Temere Mortis

Chapter Thirty-three

They had left the room after that, leaving Isla to her thoughts in the hopes that she would calm down. Isla had no intention of quelling her rage however. She was fired up, feeling an emotion other than fear for the first time since leaving that godforsaken clinic.

She tore around the room, circling the floor with such ferocity that she hoped it would leave burned foot prints etched into the wood. She hated her sister's perfect life and the perfect house she had put her up in out of charity. Isla despised being a charity-case.

On the bed, lay the leaflet that Danny had handed to her. It was then that she realised in anguish he wasn't her Danny at all. He had rushed to comfort the Isla he knew, the Isla from his world. Suddenly, Isla was filled with disgust for the boy who had saved her from the Waiting Room. He wasn't the boy that she knew, but he had pretended to be, to earn her trust.

Isla hadn't gotten all the answers she wanted, and it was with that thought that she reluctantly tore open the leaflet, pacing around the room as she read it in silence, stewing with unspoken resentment.

So, you've woken up?

Isla scoffed at the front page before looking beneath the bold title.

Let us, here at Cerberus be the first to congratulate you on this new chapter of your life.

Isla glared at the words. It was like they thought it was a blessing, being ripped from your life and forced to live someone else's.

We are sure you have a lot of questions, and this leaflet should serve to answer most of them.

Where am I? Who am I? What is this place?

We, here at Cerberus aim to make your acclimatization from the Waiting Room to your new existence as swift and smooth as possible.

Isla skipped passed a section labelled "The Beginning" where they gave details of 'The Black Death' and everything else that her sister had told her about the troubles the human population faced. Instead, she continued directly and with determination to the section that most caught her attention.

The Temere Mortis Initiative

Now that you understand the plague the human population faced, we can begin to answer your more prudent questions.

As we reached our bleakest point, we knew that we had to form a solution to the resources issue that we faced. Eventually, The Temere Mortis initiative was formed.

From each set of identical twins born, the youngest (that's you!), was placed in a deep sleep in a place known to us as the Waiting Room. Here, we allowed you to live out your lives in a realistic projection of our planet under the condition, that upon your older brother/sister's death you would take their place in its entirety.

This phenomenon is what you may know as the Temere Mortis. You may now rest easy knowing that your loved ones who you thought long dead reside now in this world where you will be reunited.

To aid in your acclimatization, you and your older twin are given the same name at birth and precautions are taken to ensure that your lives are as similar as possible. For more information on these precautions, please see the section, 'The Meddlers'.

Isla skipped through the leaflet, until she found the hauntingly titled part. She turned the paper so quickly in her hands that it tore into the meaty flesh of her thumb. Uncaringly, she let droplets of blood fall from her hand onto the wooden floor beneath her feet.