Cursed Blessings: Tales of Twisted Fates

Family Secrets

Ayan lay on his bed, occasionally sipping on the ORS solution from a plastic bottle, his eyes fixed on the drawings he'd created based on his dreams. Next to him was the card Jaxon, the leader had left behind. He slid it into his pocket, deep in thought.

'I've made up my mind—I'm going to the cities, maybe even other countries, and look into that organization. But how do I convince my uncle and aunt? Should I tell them about this mysterious organization?'

He stood with a determined look on his face. He had decided to anyhow convince his uncle and aunt.

Uncle Samuel and Aunt Tsering were both sipping on tea, enjoying a good afternoon conversation. Ayan hesitated a bit before he approached them. "Uncle, Aunt, we need to have a chat."

Both of them looked towards him and nodded. Aunt Tsering was the first to speak, "Ayan, you're not small anymore. So, have you thought about what you will do in the future?"

Ayan took a deep breath and replied, "I don't want to join high school. I want to go to the cities and explore the world."

Aunt Tsering's expression darkened, but surprisingly, his uncle nodded. "Alright, we'll support whatever decisions you make."

Uncle Samuel stood up and gestured him to follow, "Come with me."

Curious, Ayan followed his uncle to his room.

Uncle Samuel took out an old wooden chest, blowing dust from it.

Both of them sat on the floor, looking at the chest between them, secured with a traditional lock hanging on it.

Uncle Samuel looked at him and spoke in a serious tone, "It's about time I tell you a bit about our ancestry."

Ayan interest was piqued—he'd never seen his uncle so solemn before.

"My parents—your grandparents—they came to this world from somewhere else," Uncle Samuel began. "Not like aliens or anything like that; they were human. But they had something extra—an unusual bloodline."

Ayan's eyes lit up as he remembered about the world beyond the maps and his abilities. "Does that mean my abilities are all because of my mother's bloodline?"

Uncle Samuel shook his head. "Your mother's bloodline had a bit different abilities. For instance, I'm normally like any other person. But if I want, I can enhance my strength and agility. I also have some stealth and night-vision abilities."

Suddenly, the room was filled with a dark, eerie aura and Uncle Samuel's hand turned black as he clutched the lock in the wooden chest.

Snap!

The lock easily shattered into pieces as if breaking a piece of grass, and the darkness faded. Uncle Samuel returned to normal gazing at the broken lock, "Actually, our bloodline has many more qualities. Whenever, we, sister and brother, showed our parents what abilities we discovered, they always dismissed them as parlor tricks and commented that the real abilities of our bloodline need to be awakened and nurtured. They said that our bloodline will naturally get diluted over a few generations and may even disappear without awakening and the nurturing process."

Delighted, Ayan asked, "Did they tell you how to awaken and nurture?"

Uncle Samuel shook his head, pouring a bucket of water over Ayan's enthusiasm, "No. They claimed we cannot awaken and nurture them in this world. They never even spoke about how to awaken or nurture them as they didn't want to pass it on. They wanted us to live like every other human around us."

Ayan frowned, "Why did they come here, to this remote place? The world outside must be more amazing and better than here."

Uncle Samuel sighed, "My parents always lamented about some mistake they made in the past which caused them to be punished and banished from the clan. Somehow they decided to come here. They always vaguely explained anything not of this world to us."