I am whole

My whole body was on fire. I could feel every centimeter of my skin ablaze.

I’ve known this would happen for years, now. Waiting and hoping for the day that I would change. They told me long ago that I would be powerful. So many people were interested in me, even before my powers showed themselves. Now the day has come, and I silently scream for the pain to go away. My screeched pleas incarcerated in my pain scattered mind.

The pain doesn’t die down. Minutes, hours, days, and years of pain pass in those seconds. Darkness closes around my vision slowly. There is a ringing in my ears, and my skin burns.

My body is on fire.

My mind is on fire.

All at once, the years of pain recede. My eyesight returns in a fraction of a blink. The ringing stops, and the silence is heavenly.

The fire dies down, and I’m no longer in flames.

The disorientation withers, and my consciousness registers what is before me.

In my line of sight I watch as the brown eyes I have seen in the mirror every day, disappear. I watch as the brown shapes and the gold flecks of the irises are swallowed by the blackness of the pupil. My eyesight zooms in, now, in a way. The blackness continues, erasing the white sea, and the meandering streams of red. When only darkness is left, my eyesight reaches in further, and I am able to see as orange, yellow, and red shapes reach upwards. They grow, and their incessant movement gives the colors the characteristics of flames.

A cold embrace brings my attention to my skin. Ever so slowly, I see as golden flecks rise to the surface of my skin, settling delicately atop it. More and more rise, covering every surface of flesh in a uniform layer of gold. As the light catches on the flecks, I see the warm tones of my skin or the golden sheen of my calling.

I am whole, now.

I am true.

The flames of my gaze and the glow of my skin will forever set me apart.

I am my true self now, but will I ever be me, again?