Neel Dervin and the Dark Angel by Neeraj Chand Page B

headphones. For the last two days he had slept in a sound proof room in the hospital,
and so had believed her to be exaggerating. But now that he was in his room, he realized he
would definitely need them. His ears were picking up the sounds of cars and people walking
on the road behind their house, the radio on in another house, the blast of the fan and the
creaking of furniture, and every small creak coming from windows and doors. It might be
possible to ignore the sounds when he was awake, but it would be impossible to sleep
through it all.
    Carefully, he opened the cupboard and unlocked the drawer inside. It was the only
private space he had ever had. It contained some knick knacks from his childhood, along with
a calculator,an unfinished Rubik‟s cube and a beautifully crafted leather wallet that rarely
had any money in it. Inside the drawer was a secret compartment that even his mother did not
know about. The compartment was empty, but now Neel opened it and placed the
headphones inside.
    He sank slowly onto his bed, its ancient joints creaking slightly under his weight, and sat
staring around the room. His eyes fell on an old broken lamp that was kept stashed under the
cupboard. His mother had intended to have it fixed someday, but now it lay beneath the
cupboard almost forgotten. He went over to it and drew it out, running his hand over the
metal handle. Grasping the handle in both hands, he applied pressure at the ends just like he
had at the hospital. He felt again the surge of power in his hands, and the handle bent into an
L shape. He stared at the curved metal, his heart pounding. Then he carefully unfolded it and
placed it back.
    The pounding of his heart was growing faster. He stood up and began to pace the room,
thoughts racing through his head. His brain had begun to accelerate again. This time he did
not try to control it, but finally gave free rein to its full speed. The ticking of the clock on the
table slowed to a crawl as he strode quietly and swiftly across the room.
    Superhuman capacity. That was what Doctor Fahim had called it. He had spent years
developing the serum into what it now was. So apparently the way his brain was behaving
was a good thing. The disconcerting sense of having objects near and away at the same time.
The sounds from horns and loudspeakers that had assaulted his ears all the way from the
hospital to his house. Watching everything around him moving at a crawl. That moment in
the hospital when he had been afraid to hug his mother. All of this was supposed to be a good
thing.
    The tiny, darkened room seemed to close in around him, blotting out from his mind the
comfort he had experienced while talking to Doctor Fahim. An attack of panic built up within
him steadily. The doctor had promised they would help him control his new abilities, but he
had no idea what those abilities even were. How could he ever act normally again, when he
could barely keep his mind under control in quiet surroundings? He would have to keep his
brain under constant supervision, every second of every day. One slip in public, and his secret
would be out. He was not a trained soldier.He wasn‟t even an adult! He was a mediocre
student with no outside interests, or any experience which would indicate a special aptitude
for this kind of thing. He had never done anything before in his life that could have prepared
him for this situation.
    He could not help but think how Aryan would have been the perfect choice for the
project. He had the confidence and intelligence that Neel could only wish for. He would have
treated this whole experience as an adventure and jumped to the challenge. It would have
been like a real life episode of Captain America or Wolverine or any other superhero from the
comics they had grown up reading. But Neel could not summon that enthusiasm. All he felt
was a sick worry. It was the worry he had experienced in the hospital upon waking up, when
he thought his brain had been damaged,