Endings and Beginnings Written by: Carmel Ben Shushan

Most people struggle to sleep at night, but not me—these hours belong to me. I go to bed just as the sun is rising. Usually, the moment my head hits the pillow, I read a chapter of a book or a short piece of fan fiction, and then I drift off. Sometimes—well, most of the time—if I need a little extra help, a quick masturbation session brings on the perfect level of exhaustion for sleep.

This morning, I couldn’t fall asleep. No matter what I did or what I read, that sweet, familiar fatigue—the kind that usually lets me fall asleep anywhere, at any time—was nowhere to be found. I just couldn’t sleep. I kept staring at the ceiling, trying to get my brain to stop racing so I could drift off, but before I could quiet it down, I heard a knock on my bedroom door.

"Come in," I said, and my sister walked into the room. I sat up and lifted the blanket so she could join me, and she quickly slid underneath.

"What happened?" I asked.

"A prophetic dream," she mumbled, snuggling closer to me.

I nodded. Yes, that’s the sort of thing that would bring her to my bed. Prophetic dreams are both a curse and a blessing for our family. Thanks to them, our family has always managed to navigate the hardships of the world—economic crises, wars, illnesses. Whenever something bad is about to befall one of us, we know about it beforehand, which has always allowed us to prepare. It has been a great help to our family. Yet, these dreams carry a less pleasant aspect—a curse—that falls upon those who inherit this power. They do not merely dream; they experience every single moment of the dream firsthand, no matter what it entails. It is safe to say that these dreams are, in fact, a curse—and it is my little sister who must endure it. In each generation of our family, only one person receives the gift of prophetic dreams; the power remains with them until their death, at which point it passes to another. The rest of us possess various other magical abilities. We are considered one of the most powerful magical families in our world, yet our family secrets remain known to no one else.

I held my sister tightly against my heart, keeping her close. If I could, I would strip away this terrible ability that causes her such suffering. In the days and nights following a prophetic dream, she struggles to eat or sleep, and she is constantly plagued by a deep, biting cold. This is why I cultivated my elemental powers—specifically, my mastery over fire. Through it, I am able to radiate my own body heat outward, enveloping her in its warmth. From then on, I asked her to come to my room after every prophetic dream—no matter what. I couldn’t bear what was happening to my sister for the sake of our family. I had to put an end to it.

Days, weeks, and months passed before I finally found an answer to how I could stop my sister’s prophetic dreams. It turned out that this power—which protects my family—stemmed from a deal one of my ancestors made with an entity from another realm. The creature had ended up in our world by mistake; one of my ancestors helped it return home, and in exchange, it offered something. My ancestor asked for his family to be kept safe, and that promise manifested in the form of prophetic dreams.

This discovery fascinated me. Until that moment, I hadn’t even known that other worlds or beings existed beyond our own—it’s not common knowledge in my world. While most people might call them monsters or demons, my studies led me to realize that they are beings just like me—they simply inhabit worlds entirely different from our own. I became so deeply engrossed in my research that I lost myself in it; the only person who managed to pull me back out was my sister, who reminded me that I still had a life to live. The wretch used her prophecies as an excuse to drag me off to all sorts of places, claiming I needed some sunshine instead of staying in my study all day.

Then came the day I could finally summon him. I had spent three years working on the incantation to bring him into my world. There was a lot of trial and error, and I failed more times than I care to count. But whenever I felt like giving up—or when things grew particularly difficult—the sound of my sister knocking on my door, following one of her prophetic dreams, kept me going. Because, come what may, I would not let my little sister suffer for the rest of her life.

Everything was ready. All I had to do now was channel my power into the incantation inscribed on the summoning floor. It wasn’t difficult, nor did it drain much of my energy—but I certainly hadn’t expected what appeared. It arrived with quite a commotion. At first, I couldn’t see clearly, but once the magic settled, there lay a body—or perhaps "tree" would be a more fitting description. Its skin resembled tree bark; its limbs—whether arms or legs, it was hard to tell—were long, and I couldn’t quite discern where it began or ended. I approached it and called out, "Hey."

Suddenly, one of its branches reached out and wrapped itself around my hand. I tried to draw her in, when a loud voice rang out in my mind:

"What have you done to me? Where am I? Why did you take me from my home and my world?"

The voice was so powerful that I collapsed to my knees. It took a moment, but I steeled myself. Gathering my thoughts, I replied through the link he had forged between our minds: "I summoned you here to fulfill the agreement made between one of my ancestors and you."

"I never made any deal with anyone from this world. This is my first time ever coming here."

I shot back, "I was certain I had summoned the right being. I used the remnants of magic left over from when the deal was struck."

"A deal? I know what you’re talking about. One of my ancestors spoke of the curse your family cast upon mine."

"A curse? *You* were the ones who cursed *my* family!" I retorted instantly.

"A curse? You stripped my family of our defensive abilities. In my world, we are all connected to one another; without those bonds, my family was doomed. We could no longer be part of society in our world."

"A bond? Are you talking about the power of prophecy?" "This ability has nothing to do with foreseeing the future; rather, it concerns the bond between the earth, the elements, and your own world. It is rooted in the very foundations of the earth. Without this connection, my vast family has all but vanished. So few of my kin remain now, because we can no longer connect to our own world—or to others from it. We struggle to find anyone willing to forge a bond with us and bring new life into the world."

His words made me realize that just as my own family had suffered under the curse for the past century, so too had his. Our ancestors could not have foreseen the consequences of their terrible bargain. And that spark—the one I felt the moment he touched me—I could feel it. I could sense... His weakness and his emotions: the sadness, the anger, the despair. And I am certain that he, too, could sense my own feelings—that he understood my family had also suffered over the last hundred years. The realization dawned on us both at the same moment; within the bond that began to grow warmer, we felt a spark of hope—that now, together, we might change the fate of our families.

"How can we restore things to how they once were? How can we return to you the power to connect with everything—so that your strength is restored, and my family might live free from the suffering of the prophecy?" I asked him, though I sensed his hesitation. He himself did not know how it could be done—how our ancestors had accomplished such a thing. Yet, I could not give up. I owed it to my sister. I gripped his arm—the very arm that was holding mine—so tightly that my fingernails dug into his skin; I felt his sharp cry of pain at my touch. "We must resolve this." *Stay,* I pleaded in my heart. *Stay and help me find a solution—not just for me and my family, but for yours as well.* I sensed his answer before I had even finished asking. His grip on my arm tightened: *I will stay.*

And so, for me, time began anew. I couldn't let any of my family members know what I was doing, as one of them might have tried to dissuade me from my goal. We stayed in the house I had chosen for the summoning, and I concealed us using a "mirror spell"—ensuring that no one could enter or even see us, unless I willed it. At first, it was quite difficult. We were two very different beings, with different physical forms and different needs. I had to learn about him and what he required to survive, while he had to learn about me and what my kind needed to exist. We shared some awkward and amusing moments, and gradually, we grew closer. For the first time, I felt I had found a friend—not an ordinary friend, but a true one. Our bond was our only means of communication, yet it was so much more than that. Through it, he could perceive all my memories and experience my emotions, just as I could perceive his. We were completely open with one another, as there was simply no other way for us to work together. From the moment we began until we finally discovered how to break the pact, we spent all our time exclusively with each other. In our world, there was no one else—just the two of us. Even when my sister sent messages, begging me to return, I refused. I remained in that house until we found the answer.

But at the most critical moment—just as we were about to cast the spell to dissolve the pact—my mirror spell was shattered. Someone was trying to stop us. Everything was so complicated in those moments that my sister had to explain it all to me later: she had seen what I was about to do in a vision, and, in her excitement, she told our family—just as she always does after any vision. But this time, their reaction was mixed. Some of our relatives didn’t want the visions to stop; they saw what the visions brought to our family—the power and the wealth. So, they attacked us while the incantation was underway, resulting in an absolute disaster. The spell worked, but because of their interference and attempt to stop it, it backfired. My family took both Levi and me captive. I was locked in one of the cellar rooms, and Levi in ​​another. I cannot communicate with him without physical contact, and the only reason I know he is alright is because my sister sneaks into my cell every night to check on me. On the first night, she was trembling with emotion as she felt her power fading away—she could no longer see visions. Without that power, she has become a witch who doesn't know how to wield her own magic. She promised me she would help free Levi and me, no matter what. But as long as my family continues to argue over what to do with us—and while she lacks the knowledge to help—we remain in our cells. Still, I have promised myself that, come what may, I will return Levi to his own world—even if it means going to war. This time, not for my family, but against it.