Darkness Within

I'll See You

The small handheld game vibrates furiously in his hands and he resists the urge to throw it against the wall out of anger. This is the ninth game in a row Zyan has lost and the rage in him is building up to the point that he is surely going to blow soon.

Across the hall, Kira's door opens slowly and Zyan sits quietly, watching as she sneaks in, shuffles around in her still darkened room, most likely changing, and then sneaks back out, taking extra care to close her door quietly.

"Psst," Zyan whispers and Kira's head snaps to look in his direction, her eyes squinting as she attempts to make out anything in the dark room.

"Who sits with their door open at this time of night?" Kira asks as she steps into the room her arms crossed in front of her stomach as if she's trying to conceal the fact that she is wearing daytime clothes in the middle of the night.

"Where were you? Mom and Dad were furious when they returned to find you gone."

"Shocked they didn't come to find me," Kira scoffs.

"They probably know their efforts are useless at this point," he points out and they both look at each other silently, neither of them knowing what to say. "Are you going to see him again?" Zyan asks bluntly and clicks the small panels of lights up to illuminate the room in soft yellow light.

"Why is that any of your business?"

"Just asking, jeeze, someone is touchy today ever since her precious trooper nearly died," Zyan says in a mocking tone, a smile spread nearly across his entire face.

"What is your problem?" Kira bites and steps forward.

"My problem? What is yours?"

"I don't have one, but you seem to. You haven't been yourself and you know it."

"Neither have you."

"How haven't I Zy?" Kira raises her voice a little and steps up to the foot of the bed that he is sitting on and rests her hands on the footboard. "I've been sneaking out yes, but I haven't changed. You, on the other hand, you're an entirely different person."

"Am not."

"Yes, you are! You are angry all the time and constantly trying to get under my skin, not to mention how much energy you spend just trying to get dad to notice you."

"You have no idea what you're talking about."

"I've always been Dad's favorite," Kira says directly and Zyan shifts his jaw just like Ben's little twitch when he's unhappy. "But guess what, you've always been Mom's, so buck up and get over it. We're even."

"Who needs to grow up? How about all of your little tantrums every time you think something has happened to him. How about those three months you wouldn't speak to Mom and Dad? How is that mature?"

"That was months ago."

"So?" Zyan counters, not willing to back down.

Kira lets out an exasperated sigh. "Whatever, I'm not doing this. If they ask, you didn't see me."

"And what if I don't feel like lying to them anymore?"

Kira turns away from him and walks out the door, the words 'you will' slipping through their connection and back to him. The rage that was present in him before from simply losing the game too many times boils up even hotter now, and he can feel himself slipping to loss of control, something that doesn't happen often, but when it does, the results are never good.

What usually stops him from slipping that far is the look he always gets from his parents. The knowing look he gets from his dad as he acknowledges just how much Zyan is like him, the rage within him boiling up just like it did when their dad was the legend of Kylo Ren, a vile creature that their parents rarely care to speak about. On the flip side though, the look he receives from his mother is more that of fear as she looks at a miniature version of the creature she used to fear when she was only a few years older than he is now.