Darkness Within

Broken Brotherhood

"Khalil! Listen to me! She is lying to you! Even if I practice black magic, I do not do it for evil! Khalil!" Stephen angrily talked to Khalil after they got back to where they slept. "I do no such thing as harming other people except for defence, and you know that I use every kind of magic with justice, you know me better than everyone else!" Suddenly stopping, Stephen held his stand, eyes almost all black, "Khalil. I command you to stop and turn around this instant." And as the words fell, Khalil's body instantly stopped, and turned around all without Khalil's control.

Khalil in that moment felt like he really messed up. He gulped almost nervously, forgetting his anger just moments before, before he recovered his posture.

"Brother, you know I don't get mad that easily.... Why are you testing me right now?" Stephen spit out his words forcefully, and black ashes started coming off the walls. "Why do you listen to her lies, Khalil?" "She is the only family member we know of who is alive. Of course we have to trust her." Khalil said bitterly, reminding his brother. "Brother, you know that..." "But you trust her more than what you know, Khalil." Stephen spitted out, this time with venom in the tone.

"Have I ever hurt a life or soul with the exception of flies and mosquitoes, Khalil?"

"No..."

"Then why are you not trusting me? And I shall never hear you doubting me again, Brother. After all, I put all my trust and faith in you." After Stephen says that, all magic retrieved to the owner and the items return to their original place.

Both of the boys walked to the room in silence and after they walked in, Khalil headed straight to his bed. Just before he sat down, Stephen yelled from the bathroom saying, "You are cooking tonight." Khalil rolled his eyes and said tiredly, still lied down on the bed nevertheless, "You cook your own food. I am not hungry!"

Stephen came back out, took out a piece of beef from the fridge and started cooking it. Khalil was just laying on his bed, thinking to himself of what his brother had said earlier. After a while he sat up and saw his brother just sitting by the island table in the kitchen eating his half of a hamburger with too many pieces of pickles and ketchup. "Dude, you want to eat? I saved you half just in case." Stephen said calmly after swallowing his bite. Khalil dragged himself to the plate of food, murmured before taking a big bite into the hamburger, "Fine... I don't like wasting food..." Stephen just rolled his eyes, "You better not like wasting food after what we've been through." saying out his thoughts, finishing his food and headed to his bed to sleep.

The next day and the next was the same for Stephen and Khalil; Khalil gets mad in class and sets everything on fire while Stephen has to come in from another class to put out the fire and slap him at the same time with a wall of water, which works most of the time. Aunt was getting desperate, realizing how strong the bond between the brothers were, to the point of telling Khalil lies like "Stephen had stopped loving you a long time ago." "You have been a burden for him," and "You two are twins but why is he the more powerful one? You should kill him so you can be the strongest and the most powerful one." Khalil at first didn't believe her but he had believed the lies that were told to him quite quickly. One day, Khalil went to his brother's class, which was full of people, and yelled on top of his lungs, "Stephen, I challenge you right here right now! And I will do this everyday until you admit that I am stronger." Stephen's whole class, including the professor named Morse, frowned and murmurs had risen up. "So that is Stephen's twin brother, huh?" "Anger issue..." "...wants to kill his brother..."

"Khalil, calm down." Stephen replied with a calm manner as the rest of the class nodded as magic flowed out of everyone, making a shield and a bound onto Khalil. "What do you think? Should I take the challenge?" Stephen turned to ask his professor, Mr. Morse, which professor had nodded, knowing that Stephen is a powerful wizard. After all, the classroom they are in happened to be a dual room. The thing is that both the students and the teacher didn't know that both brothers' power was controlled by their emotions, but Khalil doesn't know how to keep it in him, making him more vulnerable. Stephen on the other side, no one knew about his anger, his hatred, disappointment and other negative emotions or any emotions besides happiness, in fact, since he never had been broken down or shown how he felt.