The Shattered Memory of a Violinist

//Two - My Neighbour is a Bastard//

Mason Noah Singer ^

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//Two — My Neighbour is a Bastard//

Willa Van der Mariel

Nightmare’s of mine are always cold, haunting and terrifying, and this one was no different.I saw the familiar brown curl’s of my sister, striped with bright pink. Her large dark brown eye’s flash in front of me, before I am pulled into a memory. 

We sit on the park bench, swinging our leg’s over the side. The sun is out, shining down on us, but we are sheltered by the shade of the tree. I am eating a packet of chip’s, while Averie is eating a salad. Oh, Avey. This is the time where she qualified for competitions for dance, and her diet has been wallowed down. I am beginning to get taller than her, and she was becoming a dancer. Sitting on her lap was a book, with a wore cover and folded papers. We look about ten, for there are no colour in her hair yet, only brown curl’s. My hair was sprouting everywhere, and her’s were pulled back into a tight bun.

“I think that cow is just jealous” I am saying, biting down on my chip. “Your skinny and pretty, while she look’s like a walking hot dog”

Averie burst’s out laughing, her eye’s beaming. “She isn’t that fat”
“Your right. I am just making you feel better. Do you feel better?” I ask, casting a curious eye in my sister’s direction.

She nod’s, still smiling. “Yes!”
“Are you excited to go see Ma?” I asked.

My sister’s expression darkens. “Our Ma is a cow. She gave us to our dad because she is unstable and the only reason we are going to see her is because it get’s lonely being a meanie” She say’s the last word like it is poison. 

My younger self does not flinch at her cold tone, only shoves her lightly with my foot. “Pa said to at least try. She is our Ma”

Averie gives me a sad look, like she would rather eat cow poop than say the word’s she is too now, but I know it is to protect me. She always gives me what I need, not what I want. “Was she there when you gave her a invitation to your first recital?”
I was quiet.

“— or when I danced my first solo?”

I shook my head. “No”

“But who was there?”
“Pa and Dad” I answer, giving my sister a small smile. “You know, Dad says that Eldon comes to me when he is sad because I was the one who welcomed him to the family, therefore he think’s I am his Momma”

Averie grinned. “I think so too. Now, don’t create fantasies about Ma, okay?”
“And don’t steal my chip when I am not looking”

She look’s appalled. “How did you see that?’

I give her a smile. “I am your twin”

Suddenly, the scene shift’s and I am inside Averie’s body. This part happen’s every time, always at the end. But, I never see it coming. I am in her skin, thinking her though’s and feeling her emotion’s. Right now she is terrified, it fill’s her body with coldness.

“You belong to me” A dark voice says, breathing death down her shoulder.

I feel pain erupting in my body, bashing me on my back and neck. I try to run, but he has me down on the ground. Fear is going through me like waves, and I call out a name. In all this pain, and terror, all this fear and urgency. Only one word comes to my head, and it is the last thing I think before my mind shut’s down and swallow’s me in darkness.