Ghost Bird Fanfiction: Sang's Lyric, The Story of Sang Sorenson's Mother

Advika

Taylor gave me a gentle squeeze and I reached over for his hands, pulling his arms tighter around me and looking up into his face.

"I would like very much to hear about her," I said, even though a small kernel of jealousy had just taken root in my heart. It was jealousy that had no place there, especially since I was currently in love with three people at the same time.

"My sister," Kell said, watching me closely, "was older than me by three years. She was about to turn twenty when she died." 


"Kell's family came to Texas from England," Taylor told me, "and I met them both in high school there. It was right after I joined the Academy. Kell joined shortly after me and we saw each other in the halls at school. I ended up at his house most days after school, and then pretty much lived there..." Taylor trailed off and I got the feeling that he was reliving something.

"My dad wasn't sick then," Kell said, taking up where Taylor had left off. "He was just starting to get a little absent minded. He was a professor at Rice, and brilliant, so we just thought it was the new job, that perhaps he was overwhelmed."


"One night I was at Kell's," Taylor began again. "Where were you?" he asked Kell.

"James and I were requesting the team appointments," Kell replied quietly.

"Right," Taylor said. I heard his head thump the back of the seat. "I'd forgotten."

"His dad had his first incident of aggression," Taylor went on, and I saw Kell's eyes watching me closely and I reached out a hand toward him, which he took, squeezing lightly. "He didn't recognize Advika and he attacked her when she came home from work."

"She was always his target for some reason," Kell interjected. "We could never figure out why." He shook his head. "Advika was able to explain how he was acting out of character and they brought him to the hospital, instead of the police station, where he was referred to a psychiatrist."

"What was the matter?" I asked, feeling both anxious and sad as I knew the story could only get worse.

"Dementia," Kell answered. "His brain was deteriorating and he was slowly losing a sense of who he was and who we were. Taylor lived with us full time, but because of my work with the Academy, he and Advika were my father's main care-givers. I wanted to keep him home..." Kell trailed off. "I shouldn't have. I should have recognized even then that he was too sick to be home, but I was so confident. I thought if I just devised a schedule, thought of all possible outcomes, that I could avoid trouble."

Kell's story was bringing up more and more questions for me. What work did he do for the Academy? How did he meet James? How did they end up a team?

But I would ask those questions later. I needed to focus. I waited silently for them to continue, afraid if I opened my mouth, all of my questions and fears and jealousies would come pouring out.

"Advika and I," Taylor started, "we were a team. It was the two of us against this monster that was changing her father. Turning him into a different person. It was intense and sometimes dangerous, and we relied on each other. That intensity added this surreal feeling to everything... Like we didn't have long to live either, that we weren't really two teenagers at the start of our lives..."

I couldn't help feeling that there were a lot of similarities between what Taylor was describing and what all four of us were experiencing. Things were intense. We were teenagers at the start of our lives. Were we moving too fast? I couldn't imagine feeling this way about anyone else in my life, but what Taylor was describing... Was he saying that he felt this way before?

My stomach churned at the thought that he could be mistaking the way he feels for me for something else. Pity or, I don't know, an adrenaline rush. Him versus the world: again.

"Hey," Taylor said to me, holding my chin in his hand and pulling me back from the direction my thoughts had taken. "This is different. Trust me."


I stared into his eyes, nodding even though doubt was slithering through me.

"I told Advika I loved her," he said, "and I did. But I didn't love her the way I love you."

I looked over at Kell quickly to see how he was dealing with Taylor's declaration, but he was nodding his head, as if it wasn't new information to him.

"I loved her because it was the first time in my life I felt like a man. I wasn't being beaten or hurt; I was stopping someone from being hurt. I was able to see myself in a way I never had before, both because of my Academy training and the confidence it gave me, and because of what I was doing with Advika. But Lyric," he said, his blue eyes staring into mine seriously. "I was never able to share the things with her that I share with you. It was the intensity of that situation that brought us together. She never told me she loved me. I knew she cared about me, but I think she cared about me because I was kind and understanding. Not because something inside her answered a call from inside me," Taylor finished.

"Because that's how we are," Taylor said. "I knew the first day I met you, before we even spoke, that you were meant for me."

I watched him carefully and saw only truth in his eyes.

"You snuck into class and sat in the back. You never looked at anyone, just kept your head down and did your work. But when you were passing in your quiz, you looked up and I saw your beautiful green eyes." His thumb stroked my cheekbone and I couldn't look away from him, my eyes moving to his mouth as his lips shaped the most beautiful words I'd ever heard. "And I knew you were made for me. I tried to get your attention, to catch your eyes, but you were untouchable. Existing apart from everyone and everything. I wanted to talk to you, to hold you so badly, Lyric."

I felt a hand on my leg and another reaching for my shoulder, finger tips gently touching my collarbone, and I knew that James and Kell were telling me the same thing as Taylor.

"Advika was my first love," Taylor said honestly and I couldn't help the stab of pain I felt in my chest. "But you are person I will love until I die. I'm a different person because of Advika; someone who can love you the way you deserve."

"Advika's death changed all of us," James interjected. "But Lyric..." He looked over at me before his eyes went back to the road. "You're it for us."

My eyes closed as I let his words sink into my skin.

"Lyric," Taylor said quietly, and I opened my eyes, struck by the fear and doubt in his eyes.

"You're it for me too," I answered, wanting to see my confident Tex again.

"We're home," James said, putting the truck in park.

I looked up surprised. "That was fast," I said.

James smiled at me. "I took the long way," he retorted.

"Oh," I answered, smiling. "I guess I just never keep track of time when I'm with you."

His eyes softened and his beautiful lips curled into a smile that I'm sure would have stopped hearts stronger than mine. "I love you Lyric Sorenson."


I smiled back at him. "I love you too," I answered. "Forever and ever."