The power of eyes

You know, when you have a child it is supposed to be one of the most joyous moments in life. A tiny person who will carry on your traditions and your legacy long after you have been gone. I could not wait to be one of those children, to go out into the world and make my parents proud, all of us here on Akrale could not wait. I am thankful that I was born with purple eyes and not red.

Your eyes determined what power or energy you would have. The color of them coincided with your job, like for example green meant nature so you could heal the world and black meant space so you could control the stars and oncoming asteroids, which is why I never understood how purple meant heat and fire. From birth till your seventeenth birthday, you train and study, learning how to use your abilities, controlling them. You learn how to help, so that one day you could be sent to earth to protect it. Some of us do not develop our abilities until we are a little older, but we still practice and prepare. I studied and worked hard alongside my group, waiting and praying that my power would one day reveal itself to me. I only began to lose hope when the last member in my class started showing promise.

I have always felt different. I even look different because my eyes are such a light shade of purple that they are almost white, maybe it is because I am a girl. I am the only one in history to be born this way, most girls get nature or space. My parents have never treated me differently though, in fact most parents here keep their kids at home and have them continue to study even if we are on a break, but not mine. I was sent to earth to visit with my uncle, who was born with red eyes. He had no use on our world, so he went elsewhere. He had the choice to stay but felt uncomfortable and alone. We have people who are not witches, but they do possess the energy to change things with the wave of their hand, like eyes. We call them lights, and they fixed up my uncle Klyne so that he could blend amongst the humans. Some of our people did not change theirs because they have things called colored contacts there. He seems happy and if he is not, he does not show it. This place makes me happy too with all the wonderful things it has to offer. I love my home world do not get me wrong, but come on, ice cream. Even though there are great upsides to this place, there a quite a few downsides as well. Every day that I am here I get taught something new and exciting, whether it be good or bad. I got to learn the best and sometimes worst of both worlds. My mom pushed hard for me to learn about the earth as well as our own planet, so hard that you would believe she would rather see me on earth, permanently. My father, however, did not seem to care either way. I wondered why at times.

I just got back from a long week of celebrating my sixteenth birthday. My mom and dad were going to be busy and my uncle believed it would be a great idea. He and I went to a place called CICI’s and did lots of shopping. We ate different kinds of pizzas until our bellies burst and I have two closets full of shirts now, hopefully they will fit. We laughed until we cried and ate until we cried some more. He talked about his job and maybe I could come live with him and have one too if I wanted. “I appreciate that I do, but I think I will see where my power leads me first, that is if it hurries up and reveals itself. I am starting to get bummed, but it is there. I can feel it.” I wish my excitement poured over to him though because now he seems down suddenly. “Do not worry, I will still visit, every chance that I get. I mean I will be stationed on earth after all.” He seems to perk up but only slightly. A smile starts to appear on the side of his face, but it does not ever take full form. I guess he will need better convincing that he will not be left alone.

Every day since my return home I cannot seem to shut up. I constantly ramble on about graduation and hopefully getting my powers. I cannot contain myself on how overly happy I am, it is so much that it is driving my parents insane, well my father anyways. He looks annoyed, whereas my mother comes off sad. I wonder if it is because she knows I will be leaving. I hope that they know that even though I am eager to head off to earth and begin my life, I will always come back and see them. I guess since I have talked my family to death, I will talk to Elle now. She is my parent’s best friend, my babysitter, and most importantly she is a light. She has known me my whole life and I barely say two words to her daily. I like her, I am just not much of a talker. I have spoken more words this past year than I have in a lifetime, and that is only because of how overjoyed I am. She calms me down as we talk. “What will you do if you have no powers? How will you feel?” Her voice is gentle as she asks. “I do not know. My eyes show that I have the birthright, I just wish my body did not fail me. I think that I will stay with Klyne and find a job, he has already offered. I can work until I figure myself out. I am going to stay optimistic.” Why is everyone frowning, am I not saying what they want to hear? “Well, that is good, not losing the faith. I always knew you had spirit in you.”

That year flew by faster than I would have liked, there is still so much I want to learn, but it is graduation day. I am ready. I am up in my room like I am every single day, trying to make my power happen. I am trying twice as hard today to produce something, anything. It is a now or never moment. This day will either make me something extraordinary or it will break me beyond belief. I am in the middle of pumping myself up when there is a knock at my door, it is mom. “May I come in?” I nod and she enters. “Sit down, we have to talk.” Oh no, it sounds serious. “Is everything okay?” She becomes hysterical. “You know I love you right? You know that I would never do anything to hurt you, I only want what is best for you.” Now I am worried. She takes a deep breath and lets out a bombshell, “you do not have,” she clears her throat, “powers.” “What are you talking about?” I point to my face and I am completely confused. “You were born with red eyes.” “Then why are they not red?” I started to say something else and I paused. Elle. Our light, she was actually my darkness, and her shadow was cast over my bedroom door. She slowly walks in and her eyes cannot reach mine. “I am sorry,” that is all she can seem to mutter. “Sorry? You, you are sorry?! You listened to me for a year! You let me go on and on and did not say a word! How could you?” My voice breaks and so does the dam that is holding back the waterworks. My mom’s voice does not sound warm anymore, “I wanted you to have a normal life, be happy even if it were short lived, and who knows you could have gotten something by now. I guess that was just wishful thinking.” “What happens now?” Mom and Elle look at one another and take a minute. My mother grabs my hands and her voice sounds soft once more, “you will tell the council that you wish to go to earth for the year, and when that time is up you say that you have fallen in love with the humans and wish to stay, permanently.” Dad comes walking through and I attempt to speak to him, but he will not even look at me. He walks away from me, but I talk to him anyways. “You knew, but you never said anything. Do you love me or am I just a disappointment to you?” He gives me one sentence and it haunts me. “You are my daughter.” It was at that moment that I was truly heartbroken. Elle tries to lay her hand on my shoulder, but I refuse to let her. She whispers softly, “when you go to return, I will fix your eyes how you want them.” “I want you to turn them back how they were when I was born, and I want you to do it now.” My mom and Elle both gasp and beg me to reconsider, but I do not. She grants my request and I ask her to take me to the council.

I walk in and they are calling for my class to line up. My eyes are flickering red and they match how I feel on the inside. Everyone slowly turns and notices me, they all gasp in horror. The council members stand and stare me down, but I do not let them intimidate me. “I have no powers, no energy, no nothing. I wish to be sent to earth permanently.” They look surprised. One of the oldest steps closer to me and he asks with his deep voice, “what does your family say about this?” I looked him dead in the eye and asked, “what family?” They are all shocked, but they agree. The man that stood before me tell me to collect my things and come back. I go home and as I start to pack my things realizing there is nothing I want. I stare around my room, take a deep breath and then turn to leave. My father stands in the doorway. He coldly looks me in the eyes with disgust and tells me that my uncle has passed away. “He had a heart attack, but lucky for you he left you something in his will.” He throws a crinkly piece of paper at me. I was stunned and it fell onto my carpet. He walked away and I stayed there in that spot for what felt like years and when I finally decided to move, I fell over. I sat on the floor and found the strength to pick it up. “My dearest Kyla, I love you. Yes, I knew you did not have powers, and I agreed with your mother not to tell you. I wanted you to be happy even for a moment because I did not get that luxury and I was crushed. I may be gone but I left you a little something. I hope that the twenty thousand dollars I left you will be enough. I hope you know how beautiful and special you are, just because you are human does not make you anything less. I will miss you and I hope you still find your place in this world, love your uncle.” I kept the paper and went back to the high council where he was waiting for me with a little black book in his hand. The book would apparently send me to earth, permanently. Here we go.