Lilac

Chap 4: Nervous Memories

Aila also got into anime when she was a kid. She watched all the famous shows of the late 1990s: Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, Digimon, a lot of the Studio Ghibli movies, Sailor Moon, the Zodiac Knights, well the list is long.

She was in the middle of rewatching Sakura CardCaptor on YouTube when she came across the song "Sakura" by the Japanese band Ikimono Gakari and became a fan of the band.

She listened to them and one day, one particular recommended video caught her eye: Hello by SHINee. She clicked on it and was IN LOVE. The guys were super cute, the song was great, but she didn't know what language it was. Before she knew it, it was down hill and she fell hard into the world of KPop. SHINee, 2ne1, and f(x) became her groups, with that one song from SNSD. 2010 was a year of cultural expansion.

It was also the year Aila's eyes started to mess up. She started to noticed the boars in her classrooms were becoming blurry. Just a tiny bit. She began to squint, something that was not supposed to happen, ever. The eyes don't ever mess up, not even with age.

At first she was in denial, thinking habits of staying up nights doing homework and projects were catching up to her. It continued through out the year and it particularly got worse towards the end. She was scared and it got to the point were she had to tell her mom. She didn't know what would come out of finally telling her mom. She was scared of how her mother was going to react. Did she not have a mate? Was she going to die? Thoughts began to spin like a web. Her mother however wasn't surprised. They talked and they both agreed to go check a soul specialist.

Her eyes kept on getting blurry, now she couldn't sit at the back of the class with her friends, but the appointment arrived early 2011 in Charlotte, a two hour drive from where they live.

The thing about Aila was she never got nervous, not until the very last minute of things. So the drive with her mom was fun, pushing her fears to the back of her mind. Her mom wasn't surprised Aila was going to a soul doctor again. Maria knew the truth eventually was going to be said, no matter the consequences.

The building was not like what Aila had imagined. It looked like a regular clinic, but there's was an air of seriousness and quietness. They got checked in, and were pulled to the back almost immediately. Maybe they weren't too busy that day. They went into an office, the doctor asked what was wrong and to describe what was happening. Aila complied, not wanting to leave any details out.

"I think I know what is going on, but we are just going to do a very simple test. We are going to take a photo of your soulmate layer and study it. It's not going to hurt. We are just going to get really really close to your eye and take a detail picture." The doctor looked right into Aila's eyes and then her mother's. Both nodded without objections.

The picture didn't take more than 20 minutes. The waiting for the doctor to come back and explained what was going on seemed longer.

"Aila, you have a very unique soulmate bond. It seems you have a very beautiful lilac hue as your layer, it's a very light hue actually." This threw Aila off, for she knew her world looked darker, and she knew it was due to her soulmate layer.

"However there's is a very important factor, The hue has been layered 7 times on top of each other, making the purple that obscures your vision."

Aila left her heart thud in her chest and in her ears.

"Aila, you are a multi soul. Your soul has been broken into eight pieces, one piece includes yourself, and seven other human beings are your soulmate."

Aila could have sworn her lungs felt heavy.

"The reason behind your eyes sight going bad is because some of your other soulmates have found each other. You see, multiple soulmates bonds work different than your average couple soulmate bond. Multi pieces tend to be more sensitive and perceptive of the other parts even if they don't know one another."

Aila was holding on to the arm rest of the chair for dear life.

"Your soul piece simply feels sad and out of place. It recognizes some of your other soul pieces have found each other and have bonded. We really don't know how the soul knows, it just does. And it won't stop messing with the "window to the world" until it meets its other pieces. Right now, your sight is being distorted at a faster pace because the others are in the bonding process. Even if they complete the bonding process or they don't meet any of the others, your eyes will continue to damage but it will be at a very very very slow pace."

Aila took a deep breath and let it go.

"However, the only bad thing is if you don't find your soulmates, you will eventually go blind, but that won't happen till you reach your 80s."

Ok what?!? Aila was trying to keep up with what the doctor was saying, but it was hard. She's A MULTI SOULMATE?!!? And the others have already began to bond with each other?! She knew there was something wrong with her eyes, she saw the techniques her mom Glenda taught her were different. She wasn't dumb. And her world did seem a little darker, even in the sunlight. But she thought that was normal. Well maybe not, the fights with her friends always told her otherwise.

Ohhh her heart is coming out her mouth.

"Now, I'm sure you know finding your soulmate proves sometimes hard. To be honest with you, they are probably not close to your race or culture, probably live half way across the world, and that's just the way it works. We could give this information to the International Bonding Institute and hopes your soulmates have done the same. This is entirely up to you."

Aila looked at her mother. Mom knows English, enough to get by but her speaking wasn't the best. She didn't know how to explain all this to her. But when Aila looked over her mom, she knew mom had understood what was said. Maria reached over and took her daughter's hand, gave it a squeeze,

"Va a estar bien ok."

It's going to be ok... that phrase repeated itself in Aila's head.

"No Miss Amy, I would not like to send this info the the institute."