Devon, still in his teenage form, lay on the cold, bare floor of his former home. Water dripped slowly onto his leg — enough to make anyone feel extremely uncomfortable — but right now, Devon had bigger problems at hand.
His splendid attempt at faking the scene as a serial killer's or perhaps robbers' assault had been flawed.
Still using perception to see exactly what his mother saw, Devon was baffled as well. His left hand was glowing a ghastly red — but why? He still seemed in control of his already fading powers; if not for that, his body would have been incapable of channeling all that nexus in the first place. Devon was running out of time — and options. He had one minute left.
His mom, still holding her phone, seemed ready to switch from calling the ambulance to calling the police.
Memory wipe? That was the only thing his brain could think of right now.
He couldn't afford to be caught or used as a lab rat just to figure out what was wrong with him. Although Devon didn't specialize in the psychic realm, as a god he had access to peasant-level spells that could work on humans. But his powers right now weren't enough for that — which brought him down to one last option.
He had one more thing to do before he lost his powers and reverted back to an average teenage boy.
"Ten seconds left," he whispered in his mind.
The house shook violently as Devon rose from the ground, his eyes glowing white and his hair floating in the air. He spoke with the voice of a hundred men:
> "I am Von, the God of Time and Space. I inhabit this vessel for reasons far beyond your mortal comprehension. Yet mark my words, woman — should harm befall this child, the world you know shall unravel, and time itself will weep.
The boy will remember none of this."
He uttered the last line hastily as his powers were almost gone. Then he collapsed, losing consciousness instantly. The pain from the head injury caught up to him. During his little speech, he had already healed the wound to some extent — not as much as he would have preferred, but enough to keep him alive.
The ambulance finally arrived to carry Devon away.
Sobs and cries could be heard as he was taken into the truck.
The police arrived soon after, carrying out the corpse of Devon's father. Devon's mother looked at the body and didn't even shed a tear — it was obvious she despised the man.
Devon regained consciousness before reaching the hospital but thought it better to keep his eyes closed. Taken into the ICU, he was treated and cleaned. Then realization struck them — most of the blood they thought belonged to Devon might have been someone else's. Seeing his wound now, they realized it wasn't as bad as it had seemed.
A day later, pretending to just be coming out of his comatose state, he looked around and saw his mother crying as she saw him. She hugged him to death, making the migraine intensify.
He could barely speak, but she held on regardless.
Finally letting go, she looked into his eyes again — hers looked like she hadn't slept in a day.
"I missed you," she said. It felt genuine.
Devon just kept staring.
The door to the hospital room opened. The nurse entered.
"I'm so sorry, Mrs. O'Neil, but he needs to rest as much as possible. You can come visit him tomorrow."
"I'll stay behind."
"Ma'am, you've been he—"
"I said I will stay behind," Devon's mom's voice shook but remained firm.
Seeing no point in arguing, the nurse gave Devon his medications and left.
As soon as the door closed, Devon's mom looked at him.
"Devon, there is something—"
"Mum, I'm starting to feel sleepy," Devon interrupted. "Can we continue this tomorrow?"
Shocked for a moment, his mother finally agreed.
"Alright, we'll talk tomorrow."
Standing up to leave, Devon watched her until she closed the door. He already knew what she wanted to talk about — and he hadn't made up his story yet. So it had to wait.
"The great Devon has finally been reduced to a pathetic, average teenage boy," a voice said — masculine, deep, like that of a man in his late fifties.
"Never thought I'd see this day," it laughed maniacally.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" Devon said, standing up from the hospital bed.