Heather’s eyes widened when she saw the lights reacting to his anger. “Liam, I’m going to need you to calm down.’’

“Calm down? Me? I need to calm down!?” Liam barked back. “No, I don’t think I do. I think you have some shit you need to explain to me.”

“Please, just sit down and we can talk,” she lulled, trying to pull him back to the couch.

“Get your fucking hands off of me!” he yelled.

Bang! 

The lightbulb in the ceiling exploded.

Liam stopped and looked up at the now dark light. He turned to his mother, pleading, “what the fuck is happening to me? Tell me what is going on.”

“I will but you’re going to need to calm down before you blow out the whole building’s electricity. Sit down, please?”

Reluctantly, Liam sat down on the sofa like she asked. He cradled his head in his hands, bouncing his knees frantically. “What is happening to me? Why am I like this? I’m having crazy visions and shit is getting weird.” He turned to look his mother in the eyes before asking, “Mom, what am I?”

She stared for a long time before answering. Her son now had the Golden Eyes, and they were boiling. Deep golden ink was swirling around inside like a tossing, violent sea. “You, and I, are both alchemists. We have a long and dark history. I felt so relieved when your powers never awakened as a child. I thought, ‘this is great. This will make hiding so much easier. We will just have to lay low and no one will find us. Then he can live a life without fear of being hunted down.’ But, last night, I felt it. Your magic had come, and it was powerful. You’re far stronger than I have ever been, and you’ve only just awakened, Liam.”

“So it’s true then? I really am a Golden Eye? Can you see them? My eyes. They are really gold?” Liam supplicated. 

“Yes, I really can see them. I have never seen golden eyes so vivid. But how have you heard of the Golden Eyes?” 

“It doesn’t matter how I have heard of them. How was I supposed to learn anything when you didn’t teach me? I had to figure things out on my own.”

Heather was the one fuming now. “It doesn’t matter?! Of course it does! Our lives could be in danger, Liam! You have no idea how dangerous it would be if someone found out we existed! This is why I was trying so hard to hide us! You think I want to live in this shit hole?! Doing my best just to get by in secret. Trying to hide amongst all the people without leaving a trace? Anything could lead them back to us. I was so scared that one day you would just be gone. Dead. Never to be heard from again.”

“Oh, like you’ve ever actually given a shit about me. You haven’t shown you gave two fucks about me my whole life. If you did, you would have prepared me for this shit. I would rather of known then just get thrown in like, ‘ hey, get fucked kid’.”

“I do give a shit. We would both be dead by now if I didn’t. It’s not easy for me either. I was prepared to teach you about our family when you were a child. The day your powers came, I was going to teach you about our history and what we are. But that didn’t seem like it was going to happen. Our family never had late bloomers. I was really hoping that this day would never come, that you would never have to know the fear I do.” 

“Well, it’s a little late for that now, isn’t it?” Liam snapped, clasping his hands behind his neck, resting his elbows on his knees. 

“You’re right. I can’t do anything to change the past. There are things I wish I could take back, things I wish I could have done differently. I really have been trying, trying to figure all of this out on my own. There wasn’t anyone to raise me, I had to do it myself.” Heather sat back into the couch and took a deep breath before she continued. “When I was very young, the world was not in a great place. Our family was known for their ability to heal and cure most ailments. My parents had figured out a way to go another step further and ‘cure death’. It’s not like they could bring anyone back from the dead, but they had discovered a way to extend human life far past its original capabilities. In theory, anyway. It’s hard to know unless you stand the test of time.

“The greed of the human heart knows no bounds. Word got out of what they had created and soon everyone and their mother came knocking at our door. My parents knew that, in the wrong hands, this could be disastrous. Some people really didn’t need to live forever, the world would be better off without some of them. So, they denied them. Everyone. Whether they thought them to be good people or not. They couldn’t risk it falling into the wrong hands and that didn’t go over very well.

“Members of our family started getting attacked because others thought that they would share it within the family at least. When no one was giving up the answers, they started killing. The first to be murdered was my father.” Tears snuck out from the crook of her eyes as she recalled the painful memories. 

“He was on his way home from getting us groceries when he was ambushed. They tortured him but he wouldn’t give in. 

“It was like my mother knew. They had always been incredibly close, knowing what the other was feeling, even when they weren’t together. She left suddenly to find him. When she returned without him, I knew something was wrong. She made me hide in the house before she left, and I never saw her again.”

“...her name,” Liam croaked out.

“What?”

“Her name. What was her name?”

Heather, confused, replied, “Cheryl, why?”

Liam finally broke down. His back heaved as he sobbed uncontrollably. He had lived through his grandmother's death first hand. He had watched as his own mother was left alone to fend for herself, never to see her parents again. He felt all the sorrow and anguish that Cheryl had felt. The fear of abandoning her daughter and facing her death head on to hopefully save her life. It was too much. All of it was real. It was just as real for him as it had been for her. He felt like his heart was ripping apart.

“What’s wrong, Liam? Why did you want to know her name?”

It was a while before Liam calmed down enough to speak. His voice hoarse, as he told her, “I saw it. Her, you. I saw everything.”

“What do you mean?”