Faults

Chapter 12: Archie

"What the hell is going on?" I ask Aydin–or rather, who I think to be Aydin.

He just looks at me, paralyzed in what seems to be fear. "I... Um..."

I scoot off of his lap and stand next to the bed. "Send me a thought, just say 'You're standing up.' Got it?"

Aydin nods and stares at me. A thought enters my mind. You love Christian more than me. "What? Stop that. I don't love Christian."

"What're you on about, Archie?" Aydin asks me.

I roll my eyes. "You just sent me a thought saying I love Christian. I can't stress this enough: I do not love Christian."

Aydin looks at Taylor, his eyes burning with rage. "Fuck you," he growls at his brother as he gets up.

Taylor snickers. "Is that all you have to say? Nothing to get you out of this situation you've got yourself stuck in? No lies?"

Looking between the twins, I can barely tell that they're identical anymore. Taylor's hair is much longer now and all of his scars have completely changed his once flawless looks. Aydin steps up to Taylor and says, "It's too bad no one believes you."

Taylor punches Aydin in the face. "For now."

Aydin returns a punch to Taylor's jaw and then grabs his neck in an instant. Taylor tries to writhe out of Aydin's grip but to no avail. The screams begin to sound out in the room as Aydin tightens his hand around Taylor's neck. I only stand here motionless, captivated by this intense fight between the brothers that I can't even begin to understand the root of. Their arguments make absolutely no sense to me.

Taylor chokes out, wheezing almost, "You're... Burning me..."

Burning?

Wait, what?

I grab who I thought to be Aydin by the waist and pull him off of the other brother. I'm not sure who is who now as their argument and fight just got a hell of a lot more confusing. Once I get the one that was choking the other off of him, I look at the brother that's against the wall. Sure enough, there's a burn mark taking the shape of a hand on his neck.

I swivel around to face who I've discovered is Taylor. "You are a betraying, lying, deceiving bastard! How could you have done this to your own brother? You made him suffer the consequences of your selfish and brainless actions! You lied to my face and pretended to be Aydin while he was being tortured for your crime."

Thrusting my hand towards him, he flies backward onto the bed. "I'm not stopping with just that. You're coming along with me. Let's take a walk, shall we?"

I grab Taylor's wrist and pull him out of the bedroom. Dragging him out of the house, I tug him all the way down to the castle dungeon. "You are going to pay for what you've done. First you commit a crime, then you impersonate your brother and make him suffer pointlessly, and finally you top it all off with lying to me and twisting my feelings in the most disgusting, awful way. How dare you?" I yell at him.

He doesn't say a word but I swear I can hear him laughing quietly to himself. What a sick person he is. He obviously has no idea what's coming to him in regards to punishment.

With his constant struggling as I pull him along, I threaten to throw him down with my ability. That stops most of his squirming. I don't think he liked what I did back at his house.

When we reach the door to the dungeon, I use a knock that was created as a signal for the guards. The door opens and the guard grunts when he sees me. "Take this wretched excuse for a human and keep him in a cell for an indefinite amount of time. I'll let you know how long it'll be once I think it over."

The guard nods and takes Taylor from me. He pushes him down the corridor and I close the door to the dungeon.

It's time to rectify.

I run back to their cottage and burst through the front door. "Aydin?"

I don't receive an answer but I'm sure he's still here. I look in the bedroom where the fight took place but it's empty. Checking the next bedroom, I still don't find him. I check every room until I come across the bathroom where I find Aydin wrapping a cloth around his neck.

"I am so sorry," I blurt out as he turns around, seeing me behind him in the mirror.

"What am I supposed to say?" he asks, shaking his head. "We look the same, don't we? But we don't act the same. I don't see how he kept this up for three months. But do you know what I really don't understand?"

"What?" I question timidly.

"How you never saw that it was me down in that dungeon. How you could just fucking torture me without listening to a word I said," he explains, his voice melancholy with a harsh, angry undertone.

I frown. "Taylor is a known liar, I didn't even stop to think that maybe what was being said was true. I don't know what to say to you other than sorry. I'll say it a thousand times. I feel horrible about what happened and what I did, I'm such a dick. I have no idea how I didn't spot the differences in your personality. There's absolutely no excuse for my mistake. All I can do now is apologize and hopefully make this up to you somehow. You deserve so much better than me and if you'd like for us to part ways, I'll understand."

Aydin unwraps the cloth from around his neck and places it on the counter behind him. "It's not like I can say that everything is all okay. We both know it's far from being alright."

"I know, and I'm not sure how to fix this," I say.

"I don't think it can ever be totally fixed, but wounds heal don't they?" He pauses. "It just takes time."

I nod. "Time."

He steps toward me and wraps his arms limply around me. "I'll tell you when I'm ready, but for now I need some time to myself."

I hug him tightly, feeling all of the scars on his back. All the times I lashed him with that whip, I thought it was his brother. The guilt wells up inside me as I gently graze my hand over his back. Every ounce of hatred I hold for Taylor has now been amplified tenfold. I finally release Aydin. "I'll be waiting for you. Whenever you're ready."

※ ※ ※

In my chambers, I look at myself in the mirror. The mark on my neck grows darker and spreads further on my skin every time I use my ability. The darker it gets, the more it looks like a triangle of sorts. I feel like I've seen it before, somewhere other than my neck and the necks of my classmates.

I keep wracking my brain, trying to remember where I've seen this but nothing comes. The complaints of strange occurrences and headaches have ceased but I have a feeling that's not going to last for much longer.

I'm keeping my door locked from now on. I can't take any more from my squire. He's constantly nagging me about one thing or another. I just need to be alone with my thoughts sometimes and he can't seem to get that through his thick skull.

If he finds out about this mark, he's going to freak the fuck out. His next step might be to alert the kingdom and that's the very last thing I need. Squire freaking out is one thing, but the kingdom is a whole different story. They may see this as a situation with no good outcome or they may perceive me as weak. It's best if I stay quiet about this. My hope is to keep the mark to myself and handle this as diligently as possible.