Parallel Lines- *RAYOR*

Chapter 2

It's not that I don't care, it's that I don't care to show it.

The first five reapings went by. Gabriel seemed at ease, since he wasn't the one doing it. It didn't seem that there was much to teach him. He just doesn't like it.

It was once we got to Gabriel that he starts to panic.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I don't like it," he says. It isn't scornful, but fearful. His eyes are filled with fear and tears. He's shaking.

"Well you'll have to do it, Blake wants you to," I say. But I am getting uncomfortable, because suddenly he looked more like my age.

"Nicco," said Levy in that voice again.

"Well what should I do?" I point at the old, hunchbacked woman's silhouette from behind the curtains. Gabriel's first reaping in years. "Gabriel can't stay invisible forever! And someone will sooner or later see our horns," I say. Gabriel's invisible, because of his wings.

"I don't know," says Levy. "Gabriel, it's not hard. You're not doing anything wrong." He sounds like a therapist.

Gabriel doesn't seem to want to move. He stays completely still, as if paralysed. I don't know why.

Levy doesn't know what to do. I can tell by the way he shoots an anxious look at me. I'm not really worried about Gabriel. I'm worried about how Blake will feel if we don't get this done, and I'm worrying about if we'll have enough time at the end to go to a bakery and get something before we have to go back to meet Aster.

"It's not that hard," I say. "It's short. And like Levy says, nothing wrong will happen. And Blake wants you to, so you better do it."

It isn't the right thing to say. I knew that because Levy first glares at me, then the sky, as if blaming the heavens for my words.

What did I do wrong again? Whose side is Levy supposed to be on?

"I'm sorry," I say, but I'm not. I just want to get this over with. Will Gabriel act like this for each reaping?

"Gabriel," says Levy.

"Why can't you do it?" Gabriel asks. "Please?"

"You can't," I say. "That's not allowed."

Levy gives me a look which leaves me dumbfounded. Is he mad at me? That's not fair. I was the one that was always mad at him. This isn't just me being arrogant because it is real and I'm really unsure. Levy usually agrees on me for everything. I'm the dominant twin. I'm the one people like and he looks up to. I'm not angry. Well, maybe. But I'm confused.

"It won't make much difference," says Levy.

"But that's not fair! Blake wants him to!" My voice rises. I'm confused and indignant, and the face of the boy, so scared and anxious, is making me doubt everything. I still don't know why someone as unreachable and cold could get upset over killing someone. And how someone as unreachable and cold could twist Levy's ideals.

Gabriel has to know he is wrong, but he stays silent.

"Nicco," says Levy soothingly. It's the tone my mother uses.

I stay silent, waiting him to justify it. He doesn't. "That's not fair," I say, but my voice is weaker. I'm not used to being in this situation.

The lady comes out. I can see the sunlight glancing off of her wrinkles and her glassy eyes. I can see the crow's feet that decades of smiling had given her. I could see the slump of her shoulders that bad memories had given her, and the sparkle of collected wisdom in her irises.

Levy did it, without a warning. I cried out before the lady even knew she had died.

I am in a state of shock whilst Levy flies through the rest of the reapings. Then he takes Gabriel back. I sit down in the garden of the Underworld.

Dumbfounded.

"Why did you do that?" I ask when he doesn't initiate conversation. I know he's behind me, I can sense it. We're twins, after all.

I dip my toes into the cool water, and a splitting headache begins. No warning. Pure pain, a ringing in my ears, growing louder. I clutch the sides of my head and my breath shakes. I feel dizzy.

"Nicco?" Levy says my name several times before I register it, and even then my head hurts too much for me to pay attention. Shapes swirl in front of me and form a blindingly vivid memory. The colours are too artificial, the pinks highlighter-coloured, the greens too neon, the black too deep. But apart from that everything is in stark, perfect detail.

It's Levy, and he's young. Six. And so am I. I can feel the gap where my front teeth fell out, feel the irrepressible burst of energy within my limbs. And the feeling is so real that I forget, for a moment, the nagging worries in the back of my mind.

"Aster's not here," says Levy, a knowing glint in his eye. "Left for his reaping."

"The cupboard," I say instantly. I push past him, and even though I'm faster, I know he's letting me. I get to the cupboard first and take out the box of chocolates, then select out the orange creams.

"Please can I have one?" Levy whines.

I act like I'm thinking about it and that I don't want to, but secretly I like dangling this over him. "Hmm..." I say.

"Please?" he wheedles.

"Fine," I say. We both pop it into our mouths at the same time, and the tangy sweetness spreads over my tongue.

The colour seems to leach out of Levy's face. I open my mouth, but before I can speak, someone else asks- "What's wrong?"

And I'm back again, and the vibrancy has drained out of the world.

"Nicco?" says Levy again.

For a moment, I forget how angry I am. "Huh?" I say. Then the memories rush back. "What?" I say defensively, but it's just another way for me to be angry.

"You've got a problem. Is it your headache again?" asks Levy.

"Just don't talk," I say, because my head is ringing again. Usually it's Levy who comes over and spills out how much he's hurting about some problem. Then he snuggles next to me and I let him because I know how much he's hurting and he doesn't do it much anyway. But I swore that I would never do that. And he's grown up so much he hasn't done that in nearly a year.

He stops talking. I know that he's hurt. It's not that I don't care, it's that I don't care to show it.

After I while, the tension was too great so I got up and left. Levy didn't follow me. He used to, begging for me to look at him. I didn't, and I didn't think much about it. He didn't moan about it at all.

I go back home and find Aster. "Where's Blake?"

"With Arielle," says Aster.

I feel annoyed. "Okay."

"Where's Levy?" asks Aster.

"In the Garden," I say.

"Why?"

"He wanted to look at the- flowers." I start guiltily. I can tell Aster is pretending not to notice. He understands me this way.

"I'll go get him," says Aster and I am left alone. I press my fingers to my temple. I'm all hot and bothered and my headache is getting worse. I wonder if this will happen for the rest of my life. If it will affect my reaping. My plan to be the hero of my story, because I have always told myself that Levy is the sidekick until when he grew his courage. Will it affect my love life? Well, I don't remember the many reaper girls I see. I flirt with all of them but none of them are memorable. And anyway, I still have time.

But my headache is still so unbearable that I worry.