motioning at Luke next to him, who flexed his left bicep. This proved to be too much for the shirt to handle, as it instantly burst to ripped fiber and torn threads, unable to contain the giant mountain of steely muscle. "Oh, that never happened before. Hey, what's your name? I think I can use you as my personal dumbbell," he laughed and Thomas thought he felt the reverberations of his deep laugh.

The hell? He looks... bigger.

That did the job of dissipating everyone's confusion, and the party started again, the music now raised to the maximum, so much that Dylan couldn't stand being in the clearing.

Besides, there was something very wrong with his bracelet, and he needed to check that out right now. Before he could do that, however, Luke turned to him and gave him a look of pure worry, his eyes frowning like a wolf puppy that almost made Thomas want to pinch his arm to stop himself from touching the beautiful man. "I have a feeling you just found another use of your power. I wonder if that's all your bracelet can do... but dude, you look awful. Like you haven't slept for days. Do you want to head back to the dorm? I can make you some soup if you want!" he smiled again and it almost drove Thomas wild.

STOP IT! Regain your composure. It's... it's not meant to be.

"I... I'm fine, Luke. But you're right, I think I'll head to the dorm, maybe do some research about our trip to LA. When you get back, please don't bother waking me up until tomorrow morning," Thomas hastily said and started walking away from the clearing. Alice and Sam waved at him, and he waved back with a pained smile, not stopping his walk for any reason at all.

He didn't want his friends to see him crying.

Unfortunately, the hooded figures, hidden at the top of the trees, did.