Saraphina

Ch.10 Brother, Brother

Saraphina;
I sat with X while he ate the chips I found, my mind racing. I looked down at the picture again. It couldn't be! It wasn't, but it was. It was a picture of me, but it was from a long time ago.

It wasn't just any picture. It was from an old camera. The type where the picture came out of the camera. It wasn't like they couldn't have just gotten it off the internet.

I had a picture like this of my parents and Shifter had a bunch of them. None of us had this one though. No one, but Brandon. I remembered what the drainers had said before I took it and ran to the theme park.

"You sure this is her?" one of them asked, pinning me to the side of a building.

Her partner looked at her. "Yes, I'm sure. Look at them! They are the same person, I swear," he said. "I don't know, she don't have the same eyes. The girl in the picture has big blue eyes. This girl has hudge bags under her eyes, and she has blue hair," she said.

I glared at the floor at the thought. They were looking for me, and they were using Brandon's picture to do it. I knew that if I turned it over I would see his hand writing. I turned it over.

Alex's 13th birthday.

I was certain now. This did belong to Brandon. I looked at it. How did they get the picture? It was in our house when it burned. I smelt it. Smoke and gasoline. This was some kind of sick trick.

But it's not, I knew it wasn't. No one else knew about this. Aside from Saphira, Shifter, possibly Calli, and I. I knew that Shifter and Saphira would never do a thing like this. They are just as hurt as I am, if not more. They'd never do something this horrible.

I dare to let a foolish thought fill my head. Did he survive? Did he restore our home? Brandon had the power of restoration, but the damage doesn't fully go away. That's why the picture still smells like smoke and gasoline. It's a polaroid picture. It can't just be remade or reprinted.

No he can't be alive. They'd never let him live. Even though I knew this, I still played with the idea. What if it could be true? I hated the idea of filling Saphira with false hope, but I had to show her. I thought about Saphira and her mourning.

Maybe I should show Shifter first. I walked around, looking for my brother. I found him in section S-S. "Shifter, can I talk to you?" I said. He looked at me, pulling on his shirt. Is something wrong?" he asked. With trembling hands, I handed him the photo.

"You're scared someone saw this horrible picture of you?" he asked. I turned it over. Brandon's handwriting. He brought it to his nose. He inhaled deeply. His own hands shook. "You don't think he's alive, do you?" he asked. "I don't know," I admitted. "Who else with the power of restoration would have went through the trouble of restoring our home?" I asked.

"Where did you get this?" Shifter asked. "The drainers were showing it around town. They were looking for me," I said. He looked at me. "Why?" he asked. That's a question I didn't have the answer for. "I don't know," I admitted. "All I know is that we need to inform Saphira, and I don't know how."

"Tell me what?" she asked, walking in. She looked at Shifter and I. "Saphira," I said, looking for words. I thought about her trauma, her pain, her emoitional and physical scars. Do I really want to reopen those wounds?

Shifter chose for me. He handed her the picture. She looked at it for a moment, not saying a word. She turned it over, and then she brought it to her nose. "What kind of joke is this?" she demanded. Shifter and I looked at her. "After four years of convincing me that he's dead, you shove this into my face?" she was crying. "Also, why is the picture of you?" she pointed at me like she was accusing me of something. She said "you" like an insult.