Knock, Knock, Knock
He arrived outside the house - pulling his hoodie onto his head as to cover his hair entirely, secretly hoping that the rest of the changes would somehow go right over the heads of his family
“Skin gets pale without sun for a while and hazel is CLOSE to gold, right? Right..?” He thought to himself, trying to rationalize what happened to him. “Oh, I’m so fucked…”
That’s when his Sister Elide opened the door and practically threw him to the ground with a severely tight and rather violent hug. Finally - he felt at peace, wrapping his arms around his twin sister and feeling the embrace of his parents coming to welcome him home. Practically choking on his own tears, he felt homesick more than anything.
“You asshole.. I thought you were dead..” she said, gripping on his hoodie and burying her face in his chest,
“Fuck, imagine how I felt” he joked, attempting to comfort his older-by-a-minute sister “I have something we need to talk about. Alone.” He whispered to her, so quiet that their parents couldn’t hear them talking over their own sobbing.
“You little ass.. I hope you know that you’re never allowed back in the driver's seat of that car again..” his father cried in happiness as he held his Son, who he thought was dead.
“Baby PLEASE never do something stupid like that again..” his mom followed up with.
“I won’t, Momma.. Dad.. don’t worry..” he accepted the lecture with a smile on his face - and pulled them in to hug them once more, before finally going inside.
-
A few hours passed and Kova was settled back at home. He told Elide to come to his room at around 1:30 AM - Late, when their Mom and Dad were asleep. Ding… Ding... Ding… the grandfather clock rang - on the dot, 1:30 - and there was Elide, walking into his room with Pajamas on.
“What’s going on, Koko? Everything okay?” Elide opened the conversation with
“Close the door.. Some wild shit happened that you’ll want to hear..” Kova replied
Elide shut the door behind her - and sat directly facing Kova on his bed, crossing her legs and listening attentively.
“We aren’t really the religious type, and haven’t put much thought as to if there is a God, right?” he questioned.
“Yeah, hun.. I think I’m following here.. no, we really didn’t.” The pieces started to get put together within her head. Elide wasn’t dumb - in fact, she could be considered on par with, if not smarter than her Brother. “I’m assuming you saw something after the crash?”
“Okay.. So, when I came to right after the crash, I was being wheeled into the hospital on the gurney. It sounded like the ambulance guy was shouting with the ER people about my.. Situation. Where I was gonna be and who was going to see me. It’s good they cared.. but while I could hear what was going on outside - what I saw?? I can’t make sense of it, Elide. Not at all. but..” He thought of how to phrase his next words
“Mhm..?” She questioned - leaning in, interested in the conversation
“This.. being.. this massive, cosmic figure. Something bigger than anything I’ve fuckin’ seen in my life.. I had to be so far away from him to even see the damn thing. It was like.. Dude I don't know, he was holding a fucking Universe! I was slowly floating away during our meeting and the pressure was crazy - his presence was really heavy. What I saw in myself was.. Fucking terrifying.. my skin was completely pale. Whiter than what my skin is now” he pointed out the physical change “And when I woke up.. this happened.”
Elide was silent as she listened, at the time trying to formulate a rational explanation. Kova took off the socks he had on from the outfit he went home with from the hospital - revealing the black transmutation circles formed on the bottoms of his feet, after doing so, raising his hands to grip on his hoodie and hesitantly dropping the hood, widening his eyes to make apparent the shift in shades. She observed.
“I really wanna say you were just dreaming, but.. You don't dream of things you've never seen before - Fun fact. Plus.. I hadn't been to see you the day that you woke up - at least, not yet.. But I had the day before. So the change sure as hell wasn't you trying to be edgy with cosmetics.” She stated
She angled her head to see his feet, catching a brief glimpse of the transmutation circle. Elide had studied the practice of alchemy for fun in her earlier days, so that was perhaps the most intriguing feature for her, until she saw his eyes.
“Well.. you know what, I can’t say I know for sure what’s going on. I’m going to check my books, read a little bit, and I’ll also bring some to your room for you to check out! How does that sound?” Elide offered
Kova was shocked, his eyes widened, an expression of relief plastered across his face. His Sister still accepted him at the least, among all the changes - but this still left an issue. Their Parents, if they noticed Kova’s changes, it may be slightly problematic.
“That.. would be awesome! Thank you, Ellie..” He responded “Also, uhh… you got any black hair dye? I think I should take care of this before Mom and Dad wake up..”
“Yeah! Let me go back to my room and grab everything.” Elide reassured him.
She ran off to her room and Kova threw his hood back on, leaning into the doorway of his room and resting his head on the wall. When Elide came back - she brought a box containing the hair dye, four books, and some Hazel colored contacts
“Here, hun. These books are about Magic Generation, Conjuration, Casting and various attributes. I never got anywhere reading them, but we could see what happens if you take a look! Also, these should keep you covered for a while, the hair dye and contacts. If you need more, just let me know!” She said, dropping it on his bed
Wrapping his arms around his twin, he hugged his sister, and she was off to her room for the night. Kova walked into the bathroom and went through his nightly routine of showering, brushing his teeth, and overall just trying to contemplate everything that happened during the day. He applied the hair dye before heading to sleep, elongating the process by about another hour and a half due to having to follow all the instructions. Afterward, he looked somewhat normal again, and with a sigh of relief he placed the contacts in his bathroom drawer, turned off the lights, climbed into bed - and went to sleep.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
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“You’ve been met with a terrible crossroad between life and death to be brought here.. Haven’t you?”
Around him was nothing but a blank space. A void in which he retained only his physical body - one of which had no sensory stimulation. Complete silence other than for a voice. A calm, welcoming voice. Yet he was scared.
“Crossroads.. Life.. Death..? Was all of today’s events only a dream? ..Did I really die?”
He questioned himself and what he was seeing as real or a mirage. His vocabulary was a little more advanced in this world, as he accessed a more mature state of his own mind. His track of time was almost completely lost - he couldn’t tell what month, day, time of day, or even hour it was. Seconds felt like eternities as he waited for his next answer
“To give you the simple truth; yes and no. You may have heard of Purgatory - the place between the Three Worlds, what you call Heaven, Earth, and Hell.. But you are in between even that.” She explained
He questioned -
“Purgatory.. Eh?... how is something like this even possible?”
Brought up in the church - even though he didn’t take it seriously much, he believed in the afterlife, but another view of it.
“A gift for you to open, Child of Time.”
He was almost angered. “A gift?” He thought, “After all that’s fucking happened today, you want to call this a gift!?”
Yet he stuffed it down and replied:
“All of this seems more like a curse than a gift. Can you really call anything that happened in the past day something remotely positive?” He said
“It is normal for Heroes to fail to understand. All means are necessary for the end.” She stated.
“The end..? A Hero..?” He thought to himself
“Some Hero I am to be turned into a can from a massive truck... I’m just wondering - why is it that right now I met you instead of the dude? No disrespect... just morbidly curious.”
He still didn’t understand anything of the other world - and the reality of the situation was that he was scared and confused. She replied - Albeit not exactly easing his nerves
“Faith is only Faith if it is questioned and the resolve becomes strengthened in the end. Consider me.. an Envoy. Who you refer to is unconcerned with the affairs of most other sentient beings - no matter how heroic or tragic. But consider me the aspect who cares.”
“Who are you? And What is He?” He persisted
“I am who you want me to be. And They are Everything. Everywhere.” She said
“And for what purpose have we met today?” He asked
“An introduction. But fear never - you are not alone.” She stated.
And that’s when Kova realized - that he’d never felt more alone in his entire life up until now. He couldn’t explain what was going on to him to anyone… they’d call him a crazy man, and throw him in a psych ward.
“I.. Alone?”
-
He woke up the next morning with a migraine - running his fingers through his hair and pulling hard enough to rip the follicles straight from their pores, tears running down his face in streams as he screamed. His Mother Elisa had picked up his pain medicine earlier in the day. Kova didn’t sustain any actual damage from the crash, although oddly enough, he began to get migraines ever since the incident. Quickly running to his room in order to administer the pills - Kova was given then, and put back to bed until they kicked in. While in pain he was rolling around in his sheets, trying to make sense of what exactly he just went through the night prior.
“Ahh man… who the hell was that? What the fuck is going on in the world? None of this is normal!!” He shouted angrily, still being in pain.
“Well you can start by telling me who you’re talking about, and maybe I’ll be able to help you!” Elide joked
She had made her way into Kova’s room unbeknownst to him, as his eyes were still closed. The pain was subsiding from the medication - but he was still sensitive to light.
“Don’t scare me like that, you asshat!” He shouted, jumping up from the sudden voice. “Sorry.. No, don’t worry.. I’m sure it was nothing..” he replied
“Okay.. I’ll take your word for it. Have you gotten the chance to crack open those books yet?!” She questioned, excitedly
“Slow down, high-speed, I just woke up. I haven’t. How about we start now? Grab the book about Magic, and if you can.. please, read it to me. I’m in a lot of pain right now..” Kova requested
“Alrighty!” She happily exclaimed, reaching over to grab the book, and opening the first page “So.. Magic - the Power of Manifestation, or also known as the harnessing and utilization of pre-existing energy that is then channeled into the manifestation of one’s desire - has many purposes for its existence, ranging from combative, to defensive, to assistive ways of use. It is a power most notably possessed by those in the mythical world of Wizards, Witches, Sorcerers and Mages - However, there have been alleged accounts of Magic being used in the real world. Magic has many names - and can also be called Arcane or Mystical Forces, Mana, Mystokinesis - or the manipulation of such - Magick, or Witchcraft; The use of Witchcraft being the most notable use in a real world scenario.” She explained
“Okay.. You lost me at Wizards and Sorcerers but keep going.” He opened his eyes - glancing towards his Sister as she read aloud.
“All Magic is fueled by a source of Energy, be it Spiritual or a network of Mana itself. Without the necessary energy source to fuel Magic into existence, it would be entirely powerless.” She paused - then continued, once she flipped a page “Notable tips in terms of Magic casting; As explained previously, Magic is the harnessing and utilization of energy. When you combine both the expulsion of one’s own energy as well as taking in and manipulating the surrounding energy from the environment, as well as adding in one’s own intent - You get spell casting!”
“That’s.. a lotta shit to memorize. What kind of books did Mom and Dad buy you when you were a kid, dude? Too much work.” Kova joked
“Never said it would be easy!” She laughed “But here’s the weird thing. At the end of this page - it says something about people being able to see without your eyes - but instead, with mana.. then it just cuts off. Hundreds of blank pages. I never wrote on them, or tore them, in case there was something I wasn’t seeing. So I figured maybe with that information, and after what you went through, maybe you can make sense of it?”
He thought.. and replied
“When Mom and Dad are asleep tonight, I’ll go outside and try a few things.. Maybe I can make sense of it. I haven’t exactly experimented with these.. Markings or whatever-the-fuck these are on my feet, so why not. I’ll give it a shot.” Kova said
“The other books cut off at some point too, but they’re a lot lengthier than this one. I’m sorry, Kova, that wasn’t much help..” She replied
“No-no, this was great! Thank you so much!” He reassured
The medication took away his pain - but began to make him tired. So he hugged his sister and she left the room, leaving him to go back to sleep.
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