These Broken Souls | COMING SOON

Part I: 2

two

RAYN (4  years earlier)

It's the perfect opportunity.

My eyes are locked onto my brother, or more closely at the ball in his hands. With pure determination on his face and his focus surrendered to the basketball hoop towering above him, he aims.. and releases the ball. I freeze, holding my breath in anticipation as the space between the ball and the hoop narrows. But it hits the hard rim of the hoop instead and he misses. "Ah, come on!" he sighs.

Before the ball can reach the ground, I'm already darting towards it, catching it in both hands when it bounces back up from the ground. As expected, Zack runs towards me, his hands flailing in every direction as he attempts to tackle the ball back. "Give it here, Rayn!" His breathless voice calls out after me.

"That's not how it works, dummy. You need to come and get it!" I shout back, but he's laughing and I'm laughing too, now even more eager to win. I swerve quickly, pivoting on my feet. Bouncing the ball through my legs, I steal a glimpse at him to check his position and his distance from me, but he only watches me with a playful smile and a daring look in his eyes. That's when I spin, placing myself in front of the hoop and waiting a moment to balance myself. Taking a deep breath, I feel every muscle in my body spring into action; an empowering sensation through my body. And at last, I jump. My arms rise and the ball leaves my fingertips.

"She shoots..." Zack commentates, and my eyes never leave the ball. It teeters at the edges of the hoop, going around in infinite circles, before finally diving right through it. "... and she scores!"

"Yes, I win!! Again." I hop up and down in joy, exaggerating my dance of victory to Zack by waving my hands in his face.

"Yeah, yeah. Only because I let you, muppet." He shakes his head mockingly.

Once the ball stops bouncing against the concrete floor of the garden, I pick it up and throw it at him. He catches it with ease, his wild brown hair bobbing everywhere as he does. Everyone says my brother and I look strikingly alike. We have the same bold, green eyes, the same mass of curly hair, and the same smile. Thankfully, I don't have the same skills as him in sports.

Zack clutches his side, as we try to bring our breathing rate back to normal, our chests heaving.

"I've proved yet again that I'm the champion at basketball." I gently nudge him with my elbow.

"I beg to differ." He raises his eyebrows. "I demand a rematch."

I scoff. "You poor thing. You wouldn't really do that to yourself, would you? How many more times do you need to lose to accept that there is no chance of winning against me?"

"We'll find out." He says earnestly. "But we need drinks first."

"I could beat you while being dehydrated any day." I shrug nonchalantly, flipping my hair at him before skipping towards the door.

"You little cheek. Get inside." He chuckles behind me.

* * *

In the kitchen, we pour ourselves drink after drink, chugging them down. The kitchen is a tip. The table hasn't been cleared from lunch and the plates are stacked high in the sink.

"The Games at school are next week, Zack. Do you think I'll be good?" 

He frowns at me in disbelief. "Is this the Rayn Dawson doubting herself? Don't be silly, little sis. You'll smash it, hands down. Besides if you can beat me, you can beat anyone." He smirks.

"But anyone can beat you," I laugh, and he rolls his eyes. "Where's Mom and Dad?" I ask, noticing the stillness in the house.

"Well," he looks around, "the shopping list is missing from the fridge, so I'm assuming they're out to get groceries."

"Let's watch a movie then before they get back." 

"Yeah?" He smiles warmly at me. "Which one?"

But before I can answer, a hard thudding noise stops me and I freeze. It sounded dangerously close to us and with a certainty I didn't want to acknowledge, I knew it came from the garden, right outside.

Instinctively, I move towards my brother, whose body is completely still and tense, his face taut as he listens out for further noise. "What was that, Zack?" I ask, my small voice daring to speak.

"It sounds like someone's just broken down our back door." He whispers, and he says it so slowly and so quietly it frightens me. "Close the windows, Rayn." He instructs.

At first, I'm too fearful and my feet refuse to move, but then I'm scrambling towards the window as swiftly as I can, my nimble fingers working in a panic to close it. Zack moves towards the door that leads to the garden and hastily, turns the lock. He's breathing heavily now but still controlled, as he steps backwards until his body is shielding mine. 

We wait. And the agony of it is unrelenting as neither of us dares to move, feeling as if even the slightest movements would set off a bomb.

Zack then turns to the worktop next to him and picks up his phone. "I'm scared, Zack." I murmur.

"Don't be. We're together aren't we?" He looks into my eyes, a small brave smile on his face, as he takes his free hand and holds mine in it. "I'm sure it's nothing it. It'll go away."

But then a shuffling of footsteps outside grows louder. And we see how wrong he is.