delinquents

III - Utheus

 Utheus was sitting outside in the rain, watching the clouds pass overhead with his hands between his knees and his chest heaving with quiet sobs. The salty moisture of the rain dampened against his skin, wetting his clothes. A shiver ran down his spine, but it wasn't from the cold.

Mahd was dead. He'd watched his spirit fade into the skies, and there was nothing he could ever do about it.

The only thing he could do was blame himself, and that was what he did. Utheus stared at the gray horizon, watching the birds circle overhead. Birds. His mind shifted to a different place, a distant memory - one where Mahd had still been alive. Holding him. His hands were still warm. Still alive.

"Look at that falcon," Mahd had crowed, his small eight-year-old hands reaching for the bird. There was a long scar rippling from his right palm to his elbow, Utheus noticed. He felt a pang in his chest. Mahd was too young to be wounded, and yet he already was.

"What about the falcon, soerto?" Utheus rubbed Mahd's uncombed fringe. He'd found Mahd sitting on the balcony of the stranded department they'd found, swinging his legs dangerously over the edge.

"It's so pretty," Mahdyessus gasped, just like an eight-year-old would, his bright green eyes twinkling in the sunlight. And as Utheus watched, a figure clothed in shades of blue and black made her way to the balcony opposite them, her silver eyes glittering under her mask.
Myrror.

Utheus and Myrror had never been more than allies. Not friends. Not enemies. Just people who noticeably did their best to avoid the other, helping only in the thick of battle, praising the other only when they wiped their blade clean after the slaughter. There was, of course, a reason for that. Utheus had teased Myrror relentlessly back when they were ten, when Myrror had begun to manifest as a delinquent. When he'd manifested too, things became awkward, and they'd shook hands and became allies - not close ones, but allies nonetheless. Then again, Myrror enjoyed watching him squirm.

Myrror had a quiver of arrows over her shoulder, from which she chose an arrow and nocked in her bow. Utheus tensed, his free hand gripping the handrail so tight that his knuckles turned white.

Hunting practice.

And in the next second, Myrror had already pulled the string, letting the arrow swing through the air in a perfect arc. The bird panicked and flew, but Myrror raised her index, and just like that, the bird froze. The arrow struck the falcon in a spatter of blood and feathers.
Mahd instinctively started wailing, his green eyes wider and more scared that Utheus had ever seen before. "She killed the falcon!"

Utheus started patting Mahdyessus's back, unsure of how to handle a bawling child. "It's... fine," he managed between Mahd's panicked wails. "That was practice. I'm sure there are other falcons out there." He stared at the sky, hoping for any sign of a brown wing to come in sight, but there were none. He sighed.

"But that was a life," Mahyessus whimpered, finally calming down.

"The opposers have lives too." Utheus hugged Mahd close, letting the younger boy's head rest in the crook of his neck. "But they've got to be killed, right? It would make the world such a better place." He started patting Mahd's back again. "But if it makes you feel better, I can do this."

Summoning his energy as he slowly let go of Mahyessus, he reached his right arm over the side of the balcony and flicked it once through the air. He could feel Myrror's eyes on him, but he didn't care. "Come on," he muttered, gritting his teeth. A spasm of fatigue washed over him, and he clenched his fist. "Come on."

All too slowly and too quickly, the shadows on the ground below erupted upwards, carrying the dead falcon with it. Mahd made a choking noise behind him, and Utheus squeezed his hand. "It's fine," he whispered. "It'll be fine." He really hoped it would be.

Utheus brought his fist upwards and stretched open his hand, letting the rivulets of magic dance through the air, surrounding the falcon in a ball of mulberry shadows. His stomach lurched, but he remained unrelenting. He would do whatever it took to satisfy his brother.

Then the shadows drifted back towards the ground like clouds of ebbing smoke. Tendrils of shadows stayed with the falcon, seeping between its feathers. The bird opened its eyes, then bolted. Mahd started whimpering, and Utheus felt a strange feeling in his chest. He'd never done something like this before. He'd never revived anything. Not before that day.

"That was dinner!" Myrror shouted, her tone accusing yet amused. There was a hint of fear in her expression, but he must've imagined it, because when she blinked, it was gone.

"Go find another bird to catch," he retorted playfully, laughing as he sprinted to the other side of the balcony and back over to where Mahd sat very still, a strange look in his eyes. "Mahd? Are you okay?"

"Y... Yeah," he said finally. His eyes shimmered with their usual playfulness as he swung his legs back onto the balcony and hugged his brother. "You're awesome," he whispered softly.

Utheus felt his eyes well up with tears. "You are, too," he said, burying his face in the soft brown curls of Mahyessus's hair. 

 He would never forget that day.

|| --- ||

Utheus missed the warmth of his little brother when he hugged him. He missed the mischievous twinkle Mahd would get in his eyes, and the following occasion of pink dye in his conditioner or sludge in his shoes.

But right now all he could do was talk to his own voices, and cry.

You betrayed your own kin, his voices whispered - whether taunting or telling the truth, Utheus couldn't tell. He's dead, and gone forever. A rush of anger swelled up in his chest as he plucked a stone from the ground and threw it through the air pointlessly. 

"Damn you!" he screamed to no one in particular. No one but himself. He was alone.

Just then the door behind him opened, and Myrror stepped out, not seeming to mind the rain at all. "I'm here if you want to talk to me," she said quietly - the first nice thing she'd said to him since the attack.

"I don't want to talk to you, so piss off," Utheus snarled, burying his head between his knees. His grip tightened on his ankles. Myrror looked hurt as she retreated back inside. 

"Fine," she answered, her eyes narrowing. She closed the door a little louder than necessary, leaving him all alone once again.

That was when he really started crying. The tears came down in an unstoppable flood down his cheeks, his body heaving after every sob. 

The world dimmed - or was that just his imagination? Utheus thought - and he curled up on his side, shutting his eyes, as if that could help him at all.

But then there was that feeling again. Something he hadn't felt since the day with Mahd and Myrror on the balcony. His stomach lurched.

And the world went black.