The Darkness You Curse

★ Chapter 7.

Dorian

It's no surprise to me when I spotted my brother standing rooted in front of the white fence that marked our property. For Damien speed limits didn't exist so he had probably waited at least five minutes for me to arrive and join him in staring at the place we were both most uncomfortable in. The haunting look on his face was the one I saw on my own every time I looked in the mirror.

Casting a glance to the side I checked for my sister's engine in the driveway of our open standing garage and felt the storm inside of me arising when I spotted the red sports car. Worry for my brother gnawed at my insides even though Jenna's focus had always laid on me. Guilt followed when I recalled that I made him accompany here.

Damien let out a shuddering sigh and squared his leather clad shoulders. "Shall we, little brother?"

Clutching the straps of my black backpack I gave him a single nod, letting the latter part slide and for once in our life it was me leading him. I owed it to him to deal with our sister so that he could make his way up first.

I twisted the door knob open and slid off my shoes quicker than ever before.
Letting the backpack hit the floor with an unpleasant loud noise, I forced myself to accept the storm jumping up off the couch and making its way to us. Like the tornado she was I was barely able to brace myself before thin arms engulfed my middle, squeezing.

My body froze, ice numbing my limbs and robbing me of the ability to move. A normal reaction I had developed to physical contact because of the five foot something woman clinging to my body in ways a sister shouldn't. My brother didn't count when it came to the negative sensations spreading through me when being hugged. But he also never harmed me physically.

"I missed you today!" Jenna stated happily, still holding on to me.

The thing I despised the most about her?
Acting like she didn't sneak into my bedroom since before I was old enough to even understand what was happening. Like she didn't rip my soul straight out my body the first time she used muscle blocking drugs to let my mind witness everything i would rather have missed. Not even my eyes was I able to close when she paralyzed me which always put me in the first row of this torture.
I thought about the whiskey bottle hidden in my drawer, yearning for it now that the scent of her met my nostrils.

Then she was ripped away from me and shoved in bearable distance. The breath I was holding released itself from my lungs. I felt the urge to shower just from that hug, the feeling of her body pressed to mine making me feel disgusted in my own skin.

"Don't you touch him, disgusting cunt," Damien snarled, stealing his shoulders as though he will go at her any second.
He was tense, I could tell. It was obviously hard for him to see her considering his own experiences with our sister.

Jenna's eyes widened mockingly before a cruel grin spread over her face. "Oh, did you grew some balls while being away?"
To my utter horror, she stepped closer yet again, this time resting her manicured fingers on my brother's chest. "Come on, shove me again. You know I like it rough."

Damien flinched as though he remembered something that I didn't, something he didn't tell me. Whenever Jenna decided to make me her plaything of the night I was unmoving, waiting for the horror to end. I didn't know how things went down with my twin but suddenly I felt the need to know every detail so I knew how deep his issues were rooted.

His hand shot out and wrapped itself around her frail wrist, squeezing just as hard as she did when she had her arms around me. It was clearly hurting but she met his stare coolly and calculated as always without showing an ounce of pain or weakness.

"Touch Dorian or me again and I show you how much bigger my balls got at St. James," he replied darkly, referring to the first comment she made. "You don't want to test me, trust me."
His grip tightened even further before he took her hand of him and let go of her completely, leaving a red mark on her tan skin.

Jenna's dark blue gaze met mine, my cold stare robbing her of the delusion of being truly cared for in this house. I might not be able to lay my hands on her to keep her from my body myself but I surely won't stop anyone who will.
At that an image of a black haired girl holding that knife appeared in front of my vision. Holding that silver blade against my sister's throat while towering over her as she was definitely taller than Jenna.
An odd, unwelcoming pleasant feeling spread in my body, especially the lower half, at only the vision of my sister at Nessa's mercy.
What the fuck, I heard my inner voice mumble.

Blinking, I focused back on my brother who looked at me with a raised brow. Our older sibling was no longer in sight, leaving only the scent of drugstore perfume behind that immediately killed every sort of lascivious, physical reaction I had. It killed my ability to breathe properly, having me breathing me heavily and my chest heaving. Adjusting my pants and sweater as nonchalantly as possible I bend down to put my shoes back on.

I couldn't stay in this house, not with the way Jenna made every negative emotion arise in Damien and me. Not with the way happiness seemed to be viewed as disease by her.
Other guys my age fantasized freely about women. I should be able to think about a beautiful classmate without feeling sickened at the prospect of having to return to this house. This environment that caused distrust for women when outside of it not a single individual I have ever met would doubt that Jenna Dubois was anything but a loving sister.

So while I didn't plan on attending today's get together, it seemed like a better place to be than to be here. "We're going out," I announced.

"We just arrived." Even while pointing that out, Damien already looked calmer.
I raised an eyebrow right back at him, silently asking if he really wanted to argue about it. He might be able to make an argument out of everything but now was not the time.

He sighed and grabbed my backpack from the floor, signalling me to lead the way with a nod of his head.

★

The premises of Baneyard U looked ominous and eerie with the thick fog surrounding the buildings by the time we parked the engines close the high and spacious theatre hall. Only a few cars were to be counted in the parking lot, showing me the meeting had probably already begun.

Vyper had asked me earlier today, in our free period to be precise, if I'm going to be present today as she liked to be prepared and I had told her I needed to catch up on some sleep. Not a lie, but I couldn't have known that Damien would quite literally run into me. It was uncomfortable to appear when no one expected you to but it was the lesser evil.

"I know I told you I enrolled but I don't remember ask for an immediate tour of the campus," Damien said as he strolled over to me.
His inky strands of hair fell all over his forehead now due to the windy weather conditions and the lack of a helmet.
I thought about how I always made sure to keep my appearances up.
My own dark hair always rested neatly styled on my head. My clothes always got donated the second I spotted the tiniest hole while Damien's leather jacket looked as though it went through World War Two. Or maybe the thing was just meant to look like that. I wouldn't know.

Would Nessa prefer a wilder look like the one of my brother?
I shook the thought away and focused back on Damien whose blue eyes still raked over our surroundings. "We didn't come here for a tour," I told him. "We came to trauma dump."
That was what it was all about in the corner of poets. It wasn't just the kind of people that hid in a certain nook of the cafeteria that was deemed the loser corner but a group of people who knew of each other's most painful memories and decided to stick with one another. We were the odd ones, finding comfort in poetry and thoughts expressed through art.
It wasn't my twin's niche at all seeing as though he barely ever voiced his pain but maybe, just maybe, he could find comfort in knowing he wasn't alone. That there were others just like us that struggled just as much to take one minute at a time.

"Oh, fuck no."
"Oh, yes," I countered, coming to stand behind and starting to shove him towards the hall.