Microstory 166: Stephen Berg

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

When Stephen Berg was eleven years old, his parents were both killed in a plane crash on their way back from Florida. His sister, Amana was only fifteen years old at the time, but she was able to convince the court that she was old enough to act as Stephen’s guardian. This was a tough sell since Stephen had an anger issues, and needed a tough hand to keep him in line. A few months after the loss of their parents, Stephen was rampaging through the house downstairs. He was knocking over lamps and ripping out cabinet doors. The whole place was a mess. Amana woke up while he was in the middle of his tantrum, and went downstairs for a glass of water. She found him there, still tearing the house apart, but she could hear nothing. There was dead silence. Stephen stopped when he noticed she was there, and admitted to her what he could do. He was actually intending to reveal his secret to the parents upon their return from vacation. He was an extremely powerful sound manipulator, and could form invisible barriers that directed sound towards a particular target. The more he practiced, the stronger he became. When he was older, he was even capable of having conversations with people on the other side of the planet without anyone else hearing. A couple of years later, Bellevue approached the Berg children, hoping to give them some closure regarding the plane crash, but had no idea that he was an anomaly. Once the details came to light, Stephen and Amana joined the organization. Amana worked in real estate, helping new residents find homes in the fledgling city. Meanwhile, Stephen finished his education alongside his best friend, Quang Phan. His anger problems continued into adulthood, past the point of his and his friends’ mysterious disappearance, but his relationships with Catriona, Chase, Cassie, Sonya, and even Marinko helped keep him grow and mature.