Darkness Within

Distrust With Anger

"Why can't I hear you? Why can't I hear the world? And how am I alive?" Stephen said loudly as both of them walked towards the town nearby. He stoped just before they met the end of the forest and glared angrily at Khalil and said, "You didn't sell your soul or something stupid like that for me to come back right?"

Stephen's eyes were no longer kind, soft, and caring, Khalil noted to himself, because at that exact moment he looked into Stephen's eyes, Stephen's eyes were cold and it was more than stone-cold, no emotions however besides anger, bitterness and disappointment were shown in the eyes that are no longer blue. Stephen's eyes were no other colours but dark red; the colour was darker than blood yet still brighter than the sun. Khalil gulped as he looked into Stephen's eyes, shaking no, just quickly explained in sign language how he extranged his happy memories with their parents and later the fight with the aunt again as good as he can since Khalil knew little sign language.

"Apparently I am deaf because the soundwave that you and Professor let our at the end, and you traded your memories of our parents so I can be alive again and later you will get into a fight with that witch who controlled you again? You do know that she is fully capable of knocking you out cold in minutes. Are you that stupid, Khalil?" Stephen growled, black magic pouring out of his hands and oozing out of the trees and shadows around them. The dark magic makes every insect go silent, and air getting thicker and thicker by the moment. Every living thing that walked by would feel very anxious and afraid.

Then he continued with venom in his voice, "You know how much I depend on my hearing, brother, and yet! You had to let the sound wave take away my hearing! You could have stopped it the moment you realized that the wave had gone out."

At that moment Khalil felt more afraid than living alone in the streets alone as Stephen would never yell at him, let alone angry enough to raise his voice to him. Then at that moment the words of the witch murmuring under her breath rung out in his head, "He wouldn't be the same.... It is your own effort to bring your brother back from hatred and anger in his own heart, the emotions that he shut away to hide from the world ..." He didn't know what to do but letting his power come through although he knew that he was most likely going to get hurt if he made the first move. No matter how much he practiced, Stephen is always stronger no matter whether he is living or dead and now with Stephen back from the dead, he probably has more power in death than he had. Khalil also knew that Stephen was, and hoped that still is, a person who won't attack and on guard until the other one made the first move.

"I couldn't stop it in time! I realized seconds too late!" Khalil busted out, forgetting that Stephen can no longer hear his words, trying to stop his brother with words and reason. "Who do you think you are, Khalil? You were my younger twin brother, who never cared about my emotions before death. Why cared after death?" Stephen hissed, eyes glower darker and darker shade of red and emptier by the moment. Now behind Stephen, the magic had forged themselves into daggers, the kind that have electricity running through them. If Khalil looked closely, he would have seen the blood forming and running on the flying blades. Everything around them had gone quiet, a tad too quiet. There weren't any bats flying around, no owls hooting, or any of the nightly winter sounds. The time had seemed to pause. "Brother, please calm down and talk this out!" Khalil begged as he tried once again to lessen tension, this time in sign language. "When you were many times angered, yelling foul words at Mother and me, and lashing out, I told you to calm down, but did you? Did you?! You didn't! You need to taste your own medicine, Thomas Stars." Stephen slowly stepped towards Khalil, using Khalil's first name instead using the middle name, sending chills down the younger brother's back.

The electrical daggers behind Stephen were maltipling, glowing brighter in blue and seemingly being sharper and sharper by the moment. Khalil knew it only meant trouble as he knew that he had really messed up. All he could do now was summon a fire and try to distract Stephen like that. "Stephen! STOP!" Khalil tried to slam Stephen onto the ground that is in the middle of the fire, failing, while the fire danced and that only confused Stephen for a quick second. With a simple wave of the hand, the fire was put off from a gush of wind passing through. "A dancing fire, really? A few months, all you can do is summon a dancing fire huh? Keep humouring me, Khalil." Stephen laughed coldly, Khalil shook his head, trying to shake the ice and fear from his heart but kept eye contact with Stephen. "And you are showing fear, baby brother..." Stephen halted, leaning into Khalil's face just inches from the tip of his nose, grinning this time. "Don't even try, Thomas Khalil Anthony Stars, all your efforts to lessen my anger and disappointment will go in vain and they will only make you suffer. The thought that I can no longer hear the world and listen to nature and the music I love will make me more and more disappointed in you and your ability to think on your own, both in the past and future. Now, grow up and stop following me like a lost duckling. I don't need a brother like you. I have no brother." Stephen spat at now kneeling Khalil and walked away, into the town. Khalil could only cry a river and left with his broken heart. 'So this is how he felt every time when I lashed out on him in the past... and this is only a faction of it...' Khalil thought to himself as he stood up again after a good trunk of time, deciding to go wandering through the streets and hoping that on one of them, he bumps into his brother again. In his mind, he needs to be forgiven from the only person who meant the world to him, but right now, he needs to help his brother the same way that his brother helped him in the past and he had to make up to Stephen, he had to. 'I can't give up now...' Khalil thought to himself, starting to pick up pace to follow his living dead brother.

Only if Khalil was keen, he would have seen the 3 ravens standing on the surrounding branches, just before the two left. The raven that sat on the branch that was right above Stephen's head, its right eye glowed blue while its left eye glowed red. The second raven's eyes were both green. The third one, who sat on the branches closest to Khalil, one of its eyes was just the normal colour for a raven, black, but the other eye was pink if you look close enough. The dullahan who helped Khalil came into view, saw Khalil running after Stephen in the streets, and saw the ravens and their unique eye colours just in time. "You are in deep trouble, kid. Your time is ticking." The dullahan yelled after them, frowning, knowing what each raven was trying to say. "I really need to keep an eye on that filthy witch now..." Then the dullahan just turned around and returned into the shadows running as silent as he could as the snow slowly stopped falling.