Killing For Family

Chapter 1

Ancelia woke suddenly. Not slowly with the last feelings of sleep slipping smoothly from her eyes, but the water in the face, jump out of your skin kind. Of course, this kind of awakening was usual, and as usual, did nothing for her most recent bruises.

Stretching gingerly she inspected her body, finding two new bruises splayed across her weakened stomach. She couldn't stop the vivid memory of last night's attack from flashing across her mind, almost watching once again how everything played out, remembering every single intricate detail.

They didn't like to bruise her body. She knew this. According to a now dismissed guard outside the gates of the palace a few weeks ago, they liked to keep them 'pretty and presentable'.  She smiled wryly as she thought about the hollowed cheeks and sunken eyes that had stared back at her the last time she had glanced in a mirror, wondering how they thought her current starved state 'pretty and presentable'.

She was distracted from her thoughts by the bundle of old clothes and thin blankets across from her stirring. They had initially tried to separate the twins, but after many long weeks of consistent silence and violence, by her and him respectively, they had relented and after a lot of punishment, threatening and torture from the guards, they now shared a small, musty room, more a prison cell than a luxurious suite, if you were to categorize. That torture consisted of mostly sewing her lips together so she could 'understand the true meaning of silence'. She supposed there was meant to be a lesson there somewhere, but all she got from that were some nearly unnoticeable scars, and Lukas fared worse, incapacitated for weeks because of a broken leg and severe burn on his stomach.

The sleep-ridden face of her older twin brother emerged and looked over at her before turning back and face planting into the bed. She smiled at his antics and started getting ready for the usual day ahead.

"C'mon. Don't be stupid. We've got work." She pulled at his clothes as she strode past, nearly succeeding in tugging him out the bed.

He merely groaned, but did get up, and turned to her with worried eyes.

"You didn't have any more memories did you?"

"A few, but you know you can't protect me from the memories I already have. And you don't even need to protect me from the others! But I still go along with your ideas." Celia replied.

"Yeah, yeah. So, about getting out of here. How far ahead are we?" Lukas asked her as he rose up from his makeshift bed.

"Still not looking too good on the key front. I'm working on memorizing the floor plan, but that's not really a problem." She replied, sending him a dry look.

"I'll say." He muttered under his breath.

"Also, yeah, thanks for these!" Celia exclaimed incredulously, lifting her chain bound hands high, raising her eyebrows expressively at him.

"Well, I didn't know that the guard would care so much." He tried to defend himself, as he looked sheepishly at his own tied hands.

"You really didn't think that calling the guard an asshole and then repeatedly poking him - in the head - would make him care?" She asked him sarcastically as they both got ready for the day, both slipping easily into the sort of conversation that came only from years spent together.