Finding Phoenix ✔️

Chapter One

Phoenix’s P.O.V.

I don’t understand why this had to happen to me, of all people, I thought as I stuffed my bag. I’m a good kid; I get good grades, I don’t complain when I’m asked to do chores, and I never get in trouble. I mean come on, in all honesty, I’m the good twin.

Maybe that’s why he chose me. He thought I’d be an easy target, and at first, I was. At least up until he started to show his true colors.

In the beginning, he was sweet. He’d bring me candy and take me to the movies.  Mom and Dad loved him, so they were okay with me staying at his house every once in a while; as long as his parents were home. My twin brother and friends, however, never liked him. I guess in some way, they knew he wasn’t who he pretended to be, but they tried to be okay with him. For me.

Summer vacation at the end of our junior year- Dallas, Blade, Blair and I are all academically advanced so we skipped a couple of grades; together of course. He was 17, so at the time he was also a junior- that’s when everything started to change. He wanted to hang out a lot more than usual, but I thought it was because we had more time together now that school was out. It was like he didn’t want to leave me alone; he even turned one of the guest rooms in his house into a bedroom for me. 

Then he started to get mad when I wanted to hang out with Blade and even Dallas. He would say that I no longer loved him and that I was now in love with Blade, just looking for the opportunity to leave him, and that Dallas was trying to help me. No matter how many times I would tell him the truth, which is that it isn’t true, he wouldn't believe me. Besides, I see Blade more as like another brother, so ew… just, ew.

For reasons I didn’t understand, he no longer trusted me; which made no sense because he was the one who cheated on me in the past. And I forgave him. 

One time I was leaving the house to go say hi to my parents and visit my little sister because I missed her, (I missed Dallas too -I mean, come on, he’s my twin brother, how could I not- but I would never say that to him, I wanted to avoid all possible arguments), and he confronted me, accusing me of trying to walk out on him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I heard as I grabbed my keys and went to open the door.

I turned around and smiled.

 “I’m gonna go grab a pizza, and stop to visit Mom, Dad, and Brooklynn on the way. I miss my adorable little sister. Do you want the usual, pepperoni and sausage?” I asked; trying, in a way, to distract him with a question.

“You’re not leaving me,” he told me with a dead serious look upon his face.

“What do you mean leaving you?” was my reply. “I just want some pizza,” I added with a shrug.

“I mean exactly that. You are not leaving this house, leaving me,” he said simply, shrugging one shoulder as if he couldn’t be bothered to put enough effort into lifting both.

“Why are you acting like this? Don’t you trust me anymore?”

He went from indifferent to angry in less than a second, and before I knew it, he had me pinned up against the door with his hand wrapped around my throat. I looked into his eyes, about to ask what he was doing, and they were black; their normal light brown color nowhere to be seen. He looked like a completely different person, and it terrified me. 

“W-what are you doing?” I stuttered out, having no idea why he was acting like this.

“I said you that you are not leaving me. That means that you do not leave the house without me or my permission, understood?” he asked me in a cold voice, his eyes darkening further, becoming a shade of black not humanly possible. 

His grip tightened and it was getting harder to breathe.

“Y-yes!” I said as loud as I could, not trusting my voice to be able to form the word.

“Don’t raise your voice at me,” he said eerily calm as he moved me just to slam me back against the wall, effectively knocking the air out of my lungs.

“Let’s try this again, understood?”

“Y-yes,” I said struggling to breathe, let alone speak.

“I’m sorry, what was that? I couldn’t hear you,” he mocked.

“Y-yes” I said a little louder, trying to be heard without yelling.

“Good,” he said simply.

He let me go and walked away unaffected, while I collapsed onto my knees trying to force air back into my lungs

(836 words)