A Walk

My Story

"Story?" Kay's voice is monotonous as she ask the question.

"Y-yes..." her head cocks to the side at the hesitation in my voice.

I nod again as if to assure her, but really I'm doing it more for myself. I go and plop down indian style in front of her. I lift her chin so we're eye to eye. "This is going to sound crazy, but it's true. I wish I could just say that it was something I made up to scare kids like you at bedtime, but it's so very real." My voice catches at the end and hearing this Kay nods solemnly, "I believe you Av."

I sigh and settle down further getting comfortable. I clear my throat and staring into the eyes of the beautiful innocent child in front of me begin to tell the history of the bloodiest and most horrifying day of my fifteen years........

"First off, my names not Avery. It's Ember. And to confuse you further it's not just Ember it's also Phoenix." Kay's face scrunches in confusion, but she holding her her question and I continue.

"My family is, different. Or rather our twins are different. Twins don't happen often and when they do they are a curse rather than a blessing. You see when I was born I had a sister. My twin." I pause and gather myself, my teeth grind together, you can do this. Another deep breath and I continue. "In my family twins are like yin and yang. One is good and the other is bad. Most aren't that bad, but in my case my twin was really bad. Our parents established who was who and then named us based on that theory. We both possessed different elements of fire. In different amounts and interpretations, but it was there. So I was named Ember, for the calm and determined coal of a soul I have. Phoenix is named for her temper and anger, hatred, always there. Like a fire starting all the time. We are two sides of the force of fire. One can't survive without the other. But you see when we were named it was also established that we could not function on our own. We needed to be one to be balanced, if not chaos would ensue."

"We were given a test. Of which one of us could handle the force of both sides: good and bad. I was the one that was able to remain stable and sane. Phoenix crumbled under the calm and good persona, it suffucated her flame. Mine was stable always remaining there," I stop and laugh at the irony," like an ember." "My family had found their balancing twin and now..." I stop and start to feel as if I'm choking, I've never told anyone this. It's forbidden. Dangerous, but I have to. She deserves it. There will be no more death. I shake my head and start again.

"We were to become one. In essence, a perfect balance, so one could never outweigh another with her power. Yes, we have power it comes with the element of our personality fire, I won't tell you anymore on that. In order to do that there was to be a merging ceremony. Where two opposites become one. I was to be the carrier. The body that is used to carry both twins. Phoenix would come into me. Now Phoenix hated this. She hated the idea of being trapped in me and to be honest so did I. The worst thing was we had no choice. It was merge or die."

"First, we were trained in opening our minds to each other. Until we could speak without moving our lips. What had previously been our private thoughts were now shared between the both of us. All the time. Then the actual ceremony. We did it on August 14, 1998. We were four So young, but so powerful. In the eyes of our family we were the equivalent of an adult."

"On the day of the merge, we were led into a room, a white room. So very white that it hurt our eyes. I was scared and so was she. I could hear her thoughts and feel her terror. Then we were left alone. Sitting in the very middle of the floor. A voice floated over us telling us to close our eyes and relax. We did. Then came the pain. Sharp jabs all over. Constantly. For what seemed like hours. I was told to open my eyes and my eyes alone. When I opened them I realized immediately that the white room's floor was red. Blood red and lying in the red was my twin. Her eyes still shut tight. Blood covered her, flowing out and over her.