29

Yachi

"Midnight effect?" I ask my mother who nods my way.

"Yes, midnight, the real midnight only lasts one second. Imagine that there is a clock in front of you, and when that clock has it's clock hands stagnant, not a single hand is moving, you start moving all the gears to the midnight point."

~

I remember now. I taught Kaiya this when she was a little baby over and over again. It was the only mother hood memory I had of my mother. Kaiya loved talking about it, I'd think she'd forget but I guess subconsciously it stuck with her.

Just like it did for me.

I remember I managed to see the clock but could never move the gears. My mother was so angry about it. Called me a failure over and over again. I never wanted to ever hear of that crap again.

I just used my power how I could. How I knew how. If I had it in me it would have been there all along. it was not, but I am older now.

I have grown stronger. Whatever I could not do then I can do now.

I try again and just like then I can see the clock but this time it's a digital clock counting down. I stand up and rewrite the clock, setting the time for midnight.

I can hear the midnight bell so clearly, everything feels really good right now. I relish in the feeling and take a deep breath.

This is my power, and I ….

I look around and that rush of power is gone. I'm on my prison cell and I can't move. Lucky for me my cell is locked. The chef's will be bringing my food to me instead.

That rush only lasts a second. A literal second. I have a second to get my mind to move faster then my power, or maybe I'm overthinking it, there's no way Kaiya thought of everything the way she did in a split second, impossible.

Time is on my side as a time manipulator.

Worrying about the time is the problem. What kind of time manipulator runs out of time? The key is to control it. Be aware that time truly is something you can manipulate.

I was never a failure. My mother was just the bad teacher. All I had to do was control that second. I can make it a decade, a year, whatever the hell I want. There's absolutely no way in hell I am as weak as I always thought I was.

All this power in the palm of hands, and self doubt just suppressed it, because a good for nothing scum of a woman decided I was not good enough. For her love I accepted what she told me about myself. It got me nothing and nowhere.

I close my eyes to sleep. Dammit.

I open my eyes and man lady is sitting in my cell with a carving knife in her hands. She tries to stab me and I roll out of the way. I'm not at full strength yet so I can't fight back.

Dammit, I just need enough power to kill her.

I close my eyes and I imagine it's midnight again. I want to rewind her back to nothingness, in fact, I want to wipe out her entire blood line.

She disappears and I take a deep breath and sigh. I could get used to midnight.

"Hoo!"

I'm pretty beat.

I close my eyes and I feel something leaving me. I turn my head, in my dream I'm in a black space and this gold fairy dust is floating away. I follow its trail and this dust is filling up in an hour glass.

"Mom? What are you doing here?" Kaiya asks me holding another hour glass.

I grab her and embrace her in a hug, "Kaiya sweety please, whatever you're doing is killing me. My power is being drained."

"I know mom, you don't have to tell me something I figured out."

I give her a tight hug, "Listen sweety, you can stop now, okay? I promise I will be a better mother. Sweetheart, I love you. I have always loved you. Please forgive me."

She continues gathering sand into the hour glass.

"Is that for Rei?" I ask

"Rei? Who is that?" She asks cocking her brow to the side.

"What are you doing Kaiya?" I ask.

"Kaiya? Who is that?" She asks and I'm now confused, she demented or am i?

"Kaiya, that's your name sweety, remember?"

"Sorry, my name is Eri, my mother is Yuno. I don't know you miss." She runs away and I chase after her.

"Kaiya! I'm your mother!"

I keep chasing after her until I'm so tired I cannot keep going any longer.

I look around, "Eri?!"

Isn't that just the letters in the name Rei rearranged? Is that Rei?

Of course not I would know what my 2 year old Kaiya looks like. I held her in my arms every second of every moment.

That's my daughter. My child.

The one I carried inside of me. There's no way some other woman can just carry my child again like that. That's bullshit, my daughter is my daughter.

She has my DNA, she has my power.

I look around and all the granules of sand, this is my power. What is she doing with it.

"Eri!" I call out. I may as well play along I am desperate for answers.

"Yes." She appears behind me wearing her favorite pyjamas, or so they were when she was 2 years old. My girl is thirteen now, or should be.

"Honey, what are you doing with my power, the gold sand gathering in that hourglass over there?" I point at the giant hour glass.

"I don't know. I didn't do it." She points at a second Kaiya, "Kaiya did it."

HUH!

I never had twins.

I stand side by side with them and hold their hands in mine.

"Sweeties, can you show me your home and your parents." I somehow know they can do that.

The girls hold hands and we go through what looks like a red portal. Through the door I see Rei waking up. I see the day the girls are born. I see Kaiya's birthmark, but Eri has one too, but hers is on the opposite side.

Mirror twins, that's when an egg splits at the last second, so because Rei will be carrying my child this time, and because of her power, Kaiya will be born with a twin. Since Rei does not have the same power as Kaiya, this Eri will be taking mine.

They live in a really big house. The triplets are not here. I see twin boys, black hair and white hair. They look like Toya, man's genes are really strong. They always look so much like him.

Astrid looked like her mother though.

I am back in the darkness and the hourglass is almost full.

Eri coughs and Kaiya gives her a hug.

"Are you alright?" Kaiya asks teary eyed.

"Yes." She points at the big glass, "Once it's full I can go home with you."

Kaiya smiles giving her a hug, "You'll be my friend forever."

I gasp looking back, Eri doesn't exist because of Rei, she is here because of Kaiya. It's like my grand mothers alternate reality power. She couldn't control time like my mother and I, instead she could see alternate realities.

Like living multiple lives all at once and the one she chooses is what will happen. Though that's my personal theory on how the power works. I have no clue.

Kaiya is this powerful? That should not be possible.

Does Rei have something to do with this? It should be impossible, but it's done.

I have to stop this right now. I'll find something to destroy that glass with. I will not go down like this. I am still alive and that means I can still save my own life.

"No." Kaiya says angry with me, "No." She shakes her heard at me and I turn around.

"Sorry kid, but I am not going out like this."