Mirai

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Hadn't I wished for that something would happen on my birthday that would change my life? Seemed like the Goddess had answered my prayer. It would have been nice if she'd answered it in another way though.

Mom sat with a cup of coffee and a book on the living room couch as we entered. She gave us a warm smile, but she must have been able to read our emotions very easily because the smile quickly faltered.

"What's happened?" she asked and placed down the cup, stood up, and hurried over to take my hands in hers. They felt uncomfortably warm against my skin.

We didn't say anything. Richmond just moved my hair to the side. I knew it was necessary, but I didn't like that he did so. It was silly, but somehow it felt like if my hair was in the way so no one could see the number, then it wouldn't be true.

Mom frowned but also didn't say anything as she peered around and at my neck. A gasp escaped her.

"When did that show up?" she asked and looked first at Richmond, then Redmond, until her eyes finally landed on me. Her eyes didn't rest though, they moved around, looked all over my face.

"We saw it just now," Richmond answered.

"It looks like..." Mom never finished her thought, but pulled me into the kitchen. There, she forced me into a chair and put my hair up into a bun. Got all hair away to expose the mark. Then she placed a hand on it.

She tried to use her powers of sight. I had seen her do it enough times to know that. She almost always needed to touch whatever she wanted to see something about. That was in part what had made my grandma so strong. She hadn't needed any type of physical proximity to whatever she tried to foresee something about.

As Mom tried to find answers about the mark, I felt the resistance. My neck grew hot, as if it tried to repel her touch. It got warmer and warmer, almost unbearably so. Then some of that heat spread. Not in an even sort of way where a bigger area of my body got warm. No, it was more like a few electrical sparks of heat shot out of it and into the rest of my body.

After that sensation, though, there was a shift in my body. I couldn't feel any heat anymore, but instead, I was colder than I had ever been, colder than I thought possible. I doubted even glacial ice could make you feel as cold as I felt.

But that wasn't all. I felt hungry as well. So, so hungry. To the point of not caring what food would be presented to me, I would eat it. I just needed something inside of me, something to fill me up.

Same with thirst.

And tired. I couldn't hold my eyelids up, but for some reason I also couldn't close them. I craved sleep more than food and water, though that also seemed to be the most impossible thing to get.

Mom removed her hand from my neck, and those feelings subsided. But I still felt it, more an echo of it probably. Though the echo was strong enough for it to be hard to focus on anything else.

"You're cold as ice! Sweetie, are you alright?"

Mom was at my side, and I slowly turned my head to her. She placed a hand on my forehead, her eyes seemed to search my face for something again.

I opened my mouth to speak, and though the words that came out were my own, though they voiced things I thought, it didn't feel like it was me speaking. "Food, water, sleep. Please. Just let me sleep."

Mom's eyes widened and her lip trembled slightly. But then she swallowed and nodded. "Some food and water, alright? But then we need to figure out what's going on."

"I want to sleep," I repeated. "Please, can't I sleep? Just for a minute."

"You... You can sleep while we put the food forward," Mom relented.

A sigh escaped me at those words and I closed my eyes where I sat. The thing was though, I obviously couldn't fall asleep. Sure, I hadn't slept much that night, but enough to not need more sleep, especially with all that went on. My mind was far too busy with messy thoughts, like what the hell that had been. Where did the hunger, thirst, and tiredness come from? They definitely didn't belong to me and I honestly couldn't imagine someone feeling like that and still be alive.

By the time I got sandwiches placed in front of me, the hunger had ebbed away. I still took one and ate. More to have something to do than anything else. Something easy and mechanic to occupy my thoughts with instead of the tangled mess of thoughts.

"I couldn't get a read from it," Mom said and sat down next to me. She placed her hand on my forehead again and let out a sigh. "Something is blocking my magic."

I nodded, unable to process it enough to say anything else.

"After you've finished eating, we should go to the Priestess. She's stronger. She might be able to sense... something."

I put the sandwich down and swallowed several times in a row so that the mouthful I had just eaten wouldn't come up.

"No," I said in a hoarse voice, and looked over at Richmond and Redmond. They both stood leaning against the kitchen counter. Their faces were still pale and their eyes fixated on me.

"I know, sweetie. I know she's not treated you well. But she is the Priestess for a reason. She knows a lot, and she is a very capable witch. I can't help you figure out what's going on." Mom's eyes were filled with tears on the verge of spilling over.

"She's right, M," Richmond said in a low voice. "The hag might be able to help you."

I turned to Redmond. He didn't say anything but met my eyes in a firm gaze. I looked back at Mom.

"Please, darling. I have no idea what's happening to you. And even if I tried to figure it out more, I maybe would succeed, but risk making it worse. You got so cold before."

I looked over them all again. The idea of going to the Priestess made me nauseous. But that could be partly irrational, or rather a bias. Mom was right, the Priestess was the Priestess for a reason. And all three of them looked so scared but also united in that it was the best.

I nodded.