“How did you get your marks?” I asked Lila one day when I went to visit her.
“My mother passed them to me. I knew it was coming for several years before it happened,” she told me. “Her marks were on the palms of her hands. They’re much easier to hide this way, I think. She passed them to me by pressing her palms to mine. The marks always seem to be around the hand area.”
“What could she do?”
“Turn back time ten seconds. She didn’t have visions or abnormal senses like you but she did have the little voice.”
“That could be really handy.”
“It was. She used it fairly often. If something happened to one of us, she could turn the time back those ten seconds and give us another chance. It saved many lives over the years.”
“What was her mission in life?”
“To protect, the same as mine.”
“Then why don’t I know mine?” I furrowed my brow in a thoughtful pout.
“Do you know you pout when you think?” she asked me with a light laugh.
“So I’ve been told. Elli used to tease me about it.”
“To answer your question, it’s possible that you have a different mission, but your actions and your story lead me to believe that yours is also to protect. We don’t always know for sure but so far we’ve been here to protect those around us.”
“I see. If I am meant to protect then why do I have enhanced senses? My very body is designed to be a fighter. If I am supposed to be a protector, why should I be physically a fighter?”
“Your duty as a protector may lead you to have to fight physically. My mother’s power allowed her to go back ten seconds to save someone and protect them. I can put an assailant to sleep, as I did when your family was attacked. My mother turned time back on itself to give someone a second chance to survive. It is possible that your gift enables you to physically fight to defend them and protect them.”
“Then that would mean that the line is getting more aggressive. But if we’re meant to be protectors who are we supposed to protect?”
“I don’t know. I suppose that’s why we have these little voices in our heads telling us what to do.”
“She’s protected me so many times.”
“So that you in turn may protect others.”
“It seems like that’s a little too much. It seems like something out of a storybook. Seriously, a girl thirteen years old given a curse and destined to protect others? And I’m not even given any direction? That seems a little too surreal.”
YOU ARE READING
The Gift
Teen FictionI never wanted this life. I didn't want to become a Seeress or have a voice in my head telling me what to do or become a rogue. I left my family behind to protect them and am careful not to develop any relationships to put more people at risk. Ever...
