Monsters

The Parting of Ways

Amy was alone for two months while she was refurbishing the basement that she had acquired. Then one day, she heard a savage knocking on the door at the top of the stairs. So, they finally decided to show up, she thought eagerly. She hadn't had much use for her powers lately, and she was starting to become restless. She crept silently up the stairs, while the knocking continued. At the top, she readied her magic and threw the door open. A figure screeched and sprang backwards.

"Geez, watch where you're going with that stuff." A familiar face looked at Amy. The two girls had the same features, but you would have never picked them out as identical twins, or even sisters for that matter. Sarah was cradling her hand in her arm, the hand that she'd been knocking with. From fingertips to about mid-wrist, looked like it had lingered in a raging fire. The skin was pitch black and cracked, like a burnt potato.

"In my defense, I was expecting someone else." Amy argued, not wanting to apologize. Sarah was obviously hurt, so she opened the door wider, as a signal to come in. Amy walked down the cement steps first, and Sarah closed the door before trailing behind.

"I'm being serious, you need to look before taking action. What if I had been a mailman with the wrong address, or a kid. What if I were a little kid, lost and just looking for an adult. That would have killed anyone else than me." Sarah rationalized. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they faced each other like two duelers about to pull their guns and fire.

"Okay, yeah, I get it. Now, did you come here just to lecture me, or is there something important you have to say?" Amy did not hate her sister, but she had things she'd rather be doing then this useless banter.

"I just came in to check on you. You disappeared off the face of the earth." Sarah in an irritated tone.

"I'm not going to even bother asking how you found me." Amy avoided eye contact with her sister.

"I always know where you at, whether you like it or not, we're connected." She moved to lay an uninjured hand on her sister's shoulder.Some twins have been known to have felt a mental or physical telepathic connection to one another. They feel pain, confusion, distress or other emotions when the other twin is experiencing them, some older twins have even reported to knowing when the other had died.

Amy dodged her reach and swatted her hand away, "Well, I don't like it and I just want you to leave me alone."

"Amy, we seriously need to talk about what happened in Scotland. You can't run from this anymore, we are almost adults." Sarah pleaded.

Amy exploded, "You hypocrite! I'm not the only one who is running away from my problems!"

"I did go back, when it was all over, but you wouldn't know that, because you haven't even been with me these past few years! Mom and Dad told us to stick together! And guess who was the first one to run off when it was said and done, you!" Sarah fired back, poking a finger accusingly in her direction.

Amy looked hurt for a moment, then recovered, "Well, Mom and Dad are dead now, and who's fault is that?" Her voice was cool and steely.

"You can't possible blame me for that." Sarah's voice dropped an octave. She looked straight her sister with her impossibly pale eyes.

"Who's fault is it then? Mine? Mom's? Dad's?"

"It was nobody's fault Amy, and you know that." Sarah paled at the accusation.

"Oh really, then explain to me exactly what you were doing the day before the attack happened." Amy said, like a school teacher interrogating a troublesome student.

"You promised you wouldn't bring this up again."

"Well, my sweet, innocent little Sarah," Amy voice was dripping with sarcasm, and she swung her arm roughly onto Sarah's shoulders, "I've made a lot of promises, and most of them I can't keep. And oh, would you look at the time, I have some prior engagements. Its been fun, but don't come back, I might not let you in next time." She said with mock pleasure. She gave her hard shove toward the stairs and voice dropped back to normal, "Get out my house."

Sarah stepped up on the first stair, turned to look balefully back at her sister, then trundled her way up to the alley.

She slammed the door shut on her way out, then leaning against the wall, slid into ball with her forehead resting on her knees. She began to sob, too overcome with emotion and an extreme sense of loss to be concerned about anyone seeing her tears. Some time had passed before she felt stable enough to stand. Maybe she's right, maybe it was all my fault, she considered sulkily. The air suddenly felt a lot colder as she walked down the streets of Chicago. She barely noticed how far she was leaning over the railing of the bridge, when a runner bumped into her and almost pushed her in the freezing waters below. A barrage of questions suddenly flooded her mind, If I jumped now, would it kill me? Could I revive myself? What do I do now? How much pain would I save myself if I just ended it here? She wouldn't know, and she sure wouldn't care.