In Memoriam

The Consequence Of Truth

Many hours had passed in the Decebal home and day turned into night. Moira walked into the living area quietly, lighting the fireplace, which stirred the brothers who had fallen asleep on the sofa. Raven moved first, waking up Rickey, who had fallen asleep on top of his brother. Raven looked in the direction of the fire igniting. "Get off of me." he said, pushing Rickey to the floor. Rickey groaned as he hit the floor and sat up. "What's going on?" Rickey asked. Raven sat up and moved his hair out of his face, watching Moira poke at the flames with a fire iron. She turned to look at the twins, Raven's silver eyes having returned to normal. She studied their faces silently, as they both looked at her. "Exact same features. It's surreal." she said. Then, she pointed to Raven. "You look perpetually sad, though." she said, then pointed to Rickey, "And, you look perpetually angry.". She walked over to Raven and twisted the long silver streak of his hair around her fingers loosely. "Your hair is different, though." she said softly. Raven's eyes widened, as he looked up at her. Rickey stood up angrily and moved close to her. "Don't touch him." he said. She pulled back, letting his hair go and walked back to the fireplace, the fire iron still in her hand. "Ever been hit in the face with a red hot poker, Father?" she asked Rickey nonchalantly. She heard Raven moving on the sofa and turned around, pointing the glowing orange fire iron at him. "You, I'll just stick it up your ass, so stay where you are." she said. Raven looked around confused, unsure of what he did to have deserved that reaction from Moira. She walked closer to Rickey and looked into his eyes, making him remember he wasn't wearing his patch. Rickey placed his hand over his fake eye. "Would you mind backing off?" he asked. "Are you going to keep your hand over your eye the whole time? It's going to be a few weeks." she said. Rickey dropped his hand. Raven stood up suddenly, "A few weeks? You're not keeping him here for a few weeks." he said. "You're partly right. We're keeping both of you for a few weeks." she said. The twins looks at each other. Raven began walking toward the entrance of the living area. "No, we're not. We're leaving." Raven said. He was suddenly stopped when a woman appeared and stood in his path. "No, you're not." the woman said and punched Raven in the throat, causing him to fall to his knees. Rickey, watching this happen, moved to the sofa and sat down. "I'm just going to be over here, if any of you need me.". The woman looked at Moira and smiled. "These Ouzels just come out of nowhere, don't they?" she asked. Moira pointed to Rickey, "Hey Gol. That one is apparently a Ramirez." she said. Gol looked down at Raven, then to Rickey, "I thought they were twins." she said. "We are." Rickey said, as he watched Raven move to sit next to him while Raven held his injured throat. "Then, why aren't you an Ouzel?" Gol asked. "He is." Raven choked out. "But, you have different surnames?" Moira asked. "Yes." the twins said in an angry unison. The girls started laughing at the frustration of the twins. Gol walked over to stand near Moira. "Do their family members come out of the woodwork? They're everywhere." Gol said. "You're one to talk. Maybe take a walk up the stairs and look at your own family." Rickey said. Raven was watching Gol. She had long black and red hair. Her skin was pale, a shade lighter than Moira's. Her light green eyes watching the flames dance in the fireplace.

Moira snapped her fingers in front of Raven's face. "Keep looking at her like that and you'll really be identical." she said, hinting at Rickey's missing eye. Gol turned away from the fireplace and looked at Raven, whose eyes began shining silver with gold and orange hues from the fire reflecting off of them. Moira quickly slapped Raven hard across the face, to Raven's surprise. Raven laid his hand on the side of his face where Moira had slapped him. Rickey grabbed Moira roughly and bared his fangs, as Gol pressed a gun against the side of Rickey's head. "Don't fucking touch him, I told you." Rickey said to Moira. "He tried to do that weird seduction shit your kind do on her!" Moira yelled. "It's tapetum lucidum." Raven said quietly, dropping his hand from his face. Rickey pushed Moira away from him and looked at Gol, "It's like you two have never seen an animal in your life. That's normal for him." he said. "Why the hell was he looking at her like that, then?" Moira asked. Gol lowered her gun from Rickey's head and quirked at Raven. "I don't know. Why did you kiss me?" Rickey asked Moira. "I didn't! You kissed me and got slapped for it." Moira said defensively. Gol and Raven looked at the two arguing, surprised and disturbed by what they were hearing. Moira's parents walked into the living area after hearing all of the yelling. "Golgotha, take your sister and go feed the horses." their father said. "We have servants for that." Moira protested. "You will do as your father tells you. Now, young ladies." Lily said. Moira and Gol left the living area, both glaring at the twins, who glared back as they left. "They're sisters?" Raven asked. Lily smiled and moved to sit next to Raven, "They are and they're my daughters. Why do you ask?" she asked him. "Because my idiot brother is falling for one of them." Rickey said. Lily looked at Raven curiously. "Says the one who kissed one of them." Raven said. Lily looked at her husband and glowered. "Boys, from this point on, you won't touch any of my daughters." she said. She grabbed Rickey's arm and lead him to sit on the sofa by Raven. An olive-skinned man with long dark brown hair and scruffy facial hair walked into the room and closed the double doors of the living area entrance. The man turned and faced the twins, seemingly standing guard of the only way out. He looked at them with narrow dark brown eyes. "Caelian, are they out with the horses?" Lily asked the man at the door. Caelian nodded. "Good. Now, I need the two of you to be honest with me." she said, facing Raven and Rickey. The twins looked at each other, seeming to speak silently to each other without any words being spoken, both aware of the dangerous situation they were in. "Rickey, what do you remember of the woman who attacked you at the cathedral?" she asked. The twins looked at her. "Not much, she had long black hair and black eyes." he said. "Black eyes?" she asked. "Solid black, there were no whites to them, she looked kind of alien. She smelled like lilies. Said her name was Abigail." he said. Lily gave him a sympathetic smile. "That's my sister you ran into. Do you remember her from any other time? Have you met her before?" she asked. Rickey shook his head. Lily looked to Raven, who was watching her intensely, ready to defend himself. "Do you know who she is?" she asked Raven, who nodded in return, causing Rickey to look at him in confusion. "Who is she to you?" she asked Raven. "She made us like this." Raven said. Caelian looked down, lost in thought of this information. Lily looked at her husband and her husband looked down at the floor, shaking his head, before looking back at the twins. A calm and gentle expression crossed her face. "She made him." Lily said, pointing to Rickey. "And, Rickey made you." she said. Then, she pointed to Caelian and continued, "Because he almost killed you the day after my sister made Rickey what you both are today.". Caelian looked up and at the twins, preparing himself for anything.

"Is that true? Caelian?" Rickey asked, speaking Caelian's name mockingly. Caelian glared at Rickey and spoke in a deep gritty voice, "I knew you would make him like you. You should have both died, your disease has spread and become a bloodline." he said. Raven stood as he listened to Caelian. "I won't have any fighting in my house.", Moira's father said. "I wanted you to hear it for yourselves. Caelian, you may go." Lily said. Caelian watched the twins as he left the room. "I don't even know that fucking fool." Rickey said. "He smelled like dirt." Raven said. "He's your cousin. And, he's what modern society would call a werewolf. That's why he smells like that to you." Lily said. They looked at her in shock. "How would we be related to that? We're not werewolves." Rickey said. "He's half of what you are, half vampire. An outcast to your kind and why he lives here with us." she said. "Why did he try to kill me? How did I survive?" Raven asked. "His father and older brother are vampires like you, but Caelian's mother was a werewolf. You survived because Rickey found you after the attack and made you like him." she explained. "But, if I was attacked by Caelian-" Raven started to say. "It hardly affected you, but that's why your eyes look like they do and why your senses are stronger." she said. She walked over and ran her fingers through Raven's hair. "You have a bit of feline in you too, thanks to your brother, who got it from my sister." she said. Raven shook his head and gently grabbed her hand that was playing with his hair, "This doesn't make sense." he said. "If you trace life back far enough, we all come from somewhere, and life on this planet existed before any human-shaped body did." she said. Rickey remained silent, as he was beginning to remember some things from his past. "What my sister has isn't natural, it isn't part of what we are. The plague she carries in her cells now can kill us and it's been spreading." she said. "That's why I'm here?" Rickey asked. "It is." Lily's husband said. "And, why you both have to stay here." Lily said. Raven furrowed his brows. "Then...why am I being kept here?" he asked, looking at Lily angrily. "We have to test-" she began but was cut off when Raven suddenly stood up, "You're going to experiment on us?!" he yelled. Rickey bolted for the living area entrance, breaking the doors apart as he burst through them. "Raven, let's go!" he yelled. Raven ran after him. The Decebal family watched them run, no one making a move to stop them as they left the mansion.