ELBINA

Chapter 1

She said it would get easier.

She actually said those exact words within two minutes of telling me, after my entire world fell apart at the seams.

It wasn't something I was expecting, not in the least. No one expects it.

Of course, it's in the back of your head, a faint knowledge that it'll happen but you put it off because it's not supposed to happen for a long time.

For me, it wasn't supposed to happen for decades.

I'm still sitting here, staring back at her with tears in my eyes because what else was I supposed to do?

Maybe a 'oh well, when life gives you lemons' would suffice to her?

What was she expecting me to do, how was she expecting me to respond to this news? I want her to tell me how because I don't honestly know how to cope with it.

There's this gaping hole that's opened up in my stomach, hungry and vicious, satiating itself on my internal organs. Ripping into each structure as if it were its last meal, sharp canines tearing the vessels and forcing blood to spill into my chest and stomach.

That's what it feels like.

I suppose that's what everyone meant when they said they were being 'ripped apart from within'.

"Elbina? Did you hear me?"

Of course, I heard you!

I want to shout at her.

I want to punch her in her stupid face in all honesty, but that wouldn't get me anywhere, would it?

It was obvious from the moment I woke up this morning, that something was wrong. I may be young, only five, but I was at least intuitive. Intuitive enough to know that the strange man waking me up, when it should have been my brother, wasn't right.

His expression calm and professional, gently waking me and getting me out of bed in the early morning, but he didn't belong.

And I didn't belong here, in this room, looking at this woman who I'd been driven four hours to meet. Who had taken all my belongings and shoved them into a blank looking room with a nervous smile on her face.

I never asked the question, what was happening?

It's probably because secretly I already knew, I just didn't want a confirmation.

Suddenly, breaking through everything is the touch of her hand on my arm. Without thought I retract away from her, pasting myself to the other side of the sofa away from her.

I probably look like a rabid animal, breathing heavy and tear-soaked cheeks from eyes that sting like anything.

"Where's my brother?" I manage to stutter out, cracking from my throat horrendously. A sob desperate to escape but I can't let it, I needed to know.

I needed to know how and why, and who I even had left.

She only shrugs her shoulders silently, except that isn't good enough for me.

So I shout at her, clenching my fists into the cushion beside me.

"WHERE IS HE?!"

A tiny part of me is terrified how she might react because I don't shout, not that she'd know that.

I wasn't allowed to; it was one of the rules of the house. Not that Fallen ever seemed to have followed that particular rule by any means, but I did.

So this, this loud shout that hurt my throat and ricocheted around the room seemed unnatural, making the feeling in my gut even worse.