text: “Never judge a book by its cover.” It’s a common saying, one I’m sure we’ve all heard. I suppose it’s common for a reason, people are more than just their appearance. Every one of us are complicated in unique ways, shaped by all the experiences we’ve all had to go through. However, what if I told you that this isn’t necessarily true, well not for me anyhow. My name’s Mark, and I’ve been able to see Aura’s ever since I can remember. I’m getting ahead of myself, let me tell you what an “Aura” is. Imagine it as a gaseous cloud around a person. A hazy mist of different consistencies and colours, unique to each and every individual. As a child, I remember being captivated by all the colours, which can be as simple as a light blue around my mother, or a bright and diverse palette of colours when with many people. As you’ve probably guessed, I did not have a great childhood. I learned early on that no one else could see these wonderful sights, and eventually ended up going to therapy for my “issues”. I quickly learnt to keep my gift to myself, and try to be as normal as possible. Unfortunately, that’s quite easier said than done. Having this constant vibrance around me was distracting to say the least, especially in class when surrounded by so many peers. No matter how hard I tried, I’d often slip into a world of unknown, gazing at the combination of Auras. As such, my grades suffered and I’d often be labelled as a miscreant. Combine that with constant remarks from fellow classmates for being “out of it” and “high as fuck”, its safe to say I didn’t have a positive school experience. I didn’t mind though, I was perfectly content being surrounded by Auras, gazing at them longingly. It wasn’t until I met Mr.Rodgers though, that I discovered the true meaning of the Auras, and why they were unique for each person. Mr.Rodgers moved in next door, right after the day I turned seventeen. I remember the first time I saw him as clear as the night sky, for good reason. It was one of the few times of day I wasn’t admiring the different Auras of people around me, mostly since my mother had told me to take out the thrash. I’d unwillingly dragged myself out and dropped the bag in the dumpster, when I first spotted Mr.Rodgers. He was quite a large man, easily 6 foot and extremely daunting in appearance. With a patchy beard and a menacing scowl on his face, he looked like he was having hell mowing his lawn. But it wasn’t any of those attributes that got him my attention. Surrounding him was easily the largest Aura I had ever seen all my life. Dense and thick, it coiled and extended at least 10 ft in diameter around him. More shocking, was the colour. It was the deepest shade of red, which occasional streaks of black etched onto it, as if a brush had stroked it there. The colour pulsed in place, going from a bright red to a dark crimson as the Aura swirled menacingly around him. Needless to say, I was extremely terrified. The moment I regained my senses I dashed inside my house and slammed the door shut. My heart hammering at a thousand times a second, I was left to wonder why his Aura was so, to put it bluntly, horrifying. Over the coming months, I used every excuse to avoid meeting Mr.Rodgers. The dread I felt whenever I saw him and his Aura never faded, and I often felt trapped inside my own home, unable to leave in fear of meeting the man, and being within, what I assume would be, a very suffocating cloud of Aura. It was then tragedy struck my city. Jasper, one of the many children attending West High School, my high school, went missing. It was all over the news for weeks, and posters were hung up on every corner of the city. It wasn’t unusual to see police making their routes along the city, searching for the missing child. I was personally saddened by his disappearance, Id met Jasper only a handful of times, but he was the happiest, most cheerful person I knew. Moreover, his aura was a nice teal and extremely vibrant, and I’d feel at ease whenever I was around him. Coincidentally, it was his unique Aura that lead to me discovering something bizarre. The morning before I knew about Jaspers disappearance, Id spotted that shade of teal at, you guessed it, Mr.Rodgers house. I wrote it off as morning sleepiness at first, but the fact that the colour seemed to persist for days afterward bugged me to an extreme. Something just didn’t feel right, and with that teal slowly diminishing over time I swallowed my fear and went outside for a better look at Mr.Rodgers house. From a safe distance of course. By which I mean hiding in the bushes at the edge of the neighbourhood and spying on him using a pair of binoculars I’d bought with my allowance. It was a cowardly and crude plan, but I was seventeen and didn’t have too many options. It was stunningly uneventful, to say the least. Days went by without even a hiccup. Mr.Rodgers routines were like clockwork, only leaving his house to go to the local bar at 6, and coming back around 10, drunk out of his mind. By the end of the week I was ready to give up on solving this mystery, when fate decided to intervene. It was a Saturday morning, and Mr.Rodgers was out pruning his bushes. I was snacking on some gummies and keeping an eye on him, when I noticed a glare coming from the other end of the house. I redirected my binoculars at the glare, and nearly jumped out of my skin. The origin of the glare was a shard of broken glass, held up by a human hand, right behind Mr.Rodgers basement window. Once I got over my initial shock, I looked at the scene once again to confirm what I saw was real or just a hallucination produced by all the sugar from the gummies I’d been stuffing my face with. It wasn’t, and I slowly sunk into the bushes, perplexed by what I just saw. It wasn’t until a few minutes of deep thinking later, that all the puzzle pieces fit in my head. It was no wonder I was seeing Jaspers unique Aura there, if Jasper himself was stuck there too. Mr.Rodgers must’ve kidnapped him for some sick reason, and what I had just witnessed must’ve been his desperate attempt at being rescued. Not knowing what to do, I eventually settled on writing “Jasper at Mr.Rodgers” on a piece of paper before conveniently dropping it right infront of the local police station, and quickly running back home. Id hoped it’d be enough for the cops to consider as a lead and save him. The cops did not disappoint, the very night I woke up to a frenzy of noises disturbing the stillness of the night. My mother and I got to watch from our doorsteps as the police dragged away a struggling Mr.Rodgers, and lead a boy draped in a blanket into the back of a cruiser. It was all over the news the next morning. The police had done a raid on Mr.Rodgers following an “anonymous tip” and wound up rescuing Jasper and putting Mr.Rodgers, who was found guilty of multiple charges across many states, behind bars. It was never revealed the reasoning behind the kidnapping however, but I quickly figured it out for myself. The next time I saw Jasper, he had changed. His cheerful exterior was replaced with a sullen look, and more importantly, that vibrant teal Aura of his had dimmed and darkened, losing that warmth it once had. I didn’t need to ask him what horrific acts he had to go through, his Aura spoke for himself. I put two and two together and came to realise that Auras were much like a fingerprint, unique to each individual as it represented each individuals personality. The Auras were a reflection of their true selves, and a change in a persons overall demeanour was expressed by the Aura itself. If a persons appearance were their cover, the Aura was their inner pages. You can see why I meant I no longer had to follow the phrase, never judge a book by it’s cover. This uncanny ability of mine helped me pick and choose different aspects of my life, who to be friends with, which endeavour I wanted to undertake, and most importantly, what was the easiest route to getting the next biggest scoop. My little adventure in rescuing Jasper had sparked a flame inside me for snooping and detective work. Combined with my love for writing and literature, journalism seemed like a perfect fit as a career choice. I worked my ass off at Grad School and ended up graduating from the prestigious Yale University with a degree in Journalism and Literature. One fruitful job search later, with a recommendation from my professor at Yale University, I had secured myself a job at the Daily Globe. The no.1 biggest newspaper and media company in America, and I got the luxury of being a reporter and journalist there. It did not take long for me to develop a reputation there. Within the first month itself, I managed to uncover a huge drug market happening deep in the heart of the city itself. My reports earned me several glowing remarks from critics and the general public alike, and I was even nominated for the Journalism Awards. People often remarked that I had a nose for the next scoop, but it had nothing to do with my nose. My eyes on the other hand, were a huge help. Being able to see Auras meant that all I had to do to get a good story was simply follow whoever had an intriguing Aura. In the case of the drug market, it all began when I met the local butcher and meat supplier for the Daily Globe. Despite his polite behaviour and charming smile, he had an Aura that was nearly as menacing as Mr.Rodgers himself. I knew I had my first lead. A thorough snoop and a somewhat dangerous car chase later, I had pictures of him stuffing drugs in the meat before selling to his “daily customers”. After unearthing some more information about him and his clients, I had my final report ready for the public. Im not going to lie, it felt nice to be able to service the city while developing my career at the same time. At that point, life was going great. I had an unshakeable reputation as the best journalist at the Daily Globe, I had met the love of my life, Sarah, and moved in with her, and had recently had a talk with some of the heads about a promotion. If only things had persisted like that. The Auras, they were my gift. No one else could see them, feel them. I was determined to carry this secret, this gift with me to the grave, and had it not been for him this might’ve been the case. It was a dull Monday morning. I was sitting at my desk, typing away my daily quota for the newspaper when I first felt it. A chill that ran down my spine, sending goosebumps all over my body. I blamed It on the air conditioning and tried my best to resume working, but as time passed the feeling got worse and worse, eventually exerting such a pressure that I found it difficult to breathe. As I tried to revert my breathing back to normal and calm down, a faint white glow began emanating from behind me, growing stronger and stronger by the second. It eventually enveloped the whole floor, and to my shock and relief, felt comforting. I was taken back to all the nights my mother would hold me as she read all those nursery books. The first time I had met Sarah and my heart skipped a beat. The day I’d asked her to move in with me and she’d happily said yes. All those wonderful memories, the white glow seemed to possess as it wrapped around me like a warm blanket. The glow simultaneously emanated a sense of pressure and strength, but possessed a calm that made me relax and put me at ease. I was so distracted by all these emotions that it took me a good while to realise that this was in fact someone’s Aura. Once I realised this fact, I quickly scanned the floor to see the source of this enormous, powerful sensation. The owner of the Aura which dominated every other Aura I had ever seen. My eyes landed on a man, dressed in a trench coat at least two sizes big for him. He wore a fedora on top his neatly combed hair, horn rimmed glasses that made him appear to be twice his age, and was holding a stack of folders while talking to some of the other reporters. Eventually, he spotted my gaze, and began walking towards me. I noticed he had a limp as he walked, and generally seemed to be quite awkward as he slowly made his way towards me. It was hard to believe that he possessed such a brilliant Aura, when he seemed beyond normal. Upon catching upto me, he flashed me a dazzling smile as he uttered the words that I would never forget for the rest of my life, the very words that would end up changing my life. “Hey, I’m Clark Kent, the new guy. It’s a pleasure being able to work with you.