I caught a rogue galaxy once.
I was only 16.
It came to me almost willingly.
It dropped its weight into my hand, a sentient being too great to be held by mortal hands.
I later wondered if it became lighter for me.
No one noticed when I came home past twilight, walking calmly, although if one looked closer they would’ve seen dismay and the weight of the world in my eyes.
I walked with as much confidence I could muster, just another space intern, back from a walk past the moon, who had certainly not been sucked into a black hole that took her too far away to get back on her own.
The assignment had been simple: take a perfunctory visit to the Moon’s greenhouse sapling trials, deliver a box, and come back. Instead, I decided to roam around a bit before going back. Lost in thought, I had ventured too far, over to the dark side of the moon. Before I realised it, I was sucked in by a dark mass, snatching me from the surface to an unknown place.
The silence was replaced by screaming. My muddled mind didn’t realise it was my own, till I came to a stop, suspended in space.
It had been so dark, and even the space there seemed dense like I was floating in a liquid. Fortunately, I could open my eyes and breathe, though my lungs were oddly strained. It looked like an endless pool of water, there were a thousand stars illuminated above and below me. The space stretched on forever, and after calming down, I tried moving forward, though in which direction, I did not know.
There was a shining light ahead, a glowing orb suspended above me. I inched closer, till I was a few feet from it. Something in me whispered, ‘Take it.’ It was a foreign voice, rich and deeply accented. I did. The glowing ball was ice cold, and I almost dropped it.
It broke apart and became a dreamcatcher. A blackish-blue fluid like ink dripped off its shining feathers onto my hand.
I had never seen anything like it in my two years of internship for the Space Locomotive Movement. SLM was an International movement that had completely replaced the government in our debilitating economy. Launched in 2050, they had been a force too powerful for the leaders of the world, and they had slowly but surely taken over all matters concerning humanity.
They now ensured that the exploration of space and time was the utmost goal of everyone left on earth.
During orientation, in my first year, I had learnt about galaxies. Not the definition taught in school, a system of millions or billions of stars, held together by gravitational attraction, but another meaning, sentient beings older than the universe itself. They were the most powerful things known to mankind, but where they came from, what they were made of and how they interacted was unknown to us. They could also take the form of ordinary objects.
I did not doubt in my mind that the thing I held in my hand was a galaxy.
Almost as if it could sense my thoughts, it began to move, wiggling around violently. It then vanished, taking me with it. I landed back on the Moon out of nowhere.
I had to get back home.
Running back to earth, I was scared, if the authorities caught even a whiff of what I held in my left hand, I would’ve been surrounded by SLM droids before I could open my mouth to explain.
What I had done was illegal at best, and a crime of national concern at worst. Either way, I would probably lose my job as the youngest intern at SLM.
My mind racing for an explanation, I reached my home planet, and in the safety of my room, took a closer look at what I had caught.
It was a dreamcatcher of normal size, dripping a never-exhausting supply of a dark blue liquid I chose to think of as ink, onto my arm. To my horror, it seemed to be absorbed by my skin.
I now had a swirling blue tattoo on the palm of my hand. I stifled a scream, and ran towards the sink, trying desperately to wash it off. It didn’t fade, but there was a searing pain in my head when the water touched my blue palm. I must’ve made a noise because the door of my room opened behind me.
I turned around, surprised, forgetting to hide my arm.
My aunt, usually composed, took one look at me and fell back against the wall in shock. I tried to rush to her aid but she looked terrified of me. “You- what have you done!” I was shocked. She stared at my arm, which was now covered in swirling blue tattoos that almost seemed alive. “I should’ve known. You were never normal.” I watched as the look in her eyes turned from shock to anger. I was frozen on the spot, holding my breath, a million questions running through my brain. “I know what you are,” she said, “You’re an Ink Witch.”
"Moon dust in your lungs stars in your eyes. You are a child of the cosmos and ruler of the skies."
-Medusa.
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