The Three of Us (ON HOLD)

chapter 1

Matteo

Everything passes in a haze. I'm split up from my siblings for most of the day anyway, so it's no surprise that I don't see them for lunch or dinner. When I return to our shared room for the night, though, they're both already there.

     Alessia is braiding Elena's hair, and they're both sitting on the formers bed. Elena looks up at me when I walk in, a smile blooming onto her face. "Hey, Matty."

     "Hey." I respond, walking over to my bed and slumping down. My bed is across from Elena's, and a meter or two to the left of hers is Alessia's. We've rearranged the limited furniture we have in our small sliver of the facility more times than I can count, and it still doesn't feel right. Perhaps it'll never feel right.

     I'm the only one with a bedside table, but we all share it. I have the table part, and my limited belongings sit there. Alessia has the top drawer for her things, and Elena has the bottom. She's decorated it with stickers that Michael bought for her. He's always buying her things. She's his favourite, but my other sister is his most used weapon. I'm just here, never able to protect either of them.

     That only ever lands us in more.

     Alessia—ever the mother hen—ties Elena's hair off with a bobble, and then Elena returns to sit on her bed, pulling a tatty blanket up over her.

     "What'd you guys do today?" I ask my sisters.

     Alessia glances at me as she grabs her yarn and hook from under her bed. She's been crocheting since we were six, when Michael let her pick a hobby that he agreed to fund. She still won't tell us what she had to do to afford such a privilege. She's making a blanket right now. She's always making us things, like gloves for our hands when our room gets especially cold in the winters, little teddies to add some personality in our bedroom, and scarves and hats for the freezing weather.

     "I was with Michael." Elena answers, playing with a loose string on her hoodie. "We had lunch, then he helped me train." She looks up at me. "What about you?"

     I smile. "I was at archery until lunch, then I was in one of the training rooms for the rest of the day."

     I like archery. It's one of the only things I'm actually good at.

     We both turn to Alessia. She keeps her eyes on what she's doing as she says: "can't talk. Concentrating."

     My lips tilt further up at the corners. I look at the bedside table, sighing when I don't find anything that I can do. I've never gotten any special privileges like my sister, so I normally just go to the small, unpopular library and take a few books. But I finished the ones I picked out ages ago, and none of the other ones interest me.

     "Do you feel any better than you did this morning, Ally?" Elena asks.

     "No." Our sister replies shortly, sighing. She discards her yarn on the floor beside her, despite the fact that she only just got it out. "Turn the lights off. I'm going to sleep."

     I frown, but stand up and walk over to the wall opposite me, switching the light off before finding my way back to my bed in the dark. Alessia's never made an attempt to grow closer with Elena and I. We're practically best friends, and Alessia seems to be someone who just talks to us because she has no one else.

     She doesn't feel like a sister. More like an acquaintance. I don't tell Elena that that will probably never change, because she has so much hope that it will that it's become sad to listen to. I don't have the heart to pop her bubble of unrealistic dreams.

     The acts that she does—like braid Elena's hair or crochet us things—seems to be the lifeline of sorts that Elena clings onto. Even now, she says: "goodnight, Ally."

     "Mhm."

     I can see Elena's lips turn downwards as she ruffles her sheets, climbing under them.

     "Night." She says to me.

     "Goodnight."

     I let my head fall onto my pillow as sleep wraps me up in it's safe blanket.

Elena

I wake up to the sound of screaming and an alarm blasting, as well as the fact that Matteo is dragging me out of my bed and shoving me under it. He crawls down next to me, and through my exhausted haze I barely have time to register what's happening before the door to our bedroom opens.

     I catch Alessia's eye from where she huddled under her bed across from mine. Her eyes are alert, and she looks like she's been up for hours, let alone seconds.

     "Is anyone in here?" A light, feminine voice asks. Black shoes obstruct my vision of my sister as the woman walking around lets out a heavy sigh.

     I quietly shuffle over so my brother and I can have more space each. But when my head almost falls due to heavy exhaustion, my nose picks up dust off the floor.

     I sneeze.

     Matteo squeezes his eyes shut, and when I catch Alessia's gaze across from me, the disappointment and annoyance and anger there makes me want to die.

     Suddenly a face is leaning down by Matteo and I. The dark skinned woman tilts her head, letting out another sigh as she moves black hair over her skinny shoulder. "This is silly." She mumbles. She reaches for me, her cold hand closing over my wrist. Eyes wide, I turn to Matteo, who hits her away.

     "Don't touch her." He says.

     "Don't be ridiculous." The woman mumbles. She walks away, and for a second I think we're okay. That she won't come back. But then she returns a few moments later, this time with three heavy pairs of footsteps in tow.

     "There's two under there and one under the other bed." I hear her say. Matteo latches onto my hand, and I squeeze his.

     Large hands reach under, and before I can stop it one seizes my shoulder, dragging me up despite Matteo's shouts. I try to thrash, but I'm so incredibly tired that I find I'm unable to do anything but squirm as I'm hoisted up, then thrown over someone's shoulder.

     A needle pierces my neck.

     Then everything goes black.