"What do you mean she doesn't want to see me?" I said. Of course my mother would want to see me!

Randy whacked Angelo across the back of his head, I hardly had time to process the movement. "Tonto."

Angelo looked exasperated and stuck a pink tongue out at Randy before engaging with me again. "Well, she doesn't want you to see her. For a couple reasons. One being she looks like she just crawled out from the depths of hell."

"Angel!" Randy pointed a spatula at him, then slowly crouched down to get out a large round pan from the lower cabinets.

"What! You can't deny it!" Angelo wasn't as serious anymore but the insults at my mother felt like insult to injury.

"You have to be more sensitive to the boy. He doesn't understand. And he especially doesn't understand you."

"Would you care to explain?"

Randy slapped the pan he was holding onto the stove with a clang and turned up the heat. "Let me make some breakfast first. Felix," he looks to me, "I'm sorry son, but you can't see your mom until we talk with you first. Please, take a seat. Eggs okay?"

I didn't want to comply, but if seeing my mother meant staying to talk a little longer then there wasn't a minute to waste. I took a seat facing the entrance to the living room. "Eggs are fine." I added, "Thank you."

Angelo sat across from me, his blue eyes tinged red slightly after he let out a long uncontrolled yawn. "Where to start..?" He tapped his lips with a thick finger. "This is much harder than I thought it would be."

Randy cracked open an egg.

Angelo's mouth was open again, a row of perfect white teeth shinning back at me. Was there anything on this man that wasn't hunky and perfect like a model? It was only adding to my aggravation. "I guess I'll just say it then... you and your mom are special. More importantly... you're special."

My eyes reflexively squint at him. Suspicious. Trying to earn brownie points with me?

"You come from a place that isn't on this plain of existence. I mean, technically we all are, but it's different in your case."

I had to hold myself back from laughing in Angelo's face. What kind of whacko-nonsense was this? Did the voodoo man to knock this into him?

"Felix." Angelo looked serious; the shadows across his face lengthened as he leaned forward to get my attention. "You have to listen to me carefully. It's going to be a lot to take in. Remember when you were little and Grousteus had caught you and was going to drop you off the side of a Christmas Hill cliff? But you were saved? That was me. I saved you because you have been targeted for the rest of your soul. The your very existence is a matter of great turmoil...or praise (whatever way you want to look at it) in Salcyra."

Randy slapped a couple of beaten eggs onto a plate and slid them to me. He didn't seem to find any of it funny. He was just as serious.

"I don't understand." I said, not sure what to believe.

"It's okay. You'll understand in time. I'll just tell you the basis and then you can see your mother." Angelo scratches his chin and glances longingly at my eggs. "Where I come from, we are being killed off for being special. Special like me, your mother, and you." He glances at Randy but he was zoned-in on his cooking. "We are magic-born. From a world that you had been alive in in your previous life." He clears his throat nervously, and I stab an egg with my fork. Everything in me wanted to refute what Angelo was saying, but after having seen Grousteus and his flaming purple fire I hesitated.

"You were reincarnated here with only half of your soul. And the only way to save your mother is to find the other half in the world Before."

"Okay, that's enough. He doesn't need to know the details right now." Randy slid a plate of eggs to Angelo.

"Mm. But, as for your mother, Felix. She's been cursed. A Blood Curse. She's being monitored by Megan right now, she's good with herbs and medicine. But curses... especially a Blood Curse, can only be cured by a blood family relative. Which...there isn't anyone else in your family who can help you. But you don't know how to use your magic. Plus, you're missing half of your soul. You would both die if you tried to cure her now... but she doesn't have much longer to live. Maybe a couple months with Megan's help."

"Enough." Randy took a seat next to us on the round table, sending daggers to Angelo.

"What are you saying? I don't understand? I'm reincarnated from a past life?"

"And the other half of your soul is still in the past life. Yes. Split from the war--"

"Enough. I told you not to say anything else. He already has enough on his plate."

"No, I want to know." I said. "So you're saying reincarnation is real, I'm half a person because there is another me running around in another world?"

They were silent for a moment.

"What?"

"We don't know where or what your soul is." Angelo shoveled in a mouthful of eggs.

I shook my head, my hands coming up to rub my temples. "Why are my mother and I being targeted? I don't get it. None of it makes sense."

"I know it's a lot to take in." Randy started, "but we'll explain later. Do you still want to see your mother? I must warn you, she's not in the prettiest of shapes."

I wanted more answers, but I also wanted to see my mother. She was my best friend, my partner in crime, my favorite person in the world. It was as if... we had known each other in past lives...

"One last thing." I said, before I walked from the room, "If reincarnation is real, and I'm reincarnated from a different world... what would that mean for my afterlife here on Earth?"

Randy sighs. "That's a tough one. The short answer is we don't know. But there are many theories about it. We can discuss more about it later when you've got more rest and we are ready to head out."

Head out? Where would we be going? "Are we taking my mom to a hospital?"

"Something like that." Angelo said.

"Salcyra has a 'hospital' that Megan can help your mother at more efficiently. We will leave once she gets home." Randy gave a small reassuring smile.

"Salcyra is where I reincarnated from?"

"Yes." Randy nodded.

"So does that mean we can travel between worlds?"

"Yes. We'll explain more later." He took my plate of unfinished eggs and gave it to Angelo; who received it gratefully.

I dropped the conversation after that and headed out of the room to find my mother. She was the only one I wanted to see right now. She'd tell me everything was okay. That Randy and Angelo were just messing with me.

But deep down, somewhere deep deep down inside of me: what they said felt like the truth.