Cursed Not Blessed.

I was seven when my power took hold of my body. I can remember being so freaked out when it happened that I almost sh-t my pants. Everyone in my family had a power, so I knew that I would get my own eventually, but I thought my power would be like Pallav or Lavanya; where I could make plants sprout or create healing perfumes and colognes. Or like mama or baba, where they can soothe people with songs.

But no. I had to be blessed with the rarest one of all.

Or should I say cursed?

It was my seventh birthday and I was wearing my nicest blue langa, with my short hair flicked back. I wore bangles on my wrists and a simple choker that my older sibling, Sona, made. I was on my way to the bathroom to freshen up, when I was stopped dead in my tracks by a transparent figure. I bumped into them and stumbled back.

“Oh sorry, my apologies,” I looked up and gasped. It was a man, no taller than my dad with wild white hair and a thick beard. He didn’t wear a smile like so many here, he frowned at me and said that kids should be more careful. Then he walked right through me. I gasped for air and ran into the bathroom, refusing to open the door. The bathroom light cast an eerie shadow on the shower curtain. I sank to the floor and covered my head with my hands. The sound of plastic moving filled the room, but I didn’t dare look up. Someone gasped and I had too.

There, standing in nothing but a towel was a girl a little older than Pallav, so around twenty. She looked at me, ghostly brown eyes annoyed. “Care to leave, little one?”

She had a southern tone to her deep voice. I was speechless. Her body was see-through. “Excuse me?” She tapped her foot impatiently and then disappeared before my eyes. I got up and ran from the bathroom and directly to Lavanya’s room. He looked up from his latest perfume experiment and raised an eyebrow. I told him in an instant what I saw. His calf brown eyes widened and he held me close.

In three hours, I had to stand before my whole family and show them the power I received. I was utterly scared. I had only three hours to do one of the following: Fake a power or lie and say I never received one. Some of my mama’s sisters and two of my dad’s brothers were late bloomers, and my Uncle Roshan didn’t even get a power. So technically, it would be believable.

In the end, I didn’t tell them anything. I said that I never got a power. Three of my cousins avoided me, claiming that me being powerless would rub off on them and their powers would be gone. Four of my aunties started gossipping about it and by the next morning, everyone in Jivika Valley knew about my non apparent power.

But it was very very apparent.

The only person I ever told was Lavanya. He knew that I saw people, ghosts or whatever they were, but he didn’t know what I could do. And I never wanted him to know. If he did, I feared he would hate me.

I opened the door to my shitty rust bucket of a car and slammed it shut behind me. It was midnight and I was going to a party that I definitely would never be caught dead at, but I wasn’t here to party, I had a job to do. I wasn’t the one who was going to die. Sharad hovered by me, tousseling my hair. I swatted at his hand and he laughed.

“I’m just messing, Shay,” He chuckled and hovered his head near mine. He started singing a song about love and peace or something while I wormed my way in. I passed by three freshmans and two juniors I knew but I didn't stop to talk to them. One girl stopped me and asked if I knew where a Dinesh went. Dinesh was my younger brother’s name. I shrugged and walked away. I only knew one Dinesh and I knew that my brother would never go to a party.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused. Amongst the roar of the people, I could hear a tiny voice whisper to me.

this way…..your victim is over here akshay….come here….

I followed the voice, ignoring the people both dead and alive, to a small room with a blue door. I gently pushed open the door to find two men and one woman. They were doing lines off the dresser and laughing. I wrinkled my nose. One of them looked up at me and said “Ooooh look, Polished Akshay is here to par-ty!” The woman raised one hand and smiled. The taller of the two teen boys raised an eyebrow and smirked. “I wanna party with her,” he chuckled.

“Get out.” I pointed to the short one and the woman. She rolled her eyes. the boy….the tall one…he is a monster….. Kill him…

I will, monster, I will. I thought.

“Riiiiight, like I’m gonna leave a girl alone with my boyfriend,” The chick commented.

The taller guy waved his hands. “Ahhh, Rajni, it’s cool. She just wants to talk, I assume.” Rajni rolled her eyes and left, he told the short guy to leave as well.

“Yea, I just wanna talk.” I smiled and leaned against the wall. “I wanted to know if we could take a walk? Have some… important things to ask you.” My eyes flick down to the drug on the dresser. He smiled and stood, wobbly but fine and escorted me outside. On the way out to the garden, I passed by a boy who looked like my brother. He stared at me as I passed. The teen led me behind a tall hedge and smirked. kill…him now…..now…now…

“What does Polished Akshay want with my goods?”

“Nothing. I wanted you alone.”

“Sorry, I’m with Rajni. I don’t cheat-”

Without hesitation, I closed my eyes and called down to The Monster in The Ground. Vines grew from the dirt and wrapped themselves around his mouth and body tightly. A muffled- what the fuck are you doing!?- erupted from him. I smiled, even though I felt sick to my stomach. i gets to eat….yum yum yum…eat…eat…fooooood… The Monster began to eat this one’s soul and I had to watch as the light drained from his deep blue eyes.

“It’s alright, Shay,” I felt Sharad’s hand on my shoulder. I looked up and he gave me a sad smile. “Don’t look.” He hugged me and turned me to face the opposite direction.

“Akshay?” came a new voice. I opened my eyes to see the boy who saw me leave with my victim. It was my younger brother Dinesh. D-mn. “Is he… What did you do, Akshay?”

“Dinesh, wait.” I rushed after him but he pushed through the crowd and I soon lost him. Either way, I needed to get home before he did. I found my shitty ass car, pulled out of my parking spot and whipped my car onto the road. I pushed on the gas. A roar of an engine came up behind me and my younger brother pulled ahead. I tried to make my car go faster but this rust bucket didn’t wanna move. Sharad appeared in the passenger seat.

“I don’t think you’re making this one,” I rolled my eyes and pressed on the gas. Ahead the light turned to red, and I had to ease up, but I was going too fast. “Shit, Shay slow down!” Sharad promptly disappeared.

“I’ll slow down in time, I will…”

I didn’t. I hit into the back of Dinesh’s car and I pushed his out to the other lanes of traffic. My car got hit and skidded across the pavement, then got hit by the car behind me which knocked me into Dinesh’s car again. My vision began to darken.

no… you will not die… Akshay…. You don’t die… kill to stay alive….kill now… my eyes could barely see anything i heard sirens and i could see the lights faintly but i couldn’t tell one thing from another i tried to crawl out of my wrecked car but couldn’t really move “Shay! Shaystayawake!” Who was talking why was everything so loud i wanted to sleep i opened my eyes and crawled towards the light “Shit Akshay are you okay?” there’s another voice “Don’t…keep your eyes open.. Akshay..!” i have no clue what is going on kill the boy…dinesh…..akshay…you must live…. Dinesh who was that i wanted to sleep my eyes felt so heavy i wanted to be awake please wake me up i slowly felt something filling me up sounds became more apparent and shapes became more distinct. “Akshay, what are you doing? Stop! Ah, it hurts, stop it!” I opened my eyes and saw Dinesh writhing in pain. Someone rushed over and picked my up by my arms but I shook them off, trapped by the sounds of my brother’s pain. Soon, he stopped moving altogether.

“I killed him, Lavanya. I killed him so I could live.”

“That’s horrible, Akshay.” Lavanya shook his head, disgusted.

“I didn’t want to die. So I didn’t. I said no.”

“Akshay, Is that what your power does? Kills people to keep you alive?”

“I guess so, Lavanya. I can’t help it. Did you want me to die?”

Lavanya was silent. “I didn’t want to.” I felt Sharad put a hand on my shoulder. “I would say I’m sorry but I’m happy to be alive. What else can I say?”

“You killed Dinesh!”

I turned and started to walk away. “I’m sorry for your loss, I guess.”