Electricity. It runs through my veins, shocks me to life. As it washes over me, something changes. Something… awakens. Something new.
It was as stormy a night as any other. Thunder crashed in the distance, scaring yet another flock of birds, wind howled outside, and the rain pelted the metal roof like so many foam darts. Leaves rustled in the sky, some holding on stubbornly, others letting go and joining the cacophony of unlit colors swirling in the sky. Lightning flashed, illuminating the trees for just a brief moment, before fading into black as quickly as it appeared.
The stable was pitch-black. The windowless room was nonetheless humid, though it was uncomfortably warm; the air conditioning was broken, and the usual hum of a fan was absent. It would be eerily quiet, were it not for the horses sleeping in the stables, their heads drooped in a posture mistakable for repentance.
One of the horses, a stallion gold as flax, suddenly awoke in the stalls. Its heart beated quickly and it was coated with a sheen of sweat, as if it had just awoken from a horrible nightmare. It cantered around in its stall, a nervous jog that repeatedly turned sharply and suddenly to avoid the fences. In the darkness, it sensed its fellow horses asleep in the storm, and it slowed down and paused.
After a moment, it snorted, waiting for a response. Only the rain responded, pelting the metal as it had since it had woken up. It waited for a minute longer, but nothing happened. Another minute passed without anything happening. After another minute, it started to fall asleep, drifting peacefully into dreamland.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash penetrating the metal wall, and the sky burst open in a concussive boom of thunder. The wind, the rain, everything seemed to push twice as hard. The horse desperately fought back the urge to whinny and gallop through the stable, its heart beating furiously as it resisted. Its battle against its baser instincts fully awakened it, and as it calmed down, it realized that it would not be going to sleep anytime soon. It paced around, stepping on damp hay and slick grass.
The stable was entirely dark now, the aftereffect of the lightning having faded away long ago. All the horse could hear, now, was the rain against the roof and the trees, and the breathing of all the horses around it.
There was another flash of light, followed by another boom, nearly as loud as before. Once again, the horse felt the urge to flee, but at the same time, a curious curiosity overtook it. The flash and the boom seemed to always happen at the same time. The flash, and the boom, the flash and the boom, the flash and the boom…
There! The sky outside flashed white again, much brighter than before. The horse folded its earn in and braced himself for the boom…
A positively earth-shattering boom echoed across the stable. Along the row, horses whinnied, their forehooves flailing the air, and they galloped blindly, bumping into fences, walls, and in one case into a trough. Yearlings clinged to their mothers, and a few horses jumped their stable entirely and ran along the path, stopping at the door blocking their path.
The horse, though, remained still. It stayed in its stall, one ear open to listen for anything unexpected. As the others panicked, it simply stood in place, a smug and slightly amused smile on its face. As the other horses paced around, slowly calming as they calmed from their panic, the one horse simply lowered its head, closed its eyes, and went to sleep.
Unbeknownst to any, a ghost of a symbol appeared on the horse.
