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When Phoenix looks up, he is met with the face of his older sister. Confronted, his expression is one of distraught and confusion. Her's is filled with glee and happiness. He steps back when she starts walking towards him with her arms wide open, but that doesn't stop her. She's too happy to see him to even notice.

Phoenix is dead still as she wraps her arms around him, holding him tight and close. "Thank God," she breaths into his shoulder. "Oh, thank god. I thought something bad happened to you."

"Ellie." He can barely speak. His heart feels like it's about to stop beating any moment. The sight of those pots on the floor is forever seared into his brain.

Ellie pulls away, still holding onto his arms. "I've been worried. Are you okay? Where have you been? When are you coming home?"

Phoenix shakes his head. It's then that Ellie's expression falls and Phoenix finally manages to push her away. He wriggles out of her grip and walks to the other side of the room, away from the bombs, and away from her.

She's hurt, but she's mostly confused. "Phoenix, what is it?"

He still can't talk. Why can't he talk?

Ellie takes a step towards him, and all he can do is shake his head. She stops instantly. Phoenix tries to work up the nerve to say something, anything, but all he can do is look around the room, at anything but the bombs, at anything but her.

"You weren't supposed to see this."

Of all things to say.

"This –" he's starting to find his voice, but it's a whisper, scratchy and hard to get out as if the words are literally scraping against his throat. "I don't – what - this... This is terrorism, El."

Ellie scrunches her face. "I hate that word. Don't be dramatic."

"But that's what this is!" Phoenix suddenly erupts. Ellie actually flinches when he shouts, but he doesn't stop. "These – these are bombs! Where the hell did you even learn how to make a bomb? I can't believe – what are you thinking, Ellie? You can't do this! You know you can't. It's wrong. It's fucking genocide, for Christ's sake! Ellie, people will die."

Ellie is quick to respond with a disgusted look on her face and hate in her voice. "They're not people. They're an abomination."

Phoenix actually cannot believe what he is hearing. "What kind of Nazi White Human supremacy bullshit is this?! It's not your call to make whether these people deserve to live or not."

"Stop calling them that!" She shouts.

"They are still people, Ellie! Humans, all right? Whether you like it or not, they are still human and they don't deserve this." He points to the bombs as he says it, hoping with all hope that somehow it'll click and she'll see sense.

But she just shakes her head, completely unfazed. She believes what she believes and there's no changing that.

Phoenix hangs his head. "We are not better than them. We don't deserve to live any more than they do."

Ellie's eyes widen, like she can't believe what he's saying. "Oh my god," she suddenly breaths. When Phoenix looks up, she's staring at him wide-eyed and open mouth, shocked by some kind of revelation. "You're in love with her. That coyote girl you've been sneaking around with. She's tainted you."

Phoenix shakes his head. Malia cannot get into this conversation. That's not what this is about anymore. "I'm not tainted. If anyone's tainted, it's you."

"Yes, you are! You're tainted, blinded by some kind of loyalty to them. They killed Mom and Dad and here you are defending them! For what? For some coyote?"

"Stop talking right now, Ellie."

But she doesn't. "You need to come home. I need to get you away from her. I need to protect you. It'll be okay, Phoenix. I can fix this. I can fix the problem."

"There's no problem!" He's desperate now, trying to get her to understand, trying to get her to stop. "You're seeing things that aren't there. You're blaming an entire species for something one werewolf did."

Ellie shakes her head, as if to shake his words off her. "They're all the same. You'll learn that soon enough when the coyote you're in love breaks your heart."

She already has. But I've broken hers too, so who's the real monster?

He doesn't say this. He wants to, but he doesn't.

Phoenix sighs, and pinches the bridge of his nose trying to calm himself down. This went so wrong so fast. He puts his hand down, lifts his head, and stares straight at his older sister, whom he once loved more than anything in the entire world.

"Yes, I love her, and yes, she is a coyote. But she is also so much more than that. Please, El." He steps closer to her. "I can't live in a world where my sister kills the girl I love. Don't do this. Please, don't do this."

But Ellie just shakes her head and walks away.



Phoenix || Malia TateWhere stories live. Discover now