Darkside

Chapter 19: What now?

Darkside

Chapter 19

What now?

For a short person she was still pretty heavy. She wasn't even stout. Maybe that's what they mean by dead weight. Emmet was pretty sure she was unconscious.

Ingo looked so scared and almost pissed off at the same thing, but he wasn't fuming in the least bit. He knew why he was angry, she felt she needed to off herself. He was also pissed with the fact that he thought it was his fault.

"Clarity." Ingo lay her down on the balcony and patted her cheek trying to get her to wake up. She moaned for a moment before her eyes snapped open and she jumped up looking around. It was almost like a computer turning back on before the printer decided it wasn't done.

"Clarity?" Emmet tried again. She looked up almost horrified at Emmet, and then Ingo. "You okay now?" Emmet asked. "Your shoulders are probably going to hurt for a few days because you were dangling from it.

They both noticed her cheeks were pink now. Would she be okay? After that just ha...oh no she was crying.

Ingo tried to hand her a handkerchief and instead she cringed and curled into herself. Clarity felt a soft hand on her back.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you. I was just so scared you would tell people about our mother, and father. I felt that you had reason to do so if you chose to." Clarity turned over to look up at Ingo.

"I wouldn't have, what would that prove?" Claritys voice was soft and scared. She didn't come out of the ball she curled up in. But oh did she want to curl ingo Ingo's small gesture. She really liked having her back pet. Isn't that...touch starved?

"Clarity." She looked at Emmet as he sat down on the wet balcony. Oh yeah it was raining earlier. That means they'd have to get Clarity out of the water. She was fighting a cold. "Uh...let's get you off the wet balcony and back into b..." They heard a whimper, but then her solemn face looked almost hurt.

"Clarity?" Ingo touched her hand.

"You both are going to hate me...hate me so much." She tried her best to stop crying, but it began to get worse.

"Clarity please." She gasped when Emmet picked her up and walked her inside. Ingo noticed she would flinch when he did it, but not with Emmet. It looked like Emmet seemed to notice too. "Up..." Clarity gasped as her shirt was snatched from her shoulders. She used the fluffy pillow from the couch to cover her chest. She stopped crying long enough to feel a warm night shirt was put onto her shoulders as her other shirt was tossed into the trash. It was dirty and the sleeve was ripped, and everything was soaked.

"Continue." Ingo pressed. She pushed her pants off and then looked down to realize that this must have been Emmet's night shirt...wasn't he afraid of being seen without his shirt on?

"That was your parents house...wasn't it?" In that picture it showed that they were at the very least in their early single or lower double digits. So they would have remembered some things.

"Oh yeah, we lived there till mom died giving birth and dad died too. Did you know them?"

"I'm...too young to have known them." She looked up at them. "I share the same birthday as the day your mom died." She was just going to leave it like that, but then again if she didn't press herself they would see those two who looked like their parents. Would they be on their side if they figured they were really her parents? Would they do as they said and hurt her?

"Wow that's...not weird. How do you know that?" Emmet asked, putting down some tea from the instant teapot.

"Because...I'm the one that killed her." She repeated herself from earlier. Okay that wasn't funny, actually Emmet could see it pissed off Ingo rather badly. He and his mother had a good relationship. Emmet dare say a better one than he and his brother.

"Clarity this isn't a joke. How is that even possible?" Ingo heard a choking noise from his brother for a moment. It had him on his feet for a moment thinking his brother had choked on the tea. Yet he was breathing, and quite fast.

"N...No...how is that possible?" Emmet asked, walking forward jamming his finger into her chest and leaning in. "You had better be joking."

Ingo looked between them wanting nothing more but to stop his brother from ruining everything, but then he couldn't start the motions because he wanted to know what she meant.

"No...I can't." She grabbed his hand pushing his finger into her chest over and over again. "Why would they do this? I'm not worth anything...even father didn't think I was worth sticking around for."

Emmet looked angry and hurt at the same time.

"Emmet?" Ingo was still in the dark.

"Ingo...she keeps saying she killed our mom." Ingo just nodded slowly. "How did mom die?"

"In childbir..." His face went from incredibly angry to hurt.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...Ims..." to her amazement she felt a soft hand on hers. She was right. Ingo was far more gentle than either of them combined.

"There is no need to apologize. It's not like you did it on purpose. Accidents happen, and this wasn't your choice to make. Mother and father tried so hard to have a baby after Emmet and I tore her up. We were conjoined after all. She wanted you, and she wasn't sad."

"Father was so happy we all got into the nursery and set it up. Spent three weeks painting and designing just for you. We were at our uncle's house the night it happened. We got word that mother died, and so did the baby. We were told father then jumped off the roof."

"That's not true!" Clarity cried out. "Mama died, there were two people that agreed to wear their faces and pretend to be them while raising me. I was told he jumped off the house...but the way it was said...I'm sure he was pushed." The horrified look on Ingo and Emmets face as they listened to this.

"Alright, that's enough of that...let's get you to sleep. We still have a lot of walking in the morning." Ingo yawned and held out his arm for Clarity who took his arm. She felt his night jacket around her as she walked back into the bedroom she was in.

"Wait...did mama and dad ever have a name for me?" Ingo chuckled as he pulled the blankets back.

"It was totally, Subway train." Emmet joked.

"Nah. they always wanted to name you something that popped into their head when they saw you." Ingo told her. Clarity climbed into bed and paused as she noticed both Ingo and Emmet getting in on either side.

"Uh..." They curled in around her. "What are you...?"

"You scared us..." Was all Ingo told her before putting his arm under her head and laying down. Emmet was less clingy, so just held her hand under the blankets. "Get some sleep...little sister."