"You're here? Hi"
I opened my eyes to the sound of a rough voice and hands that kept on caressing my head. I looked up and saw that my head was resting on the lap of someone who looked exactly like me. Instantly I know who it was.
"Machai?"
She smiled lightly at me before she continued caressing my hair.
"It took you a while to call for me huh"
I sat up slowly and what I saw was nothing. Except for me and Machia, our surrounding was utter darkness.
"Where?"
"Inside your head Maia"
"What?"
That was when I remembered, I must've died. I remember mom choking me to death so that must be it. I caressed my neck and felt that there was nothing, no scars, no injuries.
"Maia I don't have much time anymore so listen to me"
I looked at Machai and somehow I can't help but feel some strange familiarity, she looked exactly like me, me before I had these despicable red eyes and white hair.
"You'll survive with this but in exchange, I will cease to exist in your consciousness"
My eyes widened with what she had just uttered.
"Hey, we only saw each other and you're saying you'll cease to exist? I thought our souls are one?"
Machai shook her head then she held both of my hands.
"We are of different souls and right now I am like a parasite to your body. The reason why you cannot manifest the power that you should have and why I lose my real self when I take over your body is because two souls existing in a singular entity isn't possible"
"You mean it's kind of a side effect?" Machai nodded at me.
"You won't be able to beat her if you don't use the blessing that was given to you"
"No, explain it to me in terms that I can understand. What blessing? and what will happen to you?"
"Maia, us siblings are blessed by one of the Seven Lucky Gods. They gave us a quarter of their abilities for us to use. But, yours won't manifest fully if my soul is still in your body. That's why my existence needs to cease"
"But, mom said that I was only a vessel for you"
Machai shook her head before staring me straight in the eyes.
"I was the one who died Maia. The reason why I cannot control your body when I manifest is that it isn't my body, to begin with."
"But..."
"Maia listens, the longer this talk takes, the more your chances of reviving drop to zero. You're not exactly fully immortal. This body inhabits a type of regeneration cells that you can consciously control. If those cells don't take orders to heal the body then it wouldn't do anything and you'll die here and now."
"But I haven't been controlling them... ahhh"
"That's right because I was the one controlling them before"
"This is a part of the blessing that you have. You could control them now."
"Why? why are you keen on disappearing from my life?"
"Because I refuse to exist like this anymore"
What she answered finally brought me to my senses. Machai was supposed to die when we were babies and yet here she is a full-grown woman but without a body of her own. No memories of her own and especially no life that she could claim as hers.
"You're feeling guilty? Maia why?" I stared at her before letting out a sigh
"Truthfully I do feel pity for you. I don't know how or what to feel. I only knew about your existence a moment ago and now you're here in front of me telling me these things. I could ask you so many things"
"But you wouldn't and you couldn't" Then she smiled at me.
"Maia, this meeting wouldn't be possible if you didn't die. This was the only condition to how we could talk and see each other. A once-in-a-lifetime chance:"
"You didn't even get the chance to live your life"
Machai cupped my face and placed her forehead in mine.
"But I did get to see the life that you lived. Yes, I felt envy from all of the things that you had experienced but I really am happy for you. Now, I really want you to change our lives"
"With this blessing?"
"That's right. Maia the aura that old man Shizu calls is the proof of our blessing. It is a power source that can be extracted from our body but no one knows that except for the Zareal Project people"
"That's…"
"Mom's project, but for some reason, they dismissed it as a fluke and stopped the project with us"
"So I could tap into that aura"
Machai nodded at me before she stood up. I stood up beside her and what she showed me next was something I would never be able to comprehend for the rest of my life.
In both of her hands, a golden yellow light flashed and blinked until it stabled itself into a ball of light.
"This is our aura Maia. When I told you that I will cease to exist, it would naturally mean that every memory I have whenever I manifest into your body would flow into you. It includes how to consciously control your regenerating cells and this aura"
"And you? Will you really leave this time?"
"Yes, and it will be for good"
"And will you finally be happy?"
"I'll finally be free Maia"
I stared at her and saw that she was slowly disappearing.
"Machai?"
"It's time Maia. Now that you have our aura, it's finally time for me to go"
"I'll tell everyone about you"
"Of course, you should, after all, I'm your one and only twin sister"
I smiled at her. I do feel sadness but there were no tears in my eyes. I never really knew Machai and I knew that this was the first and last time that we met but that strange familiarity explains it all. Because deep inside, Machai was the only one who had been there for me ever since the beginning.
"Now, go out there and bring some sense back to mom"
"In our next life, let's be twins again"
"Yeah, and I'll definitely live then. Till I see you again Maia"
"Till I see you again Machai"
Machai's sweet and sincere smile was the last thing that I saw and in the darkness, her memories of the short time that she would always manifest while I sleep came rushing into my head all at once. It was painful but I absorbed every last one of them.
This would be my first and last gift as well as a memory from my sister.
And I will do everything for her life to not end in vain.