Twinkle's Story: Chapter 13

*WARNING: Contains some violence.*
*Please remember. This is just a story and isn't real.*
Thanks for reading and enjoy! ^.^

DUKE

I'm about to walk away from the door, but suddenly I hear the door open again. I turn around and see Junior leaning against the doorpost. He doesn't look happy nor frustrated.  He looks sad. As I look inside the room, I see the box of darts has been thrown across the room. Some darts are out of the box, scattered across the floor. I give Junior a questioning look and ask him. "Hey, Junior. What is it?" Junior glares at me and grunts. "You think I didn't see what you just did. But guess what? I did. I saw everything." I feel the furs on my shoulders stick up. I gulp and say, "Wait. What did you see? What happened? Wha-" Junior glares at me again with tears in his eyes and interrupts me.  "He's my brother, Duke. My brother. Oh Zios. Duke, do you have to be such a show-off? Ugh! I was just trying to cheer him up. So I decided to visit him. He had an awful day, and you." Junior accusingly points a paw at me. "You ruined his day even more. How could you?" I look appalled at the small fox in front of me, and that fox continues. "No... it's my fault. It was my stupid idea to take him to this room. I should've known that others would've been playing in here too. I'm so stupid!" I see Junior hangs his head down saying, "... stupid, stupid, stupid..." to himself. I try to comfort Junior, so I say as calmly as I can, "No you're not stupid, Junior. And it's okay. We all make mistakes. You were just trying to make him feel better. Actually, I'm the stupid one- and yes, a show-off. But I didn't know he's your brother, so I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done an activity I'm good at in front of someone who can't do it due to their disabilities. I just got so fed up with your brother. To be honest with you, I thought he was making fun of me. And well... I had that situation many times in my life. I'm such a jerk, and I don't blame you if you and your brother hate me. I am so, so, so sorry." Junior lifts his head up. "Uh okay. I'm gonna go back into the room, and speak with my brother again. Thanks for showing me how to throw darts too, by the way. So bye." Junior waves and enters the room again. "No prob. See ya," I reply and wave a paw. I sigh and sit against the wall next to the door.

When I said, 'I'm such a jerk', I wasn't just referring to the situation just now. I've meant it for everyone I acted as a jerk towards. In the past, in the present, even in the future. Then I think back to a few minutes before. I remember that moment when I threw that dart- it landing in the center of the 'bulls-eye' section. Instead of a dart, an arrow on fire, the flames from the arrow soaring through the air. Instead of a target, a body- my mother's to be more exact. Instead of a 'bulls-eye' section, it's my mother's heart. I think about it some more. Then, the hallucinations start coming.

A square, the size of an average mirror stands before me at eye-level. With nothing else to do, I shrug and look into the square. Later on, I wish I hadn't. Inside the square, I see a target, and darts spread out on a table nearby. The scene looks so organized, nothing to worry about. Then I give a perplexed look as I see what happens next. A paw (my paw) takes a dart from the table; claws trace along the dart's side. I watch me (or a cloned me- I don't really know) carefully observe the dart it holds. Then the cloned me stands up taller. The only thing I remember next is the dart in the 'bulls-eye' section. I look satisfied at the result, but the cloned me who actually threw the dart looks unsatisfied. I give a questioning look at the square. Then it repeats again- almost. This time as cloned me holds the dart, it grows bigger. I then realize it's now an arrow from a bow. As the dart-now-arrow soars through the air, I see small flames around it. As it reaches the target, the flames destroy the target. The target flops down from the wall, and it disappears like a speck of dust. I look back at the wall. Instead of a target, I see my mother standing there up on the wall. I see her in a pose she takes when she's about to scold me, hurt me. Yet she stands up tall. In her slitted, glaring eyes, I see defiance. I don't know why, though. I look at one of her paws. I see a sword sticky with blood in one of them.

 Cloned me throws another dart-now-arrow. It lands where my mother's heart is- or should be. Does she even have a heart? Before I can take another look, the target/mother slowly disappears away into thin air. I hear cloned me say at my disappeared mother, "That's what you get for killing my father, and giving me the worst life ever. All I know is pain and suffering from you. Vi-" Cloned me suddenly stops talking. Cloned me has a different tone of voice than I do. Somehow, it scares me.

Cloned me repeats it a few times, except the talking part. Every time the dart-now-arrow hits my mother, the target, it disappears before I can see how it affected my mother. It annoys me as well as the cloned me. Then suddenly I think of Twinkle. Why did I yell at her? This whole hospital thing would've never happened if I hadn't done those actions. I'm such a jerk. The cycle repeats again. But this time as the dart-now-arrow is about to reach my mother, it changes. My mother disappears. Instead of my mother being the target, I see Twinkle there. In the few moments before the dart-now-arrow reaches Twinkle, I yell, "Wait. Stop!" Unfortunately, the dart-now-arrow reaches the target, which is now Twinkle. This time, it doesn't suddenly go away. I look up into the square. The dart-now-arrow is located in the center of the target, the 'bulls-eye'- Twinkle's heart. I look at her face. Her eyes look panicked and tears pause rushing down her face. I take a breath and look down. Blood shows up around the spot where the dart-now-arrow is. The blood spreads out more until a small pool of it shows up at her feet. More and more blood comes until her feet are covered in her own blood. Terrified, I look around. I shriek the loudest I could say, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP, STOP STOP! NO...." Instead, cloned me continues to throw darts-now-arrows at a very injured Twinkle. She looks more red than blue. Suddenly, there's no more blood. Her head droops. She's dead, and I killed her. Wait, not me. Cloned me did. I cry screeching, "STOP, STOP, STOP". What have I done to deserve this? Then, cloned me who actually threw the darts-now-arrows sighs triumphantly and leaves the room- or what I could see of the room, anyways. Now actual me is laid out on the floor, crying until what seems like a puddle of tears around me. What does this mean? What's going to happen? Endless questions are in my head, but one thing's for certain. This obviously means something will happen- and it won't be pretty. Then the hallucination disappears- the square vanishing, growing smaller and smaller until I can't see out of it anymore.

TWINKLE

I'm conscious once again. This time, I don't get up and move in my emergency room bed. Instead, I open my eyes and just look at the ceiling of the room I'm currently in. I think of my parents, of the separate territories (especially fox and arctic wolf), and Fauna. Why all the violence? The hatred. The unnecessary deaths. Why, why, why? Why did this have to happen at all? I think back as I remember one night.

Fauna and I were in her room. We didn't have our special accessories on at that time. Fauna's sunglasses, and my dj headset. It showed how close we both are to each other. It was a stormy night. I can still remember the rain pouring down the side of the room, pattering against Fauna's bedroom window. The rumble of thunder indicating a warning for the strikes of lightning. Before the storm, I was reading Fauna one of the books from her bookshelf. She always liked being read aloud stories. To her, it felt like that way, the stories were more alive. Honestly, I don't even know if she ever understood some of the words. She's blind, anyways. Then, the power in our house went out, leaving us in pure darkness. The only light we got was from the occasional strike of lightning near our house. So I began to tell another story to my little sister. I made it up as we went along. I remember Fauna saying, "Wow! This is the best story ever! Go on, sis. Go on!" We would end up giggling.

 "You're the best sister ever, Twinkle!" Fauna squealed as I was tickling her toes as she laid down across the bed. "You are thousands of times better than me, Fauna. I love you too." I would reply. Then we had a silly argument over who loved each other more.

 I continued telling Fauna my made-up story, but suddenly I ran out of ideas and stopped talking. Fauna looked at me confused and asked me. "Twinkle, why did you stop? That was the good part! What happens then?" I softly said, "I'll continue it tomorrow. Just wait for tomorrow night, and go to sleep." That made me cry a few tears- me saying that. "Okay. Good night, Twinkle!" Fauna said in a sing-song voice as she climbed back into her bed. Just as I thought she would fall asleep, she sat up in her bed again and said, "Twinkle, can you stay with me tonight? The noises scare me." I nodded and sat at the edge of the bed. She looked so beautiful even if she's blind. The hair on top of her head in two braids, kinda like pigtails. Her blonde/golden colored fur, shimmering. The two braids were tied back by these pink and blue colored bands for each one. Her eyes though dead and cloudy (she's blind) had sparkles in them nonetheless. Fauna was so lively. So beautiful. The symbol of peace. Why did she had to be the one to die?

The next morning, a surprisingly clear-skied morning, a fox who worked for the leader, our current fox shaman, informed us that arctic wolves were trying to steal most of our territory. Us foxes being way weaker than the arctic wolves, were instructed so that every fox at least ten years old had to fight in the fox and arctic wolf battle. That was the last night I spent with Fauna alive. I hadn't even said my goodbyes to her. More tears come.

 Fauna was basically the definition of peace, and they shot her. The peace has disappeared in her death. It was a year ago, but I still remember it exactly. I can never forgive what they did to her: the arctic wolves, the fox shaman and high-class officials, everyone who forced Fauna, a ten year old fox, the youngest fox at the battle to fight. She was so peaceful; she wouldn't even hurt a fly. She was so gentle, sweet, caring.

 I think back to the present. If I die, my parents would have nothing left. So would Duke. I have to live. For them, and for Fauna. What the cruel beasts in our world did to her. But it's hard. My body aches badly. The phantoms on top of the devastating news causes me so much pain. The most physical pain I've been in my life. Then I close my eyes and fall asleep. Or so I hope.