Within Aaradhya’s poster-filled room, they dropped their bag onto their small twin bed. Beneath their bag, a mismatched quilt kept them warm at night. Most of the posters were homemade and Aaradhya’s own recreations of real posters since getting mail in Gamal was unreliable. Alongside the framed posters, atop their 1960s yellowed wallpaper was their own art.

A partial mess of art supplies that they had tried to clean up before leaving for school this morning still took up the majority of their oak desk. Aaradhya quickly cleaned it up, putting each pencil, paper and eraser back into its rightful place.

The only things on their wooden side table was a half-drank glass of water and their pristine annotated leather bible. It had been a present from their father, given to them to open on their tenth birthday. They’d read it almost every day since.

The papers Kai had given them had curled and wrinkled in the bottom of their bag. Pulling them out, Aaradhya tried to flatten the notes but the indents stayed. Goosebumps worked up through their bony spine at the thought of school tomorrow. Would they be able to keep it together tomorrow? What if it wasn’t just Mr. Hughes, who would look like that tomorrow?

A headache wrapped hot iron around their skull as more thoughts wrapped their emotions with a cruel taste. Shaking their head, Aaradhya opened their closet door, “I’m going to bed.”

Aaradhya changed into their pajamas. A yellow hand-me-down shirt from their father, it was from a 2003 Clergy Picnic. Blue flannel pants, also provided by their father, always reminded them of a shooting star they’d seen out of their window in third grade. The twinkling star stood out among their memories.

Throwing back their vermillion quilt, Aaradhya’s gaze drifted to their side table. In a flicker, the bible they’d distorted back in church flashed in their mind. The tree-like structure growing beneath their hand before suddenly dissipating had felt so real, and yet it was so…impossible.

Static bloomed in their fingertips, like it was pulling them towards the book. What could be the harm in trying it again? Magic requires incantation, then this is not magic.

Curiosity got the better of Aaradhya as they plucked the book off of the table and sat down on the carpeted floor with crossed legs. Sitting in their palm Aaradhya tried to conjure the blurry memories they had of that moment. The brown leather was smooth against their palms despite the age, Aaradhya had taken good care of it.

Aaradhya took a hefty breath in, subconsciously trying to summon something to the surface. Whatever that something was. They watched with unwavering eyes, barely moving as they stared down at The Holy Bible, over and over again. The wooden bed frame pressed against the middle of their back.

Nothing happened.

“Ugh! Why can’t you work?!” Dropping the bible back onto their bed Aaradhya sat on the carpet floor with their head in their hands. Homework wasn’t going to happen tonight, turmoil was wreaking havoc on their system.

The first creak of the stair beyond the door had Aaradhya frozen in position. They listened and traced the path of their father as he rounded the hallway and continued into his room.  They momentarily chided themselves for not being smarter, Aaradhya’s father had a very rigid schedule. This included his night routine. Every night at exactly 11:00 pm, he would return to his bedroom, Aaradhya would first hear the tap run as he brushed his teeth and then the close of his closet door as he changed into pajamas. Lastly, every night without fail, he would pray for five minutes before his light switch would click and he would fall asleep.

An overwhelming sense of frustration and exhaustion fatigued their body, mind and soul. Wrapping themselves beneath the ridged quilt, Aaradhya's brown eyes fluttered to a close.

The water was still, unlike the memories they had of that night. Despite the deep twinkling sky above them, the oceanic waters were bright, as if golden sunlight touched the surface. Aaradhya stared up to the surface of the water, their feet pressed into the bottom of the ocean.

The deep waters curled the edges of Aaradhya’s black hair around their head as they gazed at the human-looking form before them. The waters above were bright, but beyond the unmoving forms of Aaradhya and whomever was there darkness loomed, boxing them into shadows.

It was Kai. And yet it wasn’t. Aaradhya recognized his nice, deep eyes and sharp cheekbones, but he stood before them shrouded in tattered black robes that swayed slightly with the waters and an ornate crown fitted with black jewels. The jewels glittered onyx, they were incandescent and large, fit for a king. Or perhaps a God.

He didn’t move, only his eyebrows furrowed before his eyes widened slightly. They glimmered a blurry gold under the light. Aaradhya tried to move forwards, the beige sand pressed against the bottom of their steps. The sand felt dry even as the pressures of the water curled around them. As though it was dry with each new step that Aaradhya took.

This is when Aaradhya noticed that they were no longer wearing their pyjamas. Clad in archaic and impenetrable white armour, Aaradhya’s limbs were covered under snow coloured metal. One long broadsword was attached to their left hip, the iron blade covered by an ornate sheath.

Murmuring, “Woah…” as they took in their sudden change in appearance. Abruptly, the heaving silence of the seas wore off. Dazzled, Aaradhya yelled to Kai but the words came out wrong, “Khitarr!”

With hazingly dreamy eyes, Kai spoke. His voice was controlled, “Break free Aheyar. Return to us, the Distaris. See us.”

Aaradhya did not respond, despite the silence that looked after the Kai lookalike's words, Aaradhya let it continue. The usual feelings of the necessity to fill the silence long away from them.  His words clicked in their mind like they’d heard them before, perhaps from a blurred memory or a displaced sense of deja vu.

Just as they began , “How do I-”  all the waters rushed away from their form and all that was left was an Aaradhya who lay still in their small bed. A heaving chest and reddened ears as the images of Kai replayed, over and over.

Aaradhya stared up at the ceiling, the edges of the wooden cross above their head peeking into their peripheral vision.