Sound Waves

The Beast Within

"Through the past sixteen years, we have never strayed from each other's side, we have gone through thick and thin together and most of all, we have loved each other like no other siblings have before. And for this ceremony, each and every moment will be precious and will be kept within our hearts because for the past sixteen years, Cal and I have made many memories, both good and bad, but tonight will be the best yet."

I have two more days to get this together and I have no clue what to write. I have a moment where I just stare at the words on the page, hoping that some amazing, loving paragraph will come to my head- nothing. I sigh and close the book, I climb over my bed railing and put the book neatly on top of the pile of other school books and I look at myself in the mirror. Long, wavy, strawberry blonde hair with red and pink tips, wide, dark blue eyes with long lashes, smooth, tan face and pale pink lips. I take a deep breath and open up my wardrobe, in a search to find clothes for the next six hours at school and I finally take my pick- a tight, dark blue, long sleeved shirt and tights with a short black skirt over the top with sparkly diamonds along the edge. I get changed and flick my hair over my shoulder.

I leave my room and go downstairs to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast to find that Mum, Dad and Callum are already there, with Aunty Vanessa and Uncle Trevor. I smile at them and greet them each with an embrace and a kiss on the cheek. They smile oddly and they all seem awkward around me, I look at myself, seeing nothing wrong and then ask them if I was missing anything. Aunty Vanessa and Uncle Trevor look at each other, with tears forming in their eyes but before they can say anything, Callum walks over to them and gently pulls them away as Mum stands up from her seat and pulls me gently into the family room.

"Paige passed away in her sleep last night and your Uncle and Aunt just need time to get through it, dear," she says, looking deep into my eyes and then I clenched my teeth and pulled her into a firm hug. Paige was my cousin, adopted but only because Vanessa and Trevor had some difficulty making their own, but after they adopted her, they found out that Paige had Coronary Artery Disease, and so it was a matter of time before she passed. We did what we could to help her but she became more ill by the day, I somehow knew that she would die soon and I could feel the same things she could feel, but my parents just told me that it was because we were so close. I could feel tears building up by the second but I forced them back so I didn't go to school with red eyes.

"I told you already! I don't know how I ended up there! Just leave me alone, alright?" I scream at my brother, after what had happened that night, everyone is either scared or confused. I am just mad. I went to sleep like usual but then when I woke up, I was in Paige's bed with her teddy held close to me. I had immediately ran back home and woke my parents up, telling them about it. I've had three policemen interrogate me about it and then now, my brother wants to know the story that I have already told him. My Mum is forcing me to stay home from school for my own sake but really, I know that she just wants me too tell her 'the truth'. Even though I've told her a thousand times already. I wish they'd just forget about it or something, my birthday is tomorrow and all this fuss is going to ruin it. I turn away from Cal and lock myself in my room, heading straight to bed and next thing my eyes close and I'm dreaming about Paige and she's telling me something, something about Callum. It sounds urgent but her voice is like static and all I can understand is 'tomorrow' and 'say goodbye'. I jump awake and instead of in my bed, I am at my desk with a massive paragraph about how much Callum means to me and how our sixteenth birthday is important to both of us. I read through it and it is like an angel has written the words for me, emotional yet inspirational and strong enough to make crowd cry. My stomach churns violently and my head crashes against the ground, followed by the rest of my body.

The sound of people talking wakes me up and refusing to think about what happened, I jump up and check the time, 9:23 a.m.- 37 minutes until the party starts so I walk to the door to get ready for the party ahead. I don't bother getting dressed I just quickly go downstairs and do my morning routine and then the fun begins. I grab my half a dozen makeup bags and shut myself in my bathroom. By the end of my makeover, nearly all the guests have arrived and my mind is rampaging on about what 'Dream Paige' was talking about. I finally put the last product on- mascara- and I stare at myself in the mirror. I look beautiful. Everything looks perfect, my skin, my eyes, my hair, my lips. I slowly turn to my wardrobe, not wanting to look away from my reflection, to retrieve my dress. When I am finished changing I take a quick glance at myself in the mirror and take in the sight- the dress is white and peach, with diamonds and other assorted gems embedded in the fabric, it suits me and then as I turn away, one more thing catches my eye, the deep, almost glowing blue of my eyes that make my whole form more angelic. I take a deep breath, impressed with how I look and glide gently out of my room, and as soon as I do, the world completely slows down as the opening and closing of my door catches everyone's attention. Mouths fall and eyes widen and I can see my mother turn around and when she sees me, her smile is bigger than her face and tears of joy are seeping out of her eyes. As I take a step down the hallway, Callum's door opens and he joins me and together, we are like two angels, entities. His blonde hair is perfect, his suit is perfect, his skin is perfect, just like me. Almost immediately, our steps synchronise and our hands are together, no-one would guess that we are only sixteen. After a few steps the world goes back to it's original speed. Callum and I exchange massive smiles, our white teeth blinding us and we continue our way to our parents, passing everyone who each, in turn, compliments us on how we look and we smile and compliment them back. We embrace our parents and then they take us to the makeshift stage outside- where we will express our thanks for everyone being here and where I will read aloud my paragraph about Callum and he will read his about me. I go first.

"First I would like to thank each and every one of you for being here and supporting myself and my brother, whom of which I would like to tell you about; My brother, Callum Robert Markson has been there for me since the day we were born. Like all twins, we have had a bond but a bond like no other. when I say 'bond' I don't mean we could communicate telepathically to each other but a bond that links us together, letting us feel each other's strengths and weaknesses, know when one of us is upset or happy, one that made us close enough to feel connected, like two magnets. Through the past sixteen years, we have never strayed from each other's sides, we have gone through thick and thin together and most of all, we have loved each other like no other siblings have before. And for this ceremony, each and every moment will be precious and will be kept within our hearts because in the past sixteen years, Cal and I have made many memories, both good and bad, but tonight will have the best memories yet. I don't know what I would do if he was to leave, I dread to see the day we turn eighteen, when we are entering adulthood, creating our own lives and living by our own rules. I feel like we could not ever leave each other, a class at school kills me, a short trip to the corner store and back makes me feel like I'm broken, he is my soulmate, my best friend. He is my brother, and on this day, I would like to make him feel as special as I see him to be. I love you, Cal. I always have and I always will."

At the end I go to look at Callum but two figures catch my eye, they are wearing black hoodies so their faces are covered up and one is staring me in the eye and the other is clutching at his pocket with his eyes on Callum. My dad comes up behind me and he gently guides me off of the stage, telling me how proud he is of me. Callum walks towards the steps to the stage and as he steps onto the first step all hell breaks loose.

I hear a man scream out "Everybody down!" as gunfire erupts and people are screaming and crying, I see my parents race towards the exit but before they can, Mum's leg gets hit by a bullet and Dad's chest is bombarded in bullets, I feel as if someone has just ripped my heart out. A chair is thrown and it hits my mother and she falls to the ground, blood pooling around her head. I spin around and my eyes search for Callum and when they find him, the breath is taken out of me. He is being hoisted up by a rope around his neck and there is one of the men I saw before in front of him holding a large gun. It wasn't his pocket he was clutching, it was the gun. Not too far behind that man, the other one was darting towards me, holding a silver blade. Just as he was about to slice me apart, another chair was thrown and it hit him in the side, and from the direction that the chair came from was Uncle Trevor. I smiled at him and then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and then there was a silver blade hanging out from Trevor's stomach and blood came rushing out. Without thinking I kicked the man in the neck with the heel of my high heel slippers and I ran towards Trevor but the life had already left his eyes. I turned back to Cal to see his eyes fluttering open and closed and the man in front of him was looking right at me, smiling a putrid yellow toothed smile. He lifted the gun, pointing it at Callum and without a moments hesitation, pulled the trigger. I fell to my knees with tears already streaming down my face. My hands fly to my face to hide the sight of my twin brother being blown to pieces but then they went back down. The tears had already dried and my sadness was replaced with anger that I had never felt before. I wanted these guys dead so dead they shall be. I inhale deeply and I stamp my foot on the ground as I scream, releasing the recent memories of seeing my parents, my brother and my uncle dying in front of me. I see the air shifting as the sound waves pass through them, all around me and then I can see bodies flying, limps snapping, heads exploding, eyes popping and people being sent backwards. It was like a bomb that was inside me and my scream was the detonation, causing destruction everywhere. Glass shattered and soon, there were bloody messes everywhere and in astonishment, I put my hand to my neck and I dropped back to my knees. And all emotion was gone. I picked up the closest phone, dialed '000' and gave the receiving end the address and the word 'help'. Then I hung up and ran away.

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