(29/10/17 - 12/11/17)-deadline
"Magic was first born in the waters, witnessed by the stars and the moon."
Iris stared at the picture. Yes, there was something magical about it. But she meant the adjective in a complimentary and charming sense rather than the literal sense.
"From it was born trees and birds. From it came clouds and rain."
"Yaya..." Iris let out the old woman's name in an exasperated manner. "I'm not a little kid anymore. Your stories have stopped being enchanting to me."
"Yet, here you are staring at the picture like it withholds secrets," the old woman replied.
It's a beautiful picture, she inwardly justified, an eerily beautiful picture. Aren't I allowed to admire beautiful things?
She used a single finger to trace the perfect circle that was the glowing moon. Next, she used three more fingers to trace the surface of the ink colored water. There was something about doing so that felt unnaturally real. It was almost like she had touched the moon itself and had ran her fingers through real water. She had an icky feeling that the picture was more than just a picture. And upon that icky feeling, she shook her head. Magic wasn't real. It only existed in stories.
She turned her back to the wall, done with looking at the picture and having a corner eye for the other ones that hung on her Yaya's white wall. But now she was faced with the table that held the woman's said portions, plants, and ancient spices.
"You could turn this room into an exhibit or something. People would pay money to come see all these magic mumbo jumbo." She gestured all around her.
"Do not say that, my child," her yaya scolded. "This room is sacred. It isn't for nosy and naive humans."
Iris rolled her eyes. "You're getting older by the day, Yaya. You should stop living in this illusion of yours and face reality. It's more enjoyable."
"I blame this contemporary world. It has closed people's eyes to what is around them." Yaya shook her head. "If it's not science, it is rubbish. Only numbers and theories now make sense. I just don't understand when it became this way."
"People stopped being so gullible, that's all," Iris said.
Yaya shook her head again, mumbling words in what Iris had come to identify as Latin.
Iris picked up a book from Yaya's mess of bottles and plants. She opened a random page and was greeted by a drawing of a creature with hollow holes for eyes and life sucked features.
She closed the book and dropped it on the table. "I should get going." She looked down at her watch. "I'm almost an hour late for that party I told you about."
"But do you have to go, my dear?" Yaya looked very unsettled. "I had a dream about you. And I think it's safer you stay at home tonight. There will be more parties. Just not this one. Danger is after people like you." Yaya cradled Iris' face in her willowy hands.
"By people like me, do you mean seventeen year olds that could easily be taken advantage of, or do you mean a magical being?" Iris asked.
"You know what I mean." Yaya took her hands off Iris' face and took a bottle off the table.
"They don't exist, Yaya."
The old woman sighed. "You are almost eighteen. They will come. You must protect yourself." She uncapped the bottle and poured drops of liquid on her hands before rubbing it on her granddaughter's neck and arms. "This I have just rubbed has protected our ancestors to a great extent. It will protect you."
"Okay, Yaya." She was ready to just get this over with. She kissed her grandmother on the cheek and doubled checked for her car keys. Still, she couldn't help but spare one more glance at the picture.
She too had-had a dream, a nightmare actually. A vivid nightmare of being dragged through inky water by two unimaginable creatures. They had forced her eyes at the moon, and the moon had-had the same eery glow as the one in the picture. To be honest, the picture hosted the same scene as the one in her dream.
What was really unsettling was that she'd lived all her life with her yaya in this house. She had been to this room and stared at this wall with pictures more times than she could count. But she had never seen that particular picture; this was the first time. Yet, Yaya acted like it had been there the whole time.
I won't think too much about it. I believe there's nothing to think about, really. Being in this room and knowing all these exist in this house is making me a bit disoriented. But there is no such thing as magic.
With that, she got into her car and ignited the engine. She had a party to attend. One she planned to drink throughout and make out with a hot boy or two. There was no time to dwell on all these sorcerous nonsense. She couldn't give way to the part of her that knew her grandmother wasn't loony.
Magic is in the air. It is a power that dwells in you.
And that picture was the first leap step that made her believe.
