Alek entered her big brother's room with her sunflower lion and the family heirloom book. She had left the garden to pick up her book and the lion before she came to the room. She thought of bringing the lion only but, something in her mind told her that she needed to see the book. In the end, she brought both.
She closed the door behind her quietly and rushed to the bed. She carefully placed the book on the bedside table and curled up on a blue bed with the lion. The bed was the size for kids, so she needed to bend her legs to be on the bed entirely.
There were stickers of rockets, stars and UFOs on the walls and ceiling of the room and, everywhere she faced, she either saw one of them. The curtain was closed and was only letting faint lights in from outside. Moreover, those stickers glowed in the dark and, Alek was not exactly sitting in the dark.
Everything in the room reminded her how small her brother was when he passed. The childish of the room was comforting as she was small again, playing hide-and-seek with her brother. Waiting for Aether to show up in the room to find her.
Alek breathed in deeply to calm her mind. She couldn't explain why she acted like that in the garden. It wasn't like she was jealous. Yes, she felt discomfort that she didn't have powers but, she didn't blame any of her family for that. It wasn't their fault. Still, she felt uncomfortable, uncomprehensive feeling. She let out the breath she had been holding.
What was this feeling in her stomach then?! Alek thought as she faced the wall with glowing stickers. The tears that stopped flowing when she left the garden came back to her. Since she was sideways, the tears flowed down her eye, across the nose, below the other eye and wetted the bedsheets.
Her breathings were ragged as she tried to make it steady. Her nose was running and, she didn't even know why she was crying at this point. Was she crying because she didn't have powers and, it made her feel like an outsider? Maybe. Or was she crying because her family didn't need protection as her brother had said and this made her feel useless? Again, maybe.
Alek wanted to talk to anyone who could understand her position. That person could be supernatural or not. She didn't care. Just like that, a name popped up in her head, but to talk to that person, she needed to call. And her phone was in her room.
She was sure Bia would be in the room and, she didn't want to meet her sister. Not yet. Alek needed to be strong and not be shaken up like this kind of stuff. Plus, she didn't feel like moving off the bed even though the bed was small for her. She had found a comfortable position and, she wasn't planning to move.
But Alek sat up, wiping under her red nose. Her tears were dry but, hiccups appeared. She did her best not to make a sound when she hiccupped. She was pretty sure that the family members knew that she was crying because she left the garden with tears. But, she didn't give them sound and visual proof.
More importantly, she woke up to open the book that her grandmother had given her. Maybe, this time it would open.
Alek kept the lion in her left arm while she picked up the book with her right hand. She looked at the locked book in her hand. Her hiccups were slowly leaving and, this made her breathing easy.
She traced the glasswork with the tip of her fingers again like before. She still couldn't remember when she had seen these designs before but, this didn't mind her. Tracing like this made her relax.
Alek really wished she could open the book and read the components inside. She felt that there were answers that she wanted. Why have her powers not come yet? Does she even have powers? Is she abnormal for not having the powers? She had many questions in her head that anyone couldn't answer. But her mind told her that the book knows. The book holds every answer she has in her mind.
Alek checked if this was even a real lock before and, it was confirmed. It was real. Meaning this locked up book has a key for it. God knows where.
She tried to open the book in a normal way. Thinking maybe if she treated it like an ordinary book, it would open, but of course, that didn't happen and, she knew that.
Just when she was tracing the glasswork absentmindedly, one sharp glass cut her skin and brought her back from her staff meeting with her, herself, and she. Alek's skin was cut was quite big and, it was bleeding. When she looked for where she had cut her skin, she could find any blood on the book cover.
The cut was a little bigger than a paper cut and, the blood was almost dripping to the book. Surely the book must have some blood on the cover but, it was nowhere to be seen.
Alek quickly put her finger in her mouth to stop the bleeding. She immediately tasted the warm metallic liquid in her mouth. She was used to this kind of cut as she did almost every day in school.
She continued to look for the blood on the covers. But all she could find were the beautiful, delicate designs of glass and gold on the book.
Alek gave up looking for the blood on the book cover and lay down on the bed again in the same position she was in before. She still had the book in her hand and, she was staring at it as the book was also placed sideways for Alek to see it the way it is.
Alek had the lion in front of her as she didn't want to squash it. She eventually placed the book on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. The stars and rockets were glowing and flying in the darkroom and, this made her smile. She had even forgotten about her bleeding as it had stopped before she lay on her bed.
The luminous colour of the stickers and her own thoughts were like a lullaby and, it gently lured her into sleep. Alek didn't realise she kept the book on where it had her tears. The tears were still not dry.
Sometime after Alek fell asleep, the book lit up like the sunflowers did in Aether's grave.
It emitted the same light, yellow-orange. It lit up the whole room like the sun for a while but, this wake up Alek from her sleep. It died down slowly.
After the light was completely gone, there was a faint sound of something unlocking from the book.
------------------------
Alek woke up from her sleep after two hours and yawned. She looked around to realise she was in Aether's room still and, she got off the bed with her lion in her arms and walked out of the room. But she came back after remembering she had left the book in the room and left again. Unaware of what happened during her sleep.
Her family was gathered in the dining room discussing something when Alek came into view of them. They all shut their mouth seeing Alek. She went to her room first to put the book back on the shelf and the lion on her bed.
It was an awkward entry for Alek but, she went to sit in her seat with eyes watching her. Those eyes didn't leave her even when she was at the table.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you guys." Alek spoke, looking at her hands.
"That's okay." Her mother replied.
The heavy atmosphere was here again.
"Don't worry. I'm not gonna act like that again." Alek broke the air. "Is there anything more to the story? Like some parts that you haven't told me about?"
"We were actually discussing about that. And we were thinking maybe you need days to calm or adjust to everything." Panacea told her daughter.
"Thanks, but I've had enough time to think about it." Alek replied to her mother with a kind of forced smile. Her eyes were filled with determination and from one look, her family knew that they could not change Alek's mind.
Panacea looked at her husband before she looked at her children. They couldn't keep Alek in the shadow now. It was time for the firstborn to know everything.