Tales From the Celestials

and a haunting blank stare...

I woke up to find myself lying in my bed. My head throbbing from the recent events from today. What had happened? Was it all a dream?

"So you're finally awake." said a familiar warm voice. I turned to see my grandmother sitting by side my bed on a mahogany chair.

"Here, drink this. You'll need your energy" she said handing me a cup filled with one of her herbal tonics. It was sweet and tasted of honey and ginger, within seconds I could feel my headache fading away.

"Thank you, Gogo... May I ask, is he still there?" I said hesitantly, not sure if what I said would make sense.

My grandmother smiled softly at me and gently patted my head. "Yes, he's in the kitchen right now"

"But how... How is it possible? I saw him, he's broken body and the blood, there was so much blood-." I said with tears in my eyes.

It took me years to get passed the incident that had happened but seeing him today broke down all the progress I'd made. I could see it so vividly in my mind. Us playing on the newly built carousel, the lights melting with the night sky, our laughter mixed with hundreds of others. Then the sickening clunk of metal scraping against each other as the carousel's roof fell apart.

I remember screaming as a force pushed me away onto the hard ground. Then silence. A silence so still as I gazed up to see his bloody figure meer inches away from me. Everything afterwards was a blur, all that was left was the sickening feeling of guilt I felt as I realised he saved me at the expense of his own life.

Suddenly I felt a warm embrace surround me. "It wasn't your fault, you were just a child when it happened. The adults should have made sure it never happened."

The tears were streaming down my face now and I leaned in to my grandmother's hug.

"Blessing, I know this is hard but there's something I need to tell you. You know all those stories I told you of women gifted with strange and unique powers, they're real"

I pulled myself away from her hug, my face contorted in confusion "What?"

"Sigh. They're real Blessing, all of them. It runs in the family, I never thought it would passed onto you because your mother wasn't born with one but I was mistaken" she said averting her eyes.

"Gogo, there's no way that's possible-" before I could finnish my sentence, a tiny bonsai tree walked into the room on thick roots, on one of its braches hung a purple amulet. I watched in utter disbelief as it extended it's branch to give it to my grandmother.

"Thank you dear" said my grandmother with a smile on her face. The bonsai them lowered itself in a mock bow before walking out the door, leaving bits of soil behind it. At this point if I blackout I might just go into a comma.

"Believe me now" said Gogo, a bit of amusement in her voice. I nodded at a loss for words, I think my headache is coming back...

"Now as much as I wish I could explain everything to you now, we have a lost soul in our kitchen who needs to be put to rest. From what I can tell, your ability consists mainly of necromancy, the affinity with the dead." she said with a serious tone.

"So why is he here?" I asked somewhat shocked at how well I was taking it.

"When our powers are awokened we need to face a trial to gain full control of them. In my case I had to command an angry hive of hornets before they caused me harm as I have an affinity with nature. This is your trial, facing a memory that hurt you most...

I can't say it'll be easy or even how to do it but you need to do this in order to gain control or the past will continue to haunt you and both of you will never have rest".

I just lay in silence, eyes down cast to the floor. "Can I have some time to myself first?"

"Of course, mtwanami, take all the time you need" she said with a sad smile. She walked out the room and closed the door, leaving me with my thoughts.